October 1st.  Well, I know it's been a couple of weeks but the truth is sometimes you just have too much going on in life and can't stop to write about it.  My mom has been suffering through the ill-effects of Lisinopril.  Not only does that crap give you internal hives but it can be life-threatening if it gets to the point of killing your kidneys (and it can).  She's had a couple of return stomach cramps even when being off it for a couple of weeks.  The truth is it takes about a month to get these pills out of your system.  Unfortunately, bringing down blood pressure is only half the story as the damage they do is far worse than the blood pressure ever could be.  They actually call the calcium blocker type of blood pressure medicine cardiac killers as it can induce a heart attack.  Thank god she didn't take that type.  Although I can't say the other type is any better. 

As for me, same old thing.  I think I may well have to accept that the residual effects of being prescribed such a toxic medication may well have left me with permanent Achilles tendon damage.  I can now walk around and stand in the shower, so am grateful for small miracles.  However, I won't lie to you, there is still pain there, albeit not near as bad as it was.  Two days ago I finally decided to try small projects.  I chose the front door to rebuild (it had rotted from rain damage).  I had actually purchased the new door the week before Cipro changed my life.  The door has stood waiting for me ever since.  Keep in mind that before I could have knocked this out in 2 hours, with no slowing down and no pain.  NOW, it's different.  Five hours I had it done, but my legs were well worn out and I did nothing the rest of the day.  Next day, muscle pain all over my legs (normal pain this time from not working in over 2 months) and the ankle pain was back again.  All I can say is everything I'm taking is natural and keeps the hell at bay.  Magnesium keeps the spasms at bay.  Like everyone else I wonder if I'm ever going to find that person I once was.  All I can tell you is that you take each day and fight for it.  If you give up you may as well shovel the dirt over yourself.  My salvation in all this is having something else to think about.  Even if it's just little projects.  I don't dare go out and start digging... my ankles could never take that and I'm not sure if it wouldn't cause a tendon rupture.  So I take each day and do what I can.  

Well, in other news you'll love to know that your doctor's have detailed records on you.  FINALLY, after a month of requesting my medical records they got off they fat asses and faxed it to my doctor.  Interesting that they backdated their fax machine to make out like they had faxed it only a few days after I requested it.  NOT!  Also it's lovely to read what their side of the story is.  I can't tell you the insult it is to be prescribed pills that almost take your life away from you and then read the lies they have in their records.  They actually quoted me as saying that my leg cramps were, and I quote, " bad enough to wake mommy up."  Anyone who knows me would know I would never say "mommy."  I'm not 2 anymore, I call her mom or mother.  Not to mention that they swear they left "several" messages when in fact only 2 calls were made to me and only 1 flippant message was left saying that if I needed anything call them.  I was pretty insulted by that message at the time considering my mother had placed an emergency call to their office at 9a.m. with my symptoms and they couldn't even bother to call back until 2p.m., then left a message at 4p.m. that day.  They obviously have no clue that Vonage tracks my calls and I can print out every call placed in and out of my number.  Even through the fog of pain that day I decided the office of Denise Woods, called Brenham Family Care, LLC was to be avoided like the plague since they cared so very little for the well being of their patients.  You know of course why their office is a limited liability company - they protect their asses in case they get sued.  Another little nugget of nonsense was what they wrote about what else they prescribed that day... it says that they told me to stop the Cipro (that part is true, although I'd already told them I'd stopped that morning) and then they prescribed a different drug called Clindamycin.  That part never happened.  All they said was to stop taking the Cipro.  Incidentally, in their records it says that the nurse said, "how bad are the leg cramps?  I'd hate to stop the Cipro if it is working."  Now you know people... they'd just hate to stop the Cipro just in case it was actually working instead of debilitating me.  I'm sorry, which part of "EXTREME LEG CRAMPS" didn't these people see in the warnings on Cipro.  Apparently they didn't read that far.

Another thing people need to know.  I just looked up this Clindamycin drug and you can't believe the side effects from that one!  Just this one forum of comments had me GRATEFUL to never have received that prescription.  They really did want to kill me.  Just one of the ill effects says it can cause "severe colitis which can end fatally."  Thanks bitches from the office of Brenham Family Care for NOTHING!  In addition to being in extreme agony with muscle spasms from hell they wanted to add extreme stomach problems.  Absolutely disgusting.

I haven't decided if I want to sue, I know I really should but the truth is with my mothers health problems from the drug she took and mine, I just don't know if it's worth the stress, time and money.  I've already accumulated about $2,000 worth of debt from the recovery side of this incident.  Our system is very flawed, the innocent party are often presumed guilty even though there is damage done.  Like I've said before, if you didn't die from it then there's no incentive to a lawyer to take the case.  So now that I can walk around and do little projects around the house and am trying to recover my life, I just don't know if I want the added insult of her office and a judge looking at me and saying, "well, you look fine."  Now maybe, but look at the time it's taken.  Two months stripped from me and much more cash.  It might be less expensive and more fulfilling to take out a full page ad in the paper warning others about what can happen to them from blindly following doctors orders to take a drug.

