Vitamins, Herbs, and Supplements Part 2

       I wanted to let you know that I get all my vitamins, herbs and supplements from Puritan’s Pride on line and have never had a bad experience with them.  If there is an herb you can’t through them, I’ll be sure to give you their web site. Now, to continue with my daily regimen of vitamins, herbs and supplements:

·      Vitamin C – 1000mgs – 5000mgs – it’s pretty hard to take too much vitamin C because is water soluble and your body just eliminates what it can’t use through your kidneys.  But I think anything over 5000mgs is excessive because you have diarrhea.  

1.   An excellent antioxidant

2.  Promotes a healthy immune system

3.   Natural antihistamine

4.   Actually shortens the duration of a cold

·      Calcium – 750 – 1500mg per day

1.   Should be taken with vitamin D to improve absorption

2.  Keeps bones strong especially if you have osteopenia or osteoporosis

3.  Prevents breast cancer in menopausal women

·      Vitamin D – 400 – 800 I.U. Daily

1.    Helps the body absorb calcium

2.   Strengthens the immune system

3.  Protects and strengthens bones

4.  Regulates neuromuscular function (we need this if we want our muscle stimulation to be its most productive)

·      Magnesium -  300 – 500mg daily

1.   Keeps you from getting constipated

2.  Regulates all bodily systems

3.   Helps calcium work better to strength bones

·      Zinc – 10 – 30mg daily

1.   Helps prevent, shortens duration, lessens symptoms of a cold

(to be continued)

Vitamins, Herbs and Supplements Part 1

A while back I talked about my diet and included my vitamins, minerals, herbs and supplements in my post. I’d like to now elaborate on just what the health benefits of all these extra tablets, capsules and tinctures are and how they can make your life healthier, happier and freer from illness. There are even herbs that help women AND men SCI victims get their sex lives back on track! If that doesn’t interest you then I’m not the doing the job I set out to do!

I’ll start with my vitamins in the order in which I take them.

Morning Vits/Mins/Supps & Herbs  

·       Sublingual (under the tongue) Vitamin B complex – niacin, riboflavin, B-6, B-12, and pantothenic acid – one full dropper held under tongue for complete 60 seconds

1.  Great for natural “pick me up” instead of coffee or expensive energy drinks which contain the SAME vitamins in the SAME amounts or LESS!

2.  Also good for frayed nerves due to any type of stress but especially pain because it works on the same nerve endings as pain.

3.  Supports and INCREASES the rates of metabolism

4.  Maintains healthy skin and muscle tone

5.  Enhances immune and nervous system functions

·       Vitamin A (from 100% beta-carotene) – 10,000 I.U.

1.  Everyone knows you need it for healthy vision but you may not know Vitamin A is needed for:

2.  Healthy immune function

3. Bone metabolism

4.  Healthy skin

5. And it’s a great antioxidant and if nobody ever told you what that means let me explain. Your body has a finite number of bone marrow cells which are the basically the cells that make all your other cells like red blood cells, ect. Every once in awhile especially as we get older, your body produces a cell that’s not quite right it has been poisoned, rusted, oxidized. It can turn into Cancer if there’s no antioxidant to munch it!

(to be continued)

                              

Muscle Stimulation Part 3

Here are diagrams of the starting electrode pad placement I promised you my friends. Remember, these are reference points they may OR may not work the best for you. Usually you will have to move the pads slightly to adjust for YOUR body type and amount of muscular atrophy. Each diagram shows placement for one machine or two because one will have two leads splits into a negative and positive on each for a total of 4 pads. And two machines will have double; 4 leads each split into a positive and a negative for a total of 8 pads. Believe me it sounds more complicated than it truly is.   

