Celebrate the Small Things -- Oct 24

It's Friday and I'm Celebrating The Small Things!  Celebrate The Small Things is a weekly celebration where some bloggers have decided to post about something worth celebrating...no matter how big or small it is.

The biggest thing we are celebrating this week is FOX...as in the channel.  I don't know what happened, but we lost FOX a couple of months ago.  Since we don't have cable, we rely on our Roku box and an actual antenna that is set up in the attic to watch tv (we're so old school).  Our antenna provides us with "regular" channels (i.e. CBS, NBC, ABC).  Last night, while my husband was channel surfing, he discovered that we miraculously have FOX back...and in the middle of the World Series.  You must understand one thing...my husband is a baseball fanatic...a serious crazy man when it comes to baseball.  Getting this channel back during the world series is like a gift from God.  Peace and joy can now, once again, reign in our house. 

I'd also like to celebrate my acupuncturist.  She is a wonderful healer who works wonders sometimes when it comes to my aches and pains.  The past couple of weeks have been hard on my body because of the drastic temperature changes (read more about this here).  I feel very blessed that I have an all natural alternative to western pharmaceuticals.

On a lighter note, I'm also celebrating my two new nail polishes that I got for a steal!  I was back at Walgreens this week and picked up a Wet n' Wild polish on sale for $1, and found another polish on the clearance rack that was priced at $2.12.  When the clerk rang me up, he asked if I would like to use my Walgreens rewards.  Um, yes please!  So I had $3 taken off my order.  BAAM!...two awesome new nail polishes for 12 cents!

Happy Weekend!

What are you celebrating? 

If you'd like to Celebrate The Small Things, visit our wonderful host, VikLit @ Scribblings of an Aspiring Author for more information.  And don't forget to check out her co-hosts:  Diana Wilder, LG Keltner @ Writing Off the Edge, Katie @ TheCyborgMom, and CaffeMaggieato @ mscoffeehouse

 

Voodoo Dirt Helps Arthritis

The drastic temperature changes over the past couple of weeks have been especially hard on my shitty bones, causing my arthritis to kick into overdrive and make me ache all over.  It will be 70 during the day, and drop to the 40's overnight.  Imagine if you took a hot glass straight from the dishwasher and put it in the freezer...it would shatter, right?  Well, my body seems to react with a similar anger to the temperature change.

This past weekend I barely made it out of bed because I was in so much pain.  Luckily, over the past couple of days, the temperature seems to have evened out a bit, although now I'm dealing with the achiness that comes with all this stupid rain!  My acupuncture treatment today has already granted me some relief...thank God.  God bless my acupuncturist...she is a true healer.  I asked for some herbs to help over the next couple of weeks and she gave me this concoction.

I have to take three small teaspoons a day, before meals. The taste is pretty terrible, and it looks like dirt, but all the herbs I've taken in the past have helped.  Let's hope I'm as lucky again this time around!

Here's a closeup of the ingredients:

Don't ask me about the ingredients...the only ones that are recognizable to me are cinnamon and licorice!  But if this bottle of voodoo dirt helps...then bring it on!

Have you ever eaten or taken anything out of the ordinary just to help you feel better?

Adventures In Ginger Root

Ginger root is a natural anti-inflammatory and has been used in Chinese medicine for centuries.  I was advised in the past, by my acupuncturist, to make a ginger tea to help with aches and pains.  She recently has shown me another way to use this root.

My daughter, the softball player that she is, has hurt her shoulder again.  Anybody who has kids knows how difficult it is to get them to eat/drink things that they are not thrilled about...hence, no ginger tea magic for her.  I was advised to, instead, use the root topically. Here's how you do it...

Get yourself some ginger root. It's usually in the grocery store by the garlic or potatoes, and only costs a few dollars.

Cut up your ginger...no need to wash it or peel it.  Just cut it up all willy nilly, any which way you like.  Then place your pieces in a cheesecloth.  I use a kitchen towel because I don't have cheesecloth :) You could also use an old t-shirt if you like.

Microwave it for about 1 minute. Your results may vary depending on how powerful your microwave is. You want it to be hot, but not too hot that it will burn your skin.

Pinch your towel closed (I didn't do this before I zapped it because I didn't know how my chip clip would do in the microwave) so the ginger is contained.

Apply to where you have aches/pains as you would a heat pack.  You can reuse and reheat the same ginger pieces a few times before you need to discard them.  Enjoy!

Have you ever used ginger root either topically or ingested?  Did you find that it helped in any way?

