Help Is Coming

Caring is like no other experience one can have while living as a human on this big blue planet.  Often we walk into the duty, blind to what will come, especially when caring for someone who is ill, aged or both sick and old.

Our hearts sing to us when the opportunity to become a carer knocks on our door.  "Hello?  Can you help me?" We hear a voice from a frail loved one, asking for help; how can we turn our backs?  Thoughts from our childhood flood our mind, we remember the person, we remember the love that they had given to us when we were growing through out our life.

Parents, Aunts, Uncles... they all were there for us when we needed them, how can we say "go away!"  We can't, we open our hearts, extending our arms to embrace our loved ones, while we say, "Everything is going to be OK now, I'll take care of you."

Then the fun begins... there isn't an instruction manual for Care Giving, just like babies don't come with "how to" books, neither do our aged seniors.

The aging seniors in our lives need us, period.  End of discussion.  What makes it so difficult is the senior has become more child-like but believe that they are capable of doing so much more than they once were able.  There minds slip, asking the same questions over and over at times or worse, saying "NO!" to pretty much everything that the carer suggests.

No.  I really have a tough time with NO and need to remember why my mom says no so much.  It's not that she doesn't want this or that or to go here or there, it's because it isn't her idea.  Seniors, as they become more dependent on the carer feel that they have no control over their lives.  Through my observations, NO seems to be the only way that they can regain control.  "No!"  A most upsetting word for any Care Giver to hear; I am no exception.

My solution for the NO's ... give choices.  The choice you want the senior to pick, say it last; 9 times out of 10 they will chose the second choice, the one that you wanted them to do in the first place.  By giving a senior the control to choose, it turns the NO into a YES.

Sometimes it can become extremely difficult being a care giver because we are tired.  We lose control of our own lives while our ward gains all control of everyones life in a household, all while believing that they have none.  Frustration and a feeling of being trapped, no way out of the madness takes over the care givers soul.  Sadness and questioning, "What did I do?  Why am I doing this?"

Carers can become depressed and short tempered when we don't have regular breaks to do things for ourselves.  Respite.  Help from others is needed desperately.  We look to family and friends, we expect them to just "know" that we need them, we don't ask for help, instead we wait.  Our emotions take over and we begin to become angry that "no one cares."  We start judging and before we know it, our world becomes darker and more lonely.

I have lived the plight of a Care Giver, lonely and sad that I was left alone to care for my mom.  I cried and I waited for my family; few came to offer help.  I judged.  I became more alone, no one came.  I wanted to understand why and only after I lived through the sadness of losing everything did I find my answer.

Solutions.  In the darkest days of care giving for my mom when I was alone, no help, day in and day out, I looked inside myself for an answer.  "What can I do to change?"

I changed my mind.  I looked outside of my circle of family and friends, contacting Elder Services in my area for help.  I'm still waiting for help.  Our Care Manager visited us yesterday.   I told him what I would like and focused on the main goal; keep my mom out of a facility.

Respite.  Care Givers need it regularly.   My advice?  Hire professionals to take over your caring duties so that you can have a break.  Have your loved one participate in Day Programs.  Be creative with how you get your senior to go out and socialize.  If your loved one is like my mom and not much of a socializer, hire someone to help them get acclimated to the program.  It worked for my mom and now she LOVES going to "Kindergarten."  We call it "school" where most call it "club."

Care Giving is rewarding with many levels of satisfaction but we as care givers need to remember one person more than anyone else... ourselves.  It's easier said than done as any person immersed in caring will agree; we must figure out how to coach a stubborn senior out of their dead routine and into one that will bring more enjoyment into their lives.

Today, I woke up rested.  My mom is having another Good Day, two in a row.  Our Care Manager from Elder Services helped calm my mom who was worrying that the time was coming for her to move to a home.  Caring for her alone without much help has become more difficult on me.  Years of being alone with this burden is wearing on me, I need help and thanks to our Care Manager, help is coming!

My Plan ... How I Will Make THE Decision

My last blog post, "Letting Go... When Do I Know It's Time?"  left me with two comments from a couple of regular readers.  The comments stuck in my mind causing me to stop and evaluate my current situation with my mom.

Thank you to both PJ and Blogitse for giving me food for some serious thought with regard to when, if at all, it's time to commit my mom to a nursing home.

I want to also thank my childhood friend, Pauline, for her email note that comforted me and assured me that I WILL KNOW when it's time.   Pauline, thank you for your friendship, it means a lot to me.

Our goal all along has been to provide an environment for my mom to have more good days than not so good days.  Lewy Bodies Dementia is a terminal illness, there's no known cure and drugs don't help very much; pharma drugs cause my mom problems creating more confusion and fear in my demented mother's mind.

Maybe it's me but I have a hard time watching my mom scream out in fear and it's even worse to see her cry. Seeing ones mom (or dad) panicked is the worst nightmare any child can witness, regardless of your age.

Most onlookers would believe that my mom needs to be in a nursing home because of her behaviors and mental decline.  It's the easy way out for me the Care Giver; it's a decision that I struggle to make.

Why do I struggle with the decision?

My entire life my mom has told me about the "Crazy Gene" that seems to be prevalent on her side of our family.  Her mother and older sister spent their lives in a nursing home since the time my mom was 14 years old.  Facilities have frightened her, it's a deep fear for my mom a fear that has been part of her life for at least 68 years.  My mom passed on her fears to me and now I am left wondering, "do I put her in a home now or do I wait to see if she's approved for state aide and can have assistance to live at home?"  Can I wait?  Should I wait?

Mom, she has clear days and when she's clear, it's awesome.  It's during these days that doubt fills my heart, rendering me paralyzed to the idea of putting her in a home.

But, as soon as she has a good day or two, she will have a not so good day... like yesterday for instance.  Her blood pressure was crazy high; I kept her home from Day Care.  Up and down, like a roller coaster her pressures will rise and fall with no rhyme or reason.

High Blood pressure always brings visitors who are not welcomed, hallucinations that cause my mom to become frightened; raising her blood pressure even higher.  It's scary for both of us.

Over the last few days, I've been pondering the question, "When do I know it's time to commit my mom to a home?"

My husband and I had a long discussion regarding this topic.  Our goal has always been to give my mom more good days than not so good days.  I believe that we have accomplished this for her.  However, now my mom seems to have more not so good days than good days.  It's a crazy ride, one that is not for the weak of mind and heart.  It's like having a nightmare where you ALMOST finish something but have to keep doing the task over and over again... hell.

Yesterday I began keeping track of the quality of her days on a calendar.  GD will mean Good Day and BD will mean Bad Day.   I'll gather the data and at the end of November I'll evaluate and see if I can bring myself to have my mom committed if the evidence presents itself.  Facts.  I need them to make a clear decision, one that is void of emotion.  Emotions muddy the waters; nothing is ever good when it's done from a place of high stressful emotion.  Lately, I've been experiencing way more stress.

The mark on the calendar for yesterday is BD because her blood pressure went up and up no matter what I did.  Not even celery was working well for her yesterday, it helped a little but not with dramatic affects like it had in the past few weeks.

Taking one day at a time is all that I can do.  I will not give up until I have facts which logically guide us to a peaceful conclusion.  I've been having lots of conversations in my mind with the Blessed Virgin Mary; the only Catholic Saint that still gives me comfort during the character building times that life tends to present.

I look forward to the day when this is all over, when my mom has finally passed through the veil to join all her family and friends.  In the meantime, I'll stay the course while I work on getting my mom on "the list" for a bed in Uncle Al's nursing home.

I'm wondering... do other LBD Care Givers witness crazy blood pressures with their loved ones?

Letting Go... When Do I Know It's Time?

Care Giving for my mom is becoming more and more difficult.  Her blood pressure is crazy and fluctuates from one minute to the next.  One minute I will get a super reading that's within a normal range and then the next minute, after she spots a hallucination, she gets excited and her blood pressure sky rockets.  It's insane.

I even use different Blood Pressure monitors on her in an attempt to see if the one I use on her was broken.  It's not.  My mom's blood pressure is wacky and we are beginning to believe that the wild fluctuations are being caused by Lewy Bodies attacking her autonomic system.

My mom has good days which are breaths of fresh air that restore my hope.  During the good times I am able to rest and I can handle the stresses of care giving and all the craziness that comes with it.  However, we have been having more not so good days since my mom's ER visit and overnight hospital stay.

Night disturbances with a flavor of fear of being abandoned are the antagonist in the new phase of my mom's illness.   A year or so ago my mom had night disturbances worse than she's experiencing today; regardless, any night disturbance is a drain of my patience.

Yesterday, I woke up to my mom fully dressed, clomping around in her heavy shoes, trying to find her way home at 5am.  I was tired.  I had my own bout with insomnia and felt like I had just fallen to sleep when my mom woke me up in a panic.

"How do I get out of here?!"  Are the words that my mom greeted me with, as I reached the top of the stairs.

Our day was not starting out very well and it only got worse.  Blood Pressures were back in the 200 range.  I was able to get it down to 160/68 just once during the day, but that was short lived.  I cried.  I cried a lot.

My blood pressure was up there to the point where I actually had a headache.  I rarely get headaches.  I was having hot flashes, another phenomenon that I rarely experience during the day.  I cried.

My mom's blood pressure went up and up.  The more I cried the higher her pressure rose.  I cried more.  I felt lost and out of control.  I didn't want to be a care giver anymore.  I was done.  I cried.

I ate celery.  Lots of celery.  I even attempted to get my mom on Wii Fit, using the balance games to give her something to keep her eyes focused on something other than the trees outside.  Trees where she often sees visions of my dad, my brother, her miscarried baby (she named him Dennis) and an assortment of people that she had known throughout her life.

"Oh, there's Angie Matolla!"  She squealed at one point.

"Bob Brest's wife!  She is blaming me for things, she's talking bad about me.  I didn't do it!"  She proclaimed moments later, becoming upset, raising her blood pressure into the 200's faster than a formula race car can go from zero to one hundred MPH.

My attitude and mood affect my mom's blood pressure.  If I'm stressed out, which I am, my pressure goes up easily and in turn, my mom's does too.  It's a vicious cycle.  I feel like I'm back where I was before I had help coming in to our home and before my mom was acclimated with "school."

Mom is missing school.  She is insisting on going back on Tuesday this week, she calls it "Kindergarten" and she wants to go back.  She had fun and the stimulation definitely helped to keep her in a happy mood.

Personally, I struggle with letting go and knowing when it's time to have my mom committed to a nursing home.  I worry about her going to a home; I worry that they'll drug her to keep her quiet.  I worry that the home doesn't understand Lewy and will give her anti-psychotics that send her deeper into the grips of her mental illness.

I am struggling.  Part of me wants to let go but a bigger part of me won't allow me to do it, not yet.  When I'm rested, like I am today, I feel that I can keep going and fighting back Lewy, giving my mom just one more good day before the end.

Care Givers who have had to make this decision tell me that "I'll know" when the the time is right, when I will know it's time to move her to a nursing facility.  I love my mom and letting go is difficult; I feel like I will have failed if I quit on her.

I have turned my tears into prayer, each tear drop I shed, I pray a little prayer, asking God, the Universe and any supreme being that will listen, to give me the strength to get through my mom's end days with peace and grace.

Letting go.... when do I know it's time?

A Care Giver's Rant

This morning we had the best blood pressure reading in the morning, similar to the readings I would get before my mom's blood pressure went out of control and landing her in an Emergency Room.  Today, will be a great day if we can keep her blood pressure down.

I've learned through my observations of my mom; high blood pressure and high blood sugar bring on more vivid hallucinations.  The intensity of her hallucinations depends on her blood pressure and or blood sugar; if they are high she will go into a mental death spiral, heading for the ground like a plane that suddenly lost a wing.

Care giving is extremely difficult when my mom's autonomic system seems to be having an attack of some kind, an attack that brings on behaviors that make me start to think that it's time to move her to a nursing home.  I often find myself crying when I have this thought.  Part of me wants to give up and get on with my new life with my new husband, while another part of me has hope that we can keep her at home and stable until the day she dies.  The latter is my dream, a dream that my mom loves to hear me talk about because it gives her hope.

Hope.  I often wonder if the belief in hope is what gets us through the tough days.  One day at a time is how we have to take things with my mom.  It's good to plan but I've learned that I can not be married to the plan or the situation.

Hope keeps us going when we see good results from the gentle care we are giving to my mom.  No drugs, just safe natural food.

Celery is our new savior, it brings my mom's blood pressure down to a range where she can remember how to swallow her supplements.  When my mom's blood pressure rises into the 200 range, she forgets how to swallow, she doesn't understand what I am asking her to do.  It's scary.

Celery seed extract from Herb Pharm makes it easier for my mom to get what she needs fast; to lower her blood pressure from the dangerous systolic number of 200 or more to 170 or less within 20 minutes.

