Sunday, October 30, 2011

Your body does what it is trained to do

I ran a race I probably should not have today. I don't regret it, as I wanted to see the area of the island it was on. It was absolutely gorgeous with mountain and ocean views, singing birds in the dry forest and nene all over the start/finish area. I'm also glad I didn't get too hurt. As I painful climbed (maybe 1/2 jogging and 1/2 fast hiking) the 1200 feet elevation gain, I kept thinking "I should not expect to feel any better than this because I haven't really trained." I have maybe done 5 runs since the triathlon on Aug 28th, the longest one being about 4.5 miles. I kept my heart rate up the whole time, but didn't push too hard. I did get over zealous as a down hill runner was catching me and I tried to speed up only to roll my ankle (-: Luckily it wasn't too bad and was okay if I kept a moderate speed running. Anyway - back to training. I keep coming back to how important time usage is. I will become what I train to be. My main rolls in life should dictate my time use. I feel like I've been pretty okay at mommy training, health training and job training - but my child of God training and wife training have been lacking lately. Today was a nice reminder from God about the importance of these things... may I spend more time training with appropriate effort towards all the most important roles in life God has given me.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Passion

I've recently started volunteering on Thursday evenings at the Pregnancy Center here in Kona. The gal who runs it came to our church a few weeks ago and said that they needed volunteers. I instantly new I desired to help, I wasn't sure in what capacity, but I could feel God tugging on my heart strings and I had excitement about it. The first day we did the initial interview to see what might be a good fit for my skills. I would be allowed to train to do ultrasounds because I'm an OT, but because we're trying to get pregnant I decide that wasn't a good fit (there is research that ties excessive exposure to miscarriage). Based on my interests and their need we decided I would train to do earn while you learn, a program where costumers can earn gift cards to Target while watching informational videos on an array of topics and hopefully teach a few classes on other nights. Everyone learns to do all the office tasks and so my first couple of weeks were spent doing that. Last week I got to sit in on an initial interview and that was good. I won't be here long enough to train to be a full on peer counselor, but may need to do the initial intake if no one else is there to do it when I'm there.

This brings us to today and my passion. This evening I showed up and the other volunteer said there was an Earn While you Learn couple there, would I like to do it with them? Sure, why not - learn while I go. I got everything set up and the next lesson on her list was one without a video. She asked if we could do one with a video, since this was her SO's first time attending. The next video was SIDS - reducing the risks. Unfortunately and fortunately this is a topic I know well. I'm well versed and read on the most recent findings. The video was fairly outdated as it showed loose blankets over young infants and crib bumpers. The information was pretty good, but I'm going to try and find one on the most recent recommendations for the center. I was able to print out the firstcandle guidelines to supplement the information. After talking to the director, she asked if I would like to teach a regular class on SIDS prevention at the center. I'm so excited to have the opportunity to share my passion for life saving information in our community. The more I've thought about it, I think I want to pair it with a pre-natal nutrition class. Hopefully this will work out!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

25 months


Autumn, the first month of your 2nd year is now complete. It has been quite a rough month for you in different arenas - but you are none the less happy through it all! You are more compassionate, seem to understand prayer better and have made many cognitive and motor gains.

Firsts:
Independent prayer
Swimming with arm little swimmers
A more serious medical issue (you can read about your battle with MRSA in mommy's journal)
"Rock climbing" at Kua Bay
Reading books you've memorized
Sitting forward facing in the car seat - you've now puked 2x on windy roads, so although you have not maxed out the backwards weight limit - we turned you forward. You made it almost 25 months backwards.
Kona Carnival


Things you love:
Your babies Lily and Nancy
Outside play - beach or park
Running
Shoulder rides
Looking in the mirror
Ketchup (nuggets and homemade fries are really a ketchup delivery method)
Cow Milk
Puzzles
Reading
Singing
Cuddles
Brushing your teeth
Doing anything on your own - dressing, puzzles, toys...
Curious George and Dora

Things you dislike:
Getting in the car seat
Us talking to each other or others - you start shouting "Autumn talk to her mommy!"
Using the potty
Going to bed or nap - you say "It's not nap time" over and over when it coming soon
Saucy (spicy) things

Stories -
Logic - You had to take a lot of medicine this month and much of it was quite yucky. A couple of time you just didn't want to eat your medicine applesauce. After different attempts and a lot of time telling you is was important, I finally decided I'd try logic - I said "Baby, if you don't take your medicine your ouchies will get big and hurt more again, so you need to take your medicine to make them go away." You frowned and said okay and promptly ate all the applesauce right up.

One of your friends had an ouchie about a week after yours had healed up. I explained to you that she was having pain and needed us to pray for her. Everyday you prayed for her without prompting and you bring her picture to us off the refrigerator and explain that she has an ouchie and needs us to pray. At church on Sunday the pastor started to pray and you loudly said - "We need to pray for 'your friend'." She has been on your heart ever since we told you. Now you pray each night, "thank you for making 'my friend's' pain go away."

We went hiking with our friends and we spotted a large worm. You promptly wanted closer to look at it and then grabbed a stick. I didn't stop you because I was curious what you had in mind. You poked at the worm and it went crazy squirming furiously. You jumped back and scurried away. Although it was a bit scary - you still have fun telling us about the worm and how it went squirmy when you poked it.

We love you sweet girl!! You are full of life, love, curiosity, and adventure!
Mommy and Daddy

Friday, October 7, 2011

MRSA

I have several posts brewing in my head - but thought I better go back and put up the info on MRSA that I've been promising.

Here is a PubMed article if you are interested in reading about the bacteria it's self - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0004520/

It lives everywhere around us. Here in Hawaii, if a doctor thinks you have a staph infection it is treated as if it is MRSA because it is not worth throwing antibiotics that are unlikely to work at it. Our urgent care Dr. explained that staph has been evolving ever since modern antibiotics were created, but MRSA really scared the medical field in the mid-2000s because they were running out of synthetic options. He said about 2/3 of staph infections in Hawaii are MRSA. Now there are more synthetic options, but the bacteria is likely to adapt and resist them soon enough. Now they are even seeing resistance to the strongest drug vancimycin - VRSA. Roughly 25-33% of people have staph living on their skin, in their nose or under their finger nails. Here in Hawaii it is far more prevalent - articles I've read blame the moist, year round warmth and out door lifestyle. It can live in the ocean water, sand and other public places for months with out dying on its own. I read it can live on a blanket for 6 months - icky. Most of the time it doesn't bother us. Our immune system and the good bacteria on our skin kills it before it is a problem.

Unfortunately for us, one got past Autumn's defenses. I've racked my brain trying to find the exact cause, but the closest I will ever come is a few guesses. The night before we saw the 'pimple' the first time we had been at the beach and she had pooped in her swim suit without telling us. She had a mostly healed yeast infection and rashed up from the poop. These two things meant she had openings for the MRSA to get in. Where the MRSA came from??? The beach, our bath tub ... we will never know.
Here are the links to more details on our personal battle in chronological order:
Weird Bump
One Day
Healing
Slowly but Surely

If I had known it was MRSA when it was a pimple I likely could have treated it with prescription muriprocin cream, essential oils or manuka honey - killed it an moved on. Because we didn't know what it was we waited, watched and finally went to the Dr. 5 days later when it was too late to kill and move on.

Modern Medicine - this little bought with MRSA has made me really mistrusting of the over arching medical community. I believe it is too much about money and not about enough about the good of the people. (friends and family - please know that this is not about the service delivery and more about the bigger system) Big Pharm has way too much power over what gets into our mouth and bodies. I've scoured the internet and almost every personal story out there goes something like this - got MRSA somehow, took antibiotics, synthetic antibiotics trashed the immune system, after a full course, the antibiotics clear out of the system, MRSA comes back, back on antibiotics... over and over and over. Most of the stories tell of multi-year battles with MRSA. I won't go into the biology - but modern antibiotics do not seem to do the trick for a lot of people. More disturbing is that THERE ARE natural antibiotics available - but the doctors don't promote. There is even good research for some of them - but because the FDA has not approved their use yet - we battle in a stupid cycle with poor modern antibiotics against an ancient bacteria and let our health go to pot. I'm ready for integrated medicine - where the natural paths and physicians work together to create better health for all of us. At this point - although I acknowledge the benefits of the modern medicine - I think the natural paths are pointed in a better direction. Again - in a perfect Tara world - it would be integrated.

EVERY person I've read about has only found long term relief from external MRSA with essential oils and/or mankua honey.

Here is some of the research I've found if you are interested:
http://bio.waikato.ac.nz/honey/contents.shtml
http://www.thieves-secret.com/mrsa.htm - has a link to the research PDF
http://preventdisease.com/news/articles/essential_oils_bacteria.shtml

So - my game plan is certainly not to wait and see if MRSA shows up again. We are fighting it by doing these things:

After the infection on Autumn healed up I sanitized our entire house. Hot water, bleached and hot dried all of Autumn's clothes, all our bedding and towels. I sprayed Lysol fabric cleaner on the couch and rugs. I bleached the bathrooms. The more I read the more I believe that I don't need the toxic chemicals to protect ourselves.

I've made natural sprays for both bathrooms (1/2 vinegar 1/2 distilled water and 2-4 drops of tea tree oil, eucalyptus oil and Be Young's Defense blend) - we use it for weekly cleanings and spray in the tube after each use. A word about the tub - this is where we wash all the staph exposure from the day off. I'm sure most of our drains would test positive for it. We will now be persistent to kill anything in this bacterial hot bed. I used to let Autumn shower with me - and it is completely possible that she got the infection while sitting down in our shower at my feet. )-: Unfortunately mother/daughter showers are a thing of the past, as even if our tub is sparkling, I'm washing my ickies down to her. Even though the risks are low, we've been doing it for months - after this horrid experience I just can't.

I used roughly the same recipe to make hand sanitizer for the diaper bag and my purse. And the same recipe for a spray down after beach showers.

