Sea Tangle (A Paleo Product Video Review)

So I had my friends down the hall try this. One loved it!! The other liked the flavor but couldn't get over the texture.

College and Chronic Pain

Ya I don't know about that title either. It sounds like it's going to be fun right *sarcasm*.

Anyways, I know what I want to achieve by the end of four or five years at college, and I know it isn't going to be easy.

That being said, I have a wonderful support system.

Anyways. Today I move into my dorm room! I don't know who my room mate is. My mum was in the ER last night, she's okay now, and so she won't be helping as much as she wants. Honestly, I don't want her to worry about me, somehow I will manage.

I entered the allergen filters in the menu for dinner tomorrow on campus. The two options I have are lemon wedges and tartar sauce. One problem with that is tartar sauce has dairy in it. The other is HOLY CRAP LEMON WEDGES. Really.

I talked to the nutritionist on campus and gave her my doctors letter confirming my allergens. She really didn't understand my condition and so I sent her another email today. Because guys, I don't think a girl can live off of Lemon wedges.

I'll keep you guys informed of my progress.

SURGERY NEWS:

All went well. It took about a full month for my eyes get rid of the blood. So I looked really scary. I even scared a child. Right now I am dealing with a lot of headaches and eye nausea. Eye nausea? That is right sometimes I just feel really sick in the eyes. I think the reattaching of muscles is going to take a while for my brain to get used to. So until then I have my faithful new bestie Tylenol. Which is really hard to find lately. There must have been a bad batch. MY old fav advil wasn't working, so I was told to switch and now I don't want to go back.

Have a lovely day and as always HAPPY READING!!

Eye Surgery.... Again.

With my insatiable reading habit you wouldn't know that is a miracle that I can actually see today. I was born with a congenital contact in my right eye. at six weeks I had my lens taken out. Not long after I had another eye surgery to help even out my eye muscles.

I've worn glasses all my life. Frankly I will wear them for the rest of my life. I only have one 'good' eye and the glasses are a sort of protection against anything that might potentially harm it. For many years I wore a contact in my right eye at the same to act as a temporary lens. I have a whole collection of glasses of all shapes, sizes and colors.

My mum likes telling the story about how I ruined my first pair. I was very young maybe one or two and she told me to be careful with them. I hated them. So when she wasn't looking I took them off and rubbed them against the fire place bricks. I was delightful child don't you think? Anyways I was forever the weirdo at school because I have a bifocal in one lens. "Are your glasses cracked?" people would constantly ask, and my five year old self would say no and walk away.

In fifth grade I had a lens implant surgically put in. I remember growing up and every 4 months I would drive across the state with my mum to the university of Michigan's pediatric eye clinic in the Kellogg eye center. My parents took turns taking me and I got to have daddy and mum time all alone in the car.
Anyways the summer going into my sophomore year I had my eyes straightened again. I remember it being incredibly painful and disorienting. I couldn't see anything and my balance was off. Now I'm going into my freshman year of College and have been plagued with eye pain for years. People have been making fun of and commenting at how weird my eyes are, because I can't control their movement.

So I am going under the knife again. As being one of the first ever babies to have these surgeries done on my eyes, I should be a pro at this. I know what is going to happen. I'm not scared of needles. I'm scared because my sweet old man of a doctor who has known me longer than I have known myself is puzzled at my case. In his words," I've only had to perform under five of these in my whole medical career. It's strange why your eyes are behaving this way."

 WHAT THE HELL. Don't tell me that. Act like the sweet old man you are and pat my hand and say everything will be okay. I need that okay. I really do. Literally I have to be up in under three hours but I probably won't sleep. I don't sleep anymore.

Waking up at 4am and driving three hours to get to Mott Children's Hospital is not my idea of a fine summers day. Even though I didn't ask for this, I'll try to be strong through it.

That's not to say I won't freak out inside a wee bit.

 If you want to follow my progress tomorrow. I am giving my mum my phone so she can tweet pics and any news from my twitter account @MoonlightReview.

Have a lovely day. Catch a ray of sun or two for me.

Whole Foods Farmacy, my first step to overcoming the impossible!

I am no quack. I only believe in natural methods, because they really work. After trying countless doctors, I turned to new methods of healing.

