“We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Cat Scratch Fever is caused by the bacteria Bartonella henselae.  It is transmitted by exposure to infected cats or kittens usually through a bite or a scratch.

Symptoms:

• Bump or blister at site of injury (This is usually the first sign.  I thought mine was a bug bite.)
• Lymph node swelling near the scratch or bite
• Headache
• Fever (Not always the case.)
• Fatigue
• Malaise (General feeling sick.) Read the rest of this entry »

I have a friend who is constantly getting UTI’s, or Urinary Tract Infections.  After talking to her I realized there was a lot of easy things to do to prevent UTI’s that she wasn’t doing.  I thought it was common knowledge, but she strongly suggested I put these things up on my blog for girls like her who don’t know.  Oh, the things you wish your mother had told you.

1.  Drink lots of water!

The most important thing you can do!  A throwback to a common camp chant, “What do we want?”  Clear pee!  “How do we get it?”  Drink lots of water!  Try to drink enough water that your pee is clear, or almost clear.  If you’re peeing apple cider color-hit the water cooler!

2.  Don’t hold it!

If you need to go, GO!  This is good for more than one reason.  Firstly, you are flushing your body.  It’s never good to have waste sit inside you for too long.  Secondly, if you hold your pee it can strains the muscles in your woo woo and cause damage.

3.  Wipe front to back

After you use the restroom wipe from front to back to avoid getting fecal bacteria in places it shouldn’t be.

2.  Pee after sex!

Ah, the joys of being a girl and the things that we go through.  All your parts down there are very close together.  During intercourse it is very easy for bacteria to make it’s way into places it shouldn’t be.  During sex, intense friction can cause your bladder to become inflamed so avoid positions that cause irritation to your bladder.  Again I say, pee after sex.  Even if you do not feel like you need to.  A good idea is to drink a little bit of water before you get down to business.

3.  Cranberry Juice

You may have heard this one before but you may not have heard to get the non-sugary kind.  I know, straight cranberry juice is awful, but yeast thrives in sugary environments which could make things worse.  I have concocted a blend of juices that I can live with.  Half a glass of Cranberry, half Aloe Vera and a to take the bitter edge off little bit of no sugar added grape juice.

4.  Avoid tight and wet clothes

Tight or wet clothes do not allow for a lot of breathing room for your girly parts.  Tight and wet clothing allows for bacteria and yeast to thrive.

5.  Avoid bubble bath, perfumes, douche

The coolest thing about a woman’s body is that it is one heck of a self cleaning machine.  Our bodies know where we should be chemically, so when we start primping and perfuming the chemical balance get’s thrown off allowing for infection and pain.  Many women are allergic to ingredients in the soaps, shampoos, and detergents that they use and girly parts are very sensitive.

Well I hope these help!  If you feel like you have a UTI go to a doctor!  If you don’t have a doctor or money, find a free clinic.  I only say this because I got a UTI about two years ago, it progressed into a kidney infection and then a blood infection nearly killing me.  UTI’s are not something to just let go, they can progress into problems that are much worse.  So here’s to your health.  I wish you all the best.  If you have any suggestions or have found tricks that have helped you, feel free to leave a comment and share the love.

Cheers!

I just have to write and say again how grateful I am for cognitive therapy.  I was out walking today and considering where I was in my life.  My health, wealth, and happiness for example.  I realized that certain things that I am currently going through would normally have really depressed me.  I am just so grateful that I have control.

The FDA has approved a new, yet strangely old, method of treating depression.  Transcranial magnetic stimulation-is a “noninvasive” treatment that sends weak electric currents through the brain to excited the neurons.  It is supposed to treat migraines, stroke, Parkinsons Disease, dystonia, tinnitus also and psychiatric conditions e.g. major depression, auditory hallucinations.  Let me pose a question.  How is sending electric current THROUGH a brain noninvasive?  I know. I know.  Noninvasive means nonsurgical, but I digress.

