Lyme Disease linked to MS, ALS, Lou Gehrig's Disease and others

What's Cookin'?

I was inspired by this post at Heavenly Homemakers.  Then I looked around to see what I had on hand.  I have a pre-cooked steak that I took out of the freezer this morning for tonight.  I was so thrilled to find it because dh still hasn't had a chance to look at our oven.  Hmmm... How about a squirt of organic ketchup (can I ferment regular ketchup with whey instead of doing the whole recipe from scratch, anyone?), a few scraps of cooked grass-fed beef, and a sprinkle of shredded cheddar inside the popover-thingie?

Next decision:  I could use the wheat per the posted recipe/NT and let the yogurt dough sit out over night (and w-a-i-t until tomorrow when things are crazy to put them together or I forget) OR go ahead and make the dough with white flour with zilch nutrition and put them together today.  Hmmmm....  Life dictates white, BUT I'll also make some wheat to make biscuits for tomorrow's broccoli soup using the buttermilk biscuit recipe in NT.  The buttermilk biscuit recipe is conveniently on the adjacent page to the yogurt dough in NT.  I'm using 1/2 kefir and 1/2 water instead of the yogurt or buttermilk in these recipes because I don't have enough.  I'm also using a weird combination of fat/oils because I don't have enough butter and am out of palm shortening (butter, coconut oil, sunflower oil to equal the amount called for in the recipe).

I was inspired by this post by Kelly to make broccoli soup.  Then I looked around to see what I had on hand (a recurring theme of mine).  I have broth going in the crock pot so that's no problem.  However, I also have 'bean juice' from cooking those Great Northern Beans that I saved with some beans to make bean soup.  I'm thinking of using the liquid 1/2 and 1/2 with broth and bean liquid.  I dug around in the freezer and could only come up with a pack of mixed broc and cauliflower.  Maybe it will be broccoli-cauliflower soup.  I do not have any cream cheese or cream.  I will probably just use 1 cup of milk.  Since grocery shopping is out of the question until Friday I'm going to have a go at it with these ingredient changes.  I will do everything except the cheese today and store it in the refrigerator.  Tomorrow I *may* heat it up on the stove to get it going, then put it in the crock pot on low at noon.  It should keep until dinner that way.  About 30 minutes before serving (or right before if I've forgotten) I'll add the cheese.  The biscuits will go well with this.  The "NT" I keep referring to is Nourishing Traditions:
















Lyme Disease is linked to MS, ALS, Lou Gehrig's Disease and others:

I tried and could not embed this video correctly.  It's only 6 minutes long.  If you or a loved one suffers from one of these 'diseases' with 'unknown' causes... Why not get tested for Lyme?? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nIuIF6q8FA&feature=player_embedded_

Why is the IDSA giving people with late-stage lyme a slow death sentence by NOT giving them antibiotics that can save their lives? Or rather, why are insurance companies denying coverage based on the IDSA's guidelines while many other doctors and other organizations recognize the need for long-term antibiotic treatment? [and yet teens can get abx for years for acne??]  Antibiotic use in humans is not half as bad as the unconscionable use of the same in cows that we eat or its ubiquitousness in hand soaps.  Without antibiotics I would be dead by now.  I am not exaggerating.  The bacteria was already in my heart (and every other organ); which was freaking out and scaring the daylights out of me.  I am NOT a big proponent of antibiotic use - but there are times when they are needed in an acute infection to save lives and help someone's quality of life.

If you decide to get tested, Igenex Lab is recommended by many LDA doctors and they have pages you can print and take to your doctor to fill it out and send in with your blood sample.  Do the Western Blot IgG and IgM.  If I remember right it was about $100 out of pocket.

http://www.igenex.com/

Unfortunately, they can only test the body's response, so you could be very, very sick with an active infection (like I was) and be low on the scale because your body has quit fighting it so much and it's taking over.  Someone else who has LD and seems to be functioning with it may test higher because their body is creating more antigens and fighting it off/keeping it at bay with less severe symptoms.

What's Schoolin'?

I used this book for a lesson in the writing workshop class that I'm teaching.  I gave each student an orange (actually a clementine) to hold while I read the story.  Then we brainstormed things it made us think about that we could use as a writing topic.  Then we did a quick write (3-5 minutes of non-stop writing).  We're still generating topics but will soon switch gears.  It is called An Orange for Frankie by P. Polacco: