And yes, Pip...saw the elevator thing and loved it. Yeah, I related to it for sure...the art thing...although I relate to the calamity also.
No, you guy's are the peaches!
Glad you saw that Cordy!
Hugs again!
Pip
Sno
Hope you're feeling better! Ouch- those infections are painful!
I hope you're feeling better today, but even though I'm a bit late for this thread, I wanted to tell you of my many, many experiences with bladder infections over the years (too many to count). In addition to the very good advice you've been given, I've found that near the end of my antibiotic schedule, I almost always had a nagging, continuing pain that made me think I was still infected. So I'd call and get another prescription. Then one time the doctor insisted I get another test to see what was going on. There was no more infection. I was told to just continue to drink lots of water and cranb. juice for a few more days and sure enough, the pain finally stopped. It seemed my bladder was no longer infected but was irritated from the very meds that were curing the infection. So...get another urine test. Your infection was a bad one so you may still be infected, but on the other hand, you may just be having the same kind of reaction I had. Good luck. I really, really understand what you're going through and it's the pits!!!!Hey Snow!
Do me a favor, please? Pretty please? I've been posting about the WL/OO drink for a bit. APer's use it...but if a non-APer has, they haven't posted about it yet. Do you think you could use it for 2 weeks and then post your experiment results?
When I first started using it, I was pretty bad off (just started AP) and my left leg/ankle was pretty swollen. It was my husband who noticed the drop in swelling when I'd use it, and always about 30 minutes to an hour after drinking it. Because it's a liquid?!?!?!
When I followed the links and read the research, I think I know how it works. Somehow it helps alkalize the body and that rind has chelating abilities. When I saw it was designed for AIDS patients, who have like 4 T cells, and saw that RA/AI peeps have like a gazillion - my thoughts were - OK, it's working for the entire spectrem of AI disease - it'll work for non-AP people.
So, please think about it. I've started up again with using it at night to help me sleep better as some research is showing that it helps the liver not dump so much insulin in the wee hours (how our bodies are primed to 'wake-up') and it's helping - but it's not my cure-all. I just wake up less often on the days I use it, and when I forget, I wake up pretty much every hour on the hour. Whatever I have going on with sleep is obviously not just AI.
Anyway, just think about it, please. I really think this will help people and if you look at the ingredients, there's nothing in there that could hurt you.
Hugs,
Pip
P.S. Anybody who might consider it for sleep - you need to drink it about 2 hours before bed as if you don't - you'll be up using the loo in an hour. Sigh.
About the lemon drink, I think it sounds like a wonderful tonic, but I'm concerned right now the acid in the lemon might aggravate your bladder even more. I've found that even the Uristat (of orange pee fame) which I took to help with the pain until the antibiotics kicked in, caused irritation. I learned that it has antiseptic qualities and it's a fine line between giving relief and causing it's own irritation. My point is, right now your bladder is very cranky and can't tolerate anything the least bit acidic or irritating. Maybe this particular recipe doesn't have enough lemon to cause a reaction, I just don't know. But if it were me I'd wait until everything calms down "down there" and then try it. It sounds like a great supplement overall. In the meantime, water is very benign and, in my experience, very soothing to the bladder. One suggestion I have for every woman is to have Uristat on hand in your home at all times. Take it at the first sign of a bladder infection and it will decrease or eliminate the pain and urgency to go. It is not a cure for the infection, and you should still see a physician and get antibiotics, but if you're like me, a bladder infection always hits at a time when getting the doctor isn't convenient. The Uristat can provide relief until you get some antibiotics in you, and they start killing the infection. It does stain your urine a scary color, but I consider it a wonder drug when I am in pain. Uristat is sold over the counter at all drug stores.
Jesse -
It's the entire lemon - rind, pips and all. And yes, you'd think that it would be too acidic, wouldn't you? But somehow, the formulation takes it 'alkaline' and really helps to take the body to a more PH balanced state. I had some really pretty pictures of my stomach erosions caused by a hugely acidic diet and was terrified of the acid in the lemons. But it helped 'heal' my stomach by neutralizing some of the acid. I don't pretend to know how it becomes alkaline, just that all the research say it does. Go figure. Since then, I've seen other research talking about how apple cider vinagar does the same thing (and helps kill yeast) - but only apple cider - not the other vinegars. It's freaky!