What is the technique?  They stick a metal coil, encased in plastic to your head and turn up the juice.  Sound familiar?  Anyone?  Anyone?  Electroshock Therapy?  The low current sounds an awful lot like the brainwashing techniques from the Holocaust.

Before you decided to go with this treatment, just be aware that no proof of cure has been established, anywhere.  What are the side effects?  Well, even though it has been approved by the FDA the long term effects have not been fully explored.  Though reports of people “changing” seems to be common.  Long term depression has been reported in patients as well.  Oh, and consider some lovely short term side effects:

* Seizures (rare)
* Pain at stimulation site, face, and skin
* Headaches
* Muscle twitching
* Eye pain
* Toothache
* Stress which lead to thoughts of self harm or mania
* Nausea

Makes you think.

I would like to quote the wise Jonathan Castile, “It seems to me that there are three things that a child needs to learn in order to lead a happy healthy life.  Only thing is none of these things are taught in school.  How to handle your finances, how to have healthy relationships, and how to raise kids.”

To that I say, amen sir.

There are certain distortions that can effect the way you perceiving your world.  These distortions are like lens filters on a camera.  When you put a night vision lens on a camera everything you see through the view finder will be darkened and distorted.  Same goes for your thought patterns.  With a little practice these distortions are quite easy to recognize and control.  You just have to know what they are!  Here are some basic thought distortions that you will want to master.  Print them out, write them down, and develop a knowledge of them.  You will find yourself listening to what you are thinking and you will start to see how illogical you are being about certain things.  The fact that someone hung the toilet paper the wrong way at work is not reason to quite your job!

1.  All or Nothing:  You see things as all or nothing.   Either you have to be perfect or you feel you are worth nothing-that you are a complete failure.  With this distortion there is no gray area.  Cut yourself some slack!  No one is perfect.  Even Superman messed up a few times-you don’t see him downing shots of kryptonite.

2.  Overgeneralization:  You experience one negative event and you find yourself thinking that it will always thus-that there will be a never ending pattern of defeat.  You overgeneralize the outcome.  If you don’t succeed, try, try again.  No need to let one event keep you from moving forward.  Instead learn from it and move on.

3.  Mental Filter:  This is when you pick a single negative detail and dwell on it until everything in your life becomes darkened and distorted.  Kind of like the lens filter.  Let it go, it’s generally not a big deal.  Forget the toilet paper is on backwards.  It doesn’t really matter in the great scheme of things.

4.    Rejecting the Positive:  You reject the positive experiences in your life, by insisting that for some reason they don’t matter.  You find yourself playing the victim, constantly saying that things aren’t that good, they could be better.  When you stop and think about the distortions see how you can be cheating yourself out of small self celebrations for the good and positive things in my life.

5.  Jumping to Conclusions:  You jump to a negative conclusion even though there are not facts to support the outcome you’ve imagined.  Stop yourself, sit and think, or better yet sit and write the facts as they really are and then draw a realistic conclusion.  This filter seems to be more prevalent in people dealing with relationships.  There two subcategories in this distortion.

a.  Mind Reading:  You assume that someone is acting negatively towards you, and you don’t bother to check it out and ask them.

b.  The Fortune Teller Error:  You prediction and assume that things will turn out badly, even to the point of believing it to be true.  You can’t predict the future.

6.  Exaggeration:  You exaggerate the importance of things such as failure, someone else’s achievement, or mistakes.  This works in two ways.  You can also minimalize achievements or good qualities about yourself, even someone else’s limitations.

7.  Emotional Reasoning:  You assume that just because you feel a certain way than it is true.  “I think bad thoughts therefore, those bad thoughts are true.”

