Can You Hear Me Now?

I still haven’t received my StemEnhance. I’m so anxious to try it! As for the cannabis brownies, I’ve decided that they don’t help me sleep (I tried dosages up to two grams, and if that didn’t put me to sleep, I don’t even want to try more!) (I know nothing about grams or ounces of pot and what that means, I just know that I can’t afford that much every day until I get a prescription), but if I eat a half gram one around 7 pm, I have a nice evening. My legs aren’t as stiff and cramped up, and everything from walking to getting up from the toilet is just a little bit easier. And my bladder is great! Plus, I go to bed feeling nice and relaxed. Even though it still takes hours to fall asleep.

I learned a little something about all my other meds, though, including my sleeping pills. As I learned a few years ago when I had to go through gallbladder surgery without painkillers, the LDN I take for my MS blocks narcotics (my personal opinion is that the longer I’m on LDN, the stronger this blocking is) so I went online to find out if marijuana is a narcotic (it only is in the eyes of the law). While researching this, I not only found out that marijuana is not a narcotic, I learned that benzodiazepines are. Which explains why so many of my meds have seemed so useless to me. I currently take the one my neuro prescribed for me a few weeks ago (but quit it the other night when I found this out - before my body got addicted to them, if it’s able to) and used to take another one that rarely seemed to affect me. And, it turns out, my sleeping pill, although not an official benzodiazepine, is in that “family” of drugs. Which JUST might be why I can take as many as 4 throughout the night, barely sleep at all, and not feel affected by them. So I just stopped those meds and I’ve actually slept a little better the past couple of nights. I’ll see how it goes, I may ask my doctor for a non-narcotic sleeping pill to try out. I haven’t told him yet that I’m smarter than him for doing my own research and finding out why the drugs he prescribes don’t do me any good. I suppose I should let him know my discovery.

The above was written yesterday. I received my StemEnhance today! I’ll let you know how it goes.

I’m having a weird week. My regular home care worker has been off sick, so I’m not getting any help until noon. And today they wanted to teach this fill-in (who is also my Saturday help and doesn’t know English well, which is okay for once/week, but any more than that and I would appreciate being able to communicate!) my Range of Motion exercises. Okay. Here is where I get frustrated with home care and the way they do things. A few weeks ago, they set up a time that my worker, the physiotherapist, and a supervisor could all be here at the same time. The reason for that was so the PT could make sure the exercises were being done properly, and so this supervisor could learn them properly as well, and teach another worker for times that Janice isn’t able to be here. So, since Janice is sick this week, they decide this is a good time to train someone else. That being the non-English speaking worker. And then, they send a supervisor that has NEVER BEEN HERE BEFORE. Why, oh why, do they make arrangements for a particular supervisor to be here with the PT, to learn everything properly, just to send someone else entirely?? Big Sigh.

Tomorrow Janice should be back and I will return to my regular schedule. Until Saturday, when I have to get up super early. Helen (the one that doesn’t know English well) can’t ever be here before noon, unless she comes to me before her first client. And since I may have lunch plans that day, I need to be dressed before noon. So I get 7:00 am.

May have lunch plans because the Good Lovelies are on tour and hit Calgary on Saturday. Caroline asked about meeting for lunch a couple weeks ago, but since they are in Edmonton the night before, I’m not sure what time they will be here or what the final plans are. I’m waiting to hear back from them. I may not be able to go to their show, because it is a house concert, and 99% of houses are not wheelchair accessible. I’m waiting to find out about that, too. I love their new album and REALLY want to see them live again, but I’m not getting my hopes up. I will settle for lunch or a visit that involves a bit of a private concert for me

Have I told you about my oatmeal discovery? No? Ohhhh, this is good. I have to credit Dietgirl with linking to it in one of her entries. I never made real oatmeal this past couple of years, because you need to cook it on the stove for about 20 minutes, and we all know I can’t exactly do that. And the instant stuff is crap without the health benefits. So, this is what I do now: before I go to bed, I put one half cup of my beloved steel cut oats in a bowl with about one cup of water. I place it in the fridge to soak overnight. In the morning, I toss the bowl in the microwave for 3 minutes, and voila! Hot cooked oatmeal that I don’t need to hang out by the stove to prepare. This has changed my life. I now get a BIG dose of nutrients in the morning. Not just the oats, but what I add to it - flax seeds, Hemp Hearts, and a nice organic mix of almonds, seeds and fruit. I also add a little pure maple syrup to sweeten, otherwise… gross. I don’t add any other liquid, I kinda like my oatmeal thick and chunky. I highly recommend this method of preparing oatmeal if you’re currently using the “it takes too long to cook” excuse not to get some hot oats into your tummy every morning. My grandpa would SO approve.

My life is so exciting. So much so, in fact, that I have started to Twitter about it.