I can't promise I'll keep up this log on a regular basis.  The simple truth is I still get angry every time I sit and write and think of who I was before and how this ALL could have been avoided if I was simply given a REAL doctor who knew what the hell they were doing in the first place.  I'd like to say she's the only bad doctor out there, but the sad fact is there are too many in it just for the money.  They truly have no idea that even through they didn't hold a gun, they did more damage by holding a pen and writing a prescription. 

In other news my magnesium chloride arrived yesterday.  It does have the side effects everyone says it does.  I made up a small batch (flakes in water) and sprayed it on my legs yesterday.  It itches so if you try it be prepared.  It's also a very strange substance.  Looks like water but does have an oily feel on the skin to it.  It's too soon to report if it's going to make a difference or not.  I can only hope.  And finally, what you might be here to know about, what I've been taking the past couple of weeks.  I will say I've had no reoccurrences of dizzy spells or new symptoms develop, so the Benfotiamine and Methyl B-12 are doing their job.

October 6th.  Well, today is pretty good.  Yesterday I found another gem I wanted to share.  Something has been bothering me about the tests I took when I was so ill.  My doctor recommended me to take another thyroid TSH test because it was high the last time.  He seems to think I may have hypothyroid and will need medication the rest of my life.  Fear not!  Nature is out there to help.  I did a lot of research on this subject.  I found out it may be a simple lack of iodine.  There's a lot of scary information out there on iodine, so I was a little hesitant about it at first.  However, like most things it's a simple balance and there is a cheap test to find out if iodine is the culprit causing the high readings.  Follow that link and you will find the instructions.  Just go to the drug store (Walgreens carries it) and buy a $3.50 bottle of "Tincture of Iodine".  Paint a swatch on your arm and wait to see how long it takes to vanish.  Mine was gone in less than 5 hours... which means I'm severely deficient.  I dug around online and found prolamine iodine on amazon for the cheapest cost and placed the order.  Until it comes in (takes about 5-7 days with free shipping) I went into town and purchased some kelp to take until then.  Kelp contains iodine, although a considerably smaller dose.  Iodine has been given a bad wrap, mostly through mis-information from medical folks.  I found a great article describing the benefits and why iodine is so important.  Turns out the thyroid controls a host of things your body does and some possible signs that occur when you are deficient are allergies (that may explain my sinus-related problems at night), obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, fibrocystic breasts (hey, that one pertains to me), polycystic ovary syndrome and more.  I highly advise everyone who has taken Cipro to find out if they are iodine-deficient, after all at only $3.50 you can afford to know.

In other news I feel pretty good today.  I think the Silica has kicked in or the magnesium that I sprayed on (which one, I don't know).  I actually walked really fast across the parking lot of a shop today before it dawned on me that I wasn't walking slow.  It's amazing how you just do something without thought when it doesn't hurt anymore.  That's my report for now.  I'll keep you updated on any news.

October 14th.  Well, three days ago I started taking iodine.  I had ordered the prolamine iodine but it still hasn't arrived, so I ordered some heavier strength (there's a reason, I'll get to that) called Iodoral and they shipped so fast it made my head spin, arriving in 2 days.  Now, let me first say this is a "compare to Iodoral" brand from a company called Relentless Improvement.  You should know house brands all come from the same place, usually stocked by the same people and are in fact the same supplement, they call it private labeling and have a fulfillment company do the work.  It's not a bad thing, as long as you research the company.  They even offer their safety certifications on their site that you can see.  Better deal than Iodoral too, as I couldn't find it for less than $34 a bottle and if I bought 3 their brand was $22 a bottle for the same quantity.  I should probably buy stock in these companies since I list them on my site, but I'm afraid I don't trade on the stock market and I'm not affiliated with any of these companies.  I will tell you I thought about private labeling, but I really just want to return to building my house as I love it so much.  I have started stucco work again, turning the place into a hacienda.  I haven't posted anything on that site in a while as this as taken so much time but I do have a profile on Windows Live called KimKando where I post my work.  Anyway, I digress.

