Everything Is Possible When We Believe!

This weekend is our 2nd wedding anniversary.... 2 years have passed since I was laid off unexpectedly.  I lost my income.  It was horrifying to have the floor drop below my feet, a floor that felt secure and safe, a security that I now realize was false.  

Fortunately, my husband and I were already engaged at the time and had been planning a July wedding, a modest celebration, nothing fancy... a Hawaiian Theme ... we wanted a Luau. 

In Massachusetts where we live, Mitt Romney our former Republican governor had put into law that everyone needed health insurance.  If you didn't have insurance you would be fined.  How was I going to afford health insurance?

I cried a lot.  My awesome husband had a great idea, "Let's get married now, we can have a shot gun wedding of the 21st Century, for Health Insurance!"  Super idea but I was in no shape to plan a wedding.  We picked the date, April 11 - 411, just like the number we dial for telephone information. 

With only a week to plan our wedding, my husband did all the leg work; I only needed to show up.  It wasn't anything big.  We married in our living room, wedding crashers and all.  The plan was to have the Justice of the Peace come to our house, marry us in the living room with only our mom's present.  However, my sister had a different idea, she was coming.  When my sister told my nephew, he said, "I'm going!"  Then when my brother in law found out that my sister and nephew were crashing my wedding, he wanted to come along too.

It all worked out.  The morning of my wedding my sister asked me if I had any flowers.  Of course I didn't.  She called her friend at Nunan's Florist and asked him if he could make up a bouquet and a few corsarges.   Very short notice.  He didn't have the flowers.  Somehow, he found flowers and made me a beautiful bouquet with matching corsarges for our moms.

Thanks to my wedding crashers, I have a beautiful video of my wedding day.  Every time I watch it it makes me cry happy tears.  Our wedding vows are words that touched my heart.  I married my best friend.

Two years we have been married.  It's almost hard to believe that much time has passed, it feels like yesterday that I promised to love my husband forever.  He's easy to love.

Over the last 2 years, we married, sold my house, moved, my mom lost her mind along the way, my mother in law didn't like me, now she does, Savita had 16 teeth removed, she's feeling much better, we got two new kittens, I lost 50 pounds, my mom lost 90, my mom has more good days than not so good days, mom sleeps through the night and this weekend...

WE ARE FREE FROM CAREGIVING DUTIES!

God love my sister and her husband... they have taken my mom for 4 days.  FOUR days off from being a care giver.... wooo hooo!  The first thing on the plan was a lunch date to our favorite Mexican Restaurant where we had Margaritta's...  I slept for 12 hours; I can not handle alcohol.  Today I feel great.

I sent my mom off with a manual, "How to Take Care of Ma", listing instructions and warnings.  What to feed mom, what to avoid.  When to give her supplements, what to give her to keep her balanced and knowing the difference between day and night.

Well, my sister didn't read the instruction manual last night.  She totally forgot to give my mom the Ashwagandha, 8 drops in a shot glass that is 1/2 full of water.  My mom was up at 2, 3, 4, and 5.  Ashwagandha helps with insomnia.  Now,  we all know to never run out of Ashwagandha extract.

Today the birds are chirping, the sun is shining and we have the weekend to ourselves.   My mom, she'll see her family this weekend, her Maine family.  I'm really excited for her and all of them to get to spend some time with her.  Especially now that we've figured out how to give her more good days. 

My dream is coming true, my mom is happy and my family is having an opportunity to enjoy some time with Ma before her time on Earth runs out. 

Everything is possible when we believe!

Reiki, Hypnosis and Dementia... does it work?

For as long as I can remember, I've been curious about the mind and why people do the things that they do. I often asked the question to myself, "why are some people wealthy and others not so wealthy?"

My family, we were blue collar, not financially wealthy at all. However, my siblings and I all went to a private Catholic school. Our Aunt Jay helped pay for our education, she felt it was very important that we learned how to be good Catholics.

The school we attended is where all the rich kids went. All the State Senator's kids. Some were really nice and others were snots toward the kids who were not as well off as their families. I've actually formed some of my political views early on in my life based on who was a shit head and who wasn't.

