Sunday

Still withdrawing I think .. though better than yesterday. Me back was quite painful for some reason yesterday. I suppose this isn't a med people withdraw from very often as it's used for transplants .. I don't know if they reduce the dosage while people are taking it for transplants and I don't know if they change over from the cellcept to another med that suppresses the immune system very often but doesn't look like it as I can't find anything about withdrawal symptoms on the net. It's not been used that often for other illnesses either I guess though it's becoming more common.

Anyway .. today seems better than yesterday .. I was a bit wobbly at times and rather forgetful .. and was double checking lots of things. Still, if this is it it's not too bad considering what a powerful med it is. Have felt a bit itchy too now and then but I think that's quite a common withdrawal symptom and the right side of my head is a bit tender .. another relatively xcommon withdrawal symptom though I guess it's ususally both sides of the head. It's not too bad though .. and I'll be taking this evening's dose soon. It's certainly better than yesterday. Will still leave testing the new pain relief for a little while .. until this has sorted itself out .. think that should be ok though .. just hope it's effective.

Sunday

Well, E has gone only to be found again!!! Last known account was closed down .. but a new one has turned up .. almost identical to the last .. why does she do this .. guess she wants to be found cause you can't mistake who it is .. writing style's the same and lots, lots more. She certainly does leave a recognisable paw print where ever she goes.

A friend found it .. I thought that he wasn't gonna friend me but this morning I logged on to a friending request and the new account addy. I'm only telling one other person there .. maybe it'd be better not to tell anyone .. but too late now as I've promised to when she's back on line and she hasn't said ... oh, no ... please don't!!!

Eventually it'll come out .. but, hopefully, this'll give the lady whose memory's going a bit of a break. Though she might just roam the site looking for her I guess.

Anyway .. it wasn't long before she was spotted again. Ofcourse there's another reason I can't tell her and that's that I know she'll visit E's profile without logging out. I think she might remember about that too .. cause she logs out to visit other profiles .. but not E's.

Wonder how long this profile will last.

.............

I have to say that the teas have improved the quality of my life by reducing the symptoms of my colds but I think it has to be done with periods of rest in between .. definitely for the flu .. though friends are saying that hopefully I'll have had the vacinne and there won't be a problem anyway .. maybe I'll be able to use them long term too with a talk with a nutritionalist to make sure me diet's ok .. I obviously wasn't lacking in potassium .. no muscle cramps .. I think that on top of the pain I'm already in would've been more than a bit noticeable ... ouch!!! I hope if I watch my diet that it's something I can continue. I'll be monitoring my blood pressure I think.

Anyway my white tea should be helping to keep my blood pressure healthy .. is there anything that lesser processed tea can't do .. it appears to have a lot of good chemicals in it. I will still be chewing me garlic though .. yuk!!! I'm not much of a garlic fan really. I suppose you can get pure hawthorne tea for the same purpose too. Will have to look. But that probably doesn't help clean your arteries.

Problems questions problems. I suppose I just have to see what happens then adjust things accordingly .. I would like to be able to drink a mug a day for the rest of my life .. it's made such a difference .. I mean .. an overwhelming one .. but .. hey .. let's see what tumeric, ginger and white tea can do .. all I'm looking for is something that slows the virus down a bit and there have to be other things or other mixtures that they don't like .. oh, and not forgetting the star anise ofcourse!!!! Hopefully they don't like that either. I suppose I should try adding hawthorn to the mixture though I don't know what form the tests used!!! Apparently ginger can help too though as it's so spicey you might feel differently as you're eating it .. phew!!

Saturday

Guess I'll have to phone the manufacturer's of Cellcept up to find out about withdrawal symptoms cause I'm having no luck on the net. Though maybe I could tell them about a few now!!! Guess it gets worse around day three/four/five .. think lots of withdrawals do. Felt the same but more so this morning. Will just have to put up with it. People've been telling me quite a lot about their withdrawals from meds and their bad reactions too.

And it's clear that I've just got to sit it out. I've missed single doses a couple of times before without feeling too bad but it seems to be a long term reduction that causes the problems.

It's not nice but it could be worse.

I'm stopping drinking my liquorice tea while I'm withdrawing from the cellcept .. going for the white tea and tumeric. I really don't want to drink it for a long time without a break anyway .. even though I'm drinking is a quarter to a half of what is considered a medicinal dose I think it might be a good idea to treat it as one .. and have a break every so often amd use the white tea/tumeric/ginger/garlic mixture instead .. though as soon as I get the flu I'll be taking it.

Always ask your doc if you're taking meds though.

I take one that may lead to potassium loss and I occasionally have high blood pressure .. which puts me on the boarderline for using it .. I've had no adverse symptoms at all .. no irregular heartbeat, weakness etc.

I've been told that in Germany they say that no one should use liquorice for more than six weeks without medical advice .. I really think it might be best to ask your doc to start off with. I know there seems to be advice to the contary but I really think it's a good idea particularly in the case of heart medications.

I'm going to write to that tea manufacturer and say that I think the tea should come with medical information rather than just providing it on the net. I think it should be more detailed too. People have written on the net saying how nice they think the tea is .. and it is .. without seeming to realize that it's a medicine with contraindications. I could happily drink three/four mugs probably for a long time and there's no indication on the box that you shouldn't. Obviously six weeks must be giving a big leeway .. but that is the German gov's advice after looking into it .. go to your doc if you want to use it for longer .. but I really think that, as I said first of all, ask your doc .. especially if you're taking meds.

