SF Weekend Fun

Last weekend, my sister Sarah flew up for the weekend. She flew up for a doctor's appointment, and to HAVE FUN!!! The doctor's appointment was Saturday morning, and the fun was Saturday afternoon. My other sister, Lindsay and her family met us up in San Francisco. I realized that although I live so much closer to San Francisco, I don't really get to this city much. The last time I came was December, and that was just to play at a gig in a hotel. Driving there I kinda remembered why I don't go there often.... traffic, crazy streets and HILLS!

(***note, this was my first time driving through San Francisco was a GPS.... so much better. It was also better when your, sister has an iPhone and can look up alternate routes so you can avoid the REALLY, REALLY STEEP ROADS - imagine scene from Princess Diaries movie of driving up SF hill in a stick shift car***)

Walking on Golden Gate Bridge... observe the fog (aka mist of darkness)... it's completely gone when you get to the other side of the bridge

Our first item on the agenda was to WALK THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE. We wanted to do something that none of us had done. Sarah and I were really excited to have found a FREE parking spot near the Golden Gate Bridge. (this is a rare occurrence in this city). The weather was deadfully cold and windy. I was grateful I brought my sweater, but wished I had brought a warmer hoodie with scarf and hat. We ended up putting the hoods on our jackets on our heads to protect it from the wind. The walk was a of fun, and being with 2 younger kids helps you to see the bridge differently. The bridge is 220 feet high from the water and 1.7 miles one way. (so we pretty much did a 5k)

Afterwards we went to the Palace of Fine Arts. I read about this while googling SF. It was built for the World's Fair in 1915. It's a beautiful outdoor palace that you could see may have been influenced by Greek or Roman cultures. .... oh did I mention I found FREE parking for this as well.... had to walk a few blocks, but it was FREE!

Palace of Fine Arts

We were all exhausted from the walking and being outside. We decided to go down south and see Stanford University campus. This is a beautiful campus. Lot's of trees, and amazing architectural buildings. Unfortunately we couldn't go into the church due to a ceremony. 

My nephew telling me to take a picture of his hand.

At the really cool water fountain at Stanford University.

...and now the curly hair pics

The Hair Story

In January, while I was in the hospital, I was put on some harsh medications. One of them being prednisone (scary music playing...). Not only did they put me on this drug, but they put me on a very high dosage for a lot longer than I wanted them to. I was on the med for about 4 months. Luckily no relapse when getting off of it (yea!). 

I haven't been on Prednisone since I was first diagnosed with Crohn's disease (about 12 years ago). The first time I was on it, I experienced a LOT of the side effects with it... weight gain, mood swings, excessively hungry, pimples, hair loss, etc. Not an enjoyable memory. 

This time around, I was a bit more learned and wiser. I experienced really no side effects from this, except.... HAIR LOSS!!! Now I must admit. I don't know if this is due to the medication or deficiency in vitamin/ mineral (I'm guessing both).

I've never experienced hair loss like this before though. I would be washing my hair and patches of hair would be in my hand. I am fortunate to have a lot of hair. But after 6 months, I am starting to really notice a change with the amount and texture. I am also noticing how much hair is all over my house. It drives me crazy. After I clean it all up, it just appears again!

So to create a win-win situation, I decided to get it cut. 

Today I went to Paul Mitchell's School after some errands and asked if they had any openings. They just had a cancellation, and fit me right in. It was great. She was even a phase 2 student (which means more experience, and technique). I explained my situation to her, and we talked about what "short" meant. I told her I had a few ideas of what I wanted but wasn't sure. She told me she had some ideas of what would look good on me. I told her that she could do whatever she wanted to with my hair, have fun with it. She was so excited to hear this (I guess not many people tell her this). 

So I have no before pictures, but my hair was curly, and about down to my shoulders. I really like the new look she gave me. It will be easy to do. Less hair to clean up. And I can style it straight of curly. 

 It's going to be a fun change. I can't wait to try out different curly techniques this weekend!

LDS Scripture Rock

It's been awhile since my last post. Many things have been going on in my life that have kept me busy...getting very sick, spending time in the hospital and ER, recouping, and trying to convince medical doctors that I don't need to see them anymore... at one point I had 4 doctors - makes it very busy with all those appointments - now I'm down to 3!... one day... oh, and school and constant research regarding understanding what happened...

But that story will be for another day and another post...

Right now I wanted to share a new routine that I have started that has been fun and good for me. I discovered a CD called "LDS Scripture Rock" about 7 years ago. Right now I have Doctrine and Covenants and Old Testament. Each CD has the 25 scripture mastery compiled into a "rock song". As I get ready for the day, I have been listening to a CD. I am starting to notice that I am now remembering the words more, and also having scriptures in my head more throughout the day. This really helps at times when I am just needing a "spiritual" pick me up. I found some "music videos" on you tube. Here is one of them so you can get some idea of what this fun music is like.

