Gentle Reader, Climbing up a long snowy track on cross country skis yesterday, my companions and I talked about little miracles, ‘woo-woo’ magic, the unexplained healing that sometimes occurs. The husband of one friend has suffered from arthritis in both ankles for about 5 years, so bad that he could barely walk. He is in his late 50’s. The friend […]
Where’s the Nyquil?
Gentle Readers, From the couch, handkerchiefs everywhere, head propped up I write to tell you the story of a person who used to get every cold bug that came along. In the old days, I grabbed the Coricidin and then the Nyquil P.M. and then went whimpering to my doctor. He gladly swabbed my throat and pronounced strep or bronchitis […]
Help! Gotta have chocolate now!
Gentle reader, How are you doing with those plans to take a few inches off? Are you starving yet? Are cravings getting the better of your will power? What’s this got to do with arthritis and joint pain, anyway? The research has been done and is conclusive beyond a doubt that losing even 15 pounds (you may have 50 to […]
Resolutions, hell-o-lutions. How to keep them.
Gentle Reader, Here we are again at the first of the New Year. 2013 is going to be IT. That last doctor visit convinced me once and for all that I must do something about my weight/exercise program or I will die sooner than later. How many people do you know who begin again to take control of their health? […]
Blue Christmas
Gentle Reader, Does the over whelming need to be cheerful this season get you down? Perhaps you are like me and Christmas brings memories, and some of them are not go wonderful. It feels like an emergency. I have to figure something out or I will go down in a wash of self pity. The first session with my personal […]
Guess what the liver of an inorganic turkey looks like.
Gentle Reader, Thanksgiving Day and 17 of the children and grandchildren are coming. The alarm went off at 5:15 so I could put the turkey in for a dinner time of 2 p.m. When I chopped up the giblets, I thought, yes, it is worth it to pay for the organic free range bird. The organs are deep purple-red, the […]
Can we eat pie this Thanksgiving?
Gentle Reader, Are you shopping for Thanksgiving yet? Tell me about your resolve to eat so your joints don’t hurt, the achy knees don’t creak, the back doesn’t twinge when you go from sitting to standing? Have you been eating a dinner plate big on greens with a small portion of meat or fish and the starch in the form […]
The Nutritional Management of Chronic Pain
Gentle Reader Are you like me, suffering from chronic pain? Do you wake up every morning and check to see which joints are hurting? A friend of mine describes sitting on the edge of the bed wondering if she can actually stand and walk to the bathroom. I’m better off than that, but the first ½ hour each day is […]
Here’s where you begin
Gentle Reader, What is the difference between fixing a problem and prevention? Most of my blog posts consider specific problems developing from pain in the joints caused by traumatically induced arthritis or the age related osteoarthritis and spinal stenosis issues some of us face just because we’ve been moving hard and fast all our lives. The fix-it approach tries to […]
How to Keep Your Hand Moving–Without Pain
Gentle Reader, A good friend is suffering from arthritis in her hand causing discomfort playing tennis and gripping the handles of her hiking pole. Her pain, like the arthritis pain in many aging hands, is the gradual deterioration of the joints because of continued use and abuse over a long, productive life. In 1980 when I was cross country skiing […]