What It's Like to Be On 60mg of Pred... High Cortisol Hell

I think everyone (even some of those crazy hormone replacement doctors) would agree that 60mg of Prednisone is over replacement and is a pharmacological dose. 60mg of Prednisone is the equivalent of about 240mg of HC. I have never been on this much steroid before in my entire life. Add in that 10mg Decadron injection (about 600mg HC equivalent) and I am swimming in cortisol right now. This post is meant for those who are having trouble figuring out their current HC dose. However do not take anything I say as medical advice and before making any changes to your current medicines, be sure to bring it up with your doctor. Dosage changes in those with adrenal insufficiency is serious business and you should not be making changes based upon what someone says on a blog or forum.

Hives Got REAL Bad, REAL Quick

Hives from heavy metal chelation

Author's Edit Jan 2015: This post still gets hits from google, so I wanted to let everyone know who is reading this that I no longer chelate and completely gave up on it all after multiple episodes of dangerous hives.  

Yesterday the hives got really bad. Like I thought my life was in jeopardy because I started to have trouble swallowing and speaking. I went to the urgent care and was given a mega dose of Decadron (Dexamethasone) and told to take high doses of Prednisone for the next 15 days. Part of me was really worried about all of this and the injection, but I had little to no choice. My throat was starting to swell up on me and I was scared to go to sleep like that. Benedryl, zyrtec and some other type of antihistamine had no affect on the hives and I was freaking out.

Hives Are Not Fungal or Yeast

Now that I have been on the Diflucan and the hives have returned again (after stopping DMPS round), I think I can assume it is not from a fungal or yeast overgrowth. Right now they are not too bad, but we will see how the next few days go. I'm thinking longer rounds are the way to go for me since I have no symptoms while on round and the hives only start 2-3 days after I stop. Could it be metals resettling?  I will never really know.

One weird thing I have noticed is in some areas of my body, my skin looks shiny. I have no idea what that is about. Maybe I'll try to take a picture, but I have a feeling it won't show up on my old camera.

Round 4: DMPS Complete

Yesterday I finished up round 4 of DMPS and I feel good. No hives! haha Once I get some more money, I'll get another month's worth filled and just keep going.

My vision is definitely different right now. I think one of my contacts may now be too strong for me. It is odd as I am not seeing the same out of both eyes and at times I think it may be giving me a slight dull headache. I've been wearing my glasses more because I don't tend to notice it as much. My left eye is -5.25 and my right eye is -5.75. I'm thinking the left eye may be too strong and I'll have to dig around to see if I have an old contact somewhere that is -5.00. If I had extra money lying around, I'd go to the eye doctor. I am actually due for a new exam (just got the reminder card in the mail!), but since I don't have the extra money I will just keep wearing these contacts for now.

On my off days I make sure to replenish my nutrients and minerals. The one multi-vitamin that was not giving me heart palpitations has gluten in it. AHH! I cannot win, so I am trying to take individual minerals. Taking all of these pills can get quite annoying at times.

Rant About Hydrocortisone Use in Adrenal Fatigue Patients

Hydrocortisone Use in Adrenal Fatigue: Is it really as good as "they" say?

Today I have decided to rant about using hydrocortisone in those with adrenal fatigue, CFS and any of those non-descriptive syndromes or illnesses.

I have finally had enough of the nonsense and need to speak my mind.

When I started this blog, I was very naive and had no idea what I was getting myself into. When I did research about adrenal fatigue, all of the websites made it seem so easy. Just take some "adrenal support" and you'll be bouncing back like new in no time. Yippee!  I can tell you first hand, they were quite WRONG. Over the years I have realized that these websites paint a very happy, cheerful journey, but in reality it is a long painful journey. They may not willingly know, but they have started a very scary movement of people, telling most to skip going to endos and simply seek a natural doctor who is willing to prescribe HC. Some of them even suggest self-treatment, which is a whole other topic.

Round 4: DMPS Begins

The hives are gone and I decided to start up on the DMPS again. This will be another 3 day round and then after this, I may take a slight break. I will be out of pills and will need to get the money together to order more.

I have had no improvements with the POTS, but my vision is definitely more clear. It is actually freaking me out a bit. In all of my years of life, my vision has never gotten better. Every 6 months I usually have to go back to the eye doctor and get a stronger prescription. About 2 months ago I started to notice my vision was losing its crispness and figured it was only a matter time until I would be heading in again.

