Nerve Toxins and Neuropathy: Perfect Together

Dear Friends,

I urge you to go back to my very first posts on this hard-work-filled blog of mine. This blog has been a true labor of "sweat and suffering," combined with hours and hours of detailed research over the years. My earliest posts (from 2011 through 2014) articulate my precise reasons for beginning this blog: Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) and a thorough defense of its reality.

I, myself, have had MCS for several decades now. In the 1990s, I charted my symptoms/environmental circumstances and finally came to a full realization of the very real patterns of my body's reactivity to common chemicals all around me. In my attempts to explain this to others and help myself, I was met consistently with laughing disbelief, annoyance, and even, at times, rage from other people. Hurt and seemingly discredited by this disbelief wherever I requested helpful omissions of chemical products (so that I could function there), I resolved to "answer back" every possible disbelieving reaction I could recall ... with this blog. And so I did (posts 2011 through 2014).

Following herbal treatment for Lyme disease in 2013, I noticed, by 2014, a dramatic lessening of my MCS reactivity. I have been reminded this past month, however, that my MCS is still active to a noteworthy degree and that I must withdraw from my various recent common-chemical exposures in order to detox seriously once again.

To refresh for those who have not been following along: I struggle with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), (autoimmune) antibody production in response to gluten ingestion, and Type II diabetes. I have found, over the past two to three years, that my toes (and the toes of one foot much more than the other) have been (1) increasingly icy-cold, frostbitten-feeling, alternating with a red-hot feeling of burning; (2) swollen and clunky-feeling; (3) pins-and-needles-feeling with spikes of sharp nerve pain; and (4) largely numb.

With my "gold-star" alternative/orthomolecular MD having retired during COVID, and with my having no medical insurance for several years now, I've been dealing with my diabetes and gluten problem on and off as poverty's varying diet permits.

I am writing again now, after a long hiatus, due to an observation of mine this afternoon which suddenly became clear enough to stun me. I'd been obscurely witnessing this phenomenon over and over, perhaps for the past few years or so, without my having pulled it out of my brain fog for actual inspection. 

My "toes" trouble, as noted above, began and dramatically worsened over the past two or three years. (My blood-glucose readings, for the most part, have consistently been way "over the top" during the past eight years, since 2015 when I was diagnosed.) I have been focusing for the past several days, however, on detoxing from a multiplicity of aggravating common chemicals in the church I've been attending. How long have I been attending this church? Since late 2019. A time period of ... a little over three years. Aha!

While I have been ignoring my high blood sugar (because my physical distress from chemicals lately has been so severe that I cannot work on that problem, the gluten problem, and the diabetes at the same time), I have been eating, all weekend through today, strawberry nonfat yogurt which contains a good amount of sugar. Unbelievably, however, my toes feel so much better today, after two days away from the church interior which absorbs (when reasonably filled with attendees) the multiplicity of chemical scents! Is this "toes" problem of mine due to "diabetic" neuropathy, or is it really due to -- and severely worsened by -- excessive chemical-scent exposures at my under-ventilated church each week after week for the past three or so years? Moreover, so many times this past year, I've noted to my husband that my toes flare up on Sunday evenings after Sunday Mass in the mornings, and in the evening when I've occasionally visited a hospital or nursing home earlier in the day. You know what's in hospitals and nursing homes: innumerable applications of disinfectants!

Therefore, I am putting these novel questions of mine "out there" today:

1) Might what is called "diabetic" neuropathy be caused and worsened not by sugar consumption and/or high blood glucose, but by exposures to common chemicals (many containing nerve toxins) in the home or outside environment?

2) Might diabetes, itself, in some cases, be caused by exposures to common chemicals containing nerve toxins?

[Common-chemical/nerve-toxin considerations: strong chemical laundry scents in homes, on clothes, and from dryer vents to lawns/yards; chemical-/petroleum-based perfumes, colognes, hair products, soaps, deodorants, aftershave, scented candles, essential oils, potpourri, incense, and cleaners; indoor and outdoor pesticides; smoking and secondhand smoke; public-building/hospital/nursing home/rehab/hospice/doctor's office chemical cleaners and disinfectants; and public/medical restroom cleaners, disinfectants, plug-ins, and aerosol deodorizers, etc.]

3) En route to answering Questions #1 and #2, has the following ever been investigated and documented (?): Are those with diabetes and "diabetic" neuropathy also subject to excessive chemical products in their environment, and/or have these individuals become sensitized to multiple chemicals -- meaning, do they have undiagnosed MCS ?

This could be a fatal omission of necessary awareness and diagnosis in mainstream medicine. 

~ Carolyn

Beyond Words: The Gift of a Cat

Dear Friends, 

I am finally ready to announce, with great sorrow, that our sweet and diabetic cat, dear Minette, died on January 14th, 2021. I am left to fend with my own diabetes without my parallel "person," Minette, nearby to spread her patient, kindred spirit.

I miss her so.

May Minette enjoy, in Cat Heaven, an abundance of the peace and love she so generously shared with our family.

Love to you, sweet Minette ... 

~ Carolyn

 

Seeking New Horizons

Hello, friends, 

Just came across this article and thought I'd share it with you:

10 Herbs to Shrink Tumors and Kill Cancer Cells - Posted by Katleen Brown | Oct 15, 2015 | Ayurveda 

May this information benefit anyone who is in need of hope and a potential remedy.

Cheers!

~ Carolyn

Cat News

Hello, friends,

I'm happy to tell you that our cat, Minette, has picked up and is thriving! She's aging and frail, in her own way, yet newly spunky in other ways.

You simply cannot predict cats!

Cheers!

~ Carolyn

Sad Days

Dear Friends,

Our cat, little Minette whom I referenced in my previous post, appears to be dying ...

The vet, last night, thought she might have a tumor in her mouth. She's barely eating and her sugar is too low instead of too high ...

We're giving her Karo syrup to offset her lack of eating, to give her back legs some energy ...

But our little sweetheart Tuxedo cat, always so gentle, so mild, so docile ... even able to understand our words, at times ... seems to be winding down.

Please pray for our little kitty. This is so sad.

~ Carolyn

Minette Marra, six years ago

The Unexpected

Hello, friends,

There's been a slight interruption of my rediscovered wellness "rhythm" -- an emergency with our sweet kitty. Her cat motor was running down alarmingly and it seemed, earlier this week, as though she might die. So far, she's been found to have had a blood-sugar level over 500 mg/dL. This beautiful, elegant-looking creature was stupified by her high blood sugar. She was treated with insulin injections and, last we heard, improved to not needing more insulin yesterday.

Our little kitty sweetheart would nuzzle my legs -- the most painful part of me, due to my own diabetes and possibly the aftereffects of Lyme disease -- with her nose several times a day. She seemed to know that my legs had a problem; and she was simultaneously asking me to help her with her problem -- but I didn't know what it was.

Despite the finding of cat diabetes, rabies must still be ruled out. Due to this variable, and due to kitty's dear nuzzling of me in my diabetic state with previously hot and itchy shins, I was ordered by the supervising veterinary neurologist to go the emergency room for immunoglobulin injections to generate an immediate immune response to rabies, and to get the rabies vaccine. While stressed by the fear of rabies and death and the three anti-rabies inoculations I received that night, I was exhausted, hungry, and thirsty. I wondered, once we got home, how on earth my blood sugar was doing. It was 180 mg/dL -- my lowest reading ever! Go figure.

I will be returning, on fixed, prescheduled days, to complete the full series of anti-rabies inoculations. Our cat also received her rabies vaccine, yesterday.

There is immunoglobulin help for humans to fight the early onset of rabies -- but no help, yet, for the animals who contract it.

Please pray for our little sweetheart kitty as we hope for her steady improvement with each passing day needed to rule out rabies.

Thank you ...

Hoping for the best,

~ Carolyn

The Crazy Thirst I Thought Would Never End

Hello, friends,

Where did my insatiable thirst go? Now, I have to remind and coax myself to drink even two bottles of water per day (four cups)! What an incredible change!

Since Thursday evening, February 7th, when I discovered my post-snack blood-sugar level to have been 500 mg/dL, I've got my waking blood-sugar readings down between 196 and 205 (and even a 180 before dinner, one night). Considering I don't sleep many hours per night and I need a small pre-bedtime meal to address actual hunger, this, to me, is real and steady progress! My improved metabolic state brings a feeling of lightness and reentry into the human race. My vision, also, is beginning to improve, as my lens prescription is becoming too strong once again.

My mainstays have become low-fat (2%) plain yogurt of varying brands and types (regular yogurt and Greek yogurt) combined with chia seeds, gluten-free oatmeal flakes, and/or fruit -- with or without stevia. There is no longer any gluten in my diet, as I believe it hiked up my blood sugar dangerously and sparked total-body inflammation (lab results of over a decade ago demonstrated that I should no longer ingest gluten, as my body had responded with antibodies to it). There are no fixed limits to my portions of this food and that: I let my natural appetite self-regulate and then test my blood sugar, later, to see how the sample meals/snack experiments fared, medically. It's been going great! My hunger has increased and is easily addressed with these choice foods. It's truly necessary, now that my metabolism is resetting itself, to feed my cells more of those food nutrients which, previously, they were simply unable to receive.

