Back on track

Greetings ~

After lazily re-integrating into everyday life the past couple of days, I'm finally back on the ol' blog. Erick and I spent an amazing week in Arizona. Highlights were Sedona (of course!)and the Grand Canyon (both of which Erick had never seen before). I also visited my old childhood digs and the town where I grew up - wow, so much has changed. I guess that's the story for anyone going back in time...

I managed to feel pretty well most of the time on our travels, even though I wasn't fully on my best eating plan, nor was I taking all of my supplements. I did find the most incredible restaurant in Sedona called the Chocolate Tree, which served ONLY things that are gluten-free, dairy-free and processed sugar-free. It was so very COOL to be able to order anything I wanted off the menu and not have to think about whether I could eat it! I had a killer veggie sandwich, an awesome chocolate smoothie, a piece of pumpkin cream pie, and a few chocolates (to go...). And they were all delicious! I would be forever indebted to anyone who would open a restaurant like this on Whidbey Island!!! I wish I had the willpower to do it, but restauranteering is not my calling in life. But I'm extremely good at restaurant-visiting!

I must admit we also had Mexican food three times - so yummy! Of course for me that is something with vegetarian beans and corn tortillas, guacamole and some salsa. I even had a glass of sangria one night - woo hoo! Little of what I ate was organic; I was so happy to pick up our bag of groceries when we returned home from the Raven and Spade!

While in AZ we hiked, swam in the river, and logged quite a few miles. My favorite playing and healing spots are all still there, still heart-opening, still awesome. Favorite spot hands-down: Red Rock Crossing in Sedona, where one can swim and frolic in the river underneath the Cathedral Rock formation. Having grown up in the AZ sun I rather enjoyed the heat for a few days, but honestly, I was also supremely happy to return home to our sweet island life. Vacations are always so uplifting, and yet it is always good to return come back home. It was also so sweet to spend time with daughter Ari, who house-sat for us. She is the sweet, precious peach of my life.

So after some transition, I'm back on track with my clean/organic eating plan, and taking all my supplements. My blood pressure has gone up and down a bit between 114/70 to 138/84, and everything in between. Lately it's been pretty stable. While I was going absolute full-throttle on the Salt/C protocol there for a few weeks, I had to lighten up just a bit and drop from 12 doses of Salt and C each day, to 8 each day. My body is happier that way, and we seem to be settling back into a good equilibrium. I haven't had a severe herx in a few weeks now. I'm enjoying that while it lasts! Although it may be because I lowered my dose and am just not hitting the bacteria hard enough..... time will tell.

I recently started reading an excellent book called Cure Unknown: Inside the Lyme Epidemic, by Pamela Weintraub. Ms. Weintraub is an investigative scientific journalist, currently senior editor at Discover magazine, who has covered science and biomedicine for national media for more than 25 years in New York. She also has lyme disease, as does her husband and their two sons. She is uniquely qualified to investigate and report-out on all the controversy surrounding Lyme, and she does so professionally, and with remarkable determination. I'll share more about it as I go, and I also suggest that for anyone remotely interested in Lyme and what it's all about... please check it out of the library and read it yourself. She is able to make some sense of the controversy that is Lyme disease, including the power struggles that exist within mainstream medicine to "control" who has the final say regarding what lyme is and how to treat it (many leading scientists and physicians have ties to for-profit interests, such as potential lyme vaccines).

One thing's for sure, there is never a dull moment when Lyme disease is the topic! I feel very, very blessed to be having a healing response through my use of the Salt/C protocol. I feel like one of the "lucky ones" who received a diagnosis fairly early in the game (even though I'd had increasingly present lyme symptoms for several years already, but hadn't begun seeking medical attention until just over a year ago), who has been fortunate to find a fairly inexpensive protocol (after $10K in medical fees) that seems to be working. Color me GRATEFUL! I don't take my recovery for granted, and I know I am still far from the finish line (if there even is such a thing). Whether or not I achieve a full remission of my symptoms (and for how long) still remains to be seen, although I fully envision myself in vibrant energy and health. Stay tuned folks....

Sukie