The Bone Building Experiment

I began taking the bone strengthening drug, Fosamax, about 10 years ago. Two months later, it was stopped... Pain that had been absent in my life prior to taking this new pill, was now a constant reminder of this drug's brief introduction into my life.  Its painful effects would linger for nearly a year and be a near crippling reminder that I had made a mistake.

Walking up/down stairs was now near impossible. Moving my arms and legs in concerted fashion was a painful exercise and at times almost impossible to do. The effort required to move my whole body was more than anything I had ever experienced previously. What had changed in the past two months, I wondered? ...  The only thing that was new in my life was this drug.   (Strangely, walking alleviated the discomfort that was my constant companion)

Our son, now an adult with an honours health degree, (School’s Over, Summer’s  Here –June 2012) offered simple  advice to help me restore my body to its  previous lustre. (ha ha) ...  His directive: to eat even more simply and walk - gave me pause.  I took him to heart. Easy, common sense guidelines for a return to health seemed to be too good to be true. (Other traditional remedies had failed). ...  It is odd how the answers to perplexing health problems can, sometimes, be solved with a walk, a simple diet, and a drink of water. My son suggested a well known natural joint support, MSM. It was added to my diet and a year later I felt better than I had before this event had taken place.   It seemed prudent not to muddy the waters of health by introducing my body to yet another layer of drugs: prescription painkillers, stronger versions of the over the counter type to address this ongoing pain. ... (Masking  pain did little to find the source of it)

Drugs we are familiar with and drugs, new on the pharmaceutical scene, have efficacy histories unknown to many of us, doctor or patient. We trust the research until a drug’s safety is questioned and we are left in harm’s way. ...  We must learn to educate ourselves in basic fundamentals to find ‘natural’ ways to heal ourselves. ...  Doctors are not magicians.  Drugs are not always a panacea to what ails us. Later, I would learn, the side effects of both drugs: the bone strengthener and the painkiller, would be called into question on a large scale.

One day, as I was cleaning the dog pen of its daily debris, one of the many ongoing duties of pet ownership, I was reminded how fortunate I was to be doing this chore. Many might regard this act of cleaning as beneath them, a terrible job that has to be done. This ‘stoop and scoop’ duty was a comforting reminder to me of our dogs’ daily health and my ability to still be able to walk and bend to retrieve these by-products of animal digestion. I was outside, breathing fresh air, cleaning the ground on which I walked and on which our dogs played. It humbled me to know how fortunate I was that I had not been permanently disabled  or worse by a drug that was supposed to help me regain/strengthen precious bone mass.  My trust in drugs was shaken.  Then our son declared boldly that this problem would go away, someday, with the simple truths described above.. One year later, it did. His confidence in me restored my confidence in myself in healing my body. ... Kids do make you smarter!!   (Kids Make Us Smarter-4/2013)

Coming soon:-  The Special Ed. classroom, a design perspective                        

Kids Make Us Smarter

Kids make us smarter. From the time they enter our lives, they are an ever changing organism, a constant loving presence in our lives, evolving in a complex world.     Each new generation teaches   the current one-us, called parents, the new reality, the updated version of where we began as children- decades earlier.  

With every action in life, there is an equal and opposite reaction, similar to the law in physics. And so, we respond accordingly- to our children - in a reactive or proactive approach as they interact with us, each other and the world around them.  We are their guardians and we learn from them as they, learn from us.  We study our child, to understand who he is and where he is going, each one bringing a different set of characteristics and interests to the parenting table.   Our plastic brain is energized once again. ... New scientists have entered our lives. ...   New adventures await....  It is our job to be vigilant of the circumstances that surround them and guide them.   It is our right and responsibility to govern/control their world, the environment in which they live, work and play.  It is their right and responsibility, however, to govern their responses within it, in a mature and thoughtful manner, every step of the way.  ...  We are here simply to catch them.  

