Eternal Supplement

Am I weird for feeling bursts of joy after ordering my vitamins? Call me a freak for living the way I do and eating the things I do but there really is no denying the results.

When my diet is right, stress is managed, and mind is positive, my body feels "lighter", my skin is happy and overall I have a better outlook. All this aside, prayer has an even bigger hand in my mental and emotional health.

Just as if I went days without my supplements and my body began to slip back to its old cravings and old sluggishness...days without prayer and praise cause me to reclaim burdens that I had previously surrendered to the Lord and begin to loose sight of God's providential hand in my life. I become comfortable with living in my old ways.

With my illness, my body isn't able to absorb the nutrients from my food. Instead, it allows unwelcome food particles into my bloodstream. All of this happens over time and if I don't stay on top of my herbal supplements, my gut won't heal. When there is a lack of nutrients and overload of toxins or food in my blood, it leaves my brain foggy, thoughts scrambled and my concentration is far gone.

In a way, our spiritual walk is very similar. If we merely go to church, maybe even read our bibles daily but don't allow God to touch our hearts, we are allowing "nutrients" to escape under our nose. When we aren't solid in our faith, we often times allow unwelcome thoughts and situations to have front row passes to our heart and mind. We are not void of Godly influence, we just aren't absorbing it....we aren't surrounded by evil but it slowly takes over.

I feel joy when I order vitamins because I know that I am working toward healing my body and finding health that I honestly have never had before. This is very similar to the joy I feel when I seek the Lord in His word or through worship. He alone can heal my heart, He alone can carry my burdens, and His plan alone will prosper. His words restore my soul to a place of peace and childlike faith.

Essentially, He is my eternal supplement. He doesn't have a maximum dose nor any negative side effects.

Sometimes the pill is hard to swallow when it is one of conviction but it's just what the Great Physician ordered.

Crazy Life & Reclaimed Goals

Life has been beyond crazy the last few months and from what I understand, this is something I should just claim as my new normal. All this to say, yet again, I am sorry for being such an inconsistent and neglectful blogger.

However, I need to get input from you all. Once a week there will be a post dedicated to discovering the sources, history, and uses for common ingredients. Many of these ingredients are ones I have seen and used since I began making messes in the kitchen but never truly knew why we use them or how they even made their way into pantries around the world.

I have the following ingredients on my list:
-Baking soda (check!)
-Baking powder
-Cream of tarter
-Guar gum
-Xanthan gum

Have you been curious about unpronounceable ingredients? Share them in the comments or email me at allingoodmeasure@gmail.com and I'll add them to my list. Some will be of the curious nature while others will be displaying dirty secrets of the food industry, either way, we will learn together!

I also will be starting a series on hidden allergies. I bet you didn't realize they were still managing to sneak past your radar and cause underlying issues with your health. We will start out in the pantry and slowly make our way to the makeup aisle and medicine cabinet. Stay tuned!

It's What?! Baking Soda

Baking soda, we all have seen it in action one way or another. For the creative hearts, you probably know it to be a role player in volcano models at the science fair. Those of you clean freaks, like me, have probably been elbow deep in a bathtub with good ole baking soda at least once before. However, the most common use of baking soda is in our food and medicine.

Sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3), a mild alkaline with a distinctively bitter, salty, sour taste, is created synthetically by combining carbonic and sodium hydroxide. Ore trona is used commercially and nahcolite is naturally occurring.

Some history from madehow.com :

Imported from England, baking soda was first used in America during colonial times, but it was not produced in the United States until 1839. In 1846, Austin Church, a Connecticut physician, and John Dwight, a farmer from Massachusetts, established a factory in New York to manufacture baking soda. Dr. Church's son, John, owned a mill called the Vulcan Spice Mills. Vulcan, the Roman god of forge and fire, was represented by an arm and hammer, and the new baking soda company adopted the arm and hammer logo as its own. Today, the Arm & Hammer brand of baking soda is among the most widely recognized brand names.

Named after Nicolas Leblanc, the French chemist who invented it, the Leblanc process was the earliest means of manufacturing soda ash (Na ₂ CO ₃ ), from which sodium bicarbonate is made. Sodium chloride (table salt) was heated with sulfuric acid, producing sodium sulfate and hydrochloric acid. The sodium sulfate was then heated with coal and limestone to form sodium carbonate, or soda ash.

