This, That and Heart Attacks

Hello! I have been chewing over what to post for my next blog when I realized how long it had been since my last. <shakes head>

Well, 2013 has been an interesting year so far.  For the first couple months of this year I worked my butt off on Book two of my series. Book one was done and with the editor. Then in March (or was it February?), the Editor (A-fucking-mazing editor by the way) sent me Book one ready for tweaking. Well, honestly Book two was just smoking along so I sat on book one even though it was supposed to publish by mid April. Then Book two came to a screeching halt and I jumped over to work on the edits for book one.

Then my husband had chest pains and ended up in the hospital. Yep, that ‘chest/lung pain’ he’d been experiencing was actually a collapsed artery and those ‘episodes’ were friggin heart attacks. Did I freak? Yep, but very quietly.  He had a minor and apparently all too common procedure which opened up the artery and handled a clot that was meddling. My hubby is a very upbeat people person, easy to get along with, totally chill and so the last thing I would have dreamed he would have issues with was his heart.  Scared the hell out of me. He’s fine now and looks amazing. The grey pallor and blood shot eyes that we contributed to his vocation are gone. Things are settling back into normal. It took a while for me to stop focusing everything on family and lift my head to look around.

This past weekend in a frenzy, I ‘remodeled’ my office (read painted walls and put furniture back in different places). Unfortunately you can’t get the full panoramic view but here’s a taste…

Yes, all the statues on the bookshelf are some of my attentive gargoyles. <toothy grin>

It is soooooooo nice to be in my office now and I am ready to get back to work again. Book one, Book two, short story for the upcoming anthology, here I come.

The Truth About Mental Disorder Drugs

In light of the recent shooting at the movie theater in Colorado, I find myself needing to post about a subject that I feel strongly about but is not a pleasant issue. I also know that there is a lot of controversy in relation to it but I have my viewpoint and that is one of the beauties of blogging.

I am talking about psychotropic drugs also known as drugs for mental disorders.

First off, anyone who reads what is called the black label of these drugs should run screaming.

Definition of the warning here.

I am not going to list out the drugs and their black label warnings here. If you are curious, all you need to do is search Google for the name of a drug and the black box box warning. For example, I searched for the side effects Ritalin, a drug commonly prescribed to adults and children for what I believe is a non-existent disease known as ADHD. I came across RitalinSideEffects.net. If you read through this you’ll see that one of the potential side effects of Ritalin is death.

What’s interesting is that most doctors prescribe a medication and their victims, oh sorry, patients, take it or give it to their children with complete faith that their doctor is an honest, caring person. Then you end up with deaths, multiple body problems or maybe you decide to go shoot a bunch of people at the post office, campsite or movie theater.

On top of that, your trustful doctor often gets kick backs for prescribing certain drugs. Yes, you read correctly. The drug companies PAY your doctor to prescribe their drugs. Nice, huh?

On the subject of mental disorders or diseases, I’d like to point out something. The “symptoms” of ADHD for example. Do a search for them online. Every single symptom mentioned is a common and normal behavior for anyone. Going to an “expert” is ridiculous especially when you see what this doctor has to say:

“We do not know the causes [of any mental illness]. We don’t have the methods of ‘curing’ these illnesses yet.” —Dr. Rex Cowdry, psychiatrist and director of National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), 1995

One of the interesting things about the “diseases” and disorders that would “warrant” drugging by a psychiatrist or physician is that the person might actually have some issue but they can be handled with proper healthcare, vitamins, allergy testing, proper schooling, handling the parent, etc.  It is promoted that those symptoms are because of chemical imbalances but check this out:

“There’s no biological imbalance. When people come to me and they say, ‘I have a biological imbalance,’ I say, ‘Show me your lab tests.’ There are no lab tests. So what’s the biochemical imbalance?” —Dr. Ron Leifer, New York psychiatrist

I am not even going to get into the “Teen Screen” process that is being implemented across America as way to capture your child for drugging. Research this VERY carefully before consenting to any such thing. In fact, if you find yourself having to make any major decisions or are just curious, I implore you to research ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING related to the practices of mental health care, just make sure to look past the marketing and get the nitty gritty truth of the effects of the drugs.

I care about people and I cannot stand the idea of them blindly accepting information from a doctor when the internet is full of statistical research proving the drug or therapy just doesn’t work. I have only touched the tip of the iceberg in relation to this subject and only to bring it to your attention to fully research yourself before making any decisions. Alright, I am off my soapbox now.  Make today great and create! ❤

The gym 3

I just realized that I never put in the closure on my whole gym dilemma.  I ended up going back to Snap Fitness and have been going fairly regularly for three weeks now.  I am still getting adjusted to it and feeling tired later in the day but I know it won’t be long before the energy kicks in and the body starts looking better. Can’t wait!

The Gym 2

Well, I am still a fatty, maybe not quite as lazy.  I never made it to the gym.  I decided to do some research on them first and ended up choosing to go with the local rec center.  Since I home school my daughter, it made sense to go with them because they have classes she can take and we can go swimming!

Anyway, we’ll be joining up with them soon and getting our work out on. 🙂

The gym

The last time I was seriously physically fit was when I was following (mostly) the Eating For Life program from the book with the same name by Bill Phillips.  It calls for a definite dedication of time allotted to working out (30-45 min. 6 days a week).  That may scare some of you and I can honestly say it scared me too as prior doing it the word gym or work-out was actually laughable to me; something only freaks did.

About 7 years ago I herniated a disk in my lower spine (that basically means the soft tissue that separates the bones was coming out in one area and the bones were bonking into each other causing me excruciating pain).  I am one of those with a very high pain tolerance and I almost fainted when the problem was acute, thank goodness my hubby was around to catch me and stick me into a chair.

It took me over a year to heal naturally and because of the shape I was in, I was constantly having to pay attention to how I moved, what I did and how I did it to ensure that I didn’t ‘break’ it again.  If it started hurting I would end up on the couch for a day to ensure I didn’t ‘break’ it again.  Well, needless to say my chiropractor kept telling me over and over that if I would start working out (he didn’t care how, gym, home whatever) that I would not have to worry about it.  A friend of mine introduced me to the book and I was so incredibly not happy with the shape of my body and even less happy about the worry of a relapse that I went for it.

I joined Snap Fitness (summer of 08) and started alongside my friend and her hubby (my hubby being a builder was very supportive but wouldn’t go near the gym himself!) and started the work outs.  I ended up being on a different schedule then my friends but continued anyway and after three months I was amazed at the difference.  The book shows before and afters that blow your mind.  I didn’t get that ‘look’, in fact I didn’t loose much but I toned what I did have and I HAD NO PAIN.  That was amazing.  No pain and so much energy that I could not only keep up with my then six year old but was working in the garden all day (as compared to crashing after an hour or two in the heat).

So I was sold.  Then we had some things occur in life and I had to cancel my membership at the gym and we ended up moving out of the country.  While there we quit smoking and enjoyed food tremendously very far from any gym.  Well, we came back and continued to put on the poundage.  Now thirty pounds heavier than when I left, starting to experience back pain again and feeling generally miserable physically (oh, and can’t fit into my friggin jeans either) I think I had better get my booty back in there.  I was reflecting yesterday to the hubster on just how great it was when I was working out (although it is painful thinking about starting it up again but that’s just cuz I’m a lazy fatty now) and he told me I should just go and sign up.  I couldn’t get out there today but tomorrow I’m heading over to get signed up.  I’ll keep you filled in. 😀