A formidable time period is looming on the horizon: adulthood disguised as the teen years. ...   (For us, it occurred within a time span of four years when our three sons entered this most chaotic, unpredictable period of life).  ...   As mentioned in (When Worlds Collide2012), boundaries were in place, reminders of  the choices that had to be made, daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. They are the maps that help determine the costs of each choice or decision made along the way to adulthood and beyond. Dismissing these cues or the parameters of life comes with consequences, some of which can be life altering. ..  As parents we are positioned to assist our children with these future life decisions, such as: post secondary education, career options, to name a few. There is no doubt that these 'fences' form the foundation upon which children 'build' their lives, find direction and form close bonds with others. We watch. We guide. Sometimes, we simply listen and respond with insights that may or may not have been thought about previously. 

Answering a child’s questions with the timeless parental response, ‘because I said so’ does little to solve a problem or dilemma. No purpose is served. The comment only serves to confuse and belittle our child. Today’s children are not easily  manipulated  by rhetoric and our attempts to steer them in a certain direction. Sometimes, their understanding of the world around us is greater than our understanding of it. They know. We follow.    

Today’s teens have the internet, as friend or foe, to address all of their queries or questions. Of course, the internet isn’t always truthful and mom and dad are not necessarily a requirement for knowledge anymore.  As our children reach this new stage in their development, a period of volatility or unease may arise. As parents, we do our best to advise or guide them. We know them best. But we must not be fearful.  We have had the best teachers in the world- our children- to help us understand this new world and their place within it. 

 Coming soon: The Bone Building Experiment 
                           The Special Ed. classroom, a design perspective, according to The Momsey

 

 

On Being Awake

It was late one evening.  I sat up on the sofa, thought for a moment, then remarked to my husband how tired I was. It had been a very early day for me and more physical than usual. Considering my advanced stage of decomposition, (ha, ha) I was doing just fine, however. The dancing, the dishes,  the reading, the research, romping with my easily distractible retriever , attending to the firewood that heated our home and home schooling our kitty cat were simply ‘in the line of duty’ chores.  And that was just the easy part.

Laughing erupted as I critiqued myself, wondering   if I’d be  awake in my 70’s and if a ‘mirror test’ would be necessary in my 80’s, just to be sure!  We laughed spiritedly for a few minutes, then continued on our merry way: he to bed and I, to watch The Tenors, a Canadian foursome of singing virtuosos, on a PBS special. ...  It was a refreshing way to end the day and to banish stress, a culprit at the root of the many ills that plague us all. ...  Laughing and music are truly an unbeatable combination for physical and mental health! ...    (Complete silence, also, has its merits.)

The Tenors’ singing artistry was hypnotizing. As the cameras panned the audience, each and every person was smiling, too, just as I was. How could we not?  There is nothing more calming, energizing or exhilarating than listening to incredible musical talent regardless of what it is or where it originates. It can ignite what lies deep inside each one of us... Humour, also, has the same effect on the human body as it enhances it, physiologically, physically and emotionally. This dynamic duo, born of incredible genius, can help bridge the gap between generations, heal saddened hearts and lift spirits.

Humour can uproot us from a dark place and, as research has shown many times,  the resultant laughter can produce many health benefits such as lowering  blood pressure, lessening the stress in our lives and in some instances, giving us a much needed physical workout that expends calories, the ‘companions’ of our daily diet.

As a person of ‘experience’, I am  reminded  daily that the simple things in life are truly the best and most gratifying.....  It is wonderful to know that humour and music are so closely connected to health and readily available to each of us with a flick of a switch or button from the electronic world in which we live. ..  The synchronized  health dance of music and humour are unbeatable.. I am continually energized and comforted by the comedy of John Pinnette, the late Bob Hope and Johnny Carson, to name a few. In music, I am enthralled and gratified by the musical genius of Glen Miller, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Kelly Clarkson, Pink, Jon Bon Jovi, and Michael Buble to name a few and to whom I owe some of my mental health. ...   I am inspired and made whole again.