Walnuts and pecans are my nut staples. Raw cashews, whenever and wherever I can find them, will be another nut staple. Chicken is my new staple meat; and spiced, boneless sardines are my staple fish. Chick peas and onions mixed with olive oil, apple cider vinegar, oregano, turmeric, a dash of black pepper, Celtic sea salt, and cayenne pepper are another staple. Deep green spinach and/or fresh broccoli heads go well with dinner ... The menu is evolving. The real perk is that I'm not only not starving, but I'm also able to eat as much as I feel I need to without driving up my blood sugar, because these foods are truly good for my own diabetes management. Moreover, I don't feel deprived of tasty foods. I'm really happy with this developing menu.

I find "Stevia in the Raw" to be delicious -- something to look forward to with yogurt, hot or cold oatmeal, hot buckwheat cereal (gluten-free!), tea, and/or coffee.

There are sound rhymes and reasons behind these food choices, plus many new points I've learned in the past week and then even revised as I've learned more ...

I'll tie it all together, in more detail, in subsequent posts, as I go along.

Stay tuned!

Cheers!

~ Carolyn

Lucky To Be Alive

Hello, friends,

Life changed for me forever on Thursday evening, February 7th. For the first time since I was diagnosed with diabetes in October, 2015, I searched for my tester kit which I'd bought and never used. I couldn't find it. Two days earlier, my chiropractor had urged me to prick my finger and at least find out the ballpark of my blood-sugar level. I was scared to prick my own finger. I was scared I'd find the tester kit. Then, I was scared when I didn't find it.

I went to the supermarket pharmacy and bought a new kit. This time, I was serious. The chiropractor's story of his friend who'd had a totally unexpected blood-sugar level of 600 mg/dL had sunk into my thick head. Now, it was urgent.

I'd eaten popcorn and a corn muffin with coffee, and I'd begun to feel a sickly, feverish-like ringing in the ears, a spacey feeling -- not good. This was not the ideal time to practice learning to prick myself, but it was now or never. After pricking myself about 11 times at all different pressures in all different places, I finally drew a proper-sized sample of blood and applied it correctly to the side of the testing strip. "... 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ..." the machine counted down. There it was, my blood-sugar bombshell:

500 mg/dL.

This was at least one hour after my corn muffin. What had the reading been before that? And that was a snack -- not a full serving of any of my favorite culprit foods -- many of them much worse and/or far more sugary than popcorn and a corn muffin. How many days and nights had my blood sugar reached 500 -- or more? Combine that with the grueling thirst, the gallons of fluid so often expelled ...

That number explained most things. I was lucky to be alive. My chiropractor's advice, urging me to self-test, may have saved my life. Tonight, I checked for ketones. Thankfully, none.

I've gotten my blood-sugar level down into the 200s and 300s, alternating, since Thursday night. I've begun walking. I've learned that my blood sugar seems to have done best, Thursday night through today, with a bean-and-onion mix. I've learned that the caffeine in coffee spikes my blood sugar. I've learned that decaf coffee is not only not entirely worthless, but also that a chemical-free brand of decaf coffee can confer the same protective benefits as regular coffee.

I'd started to feel really bad after drinking my usual cups of regular coffee. The magic was gone. In its place, my body felt dirty and depleted after a few sips of it. Most brands started to taste bad to me. My body was giving me all of these clues -- these biologically valid pieces of information.

Today, I'm no longer thirsty. Now, whatever water I can pour back into this body can begin to restore a real metabolic fluid balance ... which, according to my own theory [The Water Principle ©], might assist the mending of the whole diabetic picture through the kidneys onward and upward.

As for my pancreas, I would prefer to coax it back into functioning at optimal level rather than patronizing and consoling it with diabetes drugs which will just enable me to eat poorly and burn it out.

If it turns out that I need insulin, of course I would take it. So far, however, I've not been producing ketones ... so I believe there is hope for my pancreas to recover whatever function it has lost through glucose receptors being blocked by excess fats. I'm not a good candidate for palliative blood sugar medication, as my chemical sensitivity and otherwise low blood pressure can predispose me to hypoglycemic episodes and cardiac arrhythmias.

My task is to get this blood-sugar level lower, lower, and lower. Given that it's been only one full day of my working at this, the progress made thus far gives me great hope.

The other good news is that you haven't missed a single thing of my "journey of managing diabetes" since my post of October 6, 2015, because I hadn't done a thing about it.

Whether or not I was ready for it, my "journey of managing diabetes" has now begun. I'll keep you posted.

Cheers!

~ Carolyn