During the bad times I say, "Oh no, I think she needs to be in a home and on all the drugs because no nursing home will do what we are doing, giving her natural remedies."  It always makes me cry but I pick myself up, dust myself off and keep on keeping on.  The thought of her in a nursing home always gives me the fortitude to keep on going, to keep up what we are doing and to ignore the naysayers because the naysayers have no idea what they are dissing; traditional doctors being the worst offenders to creating more stress in this care givers life.

It takes vigilance to do what we are doing.  I check my mom's blood pressure a lot through out the day.  I keep a diary of EVERYTHING that she ingests from supplements to food to herbal drinks.  I even include behaviors and attitudes to help paint a full picture.  I am doing this for her doctors, the new ones that she'll be seeing soon.

I am of the belief that if I give her doctor(s) lots of data the doctor will have a better way of knowing what is happening during those times we are not in a doctor's office.  I have been keeping a journal for my mom for a long time.

The doctors she had been seeing at a big hospital in our area never really cared to learn how we are caring for my mom, they ignored the data and reprimanded me because I wouldn't give her drugs.  Her former doctors discredit Natural Medicine and nutrition.  Her doctors only cared about her numbers and big pharma patching up the trouble; they didn't care about her quality of life.

My mom's doctors would never acknowledge my mom's improved health (except her Endocrinologist); now I know it must have been because I was shining a light on their lack of understanding and knowledge in proper nutrition for good health regardless of how old or sick you may be at any given time.

Doctors ignored me.  I told them that my mom can't take the pills, the compounds or whatever binds the pills causes her to have a bad time.  Their reply, "Do you want to have a stroke Josephine?"  Fear.  Doctor's loved to instill fear into my mother.

I would always reply for my frightened mother, "So tell me  Doctor, why is death by pharmaceutical drugs one of the top 3 killers in this country?  Why don't you believe in food as medicine, proper nutrition?"  I never got an answer, I only got a question in return; "In what regard?"  I swear to God doctors are idiots, doing the bidding of the pharmaceutical industry and displaying every day that they have no idea how the human body needs to be fed so that it can be healthy.

News flash for all doctors of the Big Pharma industry, drugs will only make us more sick.  Why do you believe that a subscription plan of a expensive drugs is better than spending that same money on locally grown foods, nutritious foods that will keep the body strong and help it heal?

Today, most traditional doctors are in the dark ages of treating people for illnesses.  Drugs kill.  The new drug pushers are doctors, doctors who have an air of arrogant superiority because of their focus on self.  It's stressful for care givers to face doctors who have the "God Complex", especially when we have made a choice as a family to take a more natural approach to healing.

It is difficult to stand up to doctors but the more you do it, the easier it becomes.  I found that when I educate myself and answer doctors in questions, it often leaves them speechless.

Doctors view me as difficult; I see myself as my mom's advocate against doctors who wish to push their will instead of doing what my mom wants... my mom does not want to take pharmaceutical pills because all of them make her feel sick.

My mom has a terminal illness, why on Earth would we want to aggressively treat her conditions and cause her to just exist through life?  Our choice as a family is to give her better days, days where she can dance and sing to her favorite music from the 40's and 50's.   Natural medicine is helping us to achieve our goal of helping my mom gracefully leave this lifetime as she dances into the world of her hallucinations.

I need to understand why doctors are the new drug pushers?  Why don't we have a war on Pharmaceutical drugs?

I Used to LOVE Joe's Nuts

Nuts, I love nuts.  I love Trader Joe's nuts and seeds, that is until I experienced what is known as a "taste disturbance."


A few days ago I was making a salad for lunch and decided to look through the cupboard for tasty morsels to toss in to my salad meal.  


Oooooooooooooooooooooooo!  I spied a bag of pine nuts, pine nuts that I bought from Trader Joe's, my favorite place to buy nuts because they are so reasonably priced.  


I went against my own rules when shopping and I didn't read the nut label, looking to see where the nuts are from; mistake.  If you are wondering, the nuts come from Russia or Korea.  I had heard that pine nuts from China are trouble because of how the seeds are harvested causing contamination. 


My salad was delicious until I tasted a "bad seed."  Immediately I had a metallic taste in my mouth, a taste that didn't go away.  No matter how much I brushed my teeth and tongue, the terrible taste was still in my mouth.  My dinner was horrible and my wine tasted bad; everything tasted bitter.


Like most people, I turned to the internet to Google my symptoms.  I typed in "metallic taste in mouth" and came up with results, a list that included pine nuts.  I didn't look at the pine nut result until after I read about the serious illnesses that have a symptom of a metallic taste; cancer and HIV were top of the list.  Not having any other symptoms of these serious illnesses, I read about pine nuts.


Eating a rancid pine nut can cause what is known as dysgeusia.  When one eats pine nuts the disturbance is also known as "pine mouth."  It's a weird sensation to lose ones ability to taste, especially when it's a sense that I use every day when I am preparing recipes.  My taste disturbance began like a shot and lasted for 3 days, just like the Wikipedia article had stated.  


What I have learned about pine nuts:

1. Avoid buying pine nuts from China, Russia and Korea.  They could be using a different variety of pine to harvest pine seeds, a variety that causes taste disturbances.
2. Spend the money and buy good quality pine nuts; Pine nuts from Italy are your best bet.
3. Store pine nuts in the refrigerator or freezer to help hold off spoiling

I used to love Trader Joe's nuts.  I trusted this store chain and found myself blindly purchasing nuts and seeds without looking to see where the nuts and seeds originated.  I have learned my lesson.  Imagine if I gave my mom some of these rancid seeds?  I can't even imagine what would happen; I don't want to find out.

If you find that after you eat some pine nuts and you have a horrible metallic taste in your mouth, where everything that you eat and or drink tastes nasty, you are experiencing a taste disturbance.  

What I did to help ease the lousy taste in my mouth was I took 2 teaspoons of Braag's Apple Cider Vinegar before I ate lunch and dinner; it seemed to help neutralize the foul taste.  This morning I woke up and my taste buds are back to normal.  Coffee tastes good again.  

Today I will celebrate with food and skip the pine nuts.  

Like a Box of Chocolates

Today my mom woke up having a great day.  Her blood pressure was good, 160/68.  This is the lowest her blood pressure has been in the morning in over a month.  It appears to be coming down.  Who the heck knows what is going on but it seems that something aggravated her Lewy Bodies.

I often wonder if the heat of the summer and the hot sun caused this chain reaction to wake up the Lewy Bodies in her brain.  The summer was difficult, she always seemed to get totally wacked out when she would go outside and sit in the sun.  Even just 5 minutes in the sun, sent her into a different dimension, a place between worlds where the deceased are alive.