When we act young, our brain acts accordingly, too. This ‘youth quotient’ lies hidden, deep within each one of us, a reminder that we have a choice.  It serves to tell the brain what the rest of the body needs to know..  ... Though our chronological age or ’birth date’ will always serve to remind us when we were born, when we came to be, this ‘aging thermometer’ does not define us.  That is our call. The ‘it hurts’ mentality can grip us, understandably, as we ‘age’ but other  noteworthy influences, as described above, can help to distract us, help us forget that the number of years we  have been around is now greater. ....  I am humbled that I am able to stay up past midnight. It would seem prudent, however, not to do it too often, as we sit on the sofa laughing at ourselves because life can be so funny at times.

 

A Baby Built By Whole Grains, An unforseeable Truth

My first pregnancy was a period of unimaginable stress.  I worried daily about its viability. Though I had read about women who had sailed through their pregnancies, glowing every step of the way, I was not one of them. ... I struggled each and every day, desperately, trying to hold onto the little food I was able to eat to keep the baby, growing inside of me, alive! ....  I knew then that that my life was entering into a new phase, more dramatic and life altering than I could ever have imagined. (Giving Birth to a Preemie-2012)

Morning sickness was given new status. ...   It was now an every day, every moment event, with no weekends off!  Did my body have a hidden agenda?  I worried and wondered if it would ever return to normalcy, once I gave birth.  Could I ‘deliver the goods?’   Cravings for certain foods became the new order. ... One day, it was a bag of oranges; another day, a bag of spinach for lunch. Somehow eggs were O.K ... Beef was a no-no like most other meats. ...  (I loved salads anyway.) ...Even looking at pictures of food, especially beef, would stir my senses. ... The sight and aroma of the deli counter, in the grocery store, would now trigger a torrent of unpleasant feelings, making shopping at the supermarket a forbidden destination...  I lived on whole grain cereals, fruits and vegetables- our baby’s link to health, wellness and ultimately, survival. ...   Red River cereal, kasha, cornmeal and oatmeal were prepared in a non-stop daily cooking frenzy, with water added, sometimes milk, for the gruel that would sustain us both. ..(My daily strategy was always to cook more than required so as to ‘restore’ the ‘loss’ soon afterwards before losing all again!..)

From the beginning, 'morning' sickness was an unrelenting tide, a day long assault upon me and the baby I carried. Being proactive was the key. When an ‘episode‘ ended, I would wait a few minutes then eat again. There was always a brief moment when my body seemed to take a break and accepted food for a brief time. I would remain calm and motionless, hoping to outsmart my body in its mission to relieve me of the food my fetus so desperately needed to survive. As time passed, though, things simply got worse. (My husband suffered along with me as we could no longer have meals together and I could no longer cook) 

It was 1978/79 and not much was available then to address the problem of unrelenting morning sickness. My doctor prescribed a drug called, Bendictin.  I worried about the side effects of this unknown drug.  I was in the infancy of my education on drugs, clinical trials, drug efficacy and giving birth. Did the scientific community know enough about this wonder drug? When a story about Bendictin appeared in a major newspaper soon after I started taking it, I was shaken to my core. The pregnancy in that case had not ended well and the child was born physically compromised. ... I stopped taking the drug for one day, hoping, I could live without it. But things simply got worse. I could barely move. My body seemed to rebel against ‘us’ as it tried violently to expel anything I attempted to eat. The drug was resumed once again. Sleep seemed to be my greatest ally.  In a relaxed state, the ‘intruder’ would simply leave 'us' alone to rest.  

An erratic diet of grains and fruit saved my first pregnancy. Our baby’s exposure to Bendictin ended the day he was born - 3 months early. A story had been told about the power of simple foods and positive thinking. In spite of losing significant volumes of food while pregnant, and initially losing weight, I delivered a baby born of ‘strength’ whose 'healthy' three month premature birth weight of 3 pounds two ounces helped him overcome RDS and send him home one month ahead of his original due date. Our son developed into a strong, healthy human being. I thank simple grains for that. 
(Caring for a Preemie 08/2012)