We lived near the public library. My sister Ann taught me how to write my name when I was 3 so that I could get a library card. It's my earliest memory, writing my very long name all around the little 3 x 5 index card that would go into a big antique file cabinet. It was an exciting day. I don't remember the librarian's name now, it's been a very long time, but I remember her face. I remember her dark curly hair and big smile when I was able to write my long last name. Ahhhh, a library card... Yay! Now I needed a purse.

I was about 8 when I checked out a book, "How the Brain Works." I didn't understand it, but I tried. I wanted to understand how the brain worked, I was passionate about the brain. I wanted answers. I wanted to understand life better and why some kids sucked and others were awesome.

Fortunately for my mom, my obsession with the brain led me down alternative paths.

Years ago I told my mom that I wanted to find a Reiki Master to teach me Reiki. I had no idea where to look for a good one, someone who was good at attunements, someone who believed in the power of Chi... internal life force energy.

My mom lived with me in a house that I had bought 11 years ago, long before I knew my husband. There was a Senior Center around the corner that she used to visit.

One day she went to the Senior Center. I worked from home at the time. She came home from the Center about an hour later all excited. She yelled up the stairs where my office was and said, "Susie, come down here. I have to tell you about this lady named Ricky."

I had no idea what she was talking about. I came downstairs and saw her face. It was bright. Her cheeks were rosy. She began to tell me about Ricky and how she made her 3rd Eye open up, that she saw a light a bright light that was beautiful. She felt relaxed, totally relaxed.

My mom handed me the woman's card. She was a Reiki Master. I called Celia and set up an appointment where I could have her give me a Reiki session, my first one ever.

Celia did attune me to Reiki Master status. It was like being a fish in a huge ocean. The world appeared vast, I needed more. I love Reiki energy, God energy, Universal Love Energy... it's all the same regardless of what people call it. All I know is that when I give Reiki I get Reiki - the energy is freakin amazing.

My mom loved it when I was in training. I gave her Reiki. She'd later tell me that she would feel more than my hands on her, healing her. The Universal Forces flowed through me and my mom sucked it up.

Never happy to not learn something new, or improve on an old idea, I was given an opportunity to learn Clinical Hypnotherapy by Dr. Donald Schnell.

So many years after my initial fascination with the brain, I was finally provided a new road to travel to search for the answer to my childhood question. How does the brain work?

Hypnosis is amazing. What I've learned is that the human mind is extremely suggestible. People are mesmerized every day, every minute. Folks who say, "oh, I can't be hypnotized." My reply, "oh ya? Suggestions are being thrown your way constantly."

Next time you are out buying something, especially a food item, ask yourself why you are buying it? It's really crap and not food at all. It's designed to make you enroll in the prescription subscription plan. When you pay attention, you can spot the manipulation on TV, the key is to be aware.

The news media can get masses of people believing what they say. Repetition and the methods of delivery easily manipulate the minds of people. People become sheep, where their master becomes the mighty TV. It's all an illusion, a narcissistic ploy to use people against themselves.

The subconscious mind is extremely powerful. It's our greatest tool to achieve everything, even those things that are deemed "impossible" can be achieved using the power of the mind.

Does a combination of Reiki, Hypnosis, Nutrition and Exercise help to alleviate the frustration and fright for people with Dementia?

I believe it does. I've only been using all 4 of these techniques with my mom for a few days. I do know that the one night I skipped her Reiki and Hypnosis session as she was drifting off to sleep, it was a rough night of hallucinations and sleep walking for her.

I'm learning that the human touch is very important for folks like my mom. She responds well. The suggestions that I make are comforting. I listen to what she says during the day. I listen for things that are bothering her. At night, I make suggestions to put her mind at ease, to take away the fear so that it doesn't cause her to freak in the middle of the night.

Today, I had a bright idea. I thought I'd have my mom take a nice warm bath with bath salts. I turned her bathroom into a mini-spa. She loved the soak in the tub. She smiled and told me that she could get used to it... that I was spoiling her.

Not sure we'll do a bath again anytime soon. Getting her out was tough. Especially with my mom laughing so hard that she didn't have the strength to grab onto the bars. She told me, "you better get help." I said, "no one here to help." That's when I lifted her out of the tub, with her laughing like a hyena.