My mom's attitude and mood through out the summer was like riding a roller coaster.  Hallucinations frightened her and made her blood pressure rise.  She was a complete basket case some days; creating way more stress in my own life to the point of my becoming an insomniac.

Every day, regardless how much celery that my mom eats, seems to be a crap shoot.  Her mental state of being is definitely tied to her blood pressure and her blood sugar.  It's a balance of food that is helping to lower her blood pressure.  I'm vigilant.  It's tiring.  In the end, it's better for my mom because she's getting her nutrition, she's feeding her brain instead of masking things up with drugs.  I'm also keeping myself loaded with nutrients in an attempt to defend the free radicals being created from my stress levels.

I know that chances are good that we won't cure my mom, even though I do have a dream that she is whole and well; something inside of me won't let me give up hope on a cure.  I do believe that where there's hope, there's a solution... I can't give up.

I am taking each day like one of those discounted assorted boxes of chocolates that didn't come with a guide of which is which... one chocolate day at a time.  Some days are great and other days it's like getting one of those chocolates that tastes nasty; making the days when I get my favorite chocolate better than ever.

I vow to enjoy the good days, just like a box of chocolates, one chocolate at a time.

High Blood Pressure and Lewy Bodies Dementia

The weekend was super intense, mostly because my mom seems to have notched down further into the grasp of Lewy.  Her blood pressure is out of sight.  Celery helps, but she's getting sick of chewing on this greatest of great medicinal plants that lowers her blood pressure faster than any pharmaceutical drug.  I ordered celery extract, it should help cut down on how much celery my mom needs to eat.

High blood pressure is scary.  Taking her to an Emergency Room is even scarier, speaking from our experience from less than a month ago.  The hospital had trouble keeping her blood pressure down; drugs didn't work.  Celery, it does so we are keeping her home, helping her to remain calm.

Lewy is marching forward, taking control of her major organs.  My mom is scared.  Yesterday in gibberish she prayed and kept saying, "Oh please dear God, help me."  Those were the only words that I could understand out of her mouth.  I remained calm... how?  Not sure.

Today she asked me, "Am I dying?"

"Well, ya.... we are all dying.  If you die, it will be OK.  Don't be scared, you have everyone around you.  Dad and Ed, your sister and brother, your mother and your father... everyone will be there to greet you and make it easy for you.  I'll help you from this side.  You will be OK, Ma.  If you want to go, it's ok.  I love you Ma."  I said to her this morning, answering her question about dying.

My mom is scared to die.  She's frightened most days lately.  Hallucinations are more intense, they tend to get this way when her blood pressure goes up.   Pressure that is rising because Lewy Bodies is attacking the hearts ability to regulate pressure.

We are in a new phase of her illness, phases that come with no warning.  It's time to batten down the hatches, a storm named Lewy is making it's way through our lives again.

How Celery Is Helping My Stress

Image from
http://www.deservingbodymassage.com

Stress.  It can wreck havoc with ones body.  Care Givers, we are stressed and lots of times don't really know how stressed out we are until we finally visit a doctor for a physical.


Thursday, I met my new doctor and had the best physical that I've had in decades, probably the best one since I was in 3rd grade.  


I love my new doctor; she was easy to talk to and she appears to understand that pharma drugs aren't the first line of defense against health troubles.  She will work with my Naturopath, Dr. Barton, a doctor of Natural Medicine that I trust with my life.  I'm relieved.


I'm stressed because of Care Giving.  My adrenal glands are overworking, pumping Cortisol into my blood stream.  It's been more constant over the last 3 weeks since my mom appears to have dropped into a new phase of Lewy Bodies with blood pressure readings that cause the blood pressure monitor to scream.


My mom's blood pressure has been out of control, slowly coming down below 200, now her average reading is 180/80.  Better than 200/100, but still pretty high.


We discovered the cause must be Lewy Bodies based on the NIH study; Clinical and pathological study on early diagnosis of Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies


My husband found the above article about Lewy Bodies and High Blood pressure; he was attempting to understand what could have caused my mom's pressure to sky rocket.   


What we've learned is that the disturbance of the autonomic nervous system, dysautonomia, is part of LBD.  What this means is my mom's blood pressure, body temperature, continence and any automatically regulated equilibrium is thrown off by the Lewy Bodies.  No wonder her blood pressure fluctuates; fluctuating like her cognition.


Elevated blood pressure brings on way more hallucinations.  I know my mom's blood pressure is high or rising when she starts to tell me about tigers in the trees, extra cats and big huge religious celebrations occurring in our back yard.  The same is true when her blood sugar is high, she will hallucinate.  The hallucinations excite her which causes her blood pressure to go up.    It's a vicious cycle.


For 3 weeks my mom's blood pressure has stressed me out and caused my blood pressure to go up, way up to 184/90!  My pressure has been great before my mom's hospital stay and my being reprimanded by one of her doctors at her former hospital.  Verbal lashings by a medical doctor shook me up and caused me to doubt myself; the bastard!


My blood pressure affects my mom's blood pressure, it is the weirdest phenomenon that I've witnessed so far with my mom's illness.  My mood matters.  If I'm stressed out, mom's pressure goes up... way up.  We are trapped in a bad cycle and I need to break out of it or things will only get worse for everyone involved.


All summer I struggled to keep her in out of the heat and sun.  It was a battle, every single day.  If I allowed her to be outside, she'd become overheated and become catatonic; a state that freaks me out.  My mom can't tell when it's too hot outside.  She's super sensitive to the cold... I suppose I won't have to worry about her running out in the yard this winter as I did in the summer.


The pharmaceutical drugs for lowering blood pressure, cause her pressure to rise; the same reaction that I had noticed over a year ago when she stopped taking the pharma drugs and began taking natural remedies, remedies that are working again.


I've been helping my mom control her blood pressure with food.  I'm creating recipes, recipes that are full of blood pressure lowering ingredients.  I'll post another soup recipe this weekend, a recipe that I wrote over the last few days.  I've been researching instead of writing a blog post every day.  I hope my regular readers understand and continue to come back to my blog.


I'm still in amazement over the healing power of celery.  It lowers blood pressure quickly and better than anything we've tried.  All it takes is 3 - 4 celery stalks a day, about a 4 inch stalk that has had the strings removed.  