I MIGHT use it long term just leaving the teabag in for a minute or two over what would be my break .. once I'm over this withdrawal from the mycophenolate .. I'll just have to see. Ask me doc ofcourse. It hasn't caused me any problems that I noticed .. the opposite infact .. but I'm still not happy with the idea of using it long term simmering it for 5 mins .. which, incidentally is 2 mins less than recommended on the box .. though, ofcourse the teabag does contain less than half the recommended dose.

I was getting what appeared to be strong anti viral effects using 1 teabag a day leaving the teabag in for 7 minutes and I thought that. maybe it wasn't just that the virus wasn't reproducing itself so quickly but that it was weaker too for a while as I would start feeling better quite soon after drinking the tea.

When I start drinking it again I'm going to try it at 7 mins I think .. that's with the Yogi teabags .. and just one cup a day .. it worked it seemed .. along with sticking a star anise in. I suppose you're not going to get that much from the liquorice with everything sticking together inside the teabag so it is just a small amount .. but I'm still going to have breaks!!!! Also you don't know quite how much of each chemical comes out in a tea .. you get the whole lot if you swallow something in a capsule .. I don't think I'd be too keen on taking a capsule .. though they actually have less in them than a teabag does .. and a teabag gives out less .. unless you're sloshing it around and squeezing it .. than a mushed up liquorice root would .. and, that, therefore me teabag isn't really giving out much at all .. I don't slosh my teabags around .. but I still think it's wise to keep to the guidelines .. no more than 6 weeks without medical advice and if you're taking meds ask your doc first regardless.

friday

I'm hoping that I'll have had the vaccine before the flu really. Apparently the first batch will be ready in the UK in August now .. dunno how far up the list I am for at risk people .. but quite high I should imagine because of both my illnesses and the meds used to treat them.

Both the mycophenolate and the prednisolone are immune suppressants .. I'm only on 10mg of prednisolone now but am taking 2000mg of mycophenolate .. think I'll start calling it cellcept .. it's brand name .. easier to type and spell. It was 3000mg .. divided into two doses .. three mauve pills in the morning and another three in the evening .. now it's usually two in the morning and again in the evening ,, though occasionally three ,,, lol!!!

I've noticed a few withdrawal symptoms .. but there had to be something it was inevitable with such a strong drug and I suppose that's quite a hefty reduction. It's usually used to stop organ rejection after transplants .. it suppresses the immune system so it won't reject the new organ, My immune system had got a bit out of control so it was used to suppress it. It had worked .. tests showed that but for some reason some of my sores weren't healing and I had wondered if the cellcept was starting to damage my skin as it can cause skin cancer.

For some reason the sores in my mouth had started to improve .. though others haven't. The one on my back did but I'm wondering if that was more a pressure sore and healed because my muscles had relaxed a bit changing the way the bones are situated there which meant the pressure sore could heal. None of the others healed that were still there .. a lot had as people can see .. don't have the ones on my neck or under my eyes anymore .. when the treatment was relatively new. Seemed that the treatment went so far and that was all it could do.

Well, we shall see what happens now.

My breathing has changed a bit and my heart rate is different .. though not much and I'm a bit forgetful right now and very, very tired at times and a bit twitchy. Still if that's it I can't really complain because that's one hefty drug. I'll be glad when it settles down though.

....................................

Have just taken the two mycophenolate this evening .. I'm a bit light headed at the moment cause of the reduction. Yesterday I took three in the evening, forgetting about the reduction .. also was rather surprized that I hadn't written about garlic's cleansing abilities when writing about it yesterday .. cause I'd meant to but seems my mind had wandered on to other things .. anyway did it today. Started talking about it with someone .. only to find that I'd not written about it in the blog.

And, as far as people with high blood pressure go .. just ask your doctor if ur interested. And garlic is good for you. It's difficult to really know as far as the other side goes .. the best results have been with chopped fresh garlic from what I could make out but it was thought that this had a ceiling to it. But .. it could be that this result was flawed in some way because a trial since then using both dried garlic and garlic oil showed no beneficial results in blood levels.

I will carry on chopping or chewing one clove a day or maybe more .. not too many though, to try and protect my arteries and hopefully to lower bad cholesteral levels too .. fortunately it did nothing to the good cholesteral.

What I;ve found, a bit like with the "psychic" or whatever you want to call it world .. both sides will often over emphasize things to tip the balance towards their beliefs .. and it seems to be much the same in some medical fields .. little things will be left out or over emphasized and it can be very misleading. It often takes me back to when I was young and there were scientists out there saying that there was plenty of evidence to prove that smoking did you no harm at all, These people were often employed by people who had an interest in proving this.

Still ... no bad cold though .. feeling ill obviously cause that isn't going to stop, Think I'm still getting over the pain relief .. the gabapentin I took last week too .. that made me feel truely awful and I think it might still be lingering a bit along, now, with the change in my mycophenolate dose.

It has to be the tea as far as the colds go. It was really a last resort .. I knew that things were getting very bad .. and it seemed a pretty far fetched one .. but it was worth trying .. could've had a closed mind .. but I'm very glad that it was more out there to explore and see if the claims were true .. in more ways than one.