Sorry, my Chinese is not so good...

I finished my finals yesterday! I am excited for a mental break now. I just found this song, and thought that this is what I wanted to be able to convey to my poor Chinese teacher, who tried so hard to teach us how to say anything in Chinese this semester.

Title of this song in English is "Sorry, my Chinese in not so good". It is a story about the mistakes the band members (Transition, British Band) made when they first started to learn Mandarin Chinese. Enjoy!

(you can download the song for free here http://www.transition.com.tw/Transition/Dui_Bu_Qi_mp3/Dui_Bu_Qi_mp3.html)

A walk down Main Street

Here are some pictures of a walk I take at times down Main Street from the town I live. There are trees everywhere. I tried to capture the leaves changing colors. The phone camera didn't do it's justice I feel. 

 I looked out my window one day and saw this deer. They just looked at me, then continued to find food to eat. I've only seen this deer a few times with their young ones. I mostly have squirrels to watch. They can be funny at times on the trees. The squirrels can't stay still too long for pictures though. 

Die-Off vs. Food Intolerance

This has become one of the BIGGEST questions I have asked myself, and tried to answer for others. When you are trying to heal your gut lining through GAPS, they say be prepared for die-off reactions. In addition, you are also coming to know your body more and recognizing which foods your body can't tolerate at this moment. This is one thing that Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride says about the difference:

How can you tell the difference between die-off and food intolerance?  For example, how do you know if flatulence is caused by the meal you just ate or from the meal prior to that one?

The die-off symptoms can be new symptoms or can be your usual symptoms getting worse, when you introduce new diet, probiotics or anti-parasitic, anti-fungal/anti-bacterial remedies.  Food intolerance symptoms appear when you introduce new foods into your diet.  If you have been eating a particular food routinely, which you suspect as causing food intolerances, remove it for 3-4 weeks, then try to eat it again.  Your body will let you know if you are intolerant to it.  Production of gas takes time; it is the pathogens in the gut (usually fungi) that convert food into gas.  So, it is your previous meals that produced the gas.  Every meal sends a propulsion reflex down the digestive system, so that gas in the bowel may be released when you are eating your next meal.

So from my previous post you can see that I had been going through some not so fun arthritic pain for the past two weeks. I thought it was die-off. I have come to learn, that nope, it was a food intolerance manifesting itself BIG TIME! Once I figured it out, and took it out, the arthritic pain went away! So I think right now I will have to cross off beef, pork and possibly chicken from my list. I am experimenting with turkey. So far so good. Luckily there is a Sprout's an hour away from me, near my sister, where they sell also some wild game (Elk, deer, bison....). I will have to check that out, and see if I can alternate. I heard this can be resolved, just need to have it out for a bit. I also tried adding cauliflower back in my diet, and it seemed to cause brain fog. I am LOVING not having brain fog right now. I wish I knew this during mid-terms!

So you may be asking, are these new food intolerances, or did I just not recognize them? This is what Dr. Natasha said in her FAQ:

I am mostly doing GAPS because of multiple food intolerances in my kids and a history of the same for myself. It seems that it really is only getting worse. I need to understand the ‘science’ of why that is.There is a so-called masking phenomenon in food allergies. When the person keeps eating offending foods, reactions to them overlap with each other and it is impossible to know what exactly the person is reacting to. When you start removing foods hidden allergies get unmasked, which is often a nasty surprise. In GAPS people their gut is damaged and porous, so they may react to most foods, if not all of them. As we cannot starve ourselves, we need to ignore those reactions and get on with healing the gut lining. If a particular food is causing an unacceptably severe reaction, then keep it out for a while. But if the reactions are not too drastic, just live with them, while working on your GAPS Introduction diet. In the meantime bio-resonance therapy, medical neutralisation, homeopathy, NES and other vibrational forms of medicine can help you to reduce the severity of reactions.

Some things I am noticing now with my food intolerances are change of thoughts (sometimes emotions as well), increase heart rate, fatigue, joint pain, headaches, foggy thinking, abdominal discomfort, acid reflux, problems sleeping, craving that food, not feeling satisfied after eating, etc. So what do I do? I try to decide which symptoms I can deal with, and which one's I don't want (no joint pain!). I'll due my best to limit the one's I know I react to, and then try them back in, after some time and see if I am stronger. I have seen so many testimonials that people's food intolerances have been fixed through this. Need to keep having hope!