In the late 1800s, another method of producing soda ash was devised by Ernest Solvay, a Belgian chemical engineer. The Solvay method was soon adapted in the United States, where it replaced the Leblanc process. In the Solvay process, carbon dioxide and ammonia are passed into a concentrated solution of sodium chloride. Crude sodium bicarbonate precipitates out and is heated to form soda ash, which is then further treated and refined to form sodium bicarbonate of United States Pharnacopoeia (U.S.P.) purity.

Read more: http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Baking-Soda.html#ixzz39cNaFzAY

Baking soda's shining moment for me is in....you guessed it....baking! It reacts with acid ingredients (cream of tartar, vinegar, lemon, etc) to give off a gas, allowing the baked good to rise. In cooking, it has been used in the past to soften vegetables and tenderize meat. Since it is an alkaline, it tends to react to naturally occurring acids in foods such as Vitamin C and therefore can prevent it's absorption. 

All in all, this ingredient is small but mighty. 

Curious about all the tricks this little kitchen ingredient can do? Check out the links below for some ideas

51 fantastic uses for baking soda

31 Baking Soda Uses

Best beauty uses-baking soda

Next week: Baking powder (and the secrets it hides). As always, comment with your ingredient curiosities :)

Worst Blogger Award Goes To.......

Okay, so I'm pretty sure no one reads these but for the invisible followers, I am so sorry. With great intentions, I spoke too soon and promised a weekly series on "unidentified foods".

My schooling is oh so close to being completed and I'm feeling exhilarated by the ability to see the finish line. Hopefully by the end of July I will officially be a certified Holistic Nutritional Counselor!!! With this new found energy and focus (thanks to a slightly restored health) I'm dedicating every moment available to my studies.

That being said, this blog is going to continue to be deserted.

However, now is the prefect opportunity for you to rummage through your pantries and cabinets looking for ingredients to which you don't know: their source; their purpose; nor how to even pronounce them ;).

Until August, enjoy and "hit me with your best shot"......

It's What?!

Do ever stand in your pantry wondering what half of the items are or where they came from? Maybe I'm the only weirdo to think in that way but when someone is faced with an allergy, these are the thoughts that should come to mind.

My goal is to begin a series of weekly posts in which I research specific ingredients in an effort to identify their sources as well as their how they are processed. 

Here is where you, as the reader play a part. I would like to hear back about some ingredients that you are suspicious of or are interested in learning more about. Comment below and I will add them to my research! 

Be on the look out for these mystery ingredient posts :).

Patience is Virtue

A lifetime of rocky health...

One solid year of a weakened immune system and increasing pain...

Three months of constant testing and weekly doctor's visits...

All of this has lead to one lesson that I have yet to grasp completely but am getting closer each time, the lesson of patience and trust.

They say you don't ask the Lord to grant you patience if you aren't ready for tough times. He knows the only way for a person to become patient is to learn by waiting, and waiting, and waiting. 

Thankfully, my wait was fairly short and we all are breathing a sigh of relief. 

Yesterday was my follow-up with Dr. V, my Hematologist/Oncologist. We had the MRI results and the blood tests we ordered during our last visit. 

MRI echoed the CT as for the size of my spleen (looks about the size of a liver...normally the size of a fist) and that the "spot" covering the majority of my spleen is a cyst. The Radiologist who reviewed my MRI results labeled it as a "basic splenic cyst" and though they have to consider a parasitic cyst, they are pretty sure its not based on other indicators. Between the CT scan and MRI the cyst has slightly reduced in size and is beginning to calcify! (which apparently is positive) :) :) :) :)

So....we are going to let time and the Lord reduce this puppy and go for ultrasound check ups every 3 months.

~There is a very small cyst on my liver but according to both the Radiologist and Dr. V, that is of no concern especially with its size.~

As for how all of this came about...

We ran some blood tests to check for past infections as well as other illnesses and all came back negative except the Epstein-Barr virus which is the guilty party for Mononucleosis. Our bodies create antibodies as a sort of memory file for viruses and these antibodies can be identified in a blood screen. This test is called a Mono-Spot test or a heterophil test, named after the heterophil antibody, which can be detected up to a year after infection.