I got 16+ medical grade manuka honey for us to use as neosporin on our wounds and anything that looks like it could be a potential problem. If something looks suspicious I will likely alternate between putting the manuka honey and Defense blend mixed with olive oil on it. From what I've read either should do the job.

I've been rubbing one drop of the Defense blend with olive oil on Autumn's feet at night. I'm not quite ready to have her ingest them like www.staph-infection-resources.com recommends. But if we deal with another infection you can bet your boots that Autumn will be taking funny tasting applesauce everyday.

During bath time I put a couple of drops of Defense and tea tree into epsom salts and add them while the water is running.

I bought Dr. Bronners tea tree castile soap to use as shampoo and body soap. I'm in the process of switching to all homemade or all natural products in our home.

This weekend I'm going to make manuka honey antibacterial hand and body soap.

I'm also planning to get a diffuser for the oils - Aaron really hates the smell - but it kills the bacteria it in our carpets and everywhere - so we'll have to figure out a method that works for both of us.

I'm officially a happy germaphob... sigh... (-:


If a pimple that kind of looks like a spider bite shows up at your house...

(Common sense warning: This is what I plan to do - but this information is not intended as medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician with any questions you may have regarding any medical condition)

The day it shows up action is needed.

I plan to treat it with either manuka honey, manuka oil, Manuka ointment, one of the essential oils shown to kill MRSA or a blend of them.

I plan to put a few drops of the treatment on an enclosing band aid (like a circle one with the pad in the middle) and apply to the spot. Reappling a new treated band aid 4-5 times a day. Additionally, I'd use hot compresses 4-5 times to draw the infection out. If it grows at all after starting to treat it, I'd go to the doctor and have it tested to see what it is we are dealing with.
Link

Monday, October 3, 2011

Surrender

This was the theme of the women's retreat I attended this weekend. Before the thoughts escape me, I want to recap what God laid on my heart.

Definition of Surrender:
1. To relinquish possession or control of to another because of demand or compulsion.
2. To give over or resign (oneself) to something, as to an emotion:

Surrendering ourselves to the Lord means - giving up my dreams and desires to follow His will for my life. Trusting Him that His plan for my life is better - even if it is harder. Obeying Him so that I can know his will and He can use me to His full desire.

Practically this means - making a routine of daily devotions (I'm not very good at this even though I've experienced the great benefits when I do it), developing mentoring relationships both directions, pouring the heart God gives me into people who need it.

God slowly develops surrender in us, it isn't easy and it is a daily battle. Our main lessons revolved around Esther. In the end, she followed her call in life knowing that the consequences could be death. It worked out in her favor, which is not always the case, but she had to surrender to the Lord in order to follow His will for her life - which was to save many Jewish lives.

I like to be in control, a lot. Surrendering my hopes and desires on a daily basis is very much a work in practice. I remember getting the news that they had hired under my contract and we would be moved away from Kona in January of 2009. I cried and struggled why God allowed this. I pouted in Maui (please don't hate me) because it was hard and I wanted to be near my friends. I think I pouted a lot because it wasn't my choice. Although I maintained my old friendships, I really believe I missed out on valuable ministry opportunities because I choose not to connect and put effort into the place God had put us. In the scheme of life being moved is so minor - God had gifts for us there. He had things to teach me - looking back, learning to surrender is one of them. Sometimes we learn best from failures and natural consequences.

This surrender becomes absolutely necessary at the turning points in our lives - AKA the really hard and crappy times - when we have no control. We all get different lots, our pains and sufferings are all different and unique. However, these turning points in our life test our faith - our surrendering ability. Do we trust God when the world falls apart and it is not as it should be? I feel in this sense my faith has had very little testing, my refining fire up to now has been very gentle. I don't know my lot in life, but I want to be a women like Esther who will surrender myself for God's greater purposes.

Surrendering my Children - this can't escape my thoughts and is on my mind often. Last week I was listening to Christian radio on my way home for lunch and the guy was talking about worry and our children. Just getting past our MRSA horribleness - I'm an admitted germaphob. I wonder if I'm doing everything I can to prevent pain like that again. I got chills as he spoke and knew God wanted to speak to me through him. Essentially the point was that we should put reasonable safe guards in place to protect our children, but we can't trust our safe guards - we can only trust the Lord. When we trust the safe guards we worry because they are not fool proof - things can still go wrong. When we do our very best and trust God, we do not need to be anxious. The risks are no different and God is in control either way. He tells us in many places that worry is not good - to give Him my anxieties because He is in control. He gives and he takes away - God allows these things and He is no less in control. I can't live my life scared, anxious or paranoid. God has many other thing he needs my mind and heart to be focused on and focusing on fear and worry has serious side affects. A spirit of fear is not from the Lord - Trust in the Lord. Surrendering is a big part of me giving my children (Autumn and future children) to God. (I want to acknowledge that this is my limited understanding, is certainly simplified and is what I needed to hear at this time in my walk - in no way am I trying to be trite or insensitive to others struggles)

God take me and use me for your will! I trust you and can therefore surrender everything to you.