She has to pick up some heavy duty medication tomorrow and when she read out the side effects of the drugs to me I said it would be better to have the symptoms rather than the cure :-) I am not big on taking medication but I know that it has its place combined with nutrition and also prayer that I AM big on and before I forget ... thank you to everyone who prayed for my friend Barb after her hubby's accident as he is improving and a discharge date doesn't look all that far away. Also my friend's grandson who was so gravely ill in intensive care is now home and is recuperating in familiar surroundings. So a big thank you to you all!
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| Belladonna Pink Lady |
Back to the Grave's Disease issue....I am keen to learn what foods are best to eat with this illness and there is a lot of of information online but if anyone has had experience of dealing with this I would appreciate some input as I want to her as much as I can and she doesn't cook much. Thanks.
Anyway, after a bad news week and the second heatwave in as many weeks something cheered me up no end this morning. I was in the front garden looking under the plants for an egg which one of the chooks laid there and I saw a Blue Banded Bee. I never even knew these existed until I read about them on Meg's A Hopeful Nature. I actually had my camera with me and tried to take a photo.
However, these bees don't stop on any flower for very long and it was impossible to get a photo and the only other solitary bee I saw was just this one which I presume is a European honey bee. It wasn't half as pretty as the Blue Banded Bee. If you click on the link and are a photography expert please tell me how those photos were taken.
Obviously I need to get out more as seeing that bee made my day. I mentioned in my last post that we have rosellas growing so I checked them out this morning as Jane mentioned that the dried flowers made a nice tea and to be honest, I had never seen a rosella flower. So I was very surprised to come across one this morning and they are very pretty.
They are a soft pink and white and the petals look very delicate.....
....which remind me of a....
...ballerina's tutu. Absolutely beautiful.
Oh, before I go .... if my Northern Hemisphere readers would like to be frightened out of their wits take a look at the visitor Selina had the other night. Now if you are planning a visit to Australia in the near future do keep in mind that this isn't a frequent visitor in the majority of homes here. Mind you, if I found one in my house I would leave home quick smart :-)
Have a lovely weekend!
Bless your sister. I do not have Graves Disease but have had a long battle with things that are similar and I have been told nothing is wrong for years and then finally one doctor seem to be helping me then when I was sent to a specialist that door shut. I can say having an autoimmune disorder is a struggle and especially when you don't have answers. Praise the Lord she finally does. Yes...unfortunately the medications can have more side effects than what you already deal with then usually those side effects lead to more issues and then more medicine. It is like a cycle. You are right it has its place though. Plus, nutrition and prayer.
ReplyDeleteChrissy I hope your condition improves as you are so young whereas my sister is nearly 80 so it is not surprising when one's health deteriorates a bit at that age.
DeleteThat is a tough one. Getting our heads around sickness and mortality is a life-long process.
ReplyDeleteYou're not wrong, Mr.HM.
DeleteYour rosellas are more advanced than mine but i just keep some seeds each year throw them on the garden at the beginning of summer and a few plants come up.It makes my day as well when I see bees in my garden.
ReplyDeleteWell growing rosellas is a whole new learning curve for me and I must say they are a very interesting fruit. I wonder if the local pests will get stuck into them.
DeleteSo sorry to read of your sister's diagnosis and also that for a long time she was fobbed off with the 'nothing is wrong' argument. Love those flower photos you posted and I'd never heard of that variety of bee before...so I've learned something! Rosella flowers are lovely...so delicate. The rosella is related to hibiscus...I think it's a firm of hibiscus from Africa...I think! 🤔
ReplyDeleteI didn't realise the rosella is related to hibiscus so I have also learned something new today. Thanks Maria.
DeleteHi, Nanna Chel. I know two people who have thyroid-related diseases and both watch their diets very closely now in addition to taking medication. Perhaps, that's a place to start??
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad that you found a native Blue-banded Bee in your garden. Aren't their blue stripes so beautiful! I find they love visiting the salvias in my garden. Your rosella flower photos are lovely too. Such delicate flowers! Meg:)
Thanks for that info, Meg. I am going to remind my sister to ask the doctor to print out what foods she needs to eat and what she should avoid. Yes the bee is beautiful but it moved too fast for me to get a photo :-)
DeleteSorry to hear about your father in law. Shame it took so long for your sister to be diagnosed. It is good to finally know what is ailing one though, even if the cure is awful, as at least you have confirmation that you are still sane and not imagining things like everyone else seems to think. I can't assist with the bee photos except to take the photo on macro, and maybe if you have a camera stand to place it near their favourite flowers, as I find my hands aren't quite as steady as they used to be when holding the camera on weird angles. Lol, I've always had weak wrists.