**As always, consult your doctor for medical advise. I'm not a medical expert of any kind, just a person who is always on the lookout for easy peasy pain relief. 

The Sore Throat Bug Has Gotten My Son

My son is on day three of a sore throat and yesterday he was running a low grade fever in the afternoon.  This morning I was able to convince him to come to acupuncture with me for a treatment, and we were given some very specific instructions by my acupuncturist:

• Make him lemonade...the homemade kind with real lemons.  Add a little raw sugar or honey to sweeten it, but keep it on the sour side.  Of everything that he drinks today, this should constitute 80% of his intake.  The lemondade should help his throat and help get his gut moving things along.

• He needs to take three of the Yin Chiao herbs, three times a day until he is all better.  Both my son and I have taken these herbs in the past and have had good results with them. 

• No ice cold drinks or cold foods until he is all better.  Supposedly, cold foods affect the immune system.  As a little side note...my son only had a low grade fever for a few hours yesterday afternoon...about two hours after I let him have a milkshake.  Coincidence?  You decide.

Well, I had him take his first dose of herbs before we left the office, and after eating lunch, he is already complaining that he is bored...which is a good sign!

Do your kids do that?  Start complaining of boredom once they start to feel better?  I guess it's because they can't have friends over, and can't go out and play just yet...so they are stuck in the house for the rest of the day while mom makes sure that whatever bug they caught is really gone and not just faking us all out.

So, we wait today.  And tomorrow, if he is still complaining of boredom more than he is of his sore throat then I'll know to let him out into the wild again :)

Acupuncture For Sports Injuries

I mentioned last week that my daughter sprained her shoulder playing softball...well, I took her with me today for an acupuncture treatment.  She's had acupuncture several times before and is an old pro already :)

Here she is waiting for her treatment.  This is pre-needles...

(Totally unrelated...I love the color of my acupuncturist's office!) 

First, she had her shoulder massaged a bit to loosen up the muscle. You can even watch a video on your tablet while you have your treatment!

After the massage, the needles go in...here's a shot of the needles in her back and shoulder...

She even let me take a bit of video...she's such a champ!

For my other posts on acupuncture see here:

Bloodletting much?

Acupuncture: How Does This Voodoo Actually Work?

Chinese Herbs

Bee Therapy?

Update-Facet Joint Injections Day 3

Have any questions?  Comment down below or email me at:  thecyborgmom@gmail.com

 

Bee Therapy?

As I was getting my weekly acupuncture treatment today, my acupuncturist, Tuan, told me about how he suffers from chronic pain in his shoulder due to several injuries to it in his younger years.  He said he had seen a few doctors, and three different doctors told him that he needed surgery on it to relieve the pain.  Even though I've been seeing him for 5 years or so, I've never known that he suffers from chronic pain because he has always seemed in good health.  Tuan told me that for many years now he has been doing bee therapy, also know as apitherapy, to help with the shoulder pain and that he only has to do it every six months or so to find relief.

Bee therapy is exactly what it sounds like...you get stung by honey bees.  Chinese medicine uses the bees to sting the patient on various acupuncture spots.  Tuan says that bee venom has been used since ancient times, going back to the Egyptians.  He uses it on himself, my other acupuncturist, and has had other patients that have found relief with this practice.  The bee venom causes the body's immune system to react strongly, which is what helps patients find relief.

Tuan told me that he just performed a treatment on my other acupuncturist, Thuc Dan, this past Saturday.  He treated her with only five stings, since she is much more sensitive and reacts more than he does.  Tuan says that since everyone's body reacts differently, people will have varying results and require treatments at different rates.  After speaking with Thuc Dan, she told me that after the treatments she feels like she has the flu for a couple of days, with the day after the treatment being the worst.  To feel a bit better, she took some anti-histamine, which helped to relieve some of the symptoms she was suffering from.

This isn't the first time Tuan has told me about bee therapy.  He mentioned it a few years ago when he told me about a patient of his that suffered from multiple sclerosis.  He had been treating her for years and she had found great relief with the treatments.

So, how crazy is this sounding to you?  If you are a regular, “normal” person, you probably think it sounds nuts.  And it sounds crazy to me too...but it also seems like something that I may be open to.  Suffering on a daily basis sucks, plain and simple.  If I could find something that would relieve my pain on a temporary basis...even if it sounds completely nutty...well, why not try it at least once?

Dear Readers...Have I lost it completely?  Or do you think this may have some substance?