Tag: environmental illness

Believe

“Mom, if you’re really here like people say you are, then you better show me because I’m not feeling it. How about you find that tiny screw for me?”

Grief is a non-linear set of emotions that Swiss-American psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross described as having five stages that ebb and flow across the lifespan following any significant loss. In her seminal work, On Death and Dying, she identified the stages as denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance (1969), and later acknowledged that some people may not experience them or might not undergo all five (Health Central, 2022).

My own grief after her death centered heavily in the anger stage.  I feel robbed by her autoimmune disorder of what I hoped would become a different kind of relationship in which Mom and I could interact freely, in person, rather than by phone calls and letter-writing.  In a sense, I grieved the loss of our “normal” relationship as long as she was sick. My grief stage while she was alive was most prominently centered around denial. Even though I grew up from the age of nine with her disease, after becoming an adult, I set my hopes on her becoming well enough to engage more freely in the things of life together. I naively believed that one day, we’d be able to watch movies or cook meals together. I felt deep remorse over not having this while she was still here. For many years after leaving home, whenever I attempted an impromptu visit, Mom inevitably called the next day to say that she got sick after I left. I did not want to be the cause of Mom’s suffering, so this led to fewer and fewer in-person visits; I felt guilty for not attempting to see her more often.  I also felt isolated at key times of life, such as when my children were little, and while I went through a difficult breakup. Mom was always ready to listen over the phone and help in her ways, but I could not just show up at her home and be with her. 

There is a certain comfort and healing that comes from simply being in the presence of a trusted loved one without the pressure of conversation. Comfortable silences can be a language of understanding in a relationship. Telephone calls are not the best substitute for in-person relating because they presume a need to converse. Remaining silent for more than a few seconds often leads one or the other participant to conclude a phone call. One of the things that I grieve and feel angry about is that Mom and I never grew in our adult relationship with each other to be in each other’s presence, existing as our authentic selves, near to each other, and just being. Our phone calls, though cherished, became sounding sessions for my issues. She wanted to hear what was happening in my life, so I spoke. She did not often discuss what was happening in hers, mostly because she did not wish to “burden” me. Yet mutually bearing burdens is how relationships grow, and ours did not have that opportunity until Mom was actively dying and she needed my help during home hospice. For most people, hospice lasts about six months; occasionally, a hospice patient will live more than a year while receiving palliative services and treatments for their incurable conditions. President Jimmy Carter offers a good example of someone on the longer side of the hospice survival spectrum, having been in a hospice program for fifteen months at the time of this writing.  President Carter entered hospice one month before Mom did and was still functioning at an unprecedented level when his beloved, Rosalyn, passed away in November 2023. Like many patients, though, Mom lived for only a few weeks after entering hospice, and I was only able to be with her, in person, for the last seven days of her life.

In reflecting on her life and our relationship, I have self compassion for the fact that I’m angry about what was lost. I look to a time of acceptance, but for now, I take solace in the notion that anger is an energy (Lydon and Laswell 1986,  Lydon 2014) that can potentially avert its alternative, depression.

After Mom’s death, my middle child and I installed security cameras at her house to keep an eye on things when we couldn’t be there. A few weeks later, during the first battery change, I dropped one of the cameras’ tiny set screws into a rock bed below.  I wasn’t feeling Mom’s presence at all and wondered about other people’s experiences, saying they felt their loved ones around them. I got down on my stomach to search for the screw amidst a whole bunch of decorative stones and was pretty sure it would be impossible to find. I started talking [ranting] and demanded, “Mom, if you’re really here like people say you are, then you better show me because I’m not feeling it. How about you find that tiny screw for me?“

Well, I dug and dug and never did find the screw, but after a few minutes, I flipped over a certain rock, and what did I see? An engraved message from Mom. If not for dropping that screw, I really had no reason to be digging around down there, with such close attention, for many months, maybe years. I was indeed moved by this and felt her silent, guiding presence. It wasn’t as I expected it to be, but truly, her love felt tangible in that moment.

The engraved stone that I found in a rock-bed at Mom’s house.

References

Health Central, LLC. (2022, June 7). The five stages of grief [blog post]. Accessed on May 20, 2024 from https://www.healthcentral.com/condition/depression/stages-of-grief

Kübler-Ross, Elisabeth. (1969). On death and dying. The Macmillan Company, New York, NY.

Lydon, John. and Laswell, Bill. (1986). Rise [Song]. On Public Image, LTD, Album. Virgin and Elektra.

Lydon, John. (2014). Anger is an energy: My life uncensored. Dey Street Books/Harper Collins. New York,  NY.

