Lidocaine Patches, More Hopeful Supplements

I know I worried you yesterday. I was worried, too. Today was better, though. Less discomfort and fewer pain relievers. Just ibuprofen (because I can take it more often), no leap-frogging with Tylenol.

 

I went to the chiropractor early this morning, hoping the pain of the last three days was chiropractic. I told him it was at the T4 vertebra area. He said he'd been avoiding that area due to my worry. He was going to give it a gentle try today but I yelped when he started, so he stopped and tried something else. It didn't help. But afterward he put a long ice pack over my shoulder for 10 minutes. I liked it so we bought one. It looked like they wrapped it in a pillow case so that's how I wrapped mine later at home. I used my bacon pillow case. It was a bacon-wrapped ice pack. Mmmm. Thinking about asking my pillow case friend to make a custom one for my new ice pack.

 

The man who cured himself of Stage 4 prostate cancer and his wife actually drove here from Morgan Hill today (about 45 miles) to talk with us in person. He is a retired aerospace engineer (like my dad) and had an organized list of all the things he used. Some sound excellent and we've started ordering. Who knows if it will work for me, but we're going to add these items to my regimen. If Western medicine knew anything about nutrition and supplements, the supplements would be covered by insurance like medications are. Sadly, it doesn't work that way in our country. A daughter of this couple moved to New Zealand to work there as a doctor because she didn't like the way health care is run here. For example, when that daughter was very young she had something wrong with her mouth. It was all white inside with growths. The high-end university Western doctors didn't know how to cure her. So, they went to a Chinese herbalist who took a look and simply said, "It looks like a Vitamin B deficiency." 36 hours later, the daughter's mouth was back to normal. I don't blame our doctors. I blame Big Pharma who funds medical schools but only if they teach how to cure with medications. The students only get a few hours of education on nutrition. At least this is what I'm hearing over and over again. The couple spent two hours with us and were delightful. Well, she was delightful and he was all business, but caring. It was the all-business that we needed the most right now. She thought I might start seeing results in one month. I was happy to hear that, but I've been hopeful about the million other things I've been taking, but haven't seen results yet. I can do eight more things, can't I?

 

My palliative care doctor (which is a doctor who helps manage symptoms without curative intent) ordered the lidocaine patches which Michael picked up today. A nice big box of 30 patches that can be cut to fit. The only thing is they should be 12 hours on, 12 hours off. So, during the off hours, you've got to find something else. That should be okay for now. I'm relieved to know I have this to turn to if needed.

 

While Michael was gone picking up the patches, I started getting my already-made 10-pound salad prepped for dinner. I take the Fenbendazole with my salad. I mix the granules in with a little avo to get it down easily. Just smelling the salad, or dressing, or something triggered me. It was a reminder of what I've been doing for so long with no results. Will I ever be able to have tortellini and a salad kit for dinner ever again? Or yellow Thai curry over rice? Or pad Thai? Or will it be this salad for the rest of my days? I started crying. My son was immediately at my side helping. He carried my salad to the bed. I was going to continue bingeing America's Test Kitchen Next Generation, it's a nice light fun interesting distraction. He watched an episode with me while I got some salad and the Fenben down. The Boys tagged out and Michael joined me for a Castle episode. I had to make him take a break from spending another day trying to save my life (chiropractor appt, listening to the couple for two hours, researching and shopping online, doing all my things for me, comforting me). When the episode ended, I apparently decided to continue crying. Why am I teary about all this effort?! It's just putting food and pills in my mouth, for crying out loud, how hard is that?! I know it goes deeper than that.

 

On the bright side, I've been sleeping surprisingly well under the circumstances. Grateful for that.