Gentle Reader, A dear friend and hiking companion was talking with me yesterday as we climbed to the saddle above Pratt Lake in the Snoqualmie Pass section of the Cascade Mountains. Her husband, an athletic 71 year old has worn out his hip and finally, after months of thinking it was only a sore knee, …
Category Archives: Be Well health tips
Managing pain after eye surgery
Gentle Reader, While this blog is primarily about arthritis management, I wanted to use this platform to let you know about managing pain after my recent eye surgery. I have suffered from impaired vision for several years due to a droopy eye lid condition which is corrected by Blepharoplasty. Here’s a little video so you can …
Legs are numb. Now what?
Gentle Reader, The Sunday before leaving for three weeks in France I was standing in the choir and my right leg lost most of its feeling. It tingled down to the foot. I could see I was standing. I could feel my upper body level, but my legs were numb. All I could think of …
Out of the exercise habit: bad for arthritis pain
Gentle Reader, Funny how you can be diligent with your daily back health exercises and stretches when you are traveling, but get too busy at the desk to do them when you get back home. Then suddenly the pain shows up. I do know what to do: 1. Get to bed earlier so rest can …
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Can an ADD/ADHD study help us?
Gentle Reader, I just read Dr. Steve Chaney’s most recent post which concerns food sensitivities and ADD/ADHA. The study is carefully done with cross checks for biases and the resultant information is extremely helpful for the parents of children who once might have been identified as “figgitty” and now are sent home for a prescription. …
4 1/2 hours of driving…Oh, my aching back
Gentle Reader, Six hiking buddies escaped to the cabin of one of us on the Oregon coast just sound of Canon Beach. The sun shone and the sand was warm, inviting surfers, families and dogs to play even though it was mid week and basically empty of tourists or locals. I was really hurting from …
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I did not know him: a cycle of pain
My brother died. I went to Boston to be with his wife and children. At first the pain and suffering was all about my loss. In Boston I became one grieving sister in a sea of grief. I did not know all these other grieving people. Not his wife of thirty-five plus years and their …
The last man standing
Gentle Reader, The focus of my weekly blog is health and how to prevent disease. Sometimes nothing we do can prevent a health disaster. A stroke taking down a healthy man is hard to understand. I refer you to a TED talk by Jill Bolton Taylor, a research scientist who survived a stroke and recorded …
The Triduum and Easter, darkness to joy
Gentle Reader, The great Triduum or three holy days ending triumphantly in Easter begins today. I took on one new thing for Lent in response to the half page of suggestions our Saint Mark’s Episcopal worship committee sent out, activities that would increase mindful living. When I read on the list “Write a letter to …
Who is Peggy Cappy?
Gentle Reader, Whether it is the new exercise classes or the intense gardening, I cannot say for sure. What I am sure about is increased pain and then the magical release from it. Here is the unexplainable magic. I have mentioned it to you several times in the past. It is a 20 minute meditation …