Thursday

My brother had a good time yesterday testing out his herbs and spices .. a whole packet of crystalized ginger had to be tested piece by piece .. luckily it was just a small packet .. one of his favourite foods and he hadn't had any for a long time .. and he started trying his teas .. well, he drank one of the white teas .. he's saving the liquorice ones for when the flu's about which is a good idea.

I've decided to time how long I brew my liquorice tea for .. as I usually leave the tea bag in while I'm drinking it .. left it in for 5 mins this morning .. recommended brewing time is 7 mins and I suppose, because I leave the teabag in, I brew it for about quarter of an hour, sometimes more. I'll start treating it as a medicine I think.

Here's a link about it anyway

http://www.ciao.co.uk/Yogi_Tea_Licorice_Egyptian_Spice_6881234

I've badgered quite a few people about it now and I just think that you should treat it like any medicine and keep to the guidelines. Trouble is it's reckoned that well over a half of people in this country don't take their meds properly .. not quite sure what that means in fact ,, not on time .. too many .. too few ,, read it in Boots while waiting for my meds one day .. but I think this is easy to keep to once you decide to treat it as medicine .. once a day and brew for 7 mins. Which I certainly would if I had the flu .. just decided to try it out at 5 minutes to see what happens .. but I might go back to 7 mins tomorrow I think.

A badger travelled with the teas to me brothers .. adopted for 99p from one of the charity shops here .. just to supervise. Seemed she must've been out exploring when the ginger was openned.

He has a packet of lemon and ginger teabags too which he's going to share with a friend when he comes round today. His friend's quite worried by the flu from what I hear .. doesn't sound as if he's got much to worry about as far as the risk factor goes .. but still I suppose the news affects different people in different ways. Hopefully he'll be more reassured after he's been round my brother's.

I think just learn what you can and then do what you want to.

Me brother doesn't seem that interested in the garlic .. we talked about it and I said that it couldn't really do much just on it;s own .. that it's not in replace of a healthy diet and meds .. and sighed thinking of the guy who was popping garlic hoping it would allow him to eat a high cholesterol diet. I don't think that he'll be the only one by a long way given all the hype there is about it .. it's in addition to and there's a chance that it might improve things.

There have been studies that say it helps and studies that say it doesn't .. one of the problems is that in humans lifestyle is so closely woven into the results of any study like this .. exercise, diet possibly even mood and sleep patterns would in some respects and could in other affect the results. There have been studies on animals that suggest it does help in some ways .. some that it just helps for a short time or that there's a limited effect and, after that, it stops helping.

I don't know but I think I'll keep on chewing one whole clove a day .. or more .. if I cooked I'd probably make a nice garlic and potato salad or something.

I think it does most likely have some effects .. could help stop the arteries from clogging up like tumeric is known to stop plaques attaching themselves to the brain and could help clean what's already there .. anyway, that's what reading studies has made me think. Other studies are so variable .. they contradict each other so much .. that, maybe, it's best to leave them alone except to say if garlic has any effect on cholesterol levels, good or bad, it's slight and has a limit.

But it does seem to have the tumeric affect which does mean it is protecting the heart but coming from a different angle. The guy is right to pop his garlic capsule but smoking, sedentary and eating a diet like the one he enjoys and doesn't want to give up, he's going to be doing more harm than his garlic capsule can counteract but better than not taking it!!!!! Best just to stick to the recommended amounts again too .. because it's not good in excess even if it sounds a good idea to try and clean the arterial system up with it .. it could do more harm than good.

.....................

Right, I was so involved about talking about new pain relief that the tea bag slipped my mind .. but I'll ask at the hospital .. leave a message there this week and see what they say next week!!! I think I might be slightly light headed too .. guess it's me withdrawal from the mycophenolate .. seems there's no nasty withdrawal .. but looks like there is a bit of a reaction. Oh well .. just have to go with it.

I have some new pain relief to try .. something related to ibuprofen. Will check later. We talked a little about the gabapentin .. and, no, we won't be trying that again .. lol!!! Totally no go unless I want to spend the rest of my life shaking and having to be restrained from swallowing handfuls of pills .. just two of the possible side effects .. shaking and suicidal thoughts .. which affected me .. some people respond well to it .. some don't.

With the new medication I'll be reading up on the side effects before taking it.

to bag or not to bag

I just don't know what to do about the teas .. because of my meds and blood pressure .. I have really come to the conclusion that garlic oil isn't going to help the majority of people .. someone told me about their dad today who has high blood pressure but refuses to eat a healthy diet but takes garlic oil .. well, that's not going to help is it. It's an aid along with a healthy diet .. bunging yourself full of cholesterol raising foods and then taking a capsule isn't going to do any good at all .. but from what I've read it's possible that adding one to a good diet could help but you have to do some of the work yourself. He smokes too so is keeping his veins messed up too.

I had to say that I didn't think the tea would be a good idea!!

After that conversation I think I'll say that I don't think the tea is suitable for people with high blood pressure whatever they're eating or taking. There has been evidence that it works in the short term when chopped ... both triglycerides and LDL are positively affected but it's not really going to help unless you lead a healthy lifestyle and/or take meds .. depends if they've been prescribed .. some people do it by diet alone.

But I think if you do have raised blood pressure it's probably best to leave the liquorice alone ,, even such a little bit and go for the white tea and tumeric ... said to be better anyway!!!