Researching celery, I learned that this staple of a vegetable, often left to rot in our refrigerator is a powerful medicine, a medicine that regulates blood pressure because celery has the perfect balanced combination of vitamins K, C, B6, potassium, calcium, magnesium dietary fiber, and iron. 

Read more: 

Why Celery Lowers Blood Pressure.

The Benefit of Celery on Blood Pressure

My mom's blood pressure is controllable as long as she eats 4 celery stalks a day.  She has one in the morning before breakfast, one before lunch one before dinner and sometimes, one before bed... depends if her pressure is high.

Mom's starting to dance again.  She's sleeping through the night too, thanks to my keeping a diary of everything that she ate, supplements and behaviors.  I discovered that meat as part of her dinner was causing sleep disturbances, it was too hard for her to digest.  Eliminating meat solved the sleepless nights for my mom.  She can consume soups made with meat but she can't chew and ingest meat like beef, pork or chicken.  Fish is OK, no night troubles.

What we eat matters and items in our refrigerators, real food is best to treat illness, even serious ones like high blood pressure and Lewy Bodies Dementia.  


Once again my mom has proven to me that pills are not part of the solution, they are part of the problem.  People turn to pills and drugs over good nutritious food.  How did this happen? Why don't traditional doctors talk about the healing benefits of food?  Do MD's even know about food and how it can heal even the most sick among us?  Apparently not.  

Butternut Squash Soup with Peru Lima Beans and Chia Seeds

This is an example of not enough liquid, it made the
soup too thick.  Next time, I'll add more water or broth
to make it more "soupy."  The flavor was great.

Ingredients

2 Medium sized Butternut Squash
6 Cloves Garlic finely minced
1 Small Shallot finely minced
2 Celery stalks finely minced
1 Tablespoon fresh Ginger - finely minced
2 Tablespoons fresh Parsley - chopped fine
2 Bay Leaves
2 Tsp Chia Seeds
8 Sprigs of fresh Thyme or 1 tsp dry
1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground Nutmeg
1 tsp ground Cumin
1 tsp ground Turmeric
A pinch of Chili Powder
1 tsp Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
1/2 tsp Raw Honey
1 cup dry Peru Lima Beans (soak over night before using.)
8 cups of filtered water
8 oz Chicken broth
1 tsp chicken bouillon (I use better than bouillon brand)
2 tsp Braags Liquid Amino
Instructions

Put all the ingredients in a pressure cooker large enough to hold all the ingredients.

NOTE:  When using a pressure cooker, never fill the food to the top of the pan.  Fill pan no more than 3/4 full, 2/3 full pan will make it easier not to burn the bottom of whatever it is you are making.

Pressure cook on medium high for 10 minutes.  Shut off heat, cool down the pan so that the lid comes off. Remove and discard the Thyme twigs and Bay Leaves.

Mash the mixture with a potato masher.

Add the Lima Beans and cook on medium high for 10 minutes.

Shut off heat, cool down the pan and remove the lid.

Stir the pot and check the tenderness of the beans.  If they are still not as soft as you like beans, bring back up to pressure for 10 minutes.  If the soup is too thick and the beans need to be cooked more, add a can of chicken broth, vegetable broth or water.

Sue's Split Pea Soup with Chia Seeds

Ingredients


1 Ham Bone with meat on it
(if you buy a picnic pork shoulder, have it for dinner one night and use the bone to make soup for another night - economical, healthy and delicious)
2 cups dry split peas (picked through and rinsed)
3 carrots - diced and chopped
3 celery stalks - diced and chopped
6 - 8 cups of water
6 cloves garlic - minced
1 large shallot - minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 small bunch of thyme (about 6-10 sprigs)
fresh ground black pepper
1 Tablespoon Chia Seeds
2 Tablespoons fresh parsley - chopped

Instructions

Trim the fat off the ham bone and cut any remaining ham into cubes.  Put the water and the ham bone into a large stock pot and allow the water to come to a boil; cook for about 30 minutes.  Remove the ham bone and reserve for any lucky dog that you may know.  My ham bone is destined for Calli and Charlie.  If it will be awhile before you see the dog, wrap the bone and put it into the freezer.

Add all the chopped vegetables and diced ham.  Add all the herbs and seasonings.  Add the Chia seeds (yes, from Cha cha cha chia ... notoriety.)

Cook on low heat for about an hour and a half, stirring frequently.  Make sure there's enough liquid so that the soup doesn't burn on the bottom, if it appears too thick, add a cup of water.

How this recipe was created... 

"OK, if my head starts spinning, you better run!"

Pea soup has never been a soup that I wanted to try, let alone make it.  I saw the Exorcist when I was a kid and it scared the living hell out of me.  When Linda Blair pewked up green when the priest was exorcising the devil from her soul, that was the day I decided pea soup was evil.  It did not have an appealing look so I avoided eating it.

I am now 50 years old.  I create recipes based on flavors that I can imagine and virtually taste.  My husband loves pea soup.  A couple of weeks ago he said, "Boy, I love pea soup, will you make it for me?"

"Sure."  I replied apprehensively.  I had no idea how to make it let alone what it should taste like.  

I read several recipes online on how different folks made their pea soup.  I had all ingredients, even a ham bone left over from a smoked picnic shoulder that I had made the other day for dinner.  

Yesterday, I broke through my pea soup prejudice... I made split pea soup.  My first time making it, I made up the recipe.  I wanted to add some color to the green base of the soup; I added diced carrots thinking that maybe it wouldn't be so bad to eat if it didn't look like a scene out of the Exorcist.

Here in this post, I tell you how I made the soup.  I added Chia Seeds because they are a super antioxidant.  It's also an incredible thickener for sauces, soups and gravies.  Chia Seeds don't have any taste.  In ancient times, Indians used to take the seeds on long trips across America when they went hunting or trading, using this little super food as their nutrition.  

I'm experimenting with Chia Seeds in my recipes.  It's noted that these little seeds have more antioxidant power than blueberries.  

Be adventurous with food, try something that you never thought you'd eat... it will surprise you.  

Sue's Cauliflower Soup - Kidney Friendly Recipe

Cauliflower Soup in the Blender
Puree, Pour into a Bowl
Add Fresh Parmesan

Ingredients

1 Large Head of Cauliflower (steam in a steamer to soften)

1 TBSP Extra Virgin Olive Oil (quality matters)

1 Large Shallot - minced

2 inch piece of Ginger - peeled and minced

6 Cloves of Garlic - minced

3 - 4 Celery Stalks - chopped

3 - 4 Carrots - chopped

2 - 3 Tbsp Fresh Parsley - chopped

1 Bunch of Thyme (Note:  I removed some leaves and tossed in a small bunch with stems - removing leaves was a waste of time.)

