Psoriasis

Did I mention that I have gutate psoraisis? I ended up diagnosing myself, after the 3rd all over my body breakout in sores. My sores looked more like red dry spots and I itched all over. I am not going to go into the full history, but what has happened in the past several weeks.

I woke up the Wednesday after Thanksgiving with extremely swollen hands. I could not bend my fingers at all. At first I though both my hands were asleep. As the day wore on, they got no better. I had been taking a statin two times a week and they are known to wreak havoc on your ligaments, so I thought maybe they had caused me to have carpe tunnel. I know I am probably exaggerating or making non-medical suppositions, but just my first thoughts. I called the doctor and he told me to stop taking them for a few weeks, see if my hand swelling subsides, take some Advil if there is any pain, and then start the statins up again and see if they swell up again.

Well, I took some Advil thinking it would help with the inflammation, but it did nothing. Also note, I drink at least 80 oz of water a day. So, I ditched the Advil an subsequent days because no reason to pump NSAIDS into my organs when they don’t work anyway.

I found that using some ice at night on my hands before I went to bed helped a bit in the morning. I also put my hands under my infrared heating pad. Nothing really worked.

I had read several years ago that psoriasis can morph into arthritic psoriasis and although I did not bother to Google this til today, I see the photos of some of the hands match what mine look like.

At almost two weeks into this, I went to red light therapy on a Tuesday and Thursday. The machine says it is full body, but it is a bed that is really only the front. So on that Friday, I went to another facility and did a full body red and infrared light therapy standing up for 20 minutes.

I didn’t mention that I was itching really bad all over my body and this time the psoriasis decided to attach my scalp, my ears, my face and chest. It would not be visible, then I would start to itch all over, then I could see the spots flare. At this time, I decided to try to add the cryo therapy and combine it with the red and infrared full body.

So, almost 3 weeks in, on the Monday, my hands, wrists and arms were inching into the 8 of 10 pain level. Before this, as the day would go on, the swelling would subside a bit and if I bent my fingers into the best fist I could do, my knuckles would be uncomfortable or a bit of pain there. I had already booked appointment to try the the cryo machine for 3 minutes at around -150F. The tech told me that it was developed in Japan in the 70s to help with rheumatoid arthritis with amazing results. I was hopeful it’d help with my issues. Immediately afterwards, I stood in the full body red and infrared light therapy. No change on that day. On Tuesday, I felt like my legs were heavy and later that day, both of my hamstrings started to cramp so bad I was screaming. Turns out, even though I had been drinking water, I needed to drink even more because the humidity level here at the moment is 10% or less, and it is cold outside too. Then, I woke up on Wednesday, and my hands were less swollen. My wrists are a bit achy but I had a tremendous, all over headache. And I had an appointment with my network spinal doctor so I went and while there, my headache subsided. Then it came back. So, I took two Advil because it appeared I was headed for a migraine, which I rarely even get headaches but know these symptoms from when I was pregnant. About 40 minutes later, I felt so good! I had not felt that good in three weeks!

Update about a seven weeks later: Been consistently going to a combo of -211 Frigid Cryo and Red Light/Infrared at least 2x a week. First time I could fit my rings on my fingers on both hands. My fingers are still not super happy to be straightened all the way, but the swelling is down significantly, even when I wake up in the morning. I haven’t had the aches and pains in my hands, wrists and going up my arms either. I’ve also been trying to make sure I drink at least 80 ounces of water a day. I have not taken any pain medications since I had the headache mentioned earlier. My psoriasis flares along my face, neck and ears is a lot less than it has been but I am not as itchy as I was before.

5 Day Cleanse

A few years ago I did the Dr. Kellyanne 10 day belly buster and it was my introduction to her high quality bone broth. She makes it easy in packets to transport wherever you are, and are probably the best quality bone broth powder you can buy.

I decided I needed to boost my metabolism a bit, so I decided to try her 5 day cleanse and reset. She has this diet in her book where you can make all the ingredients yourself, but it is a fair amount of work to make sure you are eating the correct amount of protein and cutting out the carbs and fats.

Pros of her 5 day kit: Everything comes in a box, with each day in its own box, with a guide to when to mix each item with water.

Cons of her 5 day kit: It is not exactly affordable, and it totals only 600 calories a day so you may experience some headaches and lethargy due to cutting out all the carbs.

Before starting, make sure you have 5 days of nothing that is going to compromise getting to the finish line. It does not say this anywhere, but from my experience in fitness training, and the low calories, you will want to not do any strenuous exercise. I also could find nothing about continuing to drink your coffee, nor if you are ravenously starving, what to do.