I'm just going off to the docs .. I think I'll be ok .. if I keep to my diet .. I hope so cause this has helped so much .. people are saying .. that I'm being over cautious .. a teabag probably gives out about an eighth of a gram if that a day and it's going to be fine and that I'm not actually eating any liquorice .. it's just an infusion.. but I'm gonna be on the cautious side here ... lol!!

But viruses don't like it .. I did think at that minute amount and having a diet that should help my cholesterol infused with a bit of garlic just to steady things a bit .. that I should be ok .. but I'm going to be careful .. everyone thinks I'm going to be fine anyway and I'm making a fuss about nothing but we shall see.

Off to the doc again.

.........................................

At the moment I usually start to feel ill in the first day aft7Ser being near someone who's sneezed .. don't know why cause sometimes I must've had the cold but I guess my immune system must have a hard time coping with any viruses .. but I've been sneezed around at very close quarters three times with all of the sneezes just spraying anyone and everything close by in the last six days and things haven't got worse The only time that this has happened before .. being sneezed around and not feeling very ill afterwards was with that guy when we were going out shopping when he sneezed in the car .. to the side if I remember rightly, but I still expected to feel awful for a few days .. but didn't.

I had a woman coughing over everything in a queue in M&S too amd she looked as if she'd just come back from being somewhere very sunny .. I could see the woman at the check out was feeling just the same as me. I came back .. sprayed my perishable food with anti-bacterial spray .. left everything else alone for 12 hours and sprayed/wiped all the door handles etc I'd touched in the building. It was when the was a lot in the papers about people coughing and sneezing on planes and I was just being careful .. lol!!!

It was when containment was the name of the game so I was hoping to contain .. just incase.

I'm still careful .. usually put handgel on to go out and buy food .. but. let's face it, if people aren't being careful about sneezing and coughing when they've got a bug it's not gonna make much difference. I've been quite shocked by the way people just let it rip. Someone said to me a couple of weeks ago that they had yet to see someone be careful when sneezing and it doesn't happen very often I guess so the flu's going to spread quickly eventually I guess.

I'm just going to have my morning tea .. the liquorice one .. brewed for just 7 mins ,, lol!!! Got some garlic too .. that should be ok chopped up in cider apple vinegar and taken with some food I guess .. it's a good anti cholesterol remedy and has anti viral properties too .. but I have to say isn't really my favourite and I can't eat it raw on an empty stomach.

If it wasn't for the effect it appears to be having on the back of my mouth I would be going for the tumeric and white tea but there you go .. people have told me that tumeric is the best anti viral there is apart from elderberry which isn't much use here when it's not quite known what we're coping with because of the way it boosts the immune system. Anyway I'm going for me 40% liquorice tea with some tumeric .. have some white tea later on though could've bunged that in too I guess.

And will go and sort some garlic out. Might go and have a look in the health shops to see what strengths etc garlic oil comes in .. does that come as a mixture too or is it always just garlic oil.

Just have to be sensible about it all.

Monday

I don't know what to do this morning .. the kettle's on .. and what tea bag do I choose. I'd like to stop the liquorice for a week and try tumeric and white tea .. but I know now that the sores at the back of my mouth might get worse and then the mycrophenolate might have to be increased to sort that out which means that my immune system would be further suppressed again.

But would that matter if I'm drinking teas that knock viruses back a bit. Well, it's obviously better if I can have less immune suppressant drugs as well as taking something that inhibits the virus so I guess I'm going to have to leave it.

So many people have been sneezing really loud heavy sneezes out there too in the last few days .. think we need some countrywise sneezing practice .. someone I know says it's just good manners not to let your sneezes run wild .. but it's not always practical to open a bag, delve into a pocket, in time to catch a sneeze .. and if you sneeze into your hand then you need to disable the virus to stop it being infectious .. I rub my hands together to try and damage the viruses so they can't infect anyone else or I try to sneeze into my shoulder .. I saw that someone else had suggested that too the other day.

I'm just doing anything I can to stop viruses from spreading .. and, then, if I get one, to stop it doing me much damage.

One thing I have noticed since I've started taking the teas is that my lips aren't so swollen .. something that used to be very obvious when I got up in the morning when a cold was as it's worst. That's stopped .. there's a bit of puffiness there but it's nothing like it was. It's obviously working .. no doubt about that .. with such a little bit too .. there's no need to take lots of the stuff .. I think, like paracetamol, it's not good for you if you do anyway.

I love the people at herbs-hands-healing cause they've set things out so well .. must be the only link I've put up 3 times so quickly .. but, if the manufacturers of these things don't tell you about the contraindications .. you can't say .. read the back of the packet or something so it's best to refer back to them.

I wish I knew what to do now .. me hospital visit has made things harder .. lol!! Just the one tea bag I guess. One of me friends has just come down with a nasty sickly bug .. she's not taking any herbs .. was something she'd just asked about .. will give her the sites addresses I think. I'm obviously in mid cold again too.

Oh well.

but ...

I'm off to bed now .. and I realize that I've been moaning a little at something that might turn out to have been the only chance to save my life .. or, if not .. something that's made the last few months more bearable .. but, really, I'm surprized with the threat of regulating the industry in a way they don't want .. save out vitamins etc .. that they haven't sorted something as sensible as that out amongst them all.

