To: Someone
From: Melissa Blanchard
Date: 6/1/2014
I have accomplished much since my last letter on 5/26/2014. First, I'm thankful for Can Do Healthy Lifestyle coach, Diane. She's a medical doctor that I'm able to trust. The journey to health and well being can be a scary one so having someone that knows how Doctors think and how they are trained has helped me to make sound decisions. I'm very grateful I met her at a Fairview Health Services sponsored Health Fair. I encourage any working at Fairview to attend this fair - it brings together resources that only want to ensure all people have access to quality health, restoring and maintaining, programs throughout the Twin Cities area. Networking at it's finest.
Diane helped me think through what my General practitioner or family physician was advising when she had me make an appointment with a pharmacist - this isn't someone at the local drug store but someone affiliated with the clinic that is trained to know how the body works and the latest on all medicines. She helped me to put aside my reactions of thinking this person would just want to sell me drugs - a pharmacist does not work for a drug company.
I kept my appointment with my clinic's pharmacist, Heather. I was nervous to go. I don't like taking medicine - I'd like to learn of other ways to control health concerns. As soon as I met Heather, I felt this is someone I can relate to. She asked me questions, she listened and she supported. She also gave me great advice. Together we identified a treatment plan (mostly involving food choices and food diary) to treat acid reflux - no more medicine unless needed - 1st tums, then zantac , then generic prilosec for 5 to 10 days then stop. She told me how to make medicine affective - priceless gift.
As for Asthma, we looked at nasal sprays I'm taking - found out I had duplicates - which is ok if they are designed for different allergens. I am personally staying off Claritin products as much as possible and relying on nose sprays and allergy shots mainly for now. Biggest success story was Heather's suggestion to stop advair. She told me that it is designed to work best with 2 doses. I've been on 1 dose for a year now and if I was having success I really didn't need the 1 dose. I'll be following up with her in a month but I was able to walk 1 mile in the Twin City Heart Walk with no trouble - great feeling to be off that medicine.
She also approved of my use of the Paleo food choices some call it Whole30. See my blog post referring the book that introduced me to Paleo:
How Books and Bookstores Have Changed My Life
She reviewed the supplements I was taking and checked my blood work and test results with me to adjust as needed. She saved me money by explaining that the body is only able to absorb 500 mg of calcium per serving so you need to split up taking your supplement. I find powder is the best way to get to just 500 - about 2.3 grams per calculations from the label's 640 mg dose. Also, I only take 1,000 mg per the supplement and will be adding canned salmon with bones and bone broth to my diet to get the remaining 200 mg that dark green veggies aren't able to provide.
She also gave me the name of a book to read called:
Not only will moving more help with my food digestion and relive acid reflux, and lower my weight, it will build up my bones. She said working muscles and strengthening them actually aides in the absorption of calcium. She consulted with my Doctor for all recommendations. At this time, they both feel my bones are ok and to continue with less of the acid blockers, more of wise food choices and moving. My doctor also advised taking 2 - 1,000 D3 supplements a day as well. I have fair skin and family has history of skin cancer so I have to limit sun exposure through sun blocks and avoidance.
The biggest help from the Pharmacist was time - I was given time to discuss fully all my questions. I wasn't hurried and I got the full session notes at the end of our time. Time means the world to me mainly because I communicate best via verbal exchanges with follow-up notes to be sure I caught all the key points. I'm so happy to have listened to my family doctor and my Can Do Healthy Lifestyle coach and kept my Pharmacist appointment. I recommend to everyone even if you aren't on medicine now, Pharmacist know so much more about the body than I ever dreamed possible.
The next big hurdle I had to address was the tension I seem to hold in my back muscles. The more I move the more I notice the muscles that hold me upright tend to tense up and go into knots the more I use them. So I know I can sustain 30 minutes without pain (at first it did hurt but I built up very slowly to hill walking, up grades uses more back muscles). I didn't see the connection to the standing until I started trying to improve my digestion by standing at my computer instead of sitting behind it after lunch and wow - did my back complain. Not too much at first but if I ignored the ache warning - it would go into 10+ pain and stay there until after about 20 minutes of ice treatment - not kidding:).
Now I've been trying to work out a solution to this back shoulder blade pain since I first started standing/moving more so a light comes on after seeing the Pharmacist she mentioned advair tends to relax muscles as well as fight infection and inflammation - so I wondered is what I have tension related? Could it be related to something psychological? So I talked to Diane and she said alternative medicines might be of help when it comes to back pain. I remembered I have a licensed
naturopath that's also a friend, so I reached out to him. He suggested that EFT might be able to help me - see more about the program at this link:
www.helpingtoheal.us/eft
More contact info:
More contact info:
Charles Reinert ND, PhD
CHt, EFT-ADV
Helping To Heal Natural
Therapies Clinic
192 3rd Street, Tracy MN
clinic phone 507 629 3900
I had a session last Friday and I am not kidding, my muscles relaxed like they do after being used hard. Total relaxation and no pain. I still have to build up muscle strength gradually and safely but I don't get the added tension aches that never really let the muscles relax. I'm sleeping better and loving myself and others more. I find I'm listening not to respond but to hear what people are saying. I'm better able to communicate because I feel adequate to circumstances and confident I will be able to learn what I don't know about any given topic given the resources and time to absorb.
Details of the session are very private, but in general its about forgiving others and myself. How can you do this without the other people present? You do it by stating the person's name and the pain they caused and going through the EFT points as you say it. It works. When you're done you still have the memories of the pain but its no longer real to you. I see the events now as if viewing a movie or reading a book where these things are happening to someone else. No more pain. For this first time in my life I can see clearly what happened in my childhood that caused pain that I was carrying until last Friday.
This program works for anyone who has experienced trauma physical and or emotional. Remember this pain manifests in several ways. In my case it was manifesting in guilt causing weight issues, muscle tensions, and isolation. Getting out and meeting people was very difficult for me. Meditation has been helping and wanting to see my favorite author before I died (my Mom died at 53 so I felt that same fate might be mine too). I knew if I got any heavier I wouldn't have been able to fit in one airplane seat - big incentive when your favorite author lives in MD and I live in MN.
I knew I had to move to lose weight I have done literally all I could think of to do to stay on the 30 minutes initiative from +letsmove. What I've written in the journal blog post is my journey so far. I have more appointments to keep and more writing to do before I reach wellness but I'm getting closer. Purely from the perspective of weight loss I have come this far:
Blood pressure:
12/21/09 149/84
05/19/14 148/84
Weight:
12/21/09 204 lb - 4/2013 allergist scales showed 242 lb
5/19/14 190 lb
5/29/14 185 lb
My blood work is good. All my organs are performing normally. Bad cholesterol is down. Good cholesterol will improve as I work on muscle tone.
I'll keep on working to improve my health and I'm thankful for the Health Care Profession of the United States for providing resources like Can Do Healthy Lfestyle, https://www.facebook.com/CAN.DO.Health and Doctors, Nurses and Pharmacist at Farview Health Services, https://www.facebook.com/Fairview
As Diane reminds me - its me doing the work but I'm thankful she's there to confirm the work I'm doing is on the right track.
Until we met again,
Peace,
Missy
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