PTSD article

http://www.fox10tv.com/dpp/news/special_reports/special-report-the-war-at-home-battling-ptsd

A blogger I follow posted the link to this article, and I wanted to share. (Even though I don't have any followers right now, who knows, maybe some day having shared this will help someone in some way.) The link to the other PTSD article I shared a few weeks ago was also one she shared on her blog.

Health: Post- Nasal Drip

(In an attempt to maybe help someone out there who might happen to stumble across this post...)
So I've had this pesky issue with post nasal drip for years now. Last January (2010), I went to an allergy doctor - I had never had an allergy test before so we were hoping maybe that had something to do with it.

Things I despise: allergy tests. They did the prick test first, where they basically put a drop of something on the skin and then scratch/prick you with a needle. This one wasn't horrible, except that you can see how many different times they're going to do it..(pretty sure it was 96?) And then they do the intradermal test where they kind of inject the allergen under your skin. 96 times.

I didn't show any reaction to anything on the scratch/prick test, so they did the intradermal test. (I wish they could have just skipped to that one?) I hate needles. Really hate. Especially when I've already been pricked/scratched 96 times. The worst is just sitting there waiting for the next inject...so horrible! I won't lie, I was actually tearing up during this second part.

Anyway, the only thing that showed up as an allergy is similar to mold and bed bugs, so I'm not allergic to anything weird. Then the doctor thought it was a sinus infection, so gave me medicine - I couldn't finish the 2-3 week dosage because I had such horrible side effects I couldn't eat anything my stomach was so upset. Then the doctor said it could be a gastro issue. (It still could be I guess, but that wouldn't make any sense because the issues are 24/7 and not at all related to when I eat or if I eat at all.)

So, this post nasal drip thing is still here. A few years ago, Allegra D was pretty much instant relief. (I tried it again since it's over the counter now, and it doesn't help at all.) For the last few years, I've taken Mucinex pretty much daily, one or two times a day depending on how bad symptoms are. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes the "stuff"/symptoms break through that and get so bad that I'm pretty out of commission for about 5 days, stuffed up, dizzy, similar to a flu but like my head is all stuffed up with this junk. Sprays don't help. Saline rinses hurt so bad, and don't help..just gross me out.

I searched online for herbal stuff/supplements and found a bunch recommended by posters on a few message boards. So I bought it all - like 9-10 different supplements/other things.

For the last month or so, I've been taking Zinc and Echinacea 1-2x a day. My symptoms aren't completely gone, but if I miss a day and then take them, the symptoms get a little bit better. I also have these throat drops (slippery elm) used by singers (apparently) that sometimes help a little..but I hate hate the taste.

Still to try: oil of oregano, and a bunch of other things sitting on the "medicine cabinet" (aka kitchen counter)... I wanted to start on each one gradually, instead of starting them all at once, so I can tell which one may actually help and which ones have no effect..

study - light drinkers have a higher risk of developing breast cancer

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-500165_162-20128877/light-drinking-linked-to-breast-cancer-risk/

Drinking isn't the cause, no, but for women who have other risk factors it seems like cutting out drinking (or not starting) could possibly be beneficial? I don't know.

sounds fishy? probably is

was just reading this http://seamusoriley.blogspot.com/2011/10/missing-child-case-deja-vu.html and a few news stories...really? same thing happened to a "friend" of the mother's years ago..and..well..i have no words.

http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2011/10/baby-lisa-irwin-eerie-similarities-another-missing-baby-case

missing children

These cases just frustrate me so much; I won't even talk about the Casey Anthony case, but now this in Kansas City:
http://www.kansascity.com/2011/10/19/3218089/16-days-in-the-lisa-irwin-case.html

It just sounds shady, to have blacked out and then your baby goes missing along with cell phones, but your two other kids were in the house...?! If she actually was blacked out and has no idea what happened, yeah, I can't even imagine what she must feel and I would probably have also changed the timing of the story if it actually was a blackout but..there were two kids in the house! Something does not add up...

“Love is a funny thing. You expect it to be easy. You expect it to be a world of roses and laughs and perfect moments that you find only in movies. You expect her to always say the right thing, and always know exactly how you feel, or exactly how to react to it. You expect her to calm you down when you’re yelling or to chase you when you run away. You expect so much that you feel entirely, and utterly defeated when something doesn’t exactly match up with all your plans. But that’s the thing. Love isn’t a plan. It doesn’t have a certain beginning and it certainly has no end or visible finish line to those deeply in it.
Love happens; it is so incredibly messy. People around you can’t comprehend why you do the things you do, or why you fight so hard for something that seems to cause you so much pain, because simply, they can’t see. They can’t see the invisible ring of insanity that surrounds you when you’re in love. It’s inconvenient and painful and devastating at times, but we can’t live without it. What you don’t learn is how hard love is. How much work it takes. How much of ourselves we have to put into it. How it isn’t worth it until we are complete and utter idiots about it.
Love isn’t her calming you down when you yell. It’s her yelling, just as loud, just as hard, right back at you, right in your face to wake you up and to keep you grounded. It isn’t her/him bringing you roses everyday or cute things that make your relationship appear more presentable.
It’s after a long fight, that drains the life and bones right out of you both, and yet her showing up at your door the next morning anyway. It’s not her saying all the right things or knowing exactly how to handle you. So no, it’s not her caressing your hair and telling you everything is going to be alright. It’s her standing there, admitting she’s just as scared as you are. You have to remember that with love, you’re not the only one involved. You’ve unknowingly put your life, your heart into the palms of another persons hands and said, here. Do what you will. Mash it into mince meat. Or forget I ever handed it to you. As long as you have it.
It makes us crazy. It makes reality invisible and it erases all the lines that we shouldn’t cross. Because love isn’t about fencing ourselves in; feeling safe, feeling sure about the future. It’s about scaring the shit out of every nerve in our body, but pushing forward anyway. Because all the fighting and all the tears and all the uncertainty is worth it. And it’s a hell of a lot better, than being 100% happy without someone to show us that there is a world of a difference between feeling ‘happy’ and feeling whole”

— Andrew Landon

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.” -Steve Jobs