Muscle Stimulation Part 2

Once you find YOUR best placement take a photo and print on ordinary paper at the 5 x 7 size which will give you half a page of pad placement and plenty of space for future notes and observations. Keep a log of what muscle you stimmed, what kind of response you got AND any additional unique or outstanding bodily reflexes along with the date of course. I keep my muscle stimulation log in a thin three ring binder filled with clear plastic pages for my pad placement photo copies and lined paper to keep track of the dates, which muscle groups were stimmed and what kind of response we got from the electrical stimulation and any other notes that may be relevant.

If you have a TENS machine use the following settings:

·       Use in burst mode

·       Lots of energy 300 microseconds

·       High amplitude 40 MA

  If you have a NMES use these settings:

·       Ramp 2 secs

·       On time 30 secs

·       Off time 5 secs

·       Rate 120 hz

·       Width 300 microsecs

Remember before placing your pads make certain your skin is clean and dry. Also, if the area is very hairy it needs to be shaved. Lastly, using a solution of no more than 70 percent alcohol, treat the area with a cotton ball to remove deep oils and perspiration from your skin so it is pristinely clean. This will help to preserve your electrode pads from becoming non-sticky far too soon and save you a great deal of money and time.

I will attach some pad placement options for you whether you have one machine or two. Use these as a starting point and move the pads a little at a time until you hit YOUR optimum muscle contraction. I will be available for questions through my comments option, please feel free to use it. Unfortunately at this time I have no one available to scan my charts but I will have them for you tomorrow as early as possible. Please forgive me and thank you for your patience. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Muscle Stimulation Part 1

  I would like to thank you for letting me go off in different direction in my last post and blow off a little steam and for not posting as often as I know should. It takes tremendous strength to be all business all the time and after all while being special, gifted, super intelligent and blessed with talent, I am after all only human and therefore flawed in small ways (gasp!). Okay, all jesting aside and thank you again for indulging me. I will talk at length about my physical therapy and muscle stimulation.

Each morning before I either shower or do my bowel routine, which I do on alternate days, I have my attendant get my two NMES machines and my (one) TENS unit and we stimulate 1 of 3 major muscle groups: my triceps and chest, my stomach and quadriceps (thighs), or my buttocks and calves (lower back of legs) or hamstrings (upper back of legs). I could actually use one more machine but the point is to use whatever you have and then get whatever you can. I’m seriously looking for a muscle stimulator with higher settings since doing some research I’ve discovered my NMES is not capable of generating enough energy to stim my trunk to its fullest potential. However, I started my muscle stimming routine with one TENS unit and it DID make a difference so please don’t give up if you don’t own or have access to a lot of equipment, it just takes longer to finish your routine with one machine. I PROMISE to have new pics for you A.S.A.P. I need new ones that show all three machines working at once. In the meantime use the photos I’ve already got posted of pad placement.  

Now I got my equipment from Allegra and I get my electrodes from tens products.com both on line companies with great customer service. Of course you can choose your own venders but remember to ALWAYS look at the customer feedback it will tell you everything. However, if you’d rather not go through the hassle of reading feedback for every company you research I have already done the shopping for you. Plus Allegra is selling the same model NMES machine I have for $80.00 off right now! That means you can get a $150.00 machine for 70 bucks. Not a bad deal, eh?

You will need 4 different sized electrodes in white foam. They are 2 x 2 square, 1.5 inch diameter round, 2 inch round, and 2 x 3 ½ rectangle. You do not need to get another size. My advice is to buy electrodes in multi packs to save money. When preparing the skin ALWAYS clean the skin with alcohol to ensure NOTHING not even skin cells get on the pads and take the stickiness out of them. I will be sure to give you proper pad placement in future posts. Then, you won’t be moving the pad around too much. Although, every human body is different and unique and you still may need to make some adjustments to get the best contractions.

(To be continued)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

An April Fool

        Yesterday was April 1^st, a day traditionally for playing pranks and practically jokes on one another, a day made for laughter, surprise, and anticipation. Well, in THIS crazy household not one person remembered save for myself and I thought about it at exactly 9:03pm last evening right in the middle of my nightly routine and had not the time, nor the gumption to think up a ruse for everyone in the house before midnight. I let my mind wonder for just a little while and thought about my mom who absolutely NEVER forgot April Fool’s Day and ALWAYS got me and Mary, my younger sister, with one of her shenanigans.

