How I'm doing...preparing for Hydrocarbons treatment

I seem to be doing pretty well with the water softener treatment. My throat no longer itches after I get up to use the restroom at night, so I guess it really was the water! Also, I haven't reacted to lettuce or other veggies that I would react to before (and suspected the water). Wow. Makes me rethink(again) about what all we subject our bodies to in making things "better".

Speaking of which, I plan on my next treatment being for Hydrocarbons. I was muscle tested for these last week as a result of my complaint that my throat itches, my hands itch and my face feels funny(kind of a shooting/stinging sensation) and sometimes I even experience sneezing when I read the newspaper on Sunday's at the in-laws. The doc's immediate response was "Hydrocarbons" and she got the vial and muscle tested me on it and sure enough, I am weak in that area.

She printed out the list for me last week so I know what to avoid. Half of it I don't know what it is. This is going to be the hardest thing so far to avoid. I basically have to avoid touching/breathing/wearing anything plastic or gasoline/oil/diesel based. Yeah, fun. Good luck finding underwear without any stretchy stuff in it! Oy. No polyester, acrylic, rayon. Pretty sure spandex is included in there, too.

So, I am figuring out my wardrobe. I think I might look like a ragamuffin when I go to my appt. Oh well. I hope I can find some sort of cotton gloves to wear so I can drive home with ease! Hey, they might work for me to be on the computer, too, right? ;) Not sure what else I can do and not be exposed to stuff. I'd stay up all night the night before and then go to the appointment and come home and sleep if I could...

I am also supposed to avoid reading/touching books, magazines, newspapers due to the hydrocarbons in the ink. Man, I'm gonna be so bored!

Foods I have to be careful with. I think I may have to put dinner in the crockpot(nothing canned due to the bpA in the lining of the cans, and I assume I should steer clear of plastic-packaged foods) before I leave for the appt. I have some of our own chickens that I think will be perfectly safe since they weren't wrapped in plastic. Veggies, too. So, I'm good there.

I thought I was really doing good avoiding plastics in our home, but when I see the extent they permeate our lives....wow. Just wow. We are still far removed from what is truly "Natural".

BioAllergenix Update

Today was quite the adventure. More for the doc than for me, lol.

I had been doing pretty good allergy-wise and wasn't sure what to make an appointment for, so had gone a few weeks without an appointment or treatment. Also, my last treatment was a hormone treatment and I was kind of waiting a month or so to see how that went before I went in again. Just because.

Then I tried tomatoes again. I swear I need to throw all those tomatoes I canned 2 years ago out to the chickens! They get me every time! Granted, the reactions are less and less, but those particular tomatoes are horrible for me! I have been able to eat tomatoes from this year's garden and been fine with them, for the record.

I had used the last jar of canned whole tomatoes last week to make spaghetti sauce in the crockpot. As soon as it heated up, I smelled it cooking all day long and was experiencing brain fog, sort of tunnel vision, pressure in my head/neck and intermittent nose and throat itching.

I did not eat the stuff, though. I made myself something different to eat that night and served the spaghetti up to my family(who, by the way, fared quite well on it).

Since then, I seem to have been reacting(usually quite mildly) to lots of stuff.

In the last week I have reacted to(from worst reaction to least):

Broccoli and Cauliflower(day 1 was immediate chapped lips, day 2 was itchy throat/ears, copious drainage, more chapped lips)
Newsprint(face/hands itch if I read a newspaper)
Nachos(no tomatoes on these-this reaction was more of a gut reaction-blah!)
Red Cabbage-(itchy nose/very mild itchy throat)
Various herbal teas-(mild itchy throat)
cinnamon or citric acid-suspects in the teas
Garlic?

I had kept a diary of what foods I suspected and gathered up little samples. I went to the appointment today armed with little baggies of corn chips(yellow and blue), cauliflower, broccoli, red cabbage, a cinnamon stick, and 3 different teas to test. I also asked them to test me for B vitamins and garlic(another food I've had trouble with, though I love it so much!).

Then the doc did muscle testing on me while holding each of these(out of the bag, since she suspects Hydrocarbons to be another problem with me in relation to the newspaper thing. She tested me for those, and they ARE a problem!)

Here's the results:

Corn(vial): OK

Corn chips(both yellow and the blue w/ sesame seeds): OK

Cinnamon: OK

Cauliflower: OK(!)