Gud night

It says not to use this herb for prolonged stretches of time or in high doses .. I suppose at the low dose I'm using it a long time really means a long time. Someone has just said that they think I'm being rather on the ultra ultra careful side .. or words to that effect .. lol!!! But I don't think that hurts at all .. and, what's more it appears to be doing the trick so why take more. If I thought I needed more than 1 would try more .. but at this dose I was feeling better so I think it's best to stay on 1 teabag a day .. though I am pleased to be trying out the white tea now .. see what happens,

It's daft to over medicate with anything or take more medication than is recommended. Like it's recommended not to take more than eight 500mg paracetamols a day or you could do yourself a lot of harm .. herbal meds have their limit too and it's silly to take more than you need to get better too .. same with herbal medicine.

If I had over medicated I'd be back having those spasms with most likely quite a few cramps on the side .. well .. a lot of cramp .. infact I haven't had one for ages .. months and months and I'm not in quite as much pain when I try to get up first thing in the morning.

I tell you what though .. I think vits, minerals ,, anything should have a maximum dose on the bottle/packet like pain killers do so you know exactly what the max dose is so there's no chance of making a mistake.

And with something like this .. which is so nice to taste and seems more like a lovely drink than a medicine it should say that it's a medicine and what the dosage is and also have a leaflet of instructions to read inside like any other medicine does.

To be honest for an industry moaning about the possibilities of being regulated they're not trying very hard to show how responsible they are. If aspirins come with instructions so should herbal teas .. after all aspirin was once just a herbal remedy.

I'm very grateful to the makers of these teas .. there's a possibility they might've saved my life .. if not .. they've certainly made the last few months much better than it would otherwise have been .. but they do need to provide more guidelines .. it wouldn't take away the kind of mystic that goes with them but it would make them seem to be more carefully considered .. and their customers too

My opinion after all this anyway.

I do know that I'm taking very little .. around the third of the maximum d9se .. and, as soon as I feel it's sensible I will certainly have gaps .. but it seems that now isn't the right time .. so I'll just keep an eye on what I'm eating .

I doubt if there'll be many people who need to keep drinking the tea for long.

Must say I'm real pleased with it though .. they just need to give more info.

I can't believe

I can't believe that the back of my mouth has suddenly improved .. after almost three years!!!!!

................

I can't believe that the mycophenolate have been reduced though!!! I didn't think that would be happening .. well done mouth. It has to be sloshing it in tea I guess. Looks like it might reach places the mycophenolate was having trouble with though should've been helping.

You never know what's going to happen though.

I guess, regardless of what people say I wouldn't take it for long stretches of time .. make sure ur eating a diet with lots of potassium and eat ur garlic if it's not contraindicated .. talk to ur doc or a herbalist to check it out. Use for around a week if you've the flu.

Might seem overly cautious ... but then I am!!!!

.................

I've just taken my first reduced dose of the mycrophenolate .. dunno if there'll be any side effects .. didn't ask .. was too busy thinking why. There's nothing about it on the web either .. just the change over FROM steroids TO mycrophenolate.


So, I take it that it isn't a problem. It's been a reduction frpm 3,000mgs a day to 2,000 .. 2 pills in the morning and 2 in the evening.

I'm not upping my teas though .. even though I understand that a 40% teabag brewed for 7 mins is very little. It's certainly changed the way my colds play out from so awful .. to not so bad ... considering. But, as I said before, I really think one is enough .. it's not totally got rid of the colds .. but has made them less severe and I'm not 100% certain that it got any better when I upped it to two .. but I thought I'd try it out to see what happened .. think things were just the same really so I think if I do take a stronger dose when I get the flu I'll take it at once .. one totally liquorice teabag or two 40% ones.


Anyway .. on to the white tea and tumeric .. lets see what happens there .. not by themselves though as I'm not stopping the licquorice ones while this flu is about. Or, maybe, for a long time .. cause who knows what will happen when the flu mutates.


People have been holding swine flu parties in Australia an Aussie friend of mine tells me .. which could be disastrous for all concerned if the flu mutates into something worse, Nobody knows what parts of the flu are going to mutate and into what and there is no guarantee .. or, so I'm told, that they'll be that protected, Have to say that I didn't realize that .. I thought that there would be some recognition but maybe it doesn't make so much difference when a flu is new, I remember reading years ago that the panademic flu at the start of the last century mutated itself into something weaker but there has been a lot of talk about people having no immunity to it this time and this is what is making people believe that these flu parties are a good idea. The only thing I've read about it here is that it's not a good idea cause it would spread the illness faster .. not that it could risk people at the party.

I dunno .. I'm carrying on with me 'erbs and hoping for the best.

I'm very sad about the guy .. he's such a nice geezer .. but I had thought a few days ago that there really wasn't much, if any hope when he caught the flu .. not in reality.

All, I can do is wish him a gentle journey. I'm sure there'll be a lot of love there.

I don't suppose there'll be much to write about me teas and the flu now .. just wanted to decide what to do about the liquorice ones .. though they were really covered by the contraindications site and checking out that they really did do something to help me.

I added garlic and ginger as extra abti virals and garlic is also good cause it brings ur blood pressure down .. thought I'd mention that, even though it fitted in with the teas through the contraindications site, because I think mine does go up a bit sometimes when I'm very, very ill with a bug ,, having muscle spasms and vomiting.

I think they say that tumeric is the best anti viral though .. so would seem good mixed in with the daily diet with white tea .. I haven't looked for the contraindications for tumeric yet .. but you obviously don't need much again if the way it treats brain plaques is anything to go by White tea is ordinary tea at a different stage of development to ur usual morning cuppa and, so far, I've found just good things said about it.