        The mood in the house is one fraught with so much tension, gloom, and worry it’s a practically unbearable place in which to live. Then comes one of those especially tender, proud or what I like to call “God moments” when someone will leave a comment on my blog telling me I made a difference in their lives or that I inspired them, then I feel like it worth getting out of bed that day. ‘Cause let me tell you kiddies I have days when waking up is so painful I’m upset with God for letting me live through the night. Other times I wish I could sleep forever trapped in a pleasant dream where I can walk and my hands can be used to caress my lover just the way he likes it and things are right again. I can move and dance, draw and paint, tip toe up behind my man and wrap my arms around him squeezing so tightly it takes his breath away.  I’m so lonesome my soul aches and for whatever reasons he has Eric just doesn’t want to be with me. My own son tells if I want to save my sanity, I’ve got to find a way to deal with that reality and stop living in the past. Well, it was 6 years long years now since I drove my car off the road and broke my neck on March 26^th and I still haven’t found a way.

        Eric’s been touchy and unpredictable one minute he’s screaming at me and calling me horrible names, the next he’s planning a shopping trip together and giving me a tongue kiss proclaiming his love for me. It’s like living with a psychopath.  

        I’m worried about Billy who decided to manage his heroin addiction by going to the methadone clinic (again). He is also court ordered to go to intensive outpatient rehabilitation and mental health program. He says it helps and he really liked his counselor but then they went and changed everything on him. They changed the time he was to be there and leave and they changed his counselor. Bill has always been pretty resilient in these kinds of situations so I think he’ll do okay.

        As for me, I didn’t turn off my computer until 6:30am this morning so I’m running on empty. Perhaps I’ll sleep tonight and to sleep is perhaps to dream.

Skin Care The End

          Let’s see, where did leave I off? Oh yes I remember, my daily skin care regiment. Well, I’ve already given you the meat and potatoes so I will now share with you the sides, desserts and appetizers.

·        I am a mouth breather so my lips are CONSTANTLY chapped. I use Blistex lip moisture in a tube.

·         I also have very dry sky and I use Malibu Hemp Skin Firming Bronzing Moisturizer or Jergens natural Glow Firming Moisturizer from my shoulders to my toes.  

·        I use L’Oreal Lash Serum once at night to lengthen and thicken my eyelashes. This stuff is worth 3 times the 12.95 price. It will actually grow new lashes where you have lost them!

·        Always keep your skin moisturized, it’s healthy for your skin and gives you and your attendant a chance to look over your body for any signs of breakdown. Use YOUR favorite moisturizer.

·        Since my hands are paralyzed, my finger joints are contracted and my hands curled I wear my nails fairly long. My attendants keep them polished and filed for me. (thanks Michelle and Kristi!) I also use my fingernails as tools when trying to open things ect.

·        TIP – I HONESTLY BELIEVE that the foundation to ANY skin type routine is good exfoliation.

No matter what skin type you have, I suggest St. Ive’s Apricot Scrub as your basic skin care exfoliant.  If you have problem skin you need to get a product called Serious Skin Care for problem skin. You can order it on line at HSN.com. If you have normal or combination skin I would suggest a product containing Retinol. Such as ROC.

Be certain to always do your pressure releases in your wheelchair as well as in bed. Tilt your chair back whenever you have the chance and if you are strong enough, lift your bottom off the chair several times a day. If you are male be sure you are never sitting on your testicles. This could cause autonomic dysreflexia and be very dangerous. Shift position as often as you are able and be mindful of your fellows.  

The rule of thumb is to check your body for any signs of pressure sores twice a day in bed when you are naked but I think once a day is enough. The decision is ultimately yours.