Then one day out of no where I realized how amazing the trees and stones looked. I figured I was just going crazy or imaging things, but now it's been a few weeks and it has stayed. The glasses I use around the house are an old prescription. Before I could NOT drive with these on as road signs are blurry and I would not trust myself at all. Yesterday I tagged along to the post office was commenting over and over again how well I was seeing out of the glasses.

We will see if this continues. If my prescription has gone down, I will be speechless--as would my eye doctor.

Hives Have Calmed Down

The hives are better.  The skin is still discolored where they were, but I'm not feeling itchy.  Thank goodness.

I'll probably start chelating again tomorrow.  I just want to give it another day.  I am still taking the Diflucan and will continue to do so.  It will be interesting to see if the hives come back.  Did the Benedryl or the Diflucan help?  I won't really know unless the hives show up again.

Update: Later in the day I had some more hives show up around my neck.  Still keeping an eye on this.

Diflucan: Will It Stop This?

I woke up and immediately called my doctor and the message on his machine scared the hell out of me.  It said he was going to be out of the office for a whole week.  I nearly vomited when I heard this, but decided to leave a message any way.   Thankfully I got a call from one of the receptionists/secretaries and she said she would contact the doctor and get back to me.  I told her she was a lifesaver and was extremely thankful for this because the hives are getting to the point where I might have to see an urgent care soon for high dose predisone. 

Hives on neck-Monday night

I got a call back a few hours later and my doctor agreed to have me try Diflucan.  Since the hives are not responding to zyrtec, he thought it was a very good idea.  I told her (the secretary) that this is my last attempt before I give in and go on prednisone.  The hives are really getting that bad.   This picture above is quite tame compared to the hives on my torso and lower abdomen, which you can see below.   

So itchy!

As soon as I got word it was available at the pharmacy, we ran over there.  I got the prescription and took my first one in the car. haha  Now I wait and see what happens. I don't expect miracles because I may have already reached the point of no return.   I don't want to go on high dose prednisone.  I'm going to be out of my mind if I have to though and that scares me.  I might need to buy a cage for my husband to lock me in...lol J/K!!!  I really do not do well at all on large steroid doses...

Fingers crossed this works.  I am not starting my round today obviously.  I was due to start back up again, but I need to get these hives under control first.

And It Begins...Hives

Tonight out of the blue, with no other symptoms or issues I started to get hives everywhere.  I do not know what to do now.  DMSA and DMPS now both are causing hives?  Here's the weird thing though...I am not on round.  I quit late Thursday night, so it has been 3 days.

Terrible Itchy Hives on Neck and Scalp

Very large, hard hives near elbow

The hives were out of hand, so I took a zyrtec.  I got some nice picture of the hives, so all of you can see what I go through now.  I've got no idea what to do.  The only things you can use to chelate cause me severe distress.  I still find it odd that it took 3 rounds for it to show up.

Well I have to let this all soak in and see what I want to do from here.  To say I am frustrated is a huge understatement.

Update: I woke up Monday morning and the hives are still here.   Wow!  I'm thinking this must be a candida/fungus flare up or some type.  I also have tinea versicolor on my neck now and it is starting on my chest.  You can see a spot of it (if you know what you are looking for) in the picture of my neck.  I'm not sure what to do, but studies I've read suggest taking Diflucan to control the fungus.  We will see what I want to do because I did not really want to do that right now.  Blah...never dull when chelating!

Update 2: It is now Monday night I see no end with these hives.  Zyrtec surprisingly isn't working.  I don't know whether it is because my Zyrtec is 1 year past expiration (haha) or if these hives are just not responding.  Ugh I really did not want to go on an anti-fungal, but I might have to give it a shot to see if it clears up.

Round 3: DMPS Complete

I am happy to say round 3 of DMPS is complete and I don't feel any symptoms still. As a reminder, I am taking 50mg of DMPS every 8 hours for 3 days.  I don't know if I should be happy, worried or content.  haha Is it doing anything?  I should I be feeling something to know it is working?

I am not the type of person who has placebo effects...Today I felt like my vision was more clear like I got a new contact prescription.  It was not particularly bright or sunny, so I don't think it had anything to do with lighting.  We'll see in the next few days if this sticks around of if I am just imagining things.   :)  As we were driving around, I could see every twig and stick on trees.  The rocks on the ground were more defined and it was just amazing overall.  The floaters are still there, but the actual vision felt like it was better than 20/20.  It was incredible.

That is all for now.  I'm still working on getting my thoughts together for Part 2 of the Lyme discussion. 

Lyme Disease Part 1: Another Scapegoat?

Today there are a number of doctors who feel the testing available for Lyme disease is flawed.  These doctors are called LLMD's, which stands for Lyme Literate Medical Doctors.   Many believe that even when standard Lyme lab tests come back negative, that does not rule out the possibility of having Lyme Disease.  There are websites that go into the science and exact reasons why this is the case, but honestly it is over my head.  I'm not even going to try to explain all of that.  If you want to read a more in depth discussion I recommend visiting this page. 

Credit: SteveFE

My problem-because of the inaccuracy of Lyme testing-is these doctors begin to assume everyone has Lyme disease whether or not they have any testing that shows it.  These doctors function on clinical diagnosis especially in cases of Chronic Lyme disease.  My opinion is chronic lyme disease and acute lyme disease are two separate things entirely...  I understand why these doctors feel the need to diagnose someone with Lyme because it gives a patient a label to tell their family and friends.  "Oh I have Lyme Disease".  It's much easier to say instead of a long list of symptoms.  However have we now gone to the other end of the spectrum, with many diagnosed with Lyme Disease who do not have it?  Those who I come into contact with online that have been diagnosed with Lyme Disease seem to have a long list of symptoms or medical issues.  They seem to do very poorly on hormone replacement and often times just never get better no matter what they do.

How does one know Lyme disease is the cause of all these symptoms and in the long term is it safe to simply blame Lyme disease?

There does seem to be a connection between Chronic Lyme Disease and heavy metal poisoning, but that does not make sense if you think about it for a second.  How does a tick bite give you metal poisoning?  Well the short answer is, it doesn't.  My theory is perhaps Lyme disease is a symptom of the overall dysfunction of the immune system.  Perhaps mercury first disrupts the immune system and the body cannot get rid of the Lyme infection.  Once the immune dysfunction starts to worsen, co-infections begin to rear its head and you see people with babesiosis, erlichiosis, bartonella and a long list of other hidden infections like CMV and EBV which are much more common. 

Chronic Lyme Disease is becoming the new Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, candida or fungal infections, Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), Epstein Barr Virus, Fibromyalgia  or any other viruses or syndromes, in the natural health community.  It is important to keep in mind that all of these are simply a symptom of a larger issue and not the CAUSE of the health problems in most cases. Treating the symptoms of these will not cure you of the underlying issue at hand and even though you may feel a little better at first, the dysregulation will find a way to show up in new areas.  I believe this is why when we fix our bodies in one way, it seems like we turn around and more symptoms begin to appear in other aspects.

I am afraid that Chronic Lyme Disease is becoming the new scapegoat for health issues.  While Acute Lyme Disease is real, I am more concerned about those who go to a doctor and are diagnosed based solely on symptoms.   The treatment is usually long-term, hardcore antibiotics which could have side effects of their own!  We have a real problem today because more and more people are becoming chronically ill with no hope of recovery.  No one knows what is happening and doctors simply do not want to take the time to figure it out.  How can these LLMD be certain that the symptoms suggested on Lyme websites are truly Lyme disease symptoms?

Anyone could walk into a LLMD office and get diagnosed with Lyme Disease. I think it's practically guaranteed...  I had an appointment with a well-known LLMD and I decided against it because I knew I would be placed on antibiotics.  I decided it's better to first deal with the mercury and then go back if this does not work out for me.  That's what I intend to do unless something extraordinary occurs.

Update April 3 2011: Here's an example of someone (who I've actually followed on another forum), who was told he had Lyme all these years and guess what?  Now all of the testing shows he does not.  He's wasted years of treatments and time to get better.  The reason why I've followed this person is because he has POTS too.  Unfortunately he is on the FDC yahoo group and will likely get suckered into that nonsensical bull.  Do I reach out?  I find most people don't want to be helped...

Part 2 in this series will talk about why I think I could have Lyme Disease and it did not come from a tick bite...

Getting Through the Heat Intolerance

Heat intolerance can make summer miserable.