Fresh Ground Black Pepper (your taste determines how much)

1 Tsp Ground Cumin

3 Bay Leaves (fresh preferably)

1 Large Lemon - juiced

1 Quart Low Sodium Organic Chicken Broth (Trader Joe's is a very good brand)

Fresh Grated Parmesan for a garnish

Instructions

In a large pressure cooker, heat the olive oil until it shimmers.  Add the Garlic, Shallot and Ginger.  Mix around and let it cook for about a minute.  Add in the spices and herbs.  Stir until you smell the aroma of the spices and herbs, about 30 seconds.  Add the chopped vegetables.  Cook for about a minute.  Add the Chicken Broth(or Vegetable Broth).  Add the lemon juice.  Add the steamed Cauliflower and break it up with a potato masher.

Cook on high pressure for 5 minutes (let the pan hiss for 5 minutes once it begins to hiss.)  Turn off the heat and let the pan release pressure naturally.  If you have a pan that has a pressure release valve, you can use this to bring the pressure down more quickly.

Mash the cauliflower more once you can remove the lid of the pan.  Put a bit of the soup mixture in a blender.  Make sure not to put the lid on tight or you could cause a messy explosion from the heat pressure.  Puree the mixture (I put half a blender full of soup and gently place the lid on top.)

Pour the pureed soup into soup bowls and sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top.

How this recipe was created...

The last few days have been intense, my mom's blood pressure was up high, way high, dangerously high.  She refused to go to the hospital.  I knew if I took her, her blood pressure would only go up higher.

My heart sank to my stomach.  My blood pressure was going up; not helping my mom and her dangerously high blood pressure.  I was scared.  I was horrified.  My mom's life is in my hands and I didn't know what to do.

I sort of began to give up.  I posted a note on my Face Book page that I was giving up, there was no way I could be my mom's care giver.  I was up 3 nights in a row, no sleep and I was becoming insane myself.  I couldn't see straight.  I began hallucinating!  I thought I saw a shadow of a man in my bedroom.  My mother's "THE MAN!"

My brother Marty, well meaning in his reply said we'd find Ma a nice home that knows about LBD and that we'd have to make sure we visited every day so that she didn't feel abandoned.  Immediately, I knew there were no homes that understand LBD.  I cried.  I needed a solution, I needed an answer to help her.

I prayed to Mary.  I prayed with emotion, pleading with Mother Mary to help me make the right decisions and to find solutions to help ease the trouble we were experiencing.  I was giving up hope so I said my Hail Mary prayer.

Out of no where, I had a recall from the doctor visit, the one where I was reprimanded for nearly an hour.  Reprimanded because I wasn't forcing my mother to take pharmaceutical drugs, drugs that I have witnessed make her sicker.  I vowed to my mom that I would be her voice with doctors and protect her; I must follow through, it's a vow.  

The doctor briefly brushed over the fact that my mom's kidney numbers were way high, much more elevated than the last time she had blood work just 2 months before.  His focus was her heart and her dangerously high blood pressure, he wasn't thinking about her kidneys.  Mistake?

Kidneys.  I know that my mom has weak kidneys because of all the Lisinopril she's taken over the years.  She had a similar episode with her kidneys at the beginning of the summer.  Dr. Barton had recommended Pellitory 2 x's a day.  I gave it to her with an antibiotic, her Kidney doctor believed that my mom had an infection.  My mom got better.  She was able to sleep through the night.  Her hallucinations were not so wild once she stopped the antibiotic (Cipro made her nuttier than ever for 3 days.)

Over the summer, I got lazy with cooking.  I was tired and went with a fast roasted chicken and vegetables, or a grilled piece of steak.  We all began to eat too much meat.  It was gradual.  My mom became gradually more insane.

Her blood pressure rose.  All medicine was not working to lower her pressure, even the natural remedies were not working as well as they had been.  I began a journal.

Over the last 4 days I noticed something.  I recorded everything.  I documented her blood pressure and what she ate.  I was able to find a trend.  Whenever my mom eats meat her blood pressure rises up way high.  Interesting I thought... so I did a google search for a kidney diet.  Maybe I can help her blood pressure with the right food to feed her kidneys so that they can finally heal.  Blood pressure medicines were not working, there was a different cause and I think we found it.  I gave my mom the hopeful news; she's sticking to her new diet.

I relearned how meat is hard on the kidneys.  My elderly friend Aggie had kidney disease, she was on dialysis.  I saw her suffer.  I remembered her diet and trying to help her cook for herself 20 years ago.  It all came back to me as I read articles about kidney disease on the internet.

I found a list of foods that are good for the kidneys.  I made a list and my mom and I headed to Whole Foods for a vegetable shopping trip.  Cauliflower, gargantuan heads were on sale, 2 for $5.00.  My mom, she wanted to buy them all because they were so beautiful.  I convinced her to just buy one and let me figure out what to do with it.  

Cauliflower is good for the brain and kidneys; all that I have ever done with it is steam it and eat it with butter or olive oil poured over it.  I've also made potato salad with cauliflower but the mayonnaise sort of defeats the purpose of eating the vegetable.  The fat in the mayo isn't very good for our major organ health.

When we got home, I made up this Cauliflower Soup, using no dairy products since dairy is hard on the kidneys too.

Last night, my mom had this dish for dinner.  No meat and just a dab of dairy (parmesan garnish.)   She slept through the night.  This morning her blood pressure was lower than it's been in quite sometime, below 160 systolic is a big wow.  

I prayed and my prayer was answered.  I found a solution.  My mom's blood pressure is coming down and more importantly, I got a really great night sleep last night.  All of us did, even my mother!

Who knew that I'd become a Vegetarian out of solidarity to help my mom stay out of a nursing home?  Meat, I love the taste of it; but, it's hard on the body, it's hard to digest.   Try my Sue's Cauliflower Soup - Kidney Friendly Recipe and let me know what you think.

Sue's Happy Heart and Mind Chicken Soup

Chicken soup, I love it.  I even made reference to it in my wedding vows, promising to make my husband chicken soup when he didn't feel too well.  I make it all the time, feeling good or not.

It's a great way for me to slip in all the cognition and healthy heart herbs and spices for my mom.  We all benefit.  Garlic, ginger and turmeric work wonders on lowering blood pressure.  Bay Leaves are good for lowering blood sugar.  Ginger is good for that too.

Cognition is helped by combining Turmeric and Black Pepper.  Thyme helps too.