8.  Should Statements:  Should Statements are so misleading and unhealthy.  You may think that you are helping yourself by saying “I should work out.”  Thus motivating yourself to go work out.  Why do you feel crappy about it then?  This is you giving yourself a guilt trip.  Finish the sentence, “I should work out,  but I’m not.”  Should, Musts, Ought to’s, are words that are disabling and make you feel frustrated.  Instead replace the word “should” with the words “I am.”  Not “I am going to”, just “I am”.  “I am working out.”  You may feel a little silly doing it at first, especially if you aren’t working out at  that moment, but after a while of saying it you may find yourself being motivated to go for a walk.   “I am” very happy that I discovered this little trick because “I am” a much happier person.

9.  Labeling, and Mislabeling:  This is a severe version of overgeneralization.  Instead of describing a mistake or error you described yourself, “I suck.” or  “I am a looser”  A student is not a  looser because they got an D on their trig test.  That one negative moment of their life does not make him/her a loser.  It’s ridiculous.  Also, this distortion can surface when someone else’s behavior gets on your nerves.  I not without guilt when it comes to throwing insults at every driver who cuts me off in morning traffic.  However it is unfair to “That idiot!” when I call him names, when for all I know he could be a rocket scientist.  How does calling someone else a label make things worse for me?  Labeling is emotionally charged and unhealthy because it leads to Metal Filters, (see above).

10.  Personalization:  You see yourself as the cause of some problem.  I find that if you are constantly apologizing for things that are not your fault you need to stop and rethink your thinking.

After going over this list for the first time you may make many realizations about yourself.  You may see that you have been very illogical about certain things in your life.  You may say, “Wow, I do that all the time.”  Now is the time to start monitoring your thoughts.  Keep a list of these distortions handy, if you are feeling overwhelmed pull them out and go over them.  You may find that you are able to realize what set your negative mood off.  The next step is learning to Replacing Bad Thoughts with the Good and True.

First things first.  We are going to do this in baby steps.  This is not something I was told to by a professional or a doctor, but I find that is the most important thing for when you are starting cognitive therapy.  Keep a journal.  You can write about your day, things you see, people you encounter-just don’t forget to write the thoughts that are going through your head.  When you saw someone did you feel happier?  Sadder?  Did you stay the same in an emotional sense?  Why did you get happier, sadder, or stay neutral?  Think about these things and write them down.  This will start you in the right direction.  You will begin to pay attention to what you are thinking and how it affects your moods.  So get a notebook, or a journal and start writing!  Write every day.  I mean it, every day.  It doesn’t have to be a lot, but I would write for at least fifteen minutes. Next Step: Learning the Distortions

I realize that I have procrastinated something that I find challenging, which is writing the article on how to do Cognitive Therapy. It’s quite a daunting task, but it will be up soon. Keep checking for updates.

Two words for you:  Melaleuca mouthwash.  The actual Melaleuca mouthwash brand from the company in Idaho.  This week I had three really nasty canker sores from drinking out of a old water bottle.  I swished two evenings in a row and got rid of canker sores!  It was wonderful.  I usually have them for four to five days.  I have been a Melaleuca customer for years now and am just now understanding the power of that minty fresh goodness.  Pardon me but I am so excited!

I guess there is a catch, you have to be a Melaleuca customer to get it, and that requires a contract, (which is a promise that you will buy about $50 dollars worth of product a month).  So if you have a friend that is a member ask them to order some for you.  Or honesty though, I love their products and I recommend becoming a member.  (I think I could sign people up-not sure, would have to check my account type.)  I swear by their cleaning supplies.  I am really sensitive to chemicals and I could wash my face in most of their cleaning supplies and they still work  better than anything I could ever find in a store!

I do have a hard time taking their vitamins.  Don’t get me wrong, they are really effective and that’s the problem.  I have a hard time eating in the first place so when I take Melaleuca vitamins I have no appetite at all.  So I guess if you are on a diet they would be really great.

This company rocks!  Not only that, but it’s just too cool that it’s from my hometown, Idaho Falls!

By the way, if you don’t want to become a customer of Melaleuca I find that Lysine the vitamin, (get it at Wallgreens or Rite Aid), cuts the cure time for canker sores in half.