As it starts to warm up I have been becoming increasingly concerned with how I will make it through yet another spring and summer.  We do not have central air conditioning in our house, so it can be quite unbearable at times.  Where I live it is not uncommon to see 90 degree days with very high humidity, so fans just do not cut it.  We put in window air conditioners, but they only do so much.  It is not quite like having an entire house with air conditioning.

With severe heat intolerance, I am constantly in the beginning stages of heat exhaustion.  With POTS this is just something you have to deal with I guess.  Not many people have been successful in treating their heat intolerance.  I am hoping chelation will help me, but I do not expect to see any results for at least 6 months to a year.  If I were doing IV's then I would likely see improvements much quicker, but for now I am sticking with oral DMPS.  I am still a little nervous about IVs and I don't know of any doctor who does them in this area. 

The beginning symptoms of heat intolerance are all too common for the POTS patient.  Here's a list of symptoms from the website medicinenet.com.  It is linked above if you want to read more:

* heavy sweating (not the case for a lot of POTsy-we do not sweat enough)
* paleness
* muscle cramps
* tiredness
* weakness
* dizziness
* headache
* nausea or vomiting
* fainting

The skin may be cool and moist. The victim's pulse rate will be fast and weak, and breathing will be fast and shallow.

At some time or another I've had all of these symptoms while bathing or simply sitting in my house doing nothing.  I do not sweat enough when I am hot.  I think that might be part of the issue.  However  I do sweat profusely if I am having a norepinephrine response to stress of some type or become extremely tachycardic upon standing.  Apparently these are controlled by two different parts of the CNS, so that actually make sense.  

I guess walking around in my bikini, keeping cold wash clothes on my head and getting cold baths is really all I can do.  The summer time is hell for me and I can not looking forward to it at all.

For those of you who got to the end of this article and think all of my symptoms sound "adrenal", think again.  I am so sick and tired of hearing about how I need adrenal support.  I am on adrenal "support" and it does nothing for POTS, nor heat intolerance, nor exercise intolerance, not the lightheadedness etc.  Sorry but I am just sick and tired of hearing this.  STTM and the adrenal yahoo group have both polluted all health forums, so everyone considers themselves experts on adrenals.  No you are not! Wake up, there are other body systems out there other than adrenals and hydrocortisone is not something you should be messing with unless you have real adrenal failure.  Period.

I made the mistake and listened to all of these armchair forum doctors for years.  No more!  /Rant off

Finished Round 2 DMPS

I finished round two of DMPS and I feel nothing.  I'm not getting any symptoms at all while chelating with this and it's great.  It's so good that I'm wondering if it is doing anything! haha  That's pretty much it for now.  We have a cold spell right now, but last week it was warmer and I could tell the shortness of breath is making a return.  Ugh...I hate POTS!

Round 2: DMPS and Humaworm

I started my second round of DMPS today, so I hope everything goes well.  A few days ago I also started taking Humaworm.  This is a parasite cleanse and over the past few years I heard a lot of good things about it, so my husband decided we would both give it a try.  I don't feel anything from it yet, so who knows?!  You take 2 pills in the morning and 2 pills at night.

That's really about it for now. 

Keratosis Pilaris

I have suffered from keratosis pilaris (KP) for as long as I can remember.   For those who do not know what KP is, helpforkp.com states:

While  KP resembles goosebumps, it is characterized by the appearance of  small, rough bumps on the skin. Primarily, it appears on the back and  outer sides of the upper arms, but can also occur on thighs and buttocks  or any body part except palms or soles. (Often confused with acne.)

Pubmed says that KP does not worsen over time, but for me that is not true at all.  No one in my family has this as far as I am aware of  I found out my sister has it too... and most sites suggest it is genetic follicular disorder.
 
When I was a young kid (5), I used to get so upset because my knees were covered in bumps.  I would find a needle in my house (without my mom's permission of course LOL) and pick at them.  Inside I found a hard white substance and a small hair all wound up.  Even though it bothered me, no one could really see the bumps unless they got really close.  At age 5 no one was getting that close to me! haha  Looking back, I did not know how good I had it.

Around 6th grade when I started to shave my legs, my legs went from being pretty smooth looking, to atrocious in a few weeks.  As soon as I started to shave, all of those hair follicles began to plug up, turn red and eventually get infected if I didn't dig out the hair.  I had a huge problem with ingrown hairs on my legs and could not figure out what was wrong.  Some of my friends thought it was razor burn, but I knew that was not it at all.  KP is not razor burn. 