I couldn’t find any type of intermittent fasting directions like on the bone broth diet so I am not sure if the results are better doing this all within an 8 hour window.

Here’s what I did:

Day 1

8:30 am – lemon drink. I usually drink 24 oz of warm lemon water each morning, and wasn’t prepared for how sweet this is so I mixed it in 24 oz of warm water.

10:30 am – mixed chocolate shake in mixer bottle. Took one taste, it also is very sweet for me, and decided to add the coffee my husband had already brewed, and I drink each morning, to the shake. I was concerned about getting a caffeine headache if I cut out the coffee.

1 pm – drank the bone broth. Since I went to my office, I had heated up some water and put in my water bottle. Then mixed it together when I was ready to drink it. I always add some spices, minced onion, salt, pepper.

Sipped on some green tea.

4 pm – stomach was growling but too busy at work to get to my berry shake.

5 pm – drank the mixed berry shake in shaker bottle. I was surprised how good this is (usually don’t like any berry shakes). Even though in shaker, there were parts of it that wouldn’t dissolve but tasted like have a bit of a cheat of candy in there!

6pm – lemon drink, this time in cold water in shaker bottle

8 pm – poured the bone broth into hot water (didn’t use boiling), added my spices, etc. then ate with a spoon in the bowl. It did not come out creamy like I saw other comments but it was still good.

10 pm – lemon drink in cold water

Day 2

Woke up with a headache, very hungry.

8:30 am – lemon drink in warm water

10:15 am – chocolate shake mixed with water, then added my coffee and drank it all together

12:30 pm – drank bone broth in water bottle. I started feeling sick to my stomach just before I drank the bone broth. I had a lunch meeting to attend so maybe the smell of everyone’s food got to me. After I left the meeting, it was all I could do to make it to the bathroom in time, which reminded me that on other cleanses I’ve done years ago, to make sure I don’t venture too far from a bathroom.

Drank unsweetened iced tea during the meeting also.

2:20 pm – had a meeting at my office and my stomach was growling non stop.

3:30 pm – drank berry shake

In between here, my stomach was telling me I was pretty hungry.

5:00 pm – lemon drink

I am ravenously hungry in between this time. I just wanted to grab something else to eat, but I sat down to do more work and got distracted. My stomach was growling like crazy and I was very lethargic. I walked up the stairs and was breathing kind of hard.

8:00 pm – bone broth in bowl

10:00 pm – lemon drink

I was still very hungry just after drinking the lemon drink, and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to sleep well because of it. After about 30 minutes, the hunger went away but I was extremely tired.

I had no additional liquids this day except for the iced tea around lunchtime.

Day 3

Woke up with a headache again. I woke several times in the night with my ears stopped up and when I did sleep, it was that sleeping with a headache type of feeling.

Woke up very hungry.

8:45 am – warm lemon drink in 24 oz of water

9:30 am – decided to drink my coffee separately. I added my stevia and oat milk, which is about 2 tablespoons.

Day 4

Obviously, I tanked by day 4. Was feeling lethargic and decided to try to continue. Which I did, but was extremely hungry all day long.

Day 5

Same as yesterday and was thankful it was the last day. Much harder on my body and mind than the previous time I did this several years earlier.

Result – no weight loss at a all this time and won’t do it again. I do really like her products though they’ve jumped in price a lot so I am only buying when she has a sale.

Liposomal Vitamin C – Items to buy on Amazon

One of my childhood friends shared this recipe with me for Liposomal Vitamin C to boost my immune system. If you search on this term, you will find numerous recipes, directions and the amounts to take for various ailments – all that vary slightly. I am sharing the steps here to make the Liposomal Vitamin C, along with links to where to buy the products needed to make it, so it is easier for my friends and family and is all in one place. My friend also supplied the photos and step-by-step instructions.

You will need to buy a stainless steel sonic jewelry cleaner, organic Lecithin, non-GMO Vitamin C powder and you may need to buy wooden spoons and a wide-mouth funnel if you don’t have these last two items in your kitchen.

To your good health!

Recipe:

Gather 2 medium-sized bowls, whisk and distilled water (can buy just at about any grocery store).

STEP 1
1 Tablespoon (3 teaspoons) Vitamin C Powder
1/2 cup warm distilled water
(mix for one minute until all dissolved)

STEP 2
3 level Tablespoons of Lecithin
1 cup of warm distilled water

(mix for one minute until all dissolved)

STEP 3
Place both mixtures together in the sonic cleaner. Stir with the wooden spoon.