Posted on by Stacy V. 0

The Herbal Medicine Chest Part I

“The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.”

~Voltaire (1694 – 1778)

The thing with herbal healing that often gets overlooked is its role in providing immediate access to comfort and cures of the annoying little everyday things. How many wasted hours are spent trying to access services or controlled medications when those little rashes or styes could have been immediately addressed with the herbal medicine chest in one’s own home?

My family has always handled these kinds of things without the added stress or delay of “going in.” We keep a supply of herbal medicines for many purposes. The most significant is a group of infection fighters like golden seal, Oregon grape root, olive leaf, wild oregano oil, eucalyptus essential oil, and a patented silver nanoparticle product that has been confirmed safe by the FDA because it does not lead to the build-up of toxic silver levels in the body the way that colloidal silver does (Olerich, 2009).

When you want to tackle an infection without antibiotics, it requires a hard-hitting approach. You must use multiple naturopathic anti-infectives, alternating them every hour until the symptoms break, then continuing to take them three-four times a day for a good week to ten days. It’s a hassle of its own kind, but one that our family and Mom’s clients found more palatable than waiting in pain for an appointment and having our immune systems challenged by over-use and side effects of antibiotics. This is especially important to people like Mom who suffer from systemic candida overgrowth and / or non-alcoholic liver disease.  In Mom’s case, long-term workplace exposure to industrial and salon chemicals destroyed her liver, immune system, and ability to tolerate other common substances like food dyes and additives, perfumes, synthetic fibers,  or household cleaning products. Today’s term for the condition is multiple chemical sensitivities. Mom  turned her home into a toxin-free haven and at its worst, she stayed inside for months on end, much like David Vetter (1971 – 1984), who became known as The Bubble Boy due to his genetic condition called Severe Combined Immunodeficiency.

Article about Mom in local newspaper, 1983
p. 2 of news article

Mom was diagnosed with only a five percent liver function in 1982 – 1983. With a compromised liver, individuals often have difficulty metabolizing drugs.  Inadequate drug excretion and persistently elevated serum drug levels can lead to drug toxicity and further damage to the liver and other vital organs (Rowden, 2023). This illustrates the importance for some people to have safe alternatives to drugs when dealing with everyday health concerns. Of course, we know that the liver is a regenerative organ that can regrow even after 90% of it has been removed (Reynolds, 2021). Mom worked tirelessly for the rest of her life to reduce further liver damage (through avoidance of toxins) and to support her body nutritionally to rebuild liver function. For her, the herbal medicine provided more than just a treatment path for everyday ailments but a total nutritional approach to feed her body the micronutrients that could support self-healing. Evidence of the efficacy of her approach is in the lab results over time. Without prescriptions, and in her own home, after leaving the hospital against medical advice in 1983, her liver enzymes and other functional lab results went from lethal levels to a partly normalized status, which allowed her to live another forty years, albeit with serious restrictions.

Using Mom’s principles and knowledge of other herbalists’ teachings, I too have successfully treated varicose veins, full-blown mastitis, mild UTIs, stomach issues, hernias, pink-eye, cuts and bruises, anemia, and many other things for myself, the kids, pets, friends, and my own clients in a perinatal clinic.  I’m not claiming any status here; it’s the opposite. The stories demonstrate that each of us can go to our own plant medicines and pick out what will help for many things without having to engage with the broken parts of the medical system for non-emergency situations.

Mom disengaged from the medical system because it reached a point where no further help could be offered for her autoimmune disease, and the experimental, “last resort” drugs were known to cause more harm than benefits. She did not live a risky existence for injuries and severe illnesses like heart disease, diabetes, or cancer, so she did not have to rely on medicine for many things, but she did occasionally need its  help, such as for thyroid medication in later life and to remove her gallbladder when it was over-wrought with painful stones. 

That is the beauty of self-directed, home-remedies as basic first-line healthcare. We can use the accessible plant medicines for the things that are less serious or beyond medical help and turn to allopathic medicine for things that do not respond to or should not be handled by home remedies.  There is a surprisingly long list of things that can be helped on our own. The two drawbacks I’ve experienced are taking herbal treatments before seeing a medical doctor, which sometimes reduces symptoms and prevents the physician from identifying the problem -or- the plant medicine is contraindicated with the proposed drugs and a decision about stopping the herbs vs. not starting the drugs has to be made. 

I spent the past several weeks combing through archival materials about ancestral midwives and found that herbal and home remedies used before the Modern era were effective for treating severe conditions beyond simple maladies. Ancestral healers treated their neighbors’ and friends’ serious issues with little more than the local plants of their regions. One midwife, an African American woman who went by Aunt Mary Ann Menard (née Labuche) (ca. 1767 – 1833) was known to use herb teas to cure people who  were beyond the  help of local surgeons. She is known for saving the life of her granddaughter, who was brutally assaulted in infancy with a resultant skull fracture and exposed area of her brain. Aunt Mary Ann covered the wound with a silver coin, nursed her through the injuries, and the child lived to her 80s. She wore a little protective cap over the hole in her skull for life (Milwaukee Sunday Journal, 1925).

Does this mean today’s medical methods are wrong? No, indeed, they’re part of a necessary, multidisciplinary approach to  sickness and wellness. Modern medicine is especially effective in dealing with acute trauma and certain well-understood diseases. But as long as there are medical mysteries, barriers to access, and extreme adverse effects of certain treatments, we need adjuncts and alternatives. The key is in knowing which things need urgent high-tech attention vs. time, comfort, and nourishment.

One of the tenets of plant medicine is that it offers micronutrients that foster the body’s ability to self-correct. I love the Voltaire quote, “The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.” It’s also important to be clear about when to shift strategies in either direction. That’s achieved by having a planned if/then decision flow with contingency steps. If the UTI symptoms persist more than 24 hours after starting home treatments, then we will call the general practitioner. If the oncology team says they can offer only palliative measures, then we will look into plant based cures and support. If the wound is bleeding out, then we will skip home remedies and seek emergency services. If the wait for treatment is many days, then we will initiate something at home while waiting.

Of course, I come to these ideas from a standpoint of privilege;  I’ve been blessed with education, housing, sanitation, high quality herbs, health and herbal training, people who shared their knowledge, etc.  Someone with fewer resources may not have the same results. Those of us who can, should share the knowledge and resources, and all of us should have an herbal medicine kit at hand and be trained on how to use it. Stay tuned for part II, where I’ll discuss products to keep in stock at home.

—–

References

Milwaukee Sunday Journal. (1925, November 29). Woman first state “doctor”: Settlers long healed by herb remedies of Aunt Mary Ann.

Olerich, Karen. (2009). Silver shield with aqua sol technology: Are you confused about colloidal silver? A Renewed Health. Colorado Springs, CO. 

Reynolds, Susan. (2021, March 9). Cells that maintain and repair the liver identified.  NIH Research Matters. Accessed on April 15, 2024, from https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/cells-maintain-repair-liver-identified#:~:text=The%20liver%20has%20a%20unique,beyond%20the%20point%20of%20repair.

Rowen, Adam. (2023, August 4). The role of the liver in drug metabolism [blog post]. Medical News Today. Accessed on April 15, 2024, from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/liver-and-drug-metabolism

Posted on by Stacy V. 0

Detour

Image credit: Hotpot AI, 2024 Panabee, LLC

The road map of parental death turned out to have inconsistencies with the actual road.

~Stacy V.

This site began as a way to honor mom’s legacy and share her naturopathic healing wisdom. In the year since she departed, I envisioned that monthly or even bi-monthly posts would be inspired while combing through her belongings and tending to her affairs. When the reality of her death set in, ensuing chaos was anticipated; a vaguely familiar road map from prior experience of family losses was in my mind, however ethereal it seemed. But the year has not proceeded in linear fashion–of course it did not–and I find myself frustrated that her tangible presence has slipped away without more than a handful of writings. She would be pleased, I’m afraid, since she was a private person who did not embrace current day trends towards public story-telling and media attention.

The road map of parental death turned out to have inconsistencies with the actual road. An unforeseen hospice enrollment morphed into a rapid demise, followed by a flurry of funeral planning and management of immediate needs. Her posthumous impact and unseen hand on my life have been felt differently than imagined. There has been little combing of belongings and even fewer safe opportunities to emote over her departure. Her funeral was held off by a few weeks to allow for family participation. After writing thank you cards and carrying out the instructions of her will, we were well into June when I enjoyed a small respite by celebrating my grandchild’s and my own birthdays with some long drives in mom’s zippy little Chrysler Crossfire. I find meandering treks on my bicycles more enjoyable than car rides, but driving her little car created a sense of bonding. As an autoimmune sufferer, she could not go to public events and gatherings to enrich her life, so she took drives in her sporty car with the music turned up high.