I learned that a person has the power to feel better, only if they are willing to take drastic steps. To me they weren't drastic though. I was desperate for relief.

I turned to the Whole Foods Farmacy. They provide easy nutrient dense foods. I just realized that sounds really unappealing......  But really you get over it. I swear! I ate this stuff strictly for a month.

The phi plus is kind of a granola like food that I would roll in little balls and pack for lunch. It's the main food you should eat, everything else is snacks. You don't need much to fill you up. The food expands to three times it's size in your stomach. Really listening to your body to tell if your full, is a key lesson when you start.


The whole approach of this company is that for the past centuries we have been trying to fix our illnesses by adding more garbage into our systems and that really isn't healthy.

Quote from website:

"Let food be thy medicine and

let medicine be thy food"Hippocrates, the Father of  Medicine (460-377  B.C.)

I know as American's many people do not eat the correct foods at all. Some of us though do try, but I've learned those attempts aren't enough if you really want to transform yourself. While this was just the first step I took to the new me, it was a very important one. 

It was difficult to do this while in high school. Many people made fun of my food, and judged me because of it. At restaurants, I was frowned at for never ordering food, and couldn't take out the food I brought along. Friends were weary to hang out. 

DETOX WAS A BITCH. I'm not going to sugar coat it. It was like I had the freaking flu and my headache was like a sledgehammer to the brain. Day three I almost died but by day five things get better. I guess what I m trying to say is that if you do this hold on!! 

I also did a green smoothie approach alongside of this and added the Whole foods Farmacy smoothie powders in. I drank them for breakfast and was full until noon. Those smoothies, are amazing. The enzymes from the crushed greens helped my digestive system and the added nutrients from the pharmacy calmed my burning nerves. I had shooting pain and numbness down my arms and into my hands. After just seven days that was almost completely gone. I also had much better energy and could wake up easier. 

After about three weeks of this I started adding foods that I could possibly be allergic to into my diet. This was during thanksgiving mind you and I still held strong. I chose sugar. Immediately my headaches and nerve issues came back. After eating just one thing and feeling like I was going to go into a coma. I quit again. 

Why would I want to eat things that make me feel bad? 

Then I added Dairy. Mind you Dairy and lactose allergies are different. I'll explain that later. I noticed that my brain became more foggy and I was sluggish and felt nauseous. So I decided not to ever put it in my body again. 

The biggest revelation came was the gluten. I ate it and felt like I was going to die. Headaches, nausea, stomach pain, nerve issues. Just to name a few. 

SO I don't eat those things EVER! Am I ever tempted to cheat, sort of. But then I think of how I will feel and sober up. 

While I am currently full time 100% paleo, THIS still was one of the best things I have ever done. 

Guys, I did this over thanksgiving and Christmas. Not once was I tempted by what the others were eating. sure I got strange looks. But I started not giving a damn. I feel better this way. And no one can pressure, or make you feel bad for what you eat. Just because society has decided that the foods that are normal to eat hurt and cripple the body, doesn't mean you have to eat them. 

OH!! 

I AM NOT A SPOKESPERSON FOR THIS COMPANY. I consulted no one but the voices in my head when I wrote this post. You know the ones that play out the dialogue for novels I want to write. Yup those are the ones! 

To learn more about The Whole Foods Farmacy check them out HERE!! 

If you want to try this, but don't know where to start or just have further questions. Email, tweet or comment below. I'll be happy to help you on your healing journey in any way possible. 

My email: moonlightbookreviews @ gmail DOT com

Twitter: @MoonlightReview

NAMASTE! 

How do I do everything?

This is such a huge question to tackle but I thought maybe this post could be a two parter. I don't know we shall see what pans out!

Anyways I am a recent High School graduate and while I am looking forward to the fall, I can't help but think of what my life looked like last fall. I am a busy person. Not only do I tackle a lot of projects, I expect nothing better than perfection out of myself in most of them. Which is fine, but a daunting task.

Last school year my life looked like this:

6:00am Wake up
6:15am Roll out of bed. Takes a little bit to really wake up.
6:45am Dressed and eating breakfast.
7:10am Drive to school.

Along with all of my classes I was taking I also had PE. Which was a pain in my rear. It's not that I couldn't keep up, because I could. I enjoyed it to an extent. You'll see.