For years I avoided wearing shorts because of how awful my legs looked.  I hated wearing a bathing suit because they were all bumpy and nasty.  Shaving the bikini area is not fun for someone with KP...  As I got older and began dating people, I was soooooooo self-conscious of my legs.  It was downright embarrassing because it looked like I had chicken pox or some other type of rash.  To this day, I don't know how anyone could find my legs attractive... 

Eventually I started to look into it more and thankfully my husband found the answer.  (He is so much better using Google than me).  Sure enough he sent me a website that talks about keratosis pilaris and that was when I finally had the answer to my troubles.  All those years it was KP causing the nasty ingrown hairs, bumps and reddness on my legs.  If you do not have KP, be very thankful.  I told my husband, I'd spend a million dollars to get rid of this...lol That might seem completely insane to those of you who do not have it, but for those of us who do, it seems quite logical.

KP effects your self-esteem on so many levels.  You buy a nice sexy black dress and if you dare wear it without stockings of some sort, your bumpy legs will be the talk of the evening rather than your outfit.  Wearing shorts is only for extreme weather conditions, otherwise it is too embarrassing to be seen in public with the bumps.  Over the years, it has gotten much much worse.  I gawk over ladies who have nice, smooth legs.  I will never have that, ever.

Now it is not only on my legs, but the back of my arms, buttocks and anywhere else where I attempt to wax or shave hair. As soon as I do this, the KP bumps, ingrown hairs and reddness begins.  Once a patch starts to do this, it will NEVER again be normal. 

I have included in this post a few pictures of the back of my arm.  I want to figure out how to get rid of this crap.  Not many people have been successful within the KP community.  All of the things I have tried never worked very well...

Exfoliating and every day shaving seems to be the most helpful.  I have to scrap out the outer layers of my skin.  It is like my body is unable to shed skin properly so it begins to build up on the outside.  It is truly odd.

Let me know if any of you have KP too.   We can moan and bitch and complain about it together.  haha!

Almost Completed First DMPS Round

I am 2 pills away from finishing my first DMPS chelation round and I feel nothing at all.  No headaches, no tiredness, no hives...nothing.  This is very exciting to me because I was concerned it would be really terrible.  With all of the negativity surrounding DMPS, I really thought it was going to be "tough" with a lot of symptoms and weird side effects.  Perhaps it is too soon?  I guess only time will tell! 

I am following my doctor's advice on this one and will take a 4 day break.  There is no reason to overdo it and if I continue to do well, I will look into increasing my dosage or increasing the length of rounds.

The fact I had no hives is pretty amazing.  I just hope I'm not jinxing myself. haha

Recap: This was a 3 day round taking 50mg DMPS orally every 8 hours.  I started half-way through Tuesday, so I will be ending on Friday morning after taking my 9th dose. 

Took My First DMPS Dose!

After some confusion on Fedex's part, I finally have my DMPS and I took my first dose of 50mg orally.  I'm not sure what to expect and hope that I do not feel terrible or get severe rashes from it.  Many people will tell you how terrible DMPS is, how it is toxic and going to kill me because it is not FDA approved.  They link the DMPS backfire website and say not to take it. (You need to do your own research on this and need to know I've only come to this decision after long term use of DMSA with no help). 

A few of the reports I read on that website were mostly just doctors doing the stupidest things or it seems like a lot of these people had underlying conditions that were not being taken care of in the first place.  One story the woman started vomiting (which is pretty bad) yet she admits in her report that she has had these 'attacks' at other times in her life before the DMPS, yet she says it was all caused by the DMPS injection.  This makes no sense to me at all.  If it was DMPS, then why did you have episodes of this during other periods of your life?  This should make this woman want to figure out WHY she is vomiting rather than blame it on the chelator.

Some of the reports show they were doing DMPS IV's with amalgams still in! Stupid.  Or they were doing multiple IV's a week and/or not supplementing with vitamins at all.  All of this is stupid stupid stupid.  Those who favor DMSA are typically websites who are selling it too.  Since DMSA can be purchased over the counter,  these websites will of course tell you how bad DMPS is when they cannot prescribe it to you.  They want you to buy it from their website and will say whatever you want to hear.