I would've stopped the liquorice tea for a while to see what happened just with the tumeric/garlic and ginger .. but I don't think it's a good idea now. But .. staying with the one in the morning with white tea the rest of the day. And a clove of garlic a day .. I can take more though .. as it's not contraindicated for me. I wish white tea tasted more like the liquorice brew though!!!!!

Actually .. will have to drink one liquorice tea a day for now

My consultant did reduce some of my meds .. he said the back of my mouth was looking a lot better .. I'd just told the junior doc that everything was much the same .. well I can't really look back there and it usually is just the same .. and it still hurts.

I wondered if that could be the teas too because that would be a place they'd coat quite well and they're meant to increase the actions of corticosteroids without adding anymore of the medication which in the case of steroids could be wonderful .. but maybe just as a covering rather having an effect throughout the body. I have to say that the corticosteroid mouthwash didn't help at all.

And why not? Lots of medicines have come from plants .. as we all know that's one of the reasons they're worried about the destruction of the rain forest .. wondering how many medicines will be lost through the destruction of plants that medicine will never get a chance to test for their healing properties.

If it is helping it's a very slow process. I think there might've been a bit of improvement on the back of my head now too .. because the nurse said something about granulation .. which is the wound starting to create new cells that will slowly form skin. I may be wrong about that though as she was saying to becareful when washing my hair. I'll ask how things are getting on there next appointment.

I have to say that my consultant looked a bit grim today .. guess I should've waved a teabag infront of his face. Will write to him actually about it all. I've talked to my GP about them but not to him.

Have to say I'm feeling the best that I've felt for a long time .. still got the pain and still feel very rough .. obviously, Still feel awful when I get up .. but it's not as bad as it was .. my mind used to drift to swiss clinics .. especially if I was going through the most puffy stage of a cold .. and it was just getting worse and worse .. two days with ONE liquorice tea bag and one to two star anises and I'm not doing that anymore. I'm only letting my teas brew for 7 mins before drinking again now as I did in the beginning.

Someone said that it looked as if I liked crystalized ginger .. I'd bought some on special offer so had stocked up a bit .. and I have to say that I do .. for more reasons than one .. it's certainly good for the stomach .. though I wish it could be crystalized without sugar .. lol!! My stomach yearns for it in the morning now .. rushes me .. well, perhaps that's an exageration .. over to the bag of ginger .. though I usually wait til I've had breakfast before eating it.

Certainly nicer than the cyclazine .. can't remember how you spell it now .. the anti-sickness pill I used to take .. well, the first one .. it was changed .. and then as my stomach muscles eased up a bit I stopped needing to take them all together. Have to say that neither pill was as nice as the crystalized ginger.

And they didn't always stop me from being sick .. no protection against a really hefty stomach spasm. I'd seen this in hospital too .. when people upchucked on the floor after having an anti-sickness pill. There are different kinds though and you can have injections too .. if I remember rightly I sometimes had the medicine through my cannula .. the little device they put on the back of your hand incase you need some medicine delivered very quickly into your bloodstream.

I doubt if ginger would stop me being sick in a situation like that either though.

Not sure how long I've been drinking the teas now ... six weeks or so .. and they sure have made a difference .. they might be going to do more good in a round about way .. and might've been the reason my doc decided it would be safe to reduce my meds .. he'd had tests confirming that the illness is under control even if these sores aren't healing .. I'm wondering if it's the mycrophenolate .. the ones that can cause skin cancer .. that is having a two pronged effect .. it might be helping the steroids keep the auto immune illness under control .. but it also might be doing something to my skin that is hampering the healing process.

Fingers crossed that I can stay on the reduced dose .. maybe I should stay drinking one liquorice tea a day and just make sure I eat healthily and make sure I get enough potassium .. after all it is just one under a half teabag .. I will certainly up it if I .. I mean .. when .. I get the flu to two or one totally liquorice teabag.

Actually I've been taking them for quite a few weeks now and I take meds that reduce potassium .. my cortico meds .. and I'm fine. Guess that's fine then. Did worry me a bit when I read the contraindications .. but I thought things would be ok if I was sensible .. though I said I'd give them a rest every few weeks.

As I said I don't like taking this all the time but I think, for now, it looks like I'm going to have to cause there's a chance my sores could get worse in my mouth .. then I'd have to go back on the meds that have just been reduced and then I'm in more danger from the flu.

So, for me, I don't think there's any choice but to stay on .. just the one I'm drinking every morning .. without a break until I've had the flu.

Sadly

I was very sad to learn today that someone I like very much will not be leaving hospital.. I had been thinking of him a couple of days ago and had thought, with his problems, he was unlikely to be able to cope with the flu .. though, ofcourse, you can but try .. but, I realized that this was a very serious situation .. more serious than mine .. and hoped that somehow the liquorice, white tea and tumeric and all .. well, the garlic and ginger .. would be enough to help .. but his condition had suddenly got worse and it seems that he'll be passing over very shortly.

I had hoped that with the liquorice and other herbal medicines slowing down and weakening the virus and any related bacteria we were in with a chance but things have sadly changed.

Tuesday

I stopped off at Tesco in Warwick on my way back from the hospital in search of garlic oil .. seems most of it's in the garlic capsules you get in health shops!!