~We were also able to rule out Hepatitis, Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lymphoma as they sometimes cause a false Mono-Spot test. Some of these illnesses have been on our watch list the past year so we are breathing an extra sigh of relief to know those are definitely not to be concerned with~

I suspected Mono last summer when I had a month's worth of strep, another month of fatigue and a very slow recovery. Unfortunately, I let my "strep" go two weeks without seeking conventional medicine so by the time I got to Dr. L, he saw my tonsils kissing and skipped the strep culture by just prescribing antibiotics. I too went in thinking it was strep but all the symptoms that I had attributed to the cleanse were actually the symptoms that differentiate strep from mono. Dr. L and I talked about the possibility of mono but he ended up just calling it strep.

Sometimes mono can cause Splenomegaly (an enlarged spleen) and according to Dr. V, this can also cause a splenic cyst as well.

Time is the healer of all wounds they say. Okay, so maybe that's more about loss and heartbreak but it works in this case too. Dr. W and Dr. V both said that my spleen won't go back to a normal size but that it should follow suit as the cyst reduces.

I almost forgot to share my best news! My white blood and platelet counts were up from my last CBC!!! Seems like this last month has done wonders for my system and I'm so excited to see where we stand in September :).

Praising God for His blessings and patience toward me as I cried out to Him in fear the last three months.

God is good, all the time and all the time, God is good.

Oncologist and MRI

Last Friday was my initial visit with Dr. V, my new Oncologist. He is a very kind man who is great at listening and respecting a patients wishes as he approaches testing and treatment.

After describing my health issues and chosen treatments, he asked me to explain how my doctors and I had come to the conclusions but he seemed genuinely curious as well, I'm sure, with the intention to see if I knew what was going on and if I had an active role in my health.

Never did he question my sanity or intelligence based on my desire to do things naturally (which was the way my other Oncologist approached me during my consult in November).

He concluded based on past history and the blood test results over the months that he is almost sure my spleen is enlarged due to a prior infection and because it's enlarged, it's over active in its efforts to filter out old blood cells....leading to my low blood counts.

He is almost certain that the spots on my liver are congenital (since birth), are called hemangioma , and are very similar to the birthmark on Mikhail Gorbachev's head. They are harmless bruise looking spots that stop growing in infancy so into my 20s, I'm clear.

His next thought was to offer me three approaches. First, we could do an MRI with standard IV contrast to rule out more serious causes. Second was spleen and liver scan with radioactive IV contrast. Last being to leave everything alone and monitor any changes with time, giving my body a chance to fix itself.

I chose the MRI as the second least invasive/harmful while also giving answers we can only get by looking inside from a vascular level. Not only does it identify the large spot on my spleen but it'll also confirm the hemangioma spots on my liver.

My scan was yesterday and though a longer test compared to a CT, it wasn't too bad. I was nervous as I had been waiting for this test so I can finally have a more solid understanding of what is going on inside.

They had me change into a hospital gown and take off all jewelry. It was a bit chilly and when I laid down on the table, they covered my legs with a blanket and put heavy duty headphones over my ears to protect me from the loud scanner.

Next came a wand in the shape of a flat "T" which was placed over my spleen and liver, followed by what the radiologist called an "shield antenna" which was basically a slightly heavy board that went on my chest and abdomen.

My IV was put in and saline injectedto verify that the tube was clear and once I smelled and tested "metal", she knew we were good to go.

She told me that she'd be instructing me throughout the scan to breath out completely and hold my breath for a specific amount of time and the last two tests would be done after she remotely injected the contrast.

Once she finished explaining and handed me an emergency button, she moved the table into the scanner and left the room to watch behind a glass window and begin the test.

(Because this is a scan using a very strong magnetic field, no one is allowed in the same room and family members have to stay in a designated area.)

Outside of the board on my chest making my breathing slightly harder, I didn't have any problems following the instructions.

Once she injected the contrast though, I did feel my chest tighten up a little, an elevated heart rate, and the "I'm peeing" sensation (that is normal but you really are not urinating, it just feels very warm).

I did find it a little harder to hold my breath those last two times and by then felt ready to get out of the scanner.

Everyone reacts to contrast differently and I didn't have that problem with the CT so now that I'm aware, I can tell them the next time I get a scan.

Once I got off the table, I felt weak and slightly nauseous along with the lingering tight chest. The radiologist let me sit for a couple minutes before showing me back to the changing room. My last instruction was to drink a lot of water for two days to lighten the stress on my kidneys as the contrast is flushed out off my system.

I changed and went out to the waiting room and sat with my mom for about 5 minutes before regaining strength to go home.

Again, not everyone reacts this way. It wasn't a bad experience but not my favorite either.

They said my Oncologist should get the results on Monday so I'll update when I hear back.