Also comparing DMSA to DMPS is very different especially since DMSA is not given by IV, ever.  If DMSA was given by IV, then I suspect all of the same symptoms and side effects would be associated with it too.  Especially with people doing stupid things with it.  

If you are a returning visitor to my blog, you know how little I care about "FDA approval".  I'm in this situation because of the FDA and their approval for using amalgams in humans.

Why am I trying DMPS?  Because DMSA is not working.  I haven't been able to find any frequent doser who has RECOVERED with DMSA.  One person on the frequent dose chelation yahoo group has been chelating for 6 1/2 years with little to no improvement.  Uh it's not working and this is my cue to start looking elsewhere. I don't want to be here 6 years later no better than when I started.  I've already wasted 3 years of my life. 

DMPS is much better at pulling mercury out of the body and that's exactly what I want to do.  Dr. Cutler himself says it is better for most people because it does not disturb digestion or yeast issues and will not lower your neutrophils.  I don't have issues with my digestion, but my neutrophils are always lowered when taking DMSA.  DMSA gives me unbearable hives/rashes and I am curious to see if DMPS does the same.  If it does NOT then I know the hives are from DMSA itself rather than it moving metals around.

After ~17 rounds of DMSA I am not feeling ANY improvements.  All of the improvements I have had since starting chelation can be attributed to other things I have done with my health such as taking hydrocortisone, florinef and drastically cleaning up my diet.   The frequent dose chelation folks would just tell me to "keep at it" and all of this nonsensical bullshit.  No, I should have been feeling SOMETHING at this point.

I am following the "frequent dose" schedule for this, but with DMPS you take it every 8 hours which will be very nice at night!  I'm doing 3 day rounds and I have enough pills with this bottle for 4 rounds worth.  If things continue to go well, then I'll get the refills.  The doctor gave me 5 refills!

Japan Nuclear Issues : Taking Iodine?

I am worried about this nuclear plant issue in Japan.  There are at least 3 reactors that are facing meltdown.  This is very scary not only for those in Japan, but for the entire world.   This could have catastrophic implications for the entire world depending upon how bad this gets.  If I were in Japan, I'd get the hell out of there and get as far away from these nuclear plants as possible.  Much further away than the 12 miles....  US Navy ships have detected high levels of radiation and have moved the ships further away.  The catch is these ships were over 100 miles northeast of the plants!  There are reports that the radiation from Japan will be reaching the US. 

As you can probably tell I have been studying this pretty much non-stop since the earthquake hit.  Ever since my bad bad reaction to taking iodine in 2008, I have been completely against any form of supplemental iodine.  I warn people to do it as their own risk.  You do not know how your body will react to it!

You have alternative news medias telling people to take iodine to protect the thyroid against the radioactive iodine.  In a perfect body this makes sense and may be very helpful.  Most of those people on these sites or alternative news media consider taking iodine completely harmless.  I can attest that it is not completely harmless.  It will cause your thyroid to create more thyroid hormone.  In my case, A LOT more hormone.  Those people already with an autoimmune thyroid condition but undiagnosed could send themselves into a thyroid storm...If that happens, you better get yourself to the hospital immediately.

The amount of iodine in the potassium iodate supplements intended for nuclear fallout accidents is VERY high.  I found my supply of 200 capsules of KI03. 1 tablet is 85mg (35mg iodide, 50mg elemental iodine).  The dosage is 2 tablets a day for an adult.  That's 160 170mg of iodine...HOLY COW!  I have never taken that much iodine, ever.  When my hair fell out, I was only taking 1-2 Iodoral tabs a day.  1 Iodoral tab has 7.5 mg iodide / 5 mg of iodine.  Huge difference there.  Even at these low doses, I felt completely OUT OF MY MIND as if I had drank about 10 espressos one after another.  Some people will say it's a bromide detox or some other bull, but I think it was simply the increase in T4 hormone production, which was then converted into the active thyroid hormone T3. 

Even though I vowed to never take iodine again, if this situation in Japan escalates and it is found the radiation has traveled to the US, even I might take some potassium iodide.  I cannot believe I just typed that...I am concerned it may trigger an autoimmune response in the body though like it did before in 2008.  Then what am I supposed to do.  I am very worried about all of this.  However, I suppose an autoimmune disease from iodine is better than having radioactive iodine in my thyroid.  The lesser of two evils is not very helpful in this situation.  Either way I'm going to suffer greatly. 

