cliche t-give post

Thankful: /adj/: at peace, cheerful, comfortable, complacent, content, glad, gratified, pleased, satisfied, serene, beholden, content, contented, grateful, gratified, indebted, much obliged, obliged, overwhelmed, pleased, relieved, satisfied.

Sitting around the table in Oregon tonight eating turkey and fixin's it was time to take turns sharing what you're grateful for. I got a shout out from my husband and the in-laws. Woot! Here's what I said.

I'm "thankful" for my health even though it's not where I'd like it to be. I'm "thankful" that I've been able to assist with our business and that we enjoy it and still get along. :) I'm "thankful" that a year has brought progress and opportunities we weren't expecting. I'm "thankful" that our "hardships" are few and small.

I'm saying "thankful" because it seems like such an overused word at this time of year. Everyone just throws it around like they know what it means. I have no idea what it means. I hope I never confuse it with "privileged." I hope to be more careful to remember to be "thankful" for little things like warmth, shelter, food and people around me.


I'm also thankful for the little boy in this picture who happens to be my husband.

just so you know...

...I'm going to see Emily in 23 days. 4 days in DC having some friend time.

I.
Can't.
Wait.



PS, Ashley came and made-over my living rooms. Pics to come!

Naturopathic Medicine

Carl bought me a book last summer called Treating Epilepsy Naturally while he was in Portland just a month after my grand mal seizure last May. I was working through a lot of anger and confusion. You can read any blog circa May-November 2008 to see what I mean. Somewhere in the mix of moving and my mom getting me some books I thought that the book was silly and didn't think to read it.

When frantically grabbing some reading material for the plane ride to New Orleans last week, I saw the book in an unpacked tub (shocker) in my room. I thought, "why not" and threw it in my bag. I've read half the book. It made those feelings of anger reappear. I found out a HUGE load of information that could explain my seizures. I could have hypoglycemia, a vitamin deficiency or about 291238012948 other contributing factors to my epilepsy. Specifically, the type of seizures I have can be controlled in other ways and with little to no medication. I was ready to leave messages for any doctor willing to do tests and figure out how many and/or if I have any of these contributing factors that may be making me have seizures. It's incredibly interesting to find information that is helpful in explaining that my problem isn't rouge neurons in my brain. What news! It's also pretty frustrating. I was mad at myself for not picking up that book a year ago! I could have saved so much time and money! Arg!

I've made it over to one medication instead of two which is nice (and much cheaper!) The dose has been increased. I thought the increase in dose would control my seizures since it seemed to be making a big differences. Turns out it hasn't! I've had 3 different episodes of seizures in the last 2 weeks. GR! So you can imagine how this would fuel my frustrations when reading this book and how I may be going about treatment all wrong!

All this to say, I've gotten some information on some doctors, nutritionists, and made a list of tests I need to have in order to start putting some pieces of this new puzzle together. I'm excited to possibly turn my situation around. I'm also nervous to find out what other problems my body has and how I'll have to fix those first in order to fix the overarching issue of epilepsy. We will see.