Mix together for 6 minutes. My cleaner runs for 3-minutes so you need to let it run for its max 3-minutes, then hit the start button again.

Use funnel to pour mixture into a glass jar and store in the refrigerator.

Below are the pictures with links to buy all the above products you need (except for bowls, whisk, glass storage jar and distilled water).

Or, you can purchase Liposomal Vitamin C already pre-mixed. Just click on the image below to order from Amazon.

TM Day 5

Yesterday I almost finished up my TM training. After the first in person training, the rest was on an app. The lessons on the app are about 1.5 hours each. Needless to say, between the meditation taking about 30 minutes total and then 1.5 hours of training I had a bit of a hard time finishing up the training before our 1:30 zoom calls with our teacher. I managed fine on Sunday but then client work got in the way on Monday and Tuesday. So, yesterday I had about 15 minutes left on the last lesson and here I am, 24 hours later, and I haven’t had time to log in and finish that up!

However, once I finish, there is supposed to be so much more to the app. This app is great and l look forward to continuing using its timer and continuing my education.

TM Journey

Yesterday I met one-on-one with my TM teacher/coach. Still in a pandemic, with about 30% of US citizens fully vaccinated, the TM center reconfigured their space so that there was a separate door and room to enter. The doorways inside were sealed with plastic, be we could still see and converse just fine!

And, I received my mantra! I was so excited. Since then, I have meditated 4 times. TM has an app that has enabled people to continue to learn over the 3 additional days by including the training, as well as a timer that helps keeps up with your meditations.

Yesterday when I came home to try it myself for the first time, my cat didn’t want me in the room with the door closed. I gave up and let her in. Big mistake, as she usually does nothing but because I was sitting still she kept rubbing up against my feet and licking my arm. WTH! Then a dog in the neighborhood that will bark non-stop when let outside started up, right outside the window. I gave up, got up to get my headphones and started over. Afterwards, I downloaded a white noise app and was able to meditate just fine with that in my headphones today.

Journey to TM

Back in 2008, I bought the book by Joe Vitale, “The Attraction Factor.” This was probably the first time I actually paid attention to the Law of Attraction. Then late 2019, I bought some software and what I thought would include some training, whereby everyone that bought it lost a lot of money because the guy is a scammer. However, for me, all was not lost. I met a lot of different people who also lost a lot of money, from around the world. Most of these people are straight-up business people who all are kicking themselves for falling for his scheme. But one woman I met, helps other women, and has for the past 10 years or so, make a lot of money.

I got invited to join her five day millionaire activation group several times. I love this woman! She is very genuine and talks about manifesting and meditating. But I just felt like something was missing with me being able to manifest. I tried meditation apps and listening to Abraham Hicks on Youtube, but I still felt like something was missing.

Just last week, I was on the last day of the latest millionaire activation group session and felt even more lost afterwards. I was thinking I need to just stop, and see if there was some way for me to learn how to just meditate. Then, like a loud voice in my head, I heard “Transcendental Meditation!”

I immediately started searching on the web for info about Transcendental Meditation (TM). I read several articles, found a book by Dr. Norman Rosthenthal, “Transcendence,” to listen to on my iPad, joined a reddit group r/transcendental. The group was active and there were many people who have been practicing TM for decades. Also, there were people who have just started.

I learned enough to contact for a coach near me on TM.org and there was one about an hour away. I got on the intro call and told the coach that I don’t know what came over me but I felt this overwhelming urge to be trained to do TM. Today I have my one-on-one with my coach and I am so excited! I left a lot out of the journey for me to get to this point which I will probably post about that part of the journey in the future.

Loving Frank

Loving Frank: A Novel Loving Frank: A Novel by Nancy Horan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was an interesting historical fiction on a time of Frank Lloyd Wright’s life that I never really knew about. In fact, I never even thought about the fact that he was anything other than a great architect until I read this book! I loved reading what appears to be the inspiration for a lot of his work but I did get a bit tired of his “mistress” and her justifications for doing what she was doing.

View all my reviews >>

Emma by Jane Austen

I don’t remember the last Jane Austen book I read but this was one of her last. I had trouble following her line of writing about who was thinking or talking, but the story has the English undertones of humor found in a lot of English writers today.

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane (Hardcover) by Katherine Howe

Katherine Howe did a great job intertwining historical facts and places to the Salem witch trials. This was the first novel I read on my Kindle and I read the book within two days. I have no idea how many pages it was because the Kindle didn’t tell me. The story was not too heavy but had a lot of substance to it, as well as some romance and mystery.