As it stands now my thyroid works pretty damn well, so I do not need to add any other health issues.

Current Events: Japan's Reports Aren't Adding Up

Since I have chronic health problems no one seems to understand, I take stories like those coming out of Japan very seriously.  Environmental toxins are something we as a society need to be more concerned about and take more appropriate precautions. The funny thing is, is I'm not a tree hugger whatsoever.  However, we allow companies and industries to pollute and destroy our environment, yet blame the little guy (you and I) for causing all of the pollution.  We are the ones to be taxed and punished while companies get a free ride to do whatever they please.  /sigh

I assume by now everyone is aware Japan is having issues cooling their nuclear reactors.  I've been following this story practically all of yesterday and now throughout today.

What we've been told does not add up.  Of course governments are known to minimize risk or even lie to its citizens.  Some people will tell you this is to keep hysteria to a minimum but I think in most cases its to just hide their incompetence or just hide information in general.   

From what I've gathered in the news (I do not own a TV so all of my reports are from online sources), is that the reactors shut down as expected when the earthquakes hit.  However even after the reactors are shut down, they need to be cooled for a period of time until all of the heat is removed.  This is what failed to occur because back up generators did not work properly.  The news says that these generators were damaged due to the water from the Tsunami.

Things have escalated since last night.  There was an explosion at the No. 1 Nuclear power plant early this morning.  I woke up to see that headline and my heart just sank.  Now I know absolutely NOTHING about nuclear power and how these things work, but this cannot be promising.  Officials keep saying that any amounts of radiation which have been vented or released into the atmosphere are not harmful.  Yet they have now increased the mandatory evacuations from 10 to 20km (12.5 miles) and they are not allowing anyone within 60km (~37 miles) into the region.  Common sense tells you that this does not make any sense...

In addition to those reports, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are considering handing out iodine to residents in the area of the nuclear plant.  They are also warned not to turn on air conditioners nor drink tap water according to this report.

There are now three workers who have been exposed to high levels of radiation, but did not need decontamination treatment.

Lastly, reports claim that there has been no meltdown, yet radioactive cesium and iodine was detected near the plant.   This report from Kyodo News, says that they have had to admit there was some meltdown, yet  those headlines are not being carried.  In fact the denial is still happening (at least online).  Perhaps the TV reports are caught up by now.   


While all of this is happening, we are being told at the same time everything is safe.  ...Yeah right.

Update 3:05PM - People are now being scanned for radiation at evacuation centers.  Another report here, which ironically also says a nuclear catastrophe has been averted.

So obviously something fishy is going on here and for the greater good of the residents in Japan and the world, we need the truth.   "They" say there has been no damage to the steel container, but how can you honestly believe them at this point...For hours they were saying no radiation was released yet there has been detection of radioactive cesium and iodine.  

Updated 3:10- The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency board is saying the only way the explosion occured at the plant is by meltdown of the reactor core.


And people wonder why I am so critical of the government, doctors and mainstream medicine?  They just say whatever is convenient at the time and whatever collateral damage that occurs means nothing to them.  If you are one of the ones who gets sick...well screw you.  They will ignore you and turn their back on you. 


I pray this turns out OK, but I don't have a good feeling about it.

Ride My Bike Every Day

I want to get more active and try to feel a little better about myself, but I have to be realistic. With POTS or any chronic health problems, self-esteem and self-confidence goes out the window.  How can you be happy with yourself when you cannot do anything normal with your life? 

I have decided for the rest of the month of March, I will ride my recumbent bike for at least 5 minutes a day.  I know this sounds truly pathetic.  I am 26 and can only do 5 minutes of bike riding? WHAT? I CAN do more, but I have to keep this time very low so I do not injure myself or overdo it.  I used to ride my bike for MILES and MILES on a daily basis when I was in my early teenage years.  I was known in the neighborhood as "the girl who always rides her bike".  When my family would vacation at Pymatuning State Park, I'd bike ride at least 10-15 miles a day easily and I loved every moment of it.  Even back then though I was suffering from POTS, however it seemed more easily controlled.  Having the wind in my face while riding always helped to keep me cool.

5 minutes should be doable... Just have to keep motivated.