ReplyDeleteThanks Robyn. Regarding the photo I did have the camera on the macro setting but the bee moved too fast. I haven't seen it before and if I knew these type of bees were on certain flowers I would keep an eye out for them but unfortunately most of the flowers have suffered badly in the heat so there aren't as many around as there usually are.
DeleteMy deepest sympathy to you & your family on the loss of your father in law.
ReplyDeleteThanks Karen. Long time no see :-)
DeleteMy condolences on the passing of your father in law, and a few prayers for you and your sister too. Take care, Guida.
ReplyDeleteThanks Guida. I hope to see you at some of our workshops this year.
DeleteA long life lived, but the passing is still hard to bear Chel. Warm wishes to you and your family. We are also skeptical of medications, after a few bad experiences with the medical field. Now we research, thanks to Google and our wonderful Naturopath, and generally find that supplements and diet can fix most ailments. Both of us refuse to capitulate to illnesses and pharmaceuticals just because we're getting older. State of mind, eg prayer, or intention, are very powerful healers too.
ReplyDeleteYes Sally, I am not a fan of medication neither is my sister.
DeleteSo sorry for your loss Nana Chel
ReplyDeleteThank you Jane.
Deletesorry for your loss & bad news week too, hope next week is a lot better for you.
ReplyDeletevery pretty flowers the rosellas
LOL nannachel! yes only out in the country (most of the time)
thanx for sharing
Selina after I saw your snake photo I saw an article online about an Eastern brown in a bath at Forest Hill. Yikes!
DeleteIt does seem that when it rains it pours when it comes to difficulties. Sorry to hear of your loss. Glad your sister got a diagnosis finally. It is frustrating to be ill and no one tell you what it is. Love the flowers! Have to admit that if I saw that snake in my shower everyone would just have to live with my odor for a few days!!
ReplyDeleteKathy if I saw a snake in my bath I would leave home :-)
DeleteI've been coming to terms with mortality lately too. Although under different circumstances. We have to accept it on a personal level, before we can make any sense of it, at all. I'm really glad there are further improvements with Barb's husband. A better conclusion (date of release) could not be found! As someone who has lived with an auto immune disease for 27 years though, I would encourage your sister, to search outside the specialists in her condition, for her answers.
ReplyDeleteTake their advice as far as medication is concerned, but I have found the medical fields which complement auto-immune disorders, don't get given enough attention. What I have found with auto-immune disease, to improve your innings long term, is reducing the amount of medication, directly though diet. I started with a Primal diet, which you will find most dietitians will baulk at, unless they have personal experience doing it themselves.
Primal focuses on meat, dairy, nuts, fats, a little fruit and vegetables, as the largest proportion. It removes cereal, grains and legumes from the diet. The reason this works for someone with an autoimmune disease is, most cereals, grains and legumes are grown with chemicals - if not outright mutated thanks to gene splicing.
It's the residual chemicals which interfere with an already compromised immune system. We feel it more acutely. Likewise, if increasing the amounts of meat consumed, try to source meat separate to the feed-lot supply line too. Because they fed products, ruminants can't absorb either. Those biological mutations, are felt in a compromised immune system - which leads to greater hormonal imbalances in the body. Lastly, reducing the amount of sugar and carbs eaten, overall, helps too. Because once digested, they create irregular spikes and then lag for excessive amounts of time in the system. Which is something a compromised immune system, won't benefit from. It requires foods that will stabilise the system to function better.
Here's a relevant article, with some information you might find helpful: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/hyperthyroidism-wim-hof-and-placebo/
A gluten free diet, seems to be a good start. I find Mark's website really helpful in understanding how foods effect the body. So read through the rest of the site, or search "Graves disease) in his search bar. He's not the be-all and end-all, but he often writes the right things, which you can then do more research on. All the best, with your sister's new life. If I've lived for 27 years, and had a pretty good life, then so can your sister too. I don't have Graves, but all autoimmune disease, share a common denominator. We're happier when we figure out how to stabalise the spikes, which force us to take larger amounts of medications. It's possible. At my age, I should be on at least double my mediation and double my weight. But I keep it down, through diet, exercise and trying to create a means to cope without too much stress in my life.
Thanks for that info Chris. I will pass it on. Apparently the specialist is wondering why an auto immune disease would start up now as she is nearly 80.
DeleteShe's probably had it for a while, and it's only just been picked up. I had my condition for a couple of years, before the symptoms got bad enough to have investigated medically. A lot of people live with gluten intolerance for years too, before having it diagnosed. We tend to normalise illness, as part of ageing, or in the case of adolescence - puberty, before it gets serious enough to test other causes.
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