I have variable blood pressure .. dunno why really .. usually when it's measured it's fine .. but occasionally it's gone up. Not surprizing maybe when I've been in a great deal of pain and vomitting up blood .. but once when it was measured .. I was a day rather than an in patient .. and it'd gone up I couldn't think of a reason why it should have. Anyway .. even if I'm only drinking one mixed herb liquorice tea bag .. about 40% liquorice content I think .. heavens knows what % of a pontefrat cake that's equal to .. the teabags aren't exactly bulging ,, I still think that I should be eating my garlic clove a day, keeping an eye on my potassium and checking out my cholesterol. As it said in the contraindications pages on the herbs hands healing website I put up a while back. Can't remember quite when so I'll put it up again.

http://www.herbs-hands-healing.co.uk/contraindications/contraindications.html



If you're healthy taking a garlic capsule is no problem .. or if ur only problem .. other than fighting off a bug .. is high blood pressure ... lol!! .. otherwise check out the contra indications. And .. ask your GP cause a high dose is a medicinal dose.

I find that if I eat it without food it upsets my tummy too .. found that out years ago when, for some reason or other, I decided chewing a raw garlic clove a day would be good .. well, maybe .. but I'd've felt better if I hadn't decided to eat it by itself ... ouch .. after a few days ... lol!! I know some people can happily chew tham just as they are but I'm not one of them.

I have no idea how much oil is in a garlic capsule compared to an average sized garlic clove but I'm sure there are people out there who do cause it's their business.

I would prefer to keep everything as near to a dietary dose rather than a medicinal one where possible.

As far as star anise goes there are apparently no contraindications at the moment .. except that you don't use Japanese star anise .. that is star anise that's not used as a herb and it's recommended that you only buy star anise to use for cooking/medicinally if it's being sold as food by a named brand .. don't buy it already ground up in teas from a shop .. make your own. I don't grind mine up anyway .. just pop it in as it is,

Always best to ask your doc about herbs and spices if your taking meds anyway. Or your pharmacist .. they should know I guess.

I wish that I didn't have to drink my cup of liquorice tea (40%) a day but it seems that it's a good idea for me at the moment .. but I'm keeping a watch on the other things too.

Foods rich in potassium

http://www.weightlossforall.com/potassium-rich-food.htm

there are probably more inclusive lists but that one shows quite a few of the foods that are high in potassium.

The recommended dose is one to three cups a day .. I'm ok with my one .. though would consider upping it if I caught the flu for a couple of days. I know other people do use the teas continuously .. but I've decided to have breaks of a few days every month now .. I'll just keep up with the other anti virals during the break .. say three weeks on .. one week off.

I will definitely be taking it when I have the flu though.

Monday

Had to go for a test today .. well, didn't have to .. but did cause I'd missed the hospital appointment I had cause I wasn't feeling very well .. think I mentioned it earlier .. I'd got a lovely letter from them apologizing if it was there fault or they'd got it wrong .. anyway I've good news to take in with me to the hospital to see me consultant .. out of all the things it could've been .. it's the least worrying. I thought it probably was this cause around 80% of people who're on some of the medication I'm on develop this problem and it can be corrected .. I believe there's an alternative treatment too which is a totally different kind of treatment .. and it really works too!!!! And might just be better for me but I dunno .. will have to ask. Anyway .. won't be taking up another appointment up at the hospital.

Also found out today that you can get pure liquorice teabags .. we've been using a blend of different herbs .. well that's what I bought first of all and they seemed to have an effect so that's what we've been using .. have a box of the pure liquorice ones too now .. bit cheaper than the mixed blends .. I think I'll just stick to me mixed one in the morning though for now cause of my medication. May use the pure ones when I catch the flu .. may not. Really don't know at the moment.

Will talk it over.

The medication might sound more trouble than it's worth .. because of all the problems I've had with it .. but it's done a lot of good too. It's just that my illness is a difficult one to treat. I've gone into them often enough in my blogs .. about some being immune suppressants because I have an auto immune condition .. so people who read me blog will've understood the probs I could face with the flu.

Anyway .. the teas etc still appear to be keeping the effects of me colds down to a more tolerable level .. so I'll be keeping on with them. And I think keeping a bit of distance from the junk food too .. the more sugary stuff .. should anyway .. why? Other than it's not really good for you.

One guess.

Yes .. because of my meds!!!!! So from .. now .. no more overly sugary stuff .. so .. that's one interesting looking pudding in the bin .. but I think it's for the best. Since starting the white tea my tummy hasn't really been that comfortable with anything like that. Obviously my tummy isn't that strong anyway .. both illness and meds .. but more illness than meds this time I think .. though morphine can make people feel queasy .. not one of the side effects that I had with it though .. one of my docs told me that he had trouble taking morphine cause of nausea .. but, if I remember rightly .. he was ok with another opiate that made me feel rather rough.

Anyway .. going to have a mug of white tea now.

This is the article on the possibilities of green tea and prostate cancer



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8108831.stm



There was another interesting article on the same illness on the same day in one of the papers which told how a chemical had shrunk previously inoperable tumours to a size where surgeons could now operate whereas they couldn't before..

This chemical wasn't from tea though ... lol!!!!

It seems that there are chemicals in plants that slow the progression of illnesses down a bit.

Going off to put the kettle on.

Off to bed

Bit late for bed .. but found meself googling and the time flying. Was looking for something for someone again .. but not so lucky this time .. but .. hey .. it wasn't as important as the herbal stuff.