My mother in law told me this was the best soup that I've ever made.  I sat down immediately and typed it up so that I could share it with others who want to see if they can help their loved one have a little bit better of a day because they had some chicken soup.  It's really good for you in so many ways.

Let me know how you like it.


Ingredients

1 Package of Chicken Wings, about 6 - 12
6 - 8 cups of filtered water
3 Stalks of celery sliced in 1/4 pieces
3-4 carrots sliced in 1/4 pieces
1 small onion cut coarsely
1 - 2 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely minced
3 cloves of garlic finely minced
1 tablespoon fresh cilantro chopped fine
1 small - medium lemon (juiced)
1 can butter beans (goya makes a really good canned bean.)
5-10 sprigs of fresh thyme (no need to strip the leaves, rinse the sprigs and toss them in, the leaves magically fall off.  Pull the twigs out before serving.)
3 Fresh Bay Leaves
1 teaspoon of Turmeric
1 teaspoon of Cumin
1/4 teaspoon fresh grated pepper
10 peppercorns
1 tablespoon Better than Bouillon, chicken flavored.
Grated Asiago cheese as a garnish

Instructions

Put all ingredients into a pressure cooker and pressure cook on high for 5 minutes after the pot starts to hiss.  Turn off the heat and let the pan cool down and naturally release the pressure.  If you can't wait, run the pot under cold water to release the pressure inside the pot faster.

Every Day Is An Adventure

My mom's been home from the hospital for over a week, she's doing much better.  Her cognition is improving as long as I can keep her blood pressure down.

Her pressure fluctuates so much, it's wild.  I've been recording her blood pressure readings all day including the food she is eating.  I'm figuring out what food will help keep her blood pressure low.

I make a very good Beef Vegetable Soup, it helps keep her blood pressure down.  I use Turmeric in the soup.  Turmeric lowers blood pressure.  It's amazing how fast it works to lower the systolic number, the number on top in a blood pressure reading.

Celery lowers blood pressure.

Garlic works too.... 6 cloves is all it takes.  I make it with vegetables like the Brussels Sprout and Asparagus dish from a few posts previous to this one.

Hawthorne Berry works wonderful too.

My mom has good days and bad, it depends how high her blood pressure is at any given time.  I've been keeping her blood pressure down using food and it's working.

She is also on 10 mg of Lisinopril since her hospital stay.  I worry about her kidneys; Lisinopril is hard on the kidneys.

For the kidney worry, Dr. Barton has her taking Pellitory 2 x's a day.  It's very good for kidneys and it seems to help lower her blood pressure.

We'll be going to a new hospital with new doctors.  I finally found my mom a Geriatrician, someone who understands Senior Hypertensive issues and Dementia.

More to come... every day is an adventure.

Sue's Salmon Stew

Sue's Salmon Stew

Ingredients

1-2 lb Wild Salmon
1 shallot, minced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
3 celery stalks chopped fine
1 Tsp dry oregano leaves (2 tsp if using fresh)
1 Tsp dry thyme leaves (2 tsp if using fresh)
1 Tsp cumin
2 Bay Leaves
Fresh ground black pepper
1 Tsp sage
1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
8 oz. can diced tomatoes
8 oz. can butter beans (Goya has a nice bean)
16 oz. Chicken Broth
1 cup fish water *
Fresh grated Parmesan cheese as a garnish

* Fish Water
Boil the fish in about 3 cups of fresh water.   Add the fish with the skin on once the water is boiling.  Cook the fish for about 3 minutes, until it flakes.  Remove the fish from the water and reserve one cup of "fish water"


Instructions


In a dutch oven pot or a sauce/soup pot put the 1 tablespoon of olive oil and allow it to heat on low.  Add the  minced shallots, garlic and celery once the oil begins to shimmer.  Add all the herbs and spices listed in the ingredients.  Stir around to blend as it cooks, about 1 or 2 minutes.

Add the chicken broth and fish water.  Let the liquid come to a rolling boil and then reduce the heat to low.  Add the tomato, butter beans and fish.

Simmer on low for about 10 minutes.

Serve with Parmesan Cheese as a garnish

Step Out With The Girls

It was a weekend of shopping for my mom and me.  Saturday she was feeling very good.  Her speech was superb, full complex sentences and fewer hallucinations than we've experienced in the past few months.

Acupuncture is helping a lot with a little magnet therapy to keep her going between treatments.  My mom, she's way more pleasant too.  She even cares about other people again, like her good buddy, Jay.

Saturday, I took my mom out shopping.  We went to several stores for different items that I needed.  Our last stop was Kohl's where she bought herself a few new outfits in a smaller size.  She was thrilled that she could shop in the petite section and find cloths on the clearance rack that fit her like a model.

Shopping was fun with my mom on Saturday.  It was like old times when I'd shop with my mother; never did I expect to shop with her again after last Saturday's episode and visit to the Emergency Room.

My mother loved all of her purchases and her new outfits look terrific on her.  Nothing better than seeing my mom come out of her room and do a quick pose in front of me, showing me that she knows how good she looks.

We made plans with Jay for Sunday.  I arrived a little late.  Jay was ready, my mom was speaking well and walking steady on her feet so she helped Jay walk to the car.

My mom enjoyed watching out for Jay and helping her walk; Jay enjoyed looking after my mom making sure she wasn't lost.  Rachel, she watched out for Jay, helping her find items that were of interest.

Our little shopping excursion was a fun way to step out with the girls.  We all had an enjoyable trip, even I enjoyed myself since I changed how I view my Care Giving.

Instead of looking at Care Giving as a huge burden, I see it as an opportunity to experience moments in time that will make me smile some day when all of my Seniors have exchanged their Earth Suits for Angel wings.

The Doctor and the God Complex

Original Art by Steve Dean
http://www.stevedeanart.com/

Massachusetts, the state that we live in is the most conservative state in the country when it comes to health care.  Naturopathic Medicine is not recognized in our state which makes caring for my mom with all natural remedies extremely difficult.  The difficulty is with doctors, Cardiologists specifically.  Traditional medicine is all that they know and the idea of natural remedies is out of the question even when a Naturopath Doctor, someone trained in the remedies has prescribed supplements.

My mom sees a Naturopath Doctor as well as traditional doctors, traditional doctors who do not like that my mom is not taking pharma drugs, lots of drugs for reasons that make no sense to me at all.  When my mom was on all the pharma drugs, she was sick, very sick.  Her quality of life was non-existent.

