Update on My Health

Well.... where to start??

We're definitely making progress in terms of the lymphedema, weight loss, and cleansing my body. Are we progressing on the Parkinson's? I don't know.

Joshua, one of the lymphedema specialists, challenges me every time I go for therapy. He recently challenged me on the subject of defining success. There are lots of ways of measuring success, so let's start counting them!

• I've lost about 12 pounds, and lot of inches. I don't know how many, but my clothes fit differently, for sure!
• My lymph nodes are open and working better. My lymph fluid is thinning and creating a new path through my body, and actually starting to drain. My feet and legs are decreasing in size.
• My legs used to be so tender from the acid in the stagnant lymph fluid that it caused great pain when my cat walked across my lap. Yolanda's diet protocol and Joshua's accupressure treatments have thinned that fluid dramatically, decreasing the tenderness. My cat walked across my lap without causing me pain the other day! It seemed so natural that I didn't even notice until Mike brought it to my attention!
• I'm off one of my medications! I had so much stomach pain from my PD meds that my gastroenterologist put me on medication for stomach spasms, and I was taking it 4 times a day. I've gradually eliminated that medication completely, because my diet has been so easy on my stomach!
• My dental appointment went great! My cleaning took less time than it ever has, and my hygienist kept telling me how clean my teeth were--I can honestly say I have never had such a good appointment! I told her how our diet has changed and she said that definitely has a huge impact on my teeth, and that's probably why I had such a good report. 
• Even though I still have PD, I know my body is getting healthier and stronger through proper diet and regular exercise (although I've fallen off the exercise bandwagon a little bit until today).

When I look at it like that, I have a lot of success to report, and I feel encouraged! I'm so thankful to the Lord, to my family for encouraging me, and to Yolanda and Joshua for their healing hands and sound treatment.

I'm also thankful for the disciplines I am learning through all this--another thing Joshua challenged me with recently. As he pointed out, even the practice of travelling 50 minutes to the north side twice a week is building discipline. The fact that each week I work 40 hours, I go to church, I go to exercise class twice, I eat almost all my meals at home, do extensive grocery shopping, and travel twice to the north side and back, all speak discipline. When there's no room for anything else, and you tighten up to make it all fit, and you keep doing it day after day, that's discipline. You figure out what you have to let go, and what you can't do without. You learn how to make the hard decisions, and what ground rules you must use to make those decisions. You learn discipline.

I may not yet have an answer for Parkinson's Disease, but I have made measurable gains. I am healthier and stronger in body. I can see the progress in my feet and legs. I am learning the discipline it takes to live in my present circumstance.

I hope that God will be able to take some of the things I am learning and shape me into something useful for Him and to others. I still want to see tangible results. I know that's a tall order, but I'm starting to believe it could happen.

And that's progress!