Green Cabbage(vial): OK

Broccoli: NOT OK

Red Cabbage: NOT OK

Orange and Spice Herb Tea: OK

Red Tea: NOT OK

Tension Tamer: NOT OK

Hydrocarbons: NOT OK

Water Softener Salt: NOT OK

B vitamins: OK
Garlic: NOT OK

The theory we came up with between the cauliflower and broccoli was that I washed them both with the softened water. The cauliflower has a really tight head, so didn't soak up the water like the broccoli did. That was our guess before we tested the water softener salt, and I was VERY weak to that. So it may not be the broccoli getting me, but the water. I suppose the cabbage *could* have water on it still, but I got it from deeper in the head of cabbage, so I don't think it is nearly as likely.

The Red Tea and Tension Tamer teas I have yet to (over?) analyze.

The Hydrocarbons have to do with the reason my face and hands itch incessantly every Sunday when I read the paper. Sometimes with magazines the same thing happens. Acrylic has bothered me for a long, long time. This is a very difficult one to avoid coming into contact with (all plastics), and I need to plan things out like what I wear and eat and touch before I get treated for that. Maybe next week. Not sure what I will be doing with my time after that treatment if I can't read or be on the internet.

I opted to have water softener salt treated, since I can just use the bypass spicket water at the house. I just have to remember not to use the other water!

This is the first time the doc has had a patient come up with problems with water softener salt and she is very interested in seeing how I do. I am, too! I had long suspected the water softener salt with my prior corn allergy, but kind of put it out of my mind once I was treated for corn. Guess I should listen more closely to my body and respond accordingly, eh?

Now...off to find something to eat that hasn't been touched by softened water... and see if I can digest the info I've been given today and analyze some more.

How to Avoid Genetically Modified Food

I have written an article on Helium.com and thought I would share it here:


You may have heard about the debate over whether Genetically Modified(hereafter denoted GM) foods are safe to consume. It is likely that many people would rather avoid GM foods until the research indicates that it is indeed safe. That is what this article will help you to do.

There are currently 12 GM plant species approved for commercial food production in the U.S.
These consist of:
1. Corn
2. Cotton
3. Potatoes
4. Tomatoes
5. Soybeans
6. Canola
7. Sugar Beets
8. Rice
9. Flax
10. Some Squash/Zucchini
11. Papaya
12. Chicory (Radicchio)

Also, it would be wise to keep in mind:
*Wheat is also in the works to be GM in the near future.
* Much of the milk in the U.S. is taken from cows given rBgh/rBst(recombinant bovine growth hormone, genetically modified by Monsanto and given to many herds to promote more milk production). Monsanto is trying to make it illegal for those NOT using rBgh/rBst to be able to say so on their labels, because people might think there is something wrong with milk containing these GM hormones and not buy it, and that would hurt (Monsanto's) business.
*Conventional beef, pork and chicken is fed a GM corn and soy diet.

How do we effectively avoid consuming GM foods? Click here to read the rest of the article.

Thanks for reading!

Our Chickens-Survival of the Fittest

We had the misfortune last Sunday night to come home at dusk to most of our chickens in a lifeless trail between the garden and coop. I had left home a little after 6. Before leaving home, I checked on the chickens, who we had let out to free range in the garden that I had picked clean the other day. They seemed happy so I left them out and planned to be home in a couple hours to close them inside their coop.

Now I am wishing I had gone ahead and herded them into the coop before I left, because if I did they *might* have survived. I say "might", because a few years ago dogs had climbed over our chicken fence and killed all but one of our chickens. :-/

We definitely suspect dogs are the culprit in this case as well. Most of the chickens(19) were killed and left for dead, presumably so the killer could run after and kill the next one they saw. Only one of the chickens had anything eaten off of it, and that one was found far away from the others.

I took pictures of each of them(yuck), as well as of the line of them from the garden area to the coop where they were running toward safety when they were killed. Randy called the police to file a report and the animal control officer came and took pics and took a statement. We have been watching every night and haven't seen any sign of other predators that would do this. I figure it was someone's dogs and when they came home with a mouthful of blood and feathers, they probably decided it might be wise to keep their dogs on their property where they belong so they wouldn't get shot.

The 6 chickens we found alive the next morning were up in trees near the house, on top of a rabbit hutch we have out back and in some other unknown places. I am thankful we got to keep at least a few of them to provide us with eggs(once they start laying).

A pic of the line of dead chickens from the garden(the edge is at the left of the picture) to the chicken coop: