Browsing November, 2009
What I Learned On Whidbey Island
I just spent a couple days in a place that only days ago didn’t even know existed. It is Whidbey Island, and it is just north of the Seattle area. You have to take a ferry to get there. It rained just about the entire time I was there, which is normal for this time of year in the Pacific Northwest. So why am I bringing up this place called Whidbey Island? A couple of very important reasons:
It didn’t take long to realize that there was something different about the people that live here. Everyone had a certain contentment about them. The people of Whidbey seemed, for lack of a better word, and to be even a little trite….happy. Now, this may not really seem to be a big deal, but think about it for a second. Think about the day you just had, and how many people you ran into that were not at all happy. Think about how many people, maybe yourself included, that ran around all day complaining, or this was wrong, that sucked, that guy did this to me and life stinks. Well, not on Whidbey.
I went into the office of the place that I was staying in, and the very nice woman immediately offered to make a latte for me. “Come on in, sit down”, she said. “How are you?”. I was kind of startled, to be honest. I wasn’t use to those kind of niceties from a stranger. But really it didn’t stop there. Time after time, the people that I ran into seemed to all have an even-ness, a calmness about them. Like they knew some sort of secret about life that the rest of us don’t. They all really seemed to be ENJOYING life. Not just trudging through it, but really living it, and enjoying what they were doing.Makes me want to spend more time there, and soak some of that in. It’s a lesson that I know I needed to see.
Life is not about deadlines, or being as productive as you can, working your fingers to the bone, or burning the midnight oil. Not that any of those are wrong. But shouldn’t life be more about the quality of the time we have? Who are we spending our time with, and what are we doing with that time?
The folks on Whidbey Island seemed to have figured out that it is possible to spend life without the stress and strife that most of us seem to go through on a day to day basis. Why do we do it? I am not sure, but I think that most of us just think that is how we need to be to survive, to get through it. Well, the folks on Whidbey have taught me different. Now I am just wondering how soon I can get back there…..
Guess What? I Got Swine Flu!!
I have been on the road traveling for the last couple of weeks. I have been in contact with a lot of people, and in the process, I began feeling a little under the weather. Sore throat, aches, maybe a slight fever, cough. Now I am not someone who gets sick very much at all. I think the last time I was sick was probably a couple of years ago.
Being on the road I did not have the luxury of staying home and sleeping all day, resting, and all of that sort of stuff. Nope. I needed to keep on going. What I didn’t know at the time was that these were symptoms of the now infamous…..(cue dramatic music here)….SWINE FLU! Gasp! The horror! Should I go straight to the hospital? Should I seek out the closest place for the vaccination, or was I too late? Maybe I should start calling my family and tell them that the end is probably near. Ok, maybe not.
So let me tell you what I DID do. First, I upped my daily dose of Zrii from 3 ounces to 9 ounces. Then, I took a high dose of Vitamin C (actually about 10,000 mg) , and about 3,000 mg of Vitamin D3. I also began taking a homeopathic remedy called occillococcinum (don’t hurt yourself trying to pronounce that) every three hours, and as an added measure, Zicam every four hours. I didn’t want to take anything like DayCare or anything that was going to make me feel jumpy or just mask my symptoms.
Now, let me say this right now: I am NOT a doctor, and I am not trying to prescribe anything to anyone here, or give medical advice. I am just telling my story, that’s it. Oh, wait, I forgot something. I also, after some prodding, agreed to drink a mixture of hot water, lemon, honey, and a LOT of cayenne pepper. It was disgusting, but I felt better after it.
Okay, so I start taking all of this stuff, -the extra Zrii, the vitamins, the occillo-whatever, the zicam, more cayenne pepper-gross-tasting-make-a-face-when-you-drink-it-stuff; and after the 1st day, honestly all of my symptoms were basically still there. Crap. What the heck is going on here? I have a pharmacy in a bag and nothing after 24 hours? Okay, it’s only day 1. So I repeat on day two. Now things begin to improve dramatically. I had severe head pressure that now was turned down from 10 to about 4. I began feeling like a normal person again, not 100% but I could see the light. So I keep it all up…repeat the process again and again for the next couple of days, and……I got BETTER. That’s it. No hospital, no drama, no freaking out and being near death.
I did actually talk to a doctor during all of this. He is someone I just happened to meet during my travels, I didn’t go and make a doctors appointment or anything. He didn’t even examine me or anything. He said to me, “well, you know that what you have is swine flu, right?” Of course I didn’t know that at the time at all. I figured, you know, it was just a cold. He told me that most of the cases with my symptoms (like 90%) is swine flu.
So as I write this I am 100% back to normal after about a week of my symptoms showing up. No antibiotics, no flu vaccine, nope. One more thing I should add about my road to wellness is that I was extremely careful about what I ate during that time. ZERO sugar, (okay the honey in the cayenne thing, yes), and tried to stick to proteins and veggies when I could. Being on the road it can be tough to eat right, but I know that also made a huge difference in my quick recovery.
So look, this flu is not any worse than any other flu. I am proof of that. Just do the little things like wash your hands regularly, eat right, exercise, keep that immune system strong, and ain’t no little swine flu gonna keep you down!
To your health and wellness,
Jamie Hosmer