But June festivities intersected the July news that my long-time housemate and companion was riddled with Stage IV, metastasized cancer, and the size and speed of that highway overrode whatever else could be done to make headway on the road that I was on. One of the hard sayings of Jesus was, let the dead bury their dead. It’s a hard saying because it feels callous to dismiss loved ones who are no longer with us. But it is a true and helpful spiritual sentiment because our duty is to the people that are in the here and now. Once our loved ones cross the threshold, the spirit that animated their flesh is in the hands of Creator; we are inept to do anything more for them and a faithful person must accept that loved ones are in more capable hands than we can dream of. Let the dead bury their dead it’s time to put our life force to the needs of the living. For me, that means tending to my companion’s health struggles, and that is how I’ve spent the past eight months. Their journey is a story for a different set of posts; suffice it to say that it has been a difficult ride for us both.

Mom was the single most consistent, loving helper, sagely guide, and prayer-angel in my life. I’ve not had the fortune to be well-cared for by a partner. I am blessed with friendships that are mutually uplifting, but the comfort, love, and vested commitment of a peer has not been my experience. My companion was sickly long before the cancer diagnosis, and they can not show up as an equal while pushing their rock up a hill every day. The closest I’ve had to an experience of invested love is Mom’s continual devotion to the goals and well-being of my children and I. It does not feel good to let go of writing her story, and I won’t stop altogether, but the pace is much slower than expected.

Her life was cut off too early; her grandmother and mother both lived to ninety-eight. At eighty-one and physically healthy despite autoimmune disease (AD), Mom might have shared another fifteen years with us. I say that because I discovered after her death that something was slowly poisoning her at home, which caused the onset of symptoms that she believed was her AD flaring up. She was sure that the methods she had successfully employed for forty years to mitigate flares were no longer effective, and that meant it was time to walk on. In reality, a silent killer was filling her home and making it impossible to feel ok. Intuitively, I sensed that AD was not the culprit behind her rapid and hard-to-pinpoint demise. At Christmas 2022, one of my gifts was a two-pack of Co2 detectors because I wondered if something in the home was behind it. But Co2 was not at play. On October 31, 2022, she had a new gas-powered water heater installed, and three days later, a new gas furnace. She complained that the plumber who installed the water heater had cut some corners; her cousin also used the same plumber in mid November  2022 and had major water damage following the failure of a faultily installed pipe. When the HVAC team came on the third of November, she had them correct a small but annoying installation issue with the condensation hose that she noticed on the water heater. What she didn’t notice was that the connections between the gas line and water heater were leaking unburned methane. Since Mom was hypervigilant about volatile organic compounds (VOCs) like those emitted by adhesives and plastics, she installed two large HEPA air filtration devices in her home to counteract the effects of VOC off-gassing from the new appliances. However, I reached out to the engineering teams at our local gas utility provider, and at the air filter manufacturing facility and they both confirmed that HEPA filters remove the large molecules of a sulpher-based additive that warns people of natural gas leaks by creating a rotten-egg smell. But, HEPA filters do not remove the gas itself, which is made up of tiny molecules.

It wasn’t until after she died that I turned off the filters and the furnace, only to reenter and be overwhelmed by the familiar rotten-egg odor permeating the house. A visit by the HVAC team confirmed my guess, and the pipe was repaired, but it was too late to help Mom. It doesn’t feel right or in any way honoring to let go of tending Mom’s affairs, yet my friend, who is alive and right here in my life, has pressing needs that cannot be ignored.

This is an expose on detours. Mom’s life was detoured as has been the life of my companion and my own.This new territory is in an entirely unfamiliar landscape. Without the help of the old maps, it’s time to make big, blind decisions that will involve temporary if not lifelong upheaval, and it’s time to hunker-down and steer. I sometimes feel Mom’s unseen hand on my life. Memory of her ways has certainly guided and provided naturopathic insights that are helpful for my friend. I recall what she taught about clients who were beyond medical help and have been applying those methods for my companion’s sake. With their comorbid conditions, the oncologist determined they were too weak to withstand chemotherapy. The plant medicines, which Mom taught as being put here by God as help for all diseases, have indeed helped tremendously. Since July, my friend’s quality of life and life expectancy have improved by admission of their oncologist; lab results, scans, and outward appearance are normalizing and by their own observation, things are looking up. The cancer is receding without chemotherapy. There will come a time to publish that story, but this is not it. For now, I will sign off in gratitude for Mom’s help with this. She believed wholly in the unseen energies to heal, whether by vibration or subtle chemical makeup. Maybe the plant medicines for my friend are just a vehicle of hope while Creator and Mom do the real work of healing. Nonetheless, I am grateful for those hidden GPS-style guides, even if I do not yet have the high-tech plug-ins to visualize the process and understand the steps. Peace, respect, and belonging to you all.

Posted on by Stacy V. 0

Nancy’s Healing Modalities

There is no place for judgement about individuals’ chosen healing paths. The key is to understand the implicit right to make those decisions on their own terms, and in their own best interests.

~Nancy’s Sunshine

There are many healing modalities that people can pursue for their own wellness journeys. There is no place for judgement about individuals’ chosen healing paths. The key is to understand the implicit right to make those decisions on their own terms, and in their own best interests. Some will choose the ways of modern medicine with its focus on tests, technology, surgeries, and pharmaceutical agents, and that will be the right choice for those who do. Others will adopt a balanced skepticism for what is offered by medicine, opting to use what makes sense and has a solid record of effectiveness but letting go of procedures and drugs that cause more adverse effects than positive results. And then you will encounter a subset of people who by philosophy, personal experience, circumstances, or tradition are not interested in what doctors and hospitals have to offer. Folks in this last category are often the one’s whose chronic health conditions have reached the limit of what doctors can provide; others come from family and cultural traditions that include methods that are not part of the scientific approach, but they know that they felt better after trying them. Still others are caught unwittingly in structural complications brought on by the mass-production of healthcare and a health insurance industry that creates barriers to access.

Mom’s road to naturopathic medicine began in the 1970s when she fell ill with a complex of symptoms that did not fit neatly into diagnostic criteria: fatigue, brain fog, abdominal pain, digestive issues, bloating, constipation, food intolerance, nausea and vomiting, inability to maintain weight, disordered eating, headaches, sleep disturbances, infertility, irregular menstruation, inflammation, rashes, temperature sensitivities, and pain. She visited several doctors, including our family physician of many years and multiple specialists to whom she was referred for evaluations. Each doctor found her to be in what they termed, perfect health and suggested that she go home and learn to enjoy the nice life that she had. After several years of physical decline, she learned of a team of doctors running a cutting-edge, environmental medicine clinic in the far corner of our state. She was hospitalized in their care for a whole month when I was fifteen years old, and she underwent a battery of blood tests, imaging studies, and the newly developed practice of allergy patch testing.

allergy patch testing: dozens of small medical patches attached to the back of a person to determine what substances are allergens.

photo credit: https://drsandyskotnicki.com/patch-testing-101-process-determining-skin-allergy-causes/

The results showed that Mom was allergic to almost every substance under the sun from perfumes, food-grade dyes, lawn and gardening chemicals, polyester and acrylic fabrics, certain foods like beef, corn, and wheat, to food additives, medications, formaldehyde, pollen, dust, mold, and yeast. She was found to be in a state of liver failure brought on by years of exposure to industrial and salon chemicals while working in a garment factory and as a beautician; doctors estimated only five percent (5%) liver function at the time of hospitalization. The medical team was kind and concerned with helping her recover, but they were out of ideas for what to do because the typical medications used for liver disease were also allergens on her skin patch tests. They offered an experimental drug in hopes that it would repair her liver and get her through the crisis. Mom and Dad listened to everything that the medical team had to say, and understood that the doctors were outside of their realm of known outcomes. After praying for guidance from above and reading the package insert of the experimental drug, they learned that the most common adverse reaction of that drug was liver damage. With so little remaining liver function to work with, they made the difficult decision to check out of the hospital against medical advice and take their chances at home. Dad carried Mom out of the hospital and made the long drive back with the solemn understanding that they might be bringing her home to die, but would do everything in their power to strip our home of offending substances and change the ways that she cooked, ate, and lived.

The changes at home led to baby steps of improvement and instead of growing more sickly she was able to slowly develop a day or a few days at a time where she didn’t throw up. Keeping food and water down, even tiny amounts, improved stamina and consistency of practice led to consistency of recovery. She learned from her mistakes too. Sometimes “good days” would turn south through inadvertent contact with hidden substances such as the time that she tried an all-natural, whole grain oat cereal that had trace amounts corn meal from the factory where it was produced and packaged.

Through it all, Mom persevered with the help of Dad and our extended family who found ways to support her, whether by shared harvests of wild game and organically grown vegetables, sewing or searching high and low for 100% cotton garments in a polyester era, or collecting spring water from clean wells. Friends and family learned to use non-scented detergents and avoid all perfumes when visiting and even the folks in our cul-de-sac neighborhood helped out by cutting back on their use of lawn chemicals and avoided smoking cigarettes or using spray paint too close to our house.  The community rallied and Mom regained strength, leading to her discovery of new purpose. 

In her forties, Mom started a cottage business providing foot reflexology. Clients were instructed in what to wear to prevent activation of her sensitivities when they spent time in our home, and through those instructions, people began learning about ways to reduce their own exposure to toxic chemicals. I believe her gentle approach of simply sharing her journey while caring for others’ feet was a Christ-like healing activity that warmed people’s hearts and created an opening for this new and unusual topic to be considered. Through Mom’s gentle telling of the issues, others began seeking consumer access to “cleaner” products for themselves. As in all endeavors, there is a place for didactic instruction, a place for protest and demands, and a place for gentle persuasion.  The 1980s were a time of rising awareness of environmental impacts on health and ecology.  Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was published in 1962 and gained momentum alongside environmental disasters like the Cuyahoga River fire and Santa Barbara oil spill (Wikipedia, 2024a). Earth Day and the Environmental Protection Agency were established and Greenpeace had been making headlines since the early 1970s. But academic approaches and political action do not resonate with all people. Many find those methods divisive and presume hyperbole for ratings or election favors. When an individual feels defensive or manipulated by topics like these, many will shut down or dig in their heels to oppose whatever feels polarizing or existentially threatening (Waldroff, 2021).  The wisdom of a tiny, frail woman from a suburban, midwest village went a long way towards breaking down barriers and opening doors of understanding about the ways that toxic products were impacting real people.

By the 1990s Erin Brockovich had built her case against Pacific Gas & Electric regarding groundwater contamination in a California community (Wikipedia, 2024b), and in the early 2000s Al Gore published multiple treatises on environmentalism and sustainability, including the book and film, An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It. It was also possible to buy 100% natural fiber clothing for adults and children in many retail establishments, to find household cleaning supplies and grooming products without perfumes or dyes, and to obtain organically-grown fruits and vegetables, including a new baby food brand called Earth’s Best that contained 100% organic fruit and vegetable purees without added sugar, salt, or fillers.

I credit Mom’s simple, loving approach as being a vital part of the movement that brought us to where we are now, in the new millennium, when organically grown, food is readily available in all stores and notably that whole big-box companies now exist with their entire business models resting on organic, natural goods.

In her time as a reflexologist, Mom kept a unique record of her service in the basement safe. Upon her passing, I found the records indicating that she had provided over 5000 hours of reflexology to her friends and clients, even though it was just during the five or ten hours per week that she was feeling strong and healthy enough to do so. It comes down to about five sessions per week over twenty years, and somewhere around a thousand different clients. I see Mom’s life as a true example of the adage, “one person can make a difference.” In the course of her life, she gently reached the hearts and minds of many who would never have considered environmental impacts without their monthly foot massages.

In her lifetime, Mom never returned to contemporary medicine. Occasionally she’d hear of a doctor with a good reputation, and would try meeting with them, but ultimately, she found their drug- and surgery-heavy methods incompatible with what she learned about her own health needs outside of the medical realm. There was one health emergency in her remaining years where surgery was necessary, and she navigated it with a hybrid approach, using her plant medicines and energy techniques instead of opioids to reduce inflammation and ease pain. Even when it came to her final months, she had a concierge doctor (MD- primary care) pay a few house calls to confirm that she was, indeed, approaching the end of her life. In between the initial health crisis in the 1970s and her final breath in 2023, Mom abided by the beliefs and methods she discovered on her own when medicine couldn’t help her, and she stood as an unwavering advocate for others who were called by conviction or circumstance to become their own best self-care advocates when they interface with or step outside mainstream medical systems. I am grateful for her teachings and the impact it’s had on my own life as well as our community, who have grown and embraced different concepts around caring for our planet and selves.

References

Waldroff, K., (2021, January 1). Healing the Political Divide: How did we become such a divided nation, and how can psychologists help us bridge the gap? [Blog post]. American Psychological Association. Accessed on February 3, 2024 from https://www.apa.org/monitor/2021/01/healing-political-divide

Wikipedia, (2024a). Environmental Science. Accessed on February 3, 2024 from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_science#:~:text=Environmental%20science%20was%20brought%20to,chemicals%20like%20the%20insecticide%20DDT

Wikipedia, (2024b). Erin Brockovich. Accessed on a February 3, 2024 from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erin_Brockovich

Posted on by Stacy V.

Retro Carpets and Squash Muffins

Yet here’s proof that forty-plus years of homemade meals in this kitchen could be made without so much as a smudge, and that represents the care by which Mom tended her every endeavor.

In addition to her role supporting others who suffered with autoimmune disorders, multiple-chemical sensitivities, allergies, cancer, and other difficult-to-manage health conditions, Mom kept an immaculate home which was necessary to reduce allergens and help her belongings last as long as possible to avoid the need to purchase new items that would go through an off-gassing process. Off-gassing is known to materials experts as a complicated issue involving airborne toxins emanating from building materials, furnishings, cleaning products, car interiors, computers, and other household items (Gray, 2020).

Before Mom became ill in the late 1970s, a salesperson who sold her the iconic, orange and red mosaic carpet that still lines her floors, said that the best way to make the carpet last was to keep it as clean as possible by vacuuming often because dirt particles will otherwise embed in the fibers and wear off the pile. The vacuum-often theory is supported by carpet experts like Mary Warren, who wrote on LinkedIn about how Dirt Damages Carpet Fibers Over Time, and can be seen in the long-lasting quality of Mom’s retro carpets. By the time of her diagnosis in the 1980s, the carpet was off-gassed so keeping it intact presented less of a threat than removing and replacing it with hardwood, which would have caused another off-gassing event. Even her bedroom carpet, which was moved from the living room to avoid adding new products to her sleep space, is in good condition despite being the original floor treatment from 1964 when the house was built. I marvel at the pristine condition of the kitchen in particular because Mom cooked most of her foods from scratch and I know from experience that home-cooking creates all kinds of opportunities for big, sticky messes that do not land well on carpeted floors. Yet here’s proof, that forty-plus years of homemade meals in this kitchen could be made without so much as a smudge, and that represents the care by which Mom tended her every endeavor.

a picture of a kitchen with wooden cabinets and orange, mosaic carpeting

Image credit: nancyssunshine.com

Another way that Mom took special care was in the creation of recipes that were palatable while being attentive to exclude allergens and other aggravating contents. Consuming any allergens, hidden additives, or sugars (and even touching some ingredients) resulted in inflammation of the skin and digestive tract including throat, gut, intestinal, and rectal mucosa. Things that did not cause inflammation itself, upset the yeast balance or triggered a SIBO flare. Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) is defined as excessive bacteria in the small intestine and remains a poorly understood disease. It was initially thought to occur in only a small number of patients, but is more prevalent than previously thought. Patients with SIBO often vary in severity of symptoms but commonly suffer from chronic diarrhea, weight loss, and malabsorption (Dukowicz, et al., 2007).

Here is one of my favorite of Mom’s recipes which gave the satisfaction of eating a sweet muffin while remaining safe for her tummy. Mom often used these as a base for sandwiches or toasted them to crumble on top of salads and soups, but she also enjoyed them plain, with organic, grass-fed butter, or with organic goat milk kefir. This picture is not from any of Mom’s batches because she really did not have me or anyone else over to the house very often or to share meals on a regular basis. She was so sensitive to viruses that it was not possible to spend time together even before the Covid-19 pandemic. I pulled this photo from a gluten-free, pumpkin muffin recipe by Kathleen Ashmore who creates healthy recipes that feel good to make and good to eat. While Nancy’s Sunshine is not a recipe blog, sometimes I will share Mom’s recipes to highlight ways that she coped that may have value for other folks with similar health predicaments.

Someone's hand holding a broken open muffin with a pan of muffins in the background.

Image credit: https://kathleenashmore.com/bakery-style-pumpkin-ginger-muffins/

Nancy’s Sunshine SQUASH MUFFINS (in her own words)

3/4 cup water ‐ add 3 tea bags of Mulling spice [R. W. KNUDSEN ORGANIC simmer 5 min., turn off and let steep.
Steam ACORN SQUASH needs 3 cups [or other squash to your liking].
2 ½ cups mixed flours ‐ CASAVA, ALMOND, QUINOA, FAVA [OR ALMOND flour to replace the quinoa or fava]
Spices [Simply Organic]
2 full tsp ALL SPICE
1 tsp GROUND CLOVES
2 tsp GARAM MASALA
1 tsp TURMERIC
1 TBSP VANILLA
1 tsp SALT
3 EGGS
2 TBSP SESAME OIL
2 TBSP AVOCADO OIL
2 TBSP OLIVE OIL
3 droppers SWEET LEAF STEVIA CLEAR
Mix all the dry ingredients and then add all the moist ingredients. The batter may be too thin, and you may need to add more flour. Find the consistency you need for your palate [can be too moist or too dry, but don’t make a thick batter]. Bake at 365° on second to the last bottom shelf for approximately 20 to 25 min. and then top shelf for 5 to 8 min. Watch closely to not over bake or under bake. This is an excellent way to get valuable nutrients from the veggies because each muffin has a nice amount in it.

Hopefully this recipe will find a place in the hearts and homes of others who need to find creative ways to meet their particular dietary needs as well as giving a few ideas for improving the indoor air quality in your homes.

a picture of a person's hand illuminated by a prism of colorful light

References:

Dukowicz, A. C., Lacy, B. E., & Levine, G. M. (2007). Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth: a comprehensive review. Gastroenterology & hepatology, 3(2), 112–122. Retrieved on July 7, 2023 from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3099351/

Gray, Audrey. (2020, February 12). What you need to know about off-gassing. [web article]. Architectural Digest. Retrieved on July 5, 2023 from https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/what-is-off-gassing

Posted on by Stacy V.

Nancy’s Sunshine

Whatever challenge is put before you, while there may or may not be a cure, there is always help from the earth.

~ Nancy’s Sunshine

Nancy lived from 1941 to 2023 and she was my mom. She lived the life of an uncommon woman, having been one of the earliest individuals diagnosed with an autoimmune condition in the 1970s and navigating the rest of her life with multiple chemical sensitivities, allergies, susceptibility to viruses and bacterial infections, systemic candida, SIBO, and a host of uncomfortable, sometimes debilitating symptoms that healthier folks like myself had a hard time understanding. After the early passing of my dad at the turn of the millennium, much of her existence was spent in isolation, inside her home, where she built a simple sanctuary that was free from toxic chemicals and beautiful to be in. Nancy remained curious, upbeat, and positive throughout her trials, and even took inquisitive interest in her own end-of-life process. She built a community of love and support through letter writing, sending beautiful greeting cards, sending elaborately wrapped gift packages to loved ones, and the fellowship of others, like herself, who were suffering with unseen, chronic health conditions.

As an early sufferer of environmental illness, as it was called back in the 70s, she developed one of our state’s first support groups for people with autoimmune issues. Because of her multiple chemical sensitivities, she had to strip her home of almost everything that was not constructed of 100% natural, organic fibers, including her clothing, bedding, furniture, and flooring. Before Dad passed away, he hunted white-tailed deer in our home state and mule-deer in the mountains out west, as well as trapping rabbits and growing an organic vegetable garden in our back yard. It was not easy to obtain organically grown food and fibers in the 1970s through 1990s, not like it became in the 2000s. Mom was one of the first people in our home town to wear surgical masks in public, four decades before the Covid-19 pandemic led almost everyone to don them with regularity. Mom and I marveled at the turning of tides, when her way of self protection was no longer an oddity, but the new norm: who would have believed that we would live to see the day when so many others wore masks? During the pandemic, Mom actually enjoyed greater health than she did prior to it because her carefully planned, early-morning trips to the grocery store or other errands no longer exposed her to as many of the invisible, airborne viruses that had been the norm before people were actively wearing masks in public settings.

In a colloquial fashion, Mom’s loving support for people with chronic dis-ease grew into a life-long mission of helping others that she maintained right up until her passing. She became a learned, naturopathic teacher who shared in the journeys of thousands of people whose conditions were no longer able to be helped by mainstream medicine. She wisely taught on organic products, safe food packaging and handling, elimination of grooming goods that use heavy perfumes and dyes, safe cleaning supplies and practices, self-help through multiple modalities like Reiki, reflexology, meditation, exercise, emotional processing, and breath work, as well as nutritional supplements and herbs that could assist towards a more comfortable and functional existence despite enduring afflictions. She became friends with and studied directly with healers like Hanna Kroeger, Doctor John Christopher, and Master Herbalist, Steven Horne. She applied herself to learning about traditional Chinese, Ayurvedic, and traditional Western herbalism. She believed in the mind, body, and spirit connection for total wellness, and left us with one last message upon her death: when the earth was created, nothing was forgotten. Whatever challenge is put before you, while there may or may not be a cure, there is always help from the earth. We are living in a chemical-ridden world and must be wise and thoughtful in taking care of our bodies, striving to eat the foods in their natural states, as created by God, and not filled with artificial ingredients created by mankind. She left us in 2023 with a sense of deep gratitude for her difficult journey and its lessons, and for the honor of being a part of so many people’s healing paths as they allowed her to share what she learned.

This site is dedicated to my mom, Nancy, who brought sunshine into all her relationships no matter how difficult her own struggles. Mom chronicled many of her health and nutritional programs which will be discussed here as time goes on and I wade through her papers. Many people reached out since her funeral, sharing that they held on to her communications for decades, returning to them often for ongoing guidance; others are asking for access to her files so they can continue their self-care with the help of Mom’s methods. I will use this site to share her wisdom and extend the reach of her important healing work beyond the span of her natural lifetime. For now, I bid you adieu with love and light from Mom.

Posted on by Stacy V. Featured