Mid-Day Update on Good Ole' Mom

This morning my mom complained of eye pain. We put drops in that the ND had given to her to dissolve the cataract. She had me put a patch over it and she left it shut for a few hours. When she removed the patch and opened her eyes, she could see more clearly. It appears that the cataract must have dissolved,

My mom can now read the TV remote control! I don't have to run down and change the channel for her all day. It's exciting, especially for my mom.

Our ND had prescribed CogniFactor, a natural treatment with N-Acetyline L-Carnitine. This is supposed to be great for cognition.

So far so good. My mom is more clear. She isn't back completely, she still can't phathom that it's Sue (me) taking care of her. My mom always believed that Donna would be her caregiver.

It's great to see her smiling and laughing at TV. She's enjoying her recorded TV shows, "Dancing with the Stars" is her favorite.

I keep checking on her. I suppose I can't believe the change with the help of Ashwaghanda and CogniFactor.

I sat and talked with her. I told her when her next doctor appoints will be. I told her about the upcoming MRI. She looked at me and said, "Oh, I hate that test." I said, "Really? How do you know?" She said, "I had one. I have the xray film."

My mom jumped up and found the film. I am still stunned that she found the film, let alone remember she had the test done. It was done in February 2002. To my surprise, we have baseline MRI pictures of her brain! The doctors will be able to compare the results. Totally awesome.

Mom's doing better as each minute passes and we're both paralyzed with awe.

Ashwaghanda - could this be the solution for my mom's dementia?

Yesterday was a rough one for me, mostly because I was extremely tired. All day I thought how nice it would be to take an uninterupted nap. My mom had the same thoughts, only she was sleeping as she sat up, her eyes would not stay open.

Knowing from past experience that if I let my mom sleep during the day, she's up all night. Folks with dementia can easily get their days and nights mixed up. I've seen this happen with my mom more times than I care to remember.

I was deeply concerned about my mom yesterday. I wasn't sure what to do next, especially when the homeopathic remedy, Helleborus Niger 30 c, stopped giving her relief from her mental confusion. Nothing was working.

The thought of my mom losing her mind and eventually ending up in a nursing home facility totally bummed me out. I cried. I thought of Uncle Al. I thought of myself and how I was becoming too tired to care for anyone... that I need a break, just one week away from explaining that there are no people, midgets, floating heads, wild animals and dogs in the yard. My mom's insanity was beginning to make me crazy, through my mom's suggestions I started to see things out of the corner of my eyes.

Being Sue, I would not give in to these negative thoughts of despair. I dug deep down inside my soul and found the strength to pull myself up so that I could find another possible solution. I had learned at a very young age that as long as I keep at it, eventually I'll find success, even if there is currently no apparent solution.

I am on a mission to find a solution to help keep my mom living with me and able to visit her children. She deserves to enjoy her family.

Who knows if I'm setting myself up for a disappointment, I don't care. My mom was there for me when I was a kid, now it's my responsiblity to be there for her as she drifts backward into her 2nd childhood.

I have hope. Hope gives me the will to push forward. Here we go!

Yesterday I posted that I found a Ayurevedic herb, Ashwaghanda. Like Fenugreek it seems to do everything. I've read that in Indian Medicine, Ashwaghanda is a "general tonic" for all that ails you. It doesn't have any side effects, only if you have thyroid trouble (should not take it if you have thyroid issues.)

In India it is given to seniors to help them with senility and dementia. It is also good for helping one to sleep and have a sense of well-being. All things that my mom needed badly.

I've been reading about Ashwaghanda this morning while I wait for everyone to wake up. My mom is still out like a light. I checked to make sure she was breathing and she started a gentle little snore. Yay!

Ashwaghanda is used for:

1. Anxiety, depression, panic disorders
2. Antioxidant, free radical scavenger
3. Body building aide
4. Weakness, fatigue, herbal rejuvenation, aphrodisiac
5. Nervine tonic, calming and antistress agent and adaptogenic herb

I'm pretty excited this morning because I believe Ashwaghanda can help my mom.

Here's a website, The Holistic-Herbalist, that talks a bit about the incredible benefits of this amazing herb, Ashwaghanda.