2:38pm Classes end and I headed home.
3:00pm Stretched out on the couch and would fall asleep

8:00pm YES THAT TIME IS RIGHT! Would wake up and eat cold dinner. Then do my homework, if I had a blog post to write I would do that as well. Then I would take a shower.
10pm Was in bed and fell asleep before 10:30pm

Then I would wake up and do it all over again. I woke up even earlier at least once a week for early meetings. Other times I had yoga or other commitments like band practice in the afternoons.

I didn't socialize, because I was just so physically drained. I focused most of times trying to sit impositions that didn't hurt or trying not to look as if all my energy was focused on pain management.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrom and Fibromyalgia had taken control of my life.

Anyways, I haven't had such a day like those since I completely changed the foods I eat. That's not to say I wasn't eating crap before. There are just different methods that I now follow.

So ya, I'm worried about my future, because I don't want to go back to no life again. Sometimes I would sleep so long when I got home on the couch, that my dad would go to bed and I wouldn't have seen him ALL DAY! It's weird thinking about that because he ate dinner, watched TV and talked to my mum in the same room while I slept.

I just realized this really isn't an answer in how I do everything. It's kind of a history of how I used to do things. BUGGER!!

I'll have to save that for another day!

Vulnerability

So I held off on writing anything for a long time. I told myself it was because I had a lot on my plate with my other blog. But in reality I just came to realize, this blog makes me feel vulnerable, and cut open. I don't talk about how I really feel ever. Except for with one person, Meribeth Leniger. She has been m saving grace and sent me on my healing path. I don't open to people fully, because in my experience the following happens:

1. They don't care.
2. They don't fully comprehend the magnitude of what I am saying. 
3. They tell me I need to relax and take deep breaths (SHUT THE FRICK UP TO THOSE PEOPLE). Deep breaths isn't going to manage my pain, vicodin is so let's face the facts here, you need to listen better. 
4. They pity me and don't treat me as an equal. 

It's hard, to open up when everyone you talk to is constantly telling you what you are feeling isn't real. It isn't just doctors and nurses I am talking about, it's close friends. I've set up barriers around myself pushing out those that were once close to me, the past few years. I'm sick of being hurt. I guess that is unhealthy, but it's the truth. 

To this day, my current close friends and even parents, don't know the magnitude of my pain and symptoms. I mean yes I tell them, but it started upsetting my mother so I stopped. I don't want to know that you feel sorry for me, I just want answers. Because the life I was living was no life I would wish on anyone. That is so very depressing. But I promised myself I wouldn't censor anything I said on this blog.

Fortunately as of late, I've found a community online who understand the debilitating systems I go through. I realized I don't have to go through this alone. Others are there who are willing to listen and lend a hand. 

If someone confides in you about their chronic illness say something along the lines of: Let me know if I can do anything to help. It will save you and them a lot of heart ache. 

1 to 7% of children suffer with this condition. If I would have been diagnosed when I was eight I could have been saved countless doctors visits, tests and medicine trials. Admittedly there isn't much education in the medical community about this condition. Combine that with some of the other issues I face and it is the perfect storm. 

Learn more about childhood and juvenile fibromyalgia HERE! 

Join my mailing list to follow my crusade to fight through my vulnerability and be honest and real. 

What the heck is this blog?

So while I am not new to blogging, I am new to this type of blogging.

If you don't know I run Moonlight Book Reviews and it is turning two years old in April! This blog is not meant to replace that one at all. Actually this is kinda meant to help me understand what i am going through.

There is a huge community out there for people living with Chronic Illnesses and I have dipped my toes into it on twitter leaning all about the spoonie nation!!

Why now? Well I was doing really well managing my symptoms and making huge lifestyle changes. BUT my body has decided that I can't live pain free and be happy being me anymore. I don't have anyone my age to talk to about this and I desperately need that, I think now.

So this blog is going to have so much random things on it. One day you might find a product review for a new herbal medicine, the next you may find a post about my day. Anything that has to do with me managing my symptoms will be on this blog.

I was recently offered the opportunity to write a memoir for teens about growing up and managing chronic illnesses and I have accepted it. So you may find writing posts here too.

Have a lovely day,

Erika