Changing my mom to all natural remedies, with food being the first line of medicine to treat all her ailments, transformed my mom's life.  Losing weight was the best action my mom could have taken in order to elevate her fun quotient.  She can move around more easily after losing 100 pounds; she rediscovered her passion for dancing.

My mom has high blood pressure.  When it gets too high like it did last week, she loses her ability to communicate.  It's frightening.  Scary for my mom because she thought she was dying, scary for me because traditional doctors don't want to understand that my mom wants to take natural remedies over pharmaceutical drugs.

Traditional doctors want to treat my mom aggressively with cookie cutter treatments, drugs that are given to everyone based on studies.  Who wrote the study?  That's always my big question.  Was a pharmaceutical company behind the study, making sure that the results are tweaked in order to sell more of the medicine?

New medicines come out so often, I wonder how safe they really are; to me it appears that people are being given these drugs, not knowing the long term effects on the human body, creating more issues that require more drugs.  My mom was on this cycle of drugs, one drug leads to another, which leads to another and so on.  My mother was a piece of meat, just another patient to give drugs that are not tried and true.

Modern medicine is archaic, based on profit for a hospital corporation.  People are put on a subscription plan for drugs, drugs that they are told they need to live.  Never are alternatives discussed and if you the patient (or the Care Giver with the Healthcare Proxy) attempt to educate doctors, you are immediately dismissed.  Even with real results, results that a doctor can see but choose to ignore.

"Doctor, can't you see a difference in my mom since she first started to see you?"  I have said to my mom's Cardiologist in the past when she stopped taking all the pharma drugs.

His reply, "In what respect?"

In what respect?  Are you fucking blind?! ... doctors are educated to the point of ignorance.

Friday, my mom had her follow up with a Vascular Doctor, a Cardiologist.  He never seemed to have the God Complex until this past week when we saw him.  It's his way or the highway.  He reprimanded me for an hour because he didn't understand my mom's natural supplements and why she was on each, what each one did and how it interacted with traditional medicines.  He was mad.  He threatened to call our ND.  Go ahead I told him, I had wanted him to work with our ND for over a year now and he wouldn't.

The doctor contributed to me becoming upset which made my mom upset.  Her blood pressure went up.  He didn't check her out.  He usually listened to her arteries, checked her blood pressure as soon as he saw her; this time, he used the same tactic that my mom's other Cardiologist used every single time my mom and I would visit him for a check up.

Getting me, the care giver, riled up and in turn, make my mom upset... then check blood pressure where it was elevated.  No shit Dick Tracy!  YOU are the cause of the elevated pressure, pressure you seem to have wanted to raise so that you have an argument to feed my mom your poisons.  Poisons that provide money to your hospital so that new elaborate wings can be built.  It appears that it's in a doctors interest to prescribe pills, pills that will bring new equipment that is "donated" by a drug company affiliation.

I am upset that traditional doctors don't honor my mom's choice, to take natural supplements to treat all that ails her.  The natural supplements don't have side effects; they are gentle on her system.  Instead, the doctors want her to take an arsenal of drugs, drugs that would put her in a nursing home.

Doctors seem to have lost their focus, helping people to heal their bodies.  Prevention.  What about prevention?  Why don't doctors spend more time educating patients on proper nutrition, teaching people how to use food as medicine first?

Personally, I see the benefit of using food as medicine; not only in my mom but my family and me too.  How can a medical doctor ignore food as medicine?  I really need to understand because the approach most doctor's take is barbaric.  People suffer unnecessarily.

My mom's traditional doctors here in Massachusetts are ignorant to natural remedies.  They don't chose to learn and educate themselves and they absolutely will not recognize Naturopath Doctors as part of a health plan for patients.  If it's our wish, our choice to use natural remedies, then damn it, we should be able to do it without getting shit.

My shit taking days from doctors is over.  My mom has way more good days than not so good days.  It's our focus, our mission is to have her enjoy her life right up to the last day she takes a breath.  Natural remedies that are prescribed by a TRAINED Naturopath Doctor are making my mom's life better.  Acupuncture has helped her find her words, she can say complete sentences.  How is this bad?

Yes, my mom's blood pressure went wacky last Saturday.  It shot up and she lost her ability to speak coherent words and sentences.  Gibberish.  She was in the hospital and it was a traumatic experience.  Why? Because the hospital wouldn't honor our ND's recommendations for supplements, supplements that help my mom's cognition.  Supplements that allow her to have better days.

Instead, they allowed her to suffer and add to her stress, stress that was raising her blood pressure.  Even though I hold my mom's Healthcare Proxy, the doctors ignored me.  I was getting flipped off because I wasn't agreeing to convince my mom to take pharma drugs, drugs that I witnessed give my mom serious issues. Doctors, they don't care!

Why do doctors feel that they are Gods, where they are superior to patients and their care givers?  God Complex, it is all about the doctors ego.  They seem to lose sight and become amiss with providing the patient with healing, treating each person as an individual.  Screw this!

Fortunately, going over the border in to New Hampshire, Naturopath Doctors are recognized.  MD's work with ND's.  Wednesday, my mom meets her new doctor, a doctor who will work with our ND.  A doctor who will respect my mom's choice to see Dr. Barton, a man who has helped her to have more good days than not so good days.

My mom, she dances and laughs.  If she drops dead dancing, what a way to go!  We would all prefer to see her dancing her way to Heaven's bus than sitting in a home, frightened, scared, unable to speak and waiting for the end.

Care Giving is more difficult when a doctor has the dreaded God Complex.  It takes thick skin to stand up to the self proclaimed God, but it can be done.  Don't cave in, stand your ground and know that the doctors can not force you to do anything that you don't want to do.  Intimidation will be used, but stand strong, don't back down.  The only way a doctor can feel like God is when we do what they want us to do.  It's not their life, we chose the risks we feel comfortable taking.  We chose the natural path and I'm grateful to have found my mom a doctor who understands that there are alternative medicines that have been around since the beginning of time, tried and true.  Why on Earth would we want to take drugs that make us sick when the natural remedies bring healing?

Doctors need to change, they need to let go of their egos and treat patients and their families with respect.  Once they let go of their supremacy over the general public, they'll have more success helping the people who need help to feel well.

Perseverance?

Traditional doctors in the state of Massachusetts where we live do not understand Natural Medicine, nor do they want to understand what it is and how to use it.

Thinking like this is as insane as this young man trying to explain perseverance by hitting himself over the head with a board.

The lesson of perseverance:  You never fail unless you quit... don't quit, don't waiver from your goal; never ever quit because eventually you will win the prize, even if it is a lump on the head.