At the same time of starting iodine I thought I might try and take a couple of supplements out of my routine.  I don't like sitting down to the start of a meal with a handful of pills anymore than anyone else.  I cut back Benfotiamine to twice a day, Glucosamine & MSM to once a day, eliminated L-Carnitine and Lipoic Acid.  Well, that same day I went to the Renaissance Festival and walked for 4 hours straight on cobblestone streets taking pictures all the while.  I was pretty worn out after that.  The next day Headed in to Houston for some building supplies and by the time we returned my ankles were hurting a bit.  By that night my hips were aching a little.  Was it wearing myself out walking on cobblestone streets or is there a connection with taking out supplements?  Not very scientific, I know, but I really don't want to find out by getting worse so today I put everything I'd taken out back in with the exception of L-Carnitine and Lipoic Acid.  I suspect it's the Benfotiamine that made the difference but I really can't say for sure.  In other news, the iodine did have some really good impact within 2 days, no headache before my monthly cycle.  When I say it's good news, it's a little more major than that.  I haven't had a month go by with no headache in years and years.  As long as I can remember.  Now, with that I can't really say if it was iodine or the borage oil I've been taking the past month.  Could have been the borage oil.  Either way, I'm happy.  I feel fine this morning by the way, the hip ache is still only minor so I will be back at work this morning.  If anything the humid Texas heat this morning is more of a deterrent to get to work. 

All right, one other piece of information.  Why I ordered a higher dose of iodine to begin with.  While waiting on the prolamine iodine I read up reviews from other people taking iodine and found out I would need to take 4 pills to equal one of iodoral.  I can taper it down later, but initially decided I only wanted to take one pill, not 4.  There's another reason.  I have mentioned my mother's battle with the fallout from Lisinopril.  Well, it continues.  Turns out that crap is the drug that keeps on giving.  They call it angioedema, or intestinal swelling.  To watch her be fine for several days, then wind up on the couch with abdominal pain within 4 hours, coughing all the while is horrible.  She has been trying natural remedies for the blood pressure, but I'll tell you it's been rising then falling like a yo-yo, all the while never dropping to a normal reading.  I've been frustrated trying to figure out why the episodes keep recurring and why the blood pressure program hasn't made a dent in things.  On a UK site with possible side effects is the only place that says "the episodes of angioedema can last for months even after stopping the drug."  Lovely.  You're just supposed to live with that.  Well, I can't let it go so connecting the dots from her lab reports with a TSH of 11 (WAY higher than mine) had the thyroid as a possible problem.  Considering everything else in the report, high cholesterol, high blood sugar, and low kidney function it didn't look good.  The doc called and told her she had diabetes.  By this time I'd figured out the tests are only a tool and don't give the entire story.  No, it's not diabetes.  My faith in the medical profession has waned to a trickle.  The week those tests came back and she'd went through another episode of pain you can't believe the paranoia that set in (I went through it too when I was so ill).  I was given every possible ailment she might have as she researched in desperation, from "I might now be allergic to milk" to "I think I can't have anymore sugar".  The list went on.  I was worried, but also a little annoyed at the endless list of things she was mentally cutting out of her diet.  Bottom line, she was the one who forwarded the link from the UK site and found out it was still the Lisinopril giving back.  Between the high thyroid readings on both her test and my first test I theorized there may well be a connection with bad drugs and the thyroid.  I don't think it kills it, just screws it up, very possibly depleting it of any iodine you have in the first place.  The thyroid was the only common link that explained why the blood pressure still wasn't within range, it explained the high cholesterol and the high blood sugar.  So I gave her my opinion and she decided iodine was worth a try for her too.  That's the reason I ordered the higher strength Iodoral.  Now it's just a waiting game until I can tell you if it's worked or not.  I'll have to start a new section dedicated to Lisinopril sufferers (can you believe it's the 4th highest side effects posted on medications.com?). 

Oh, one more thing, when my lab test came back a few days ago for the TSH, it was a normal reading of 3.021.  I've found out since that thyroid tests are not that reliable even with symptoms, so I think I'm still iodine deficient and will continue with the treatment.

October 25th.  Let's see.  I've been returning to my prior life working building stuff again.  After throwing everything back in to my daily herbal regime, all is well.  Iodine supplementation going well and I'm now taking 2 a day (hopefully to aid in reversing the fibrocystic breasts).  I do still have my Achilles heels, but everything else is doing good.  I get up in the morning just fine, about midday I'll take a break and sit down.  When I stop I then have to get up on my feet and step on each one back and forth to get them limbered up (like an old woman who's stiffened).  Then I'm fine.  It's more annoying than anything.  By the end of the day this ritual has been performed every time I get up from sitting.  My heels still ache on and off, sometimes my ankles.  But hey, I guess digging a trench and setting up formwork can't help.  I'm just grateful to be able to do it, albeit slow as a snail. 

I have made my first batch of lotion with the magnesium chloride.  I can't tell you if it does anything or not, but I guess I'll keep it up just in case.  I call it Mag-Lo (for magnesium lotion).  Anybody want the recipe I'll email it to you.  So that's it for now.  If I'm not on here you know my life has to be getting back to normal.  Work awaits.