Snow -
Yes, we use it to help support the liver and to manage a herx. It's very good for that and why one of the reasons why I think it'll help people on the tradiotionals.
Yes, the probiotics will help you with the vitamins. It'll help your body utilize them. Most of our food is converted to needed nutrients in the stomach/GI tract. If you don't have enough of the good stuff, then what you just ate gets excreted out and was not utiized correctly. If you have low mineral panels, a couple of months on probiotics should help raise those numbers a lot. And AI people ALWAYS have low mineral panels. LOL
Most APers take the lemon drink in the AM to help them get thru the day with swelling and herxing and all that. That's what I used it for. It wasn't until Happ posted that research on the insulin dumping that I thought to try it at night for my sleep problems. My hubby is a diabetic and I was familiar with how insulin gets dumped a few hours before you wake up as a prep to actually waking. Then I noticed I was always waking at 4 which was about 2 - 2 1/2 hours before my normal 'wake-up MOM!' alarm would go off. Thinking I might actually be sensitive to glucose/insulin whatever, I decided to start taking the WL/OO drink at night to see if it helps me sleep more soundly.
It does. But it's not the whole picture. I think the days when I screw up my probiotics are the days I don't sleep as well. I take my antibiotics on MWF 2 X a day. On those days, I have trouble getting the probiotics in between the antibiotics and then that WL/OO drink. Those are the nights I'm not sleeping as soundly.
Pip
Snow Owl - your friends at People's Pharmacy just did a radio show on UTIs. I didn't listen, but here is the link for it, plus a description, then I recommend reading the TONS of comments they received - a lot of a variety of info to consider, I think:
Did your GP do a culture on the sample? Our DD was having what she thought were bladder infections at college, they did a simple test, said it showed infection and prescribed antibiotics, which stopped the symptoms, but a couple of weeks later came back. I finally got her into a Urologist when she got home and he was pretty upset that they didn't grow the bugs in the lab to know what she really needed to take. He told her to demand a 24 hour culture, and get it faxed to him, if it happened again. Are you feeling better? Blood in the urine can mean the kidneys are involved.[QUOTE=Hillhoney]
One suggestion I have for every woman is to have Uristat on hand in your home at all times. Take it at the first sign of a bladder infection and it will decrease or eliminate the pain and urgency to go. It is not a cure for the infection, and you should still see a physician and get antibiotics, but if you're like me, a bladder infection always hits at a time when getting the doctor isn't convenient. The Uristat can provide relief until you get some antibiotics in you, and they start killing the infection. It does stain your urine a scary color, but I consider it a wonder drug when I am in pain. Uristat is sold over the counter at all drug stores.
[/QUOTE]
AMEN!! I wouldn't be without it.
Pip, that's interesting about the lemon drink not being acidic. And lemon, being a fruit, is so good for our health in general. In the longevity book I'm reading, "The Blue Zone," they talk a lot about how vitally important fruit is and how we need to eat A LOT of it, much more than most of us do. One of my favorite treats, since I've cut down on desserts, is to defrost some frozen blueberries and raspberries and mix them with Stonybrook Chocolate Underground yogurt, or vanilla yogurt. Yum!!! And almost guilt-free (the yogurt does have sugar).
Jesse and Snow -
Good to know about the need for more fresh fruit. I'm going to use Lorsters list of the 12 'must by organic's' and start trying them. Somebody here (Bodak? Alan?) posted about running a 'organic' vs 'store' mini experiment and I'm geeked to try the same. I just found the closest farmers' market and there's another one about 4 miles away on a different day. Those wacky, crunchy Calfornian's! LOL
Forgot to mention - the original research, and more links, to the Whole Lemon Olive Oil drink are on
www.keephopealive.org. But its not only there that I saw the info about how the combination of OO and lemon goes alkaline.
Hugs,
Pip
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