And, anyone interested in that who has questions to ask .. ask the tea manufachurers if your buying something that's already prepared .. or a herbalist or in a health food shop if it's not .. and check with a doctor.

I had a mixed drink of white tea and liquorice tea this morning .. bunged two tea bags in.

Interesting that the news had a story about green tea and prostrate cancer yesterday too. It all keeps the interest going .. just intertesting that cups of tea can be so useful. Wasn't so good with my eating .. had a bag of spice and strawberry jam cookies and the paw went into the bag a little too often and I felt rather queasy for a while .. and, for some reason or other, a bit more sniffley. I'd been very good when I got up this morning and very surprized .. but it seems to've sorted itself out again.

1 liquorice tea and 3 white teas. The first time I tried white tea I thought I was going to bring it up .. was rather like that with green tea too .. but I've been ok today with it. Infact quite like it I guess .. though not as much as the liquorice one .. think I'll drink them separately in future .. it seems a shame to wreck one of the few things that still tastes ok through my illness and meds.

Roobarb does too ... lol!!!

Someone asked how it was all going .. guess I do have something good to tell her.

I read the article about white tea in science daily quite a long time ago so I did know that there was a reaction to bacteria and viruses but I couldn't really remember what I'd read in much detail. Glaf that I went back to read it.
'
Anyway, I'm off to bed now. Pleased with the teas .. they've certainly made a difference to my colds over the last few weeks .. they're not as bad .. to put it mildly .. and after the flu and 6 day bug etc., etc., things just seemed to be getting worse and worse and there wasn't much of a let up and swiss clinics were on my mind quite a bit very seriously because I really didn't see the point of fighting through this anymore. Didn't take long to change my mind.

Just because it seems of a cup of tea or two, and some garlic and ginger.

That's it as far as that topic goes .. I guess. Ofcourse I'm hoping the teas'll help give my poor immune system a chance to deal with the flu and any complications when I get it .. the meds have taken it's fighting spirit away and I am one of the people who have a condition that could make the illness more difficult to treat whether it mutates or not.

I'll be talking to my consultant next week about it and what to say to the docs when I go into hospital. Should they reduce the meds for a little while when I have the flu .. would it really make much difference .. dunno how long it takes for the immune system to get back to normal strength. Maybe there's no point in reducing the immune supressants.

Well, will continue with me teas .. might give the liquorice one a break every so often though and change it for one with a bit of tumeric in it instead Unless I start to feel sicker .. then straight back on the liquorice ones I think for a while .. well, I'm used to them and have some confidence in them. Probably if I started feeling really ill, coldwise, I'd bung a liquorice one, a white tea one and one containing some tumeric in a mug .. or just bung a bit of tumeric in.

Think you can get a little spoon with two sides and holes in it that you can use as a kind of tea bag .. so might invest in one for making my own teas. Seems like a good hobby!!!!

Thursday

The teas are easy concepts to understand but it's difficult to choose which ones to go for .. echinacea is ofcourse out .. it was for me anyway cause I can't take anything that boosts the immune system because of my illness .. don't know how effective it's said to be anyway.

The chemical that's released in liquorice tea is anti viral and also has a battening down effect on one of the cytokines so you're going the right way there .. and, obviously 2 teabags aren't the same as 200gms or so of liquorice tea just as there's a difference between 20 and 500mls of morphine.

I didn't expect it to have any effect but it has. That's because I thought there wouldn't be enough there to make any difference .. but I was wrong. Interesting reading all about it too.

Working my way down the list now .. think I've spotted what will be in my hospital bag .. if I don't suddenly start feeling worse that is.

All you can do is your best and be prepared.

Me friends have been joking about eating loads of junk good to avoid cytokine storms .. obviously this is a good time to let rip on the crisps and chocolate .. blimey what an excuse .. my immune system's too strong .. ah ... I know!!! You do still need a healthy immune system but not to boost it really. But I guess herbs that work on cytokines might flatten that response into not starting.

I'm going for one liquorice teabag a day .. a bit on the cautious side considering it's not all liquorice .. heaven knows how many equal one pontefract cake!!! It does seem to have a different effect as a tea though. Suppose it's how it's absorbed. Eating me garlic too .. just incase!!

And I'm going to have a couple of cups of white tea a day .. read today that it has antiviral properties and is also effective against pneumonia .. in the lab anyway .. said to be better than green tea as an anti viral. When I catch the flu though I will probably drink more liquorice tea.

I've never eaten very much liquorice at a time I have to say .. suppose about 50g is my limit .. love the stuff though .. Dutch soft liquorice .. yummy .. but it's something I seem to have a natural enough response to so even when I was eating it medicinally I didn't eat much. My favourite sweet though .. I suppose I could have a couple of sweets .. really ... lol!!! Along with me teabag!!!

It's difficult cause the flu reacts in the body in different ways. Cytokine storms have been considered the main problem in the panademic early last century .. but there are others .. I think the best way to try and do anything that might help with herbs is to try to make the virus weaker .. even slightly could help quiye a bit I think.

Even for me .. on my meds .. think I'm going to have to discuss this next week with my docs .. well, what to do about the immune suppressant meds so I know what to do or what to advise people when I have to go to hospital which I suppose I will cause of the meds .. dunno if they'll've been advised what to do beforehand about that kind of medication. All I can hope for is to find a way of making the virus weaker I guess.

I was very sceptical when I started this .. though I was aware of the tumeric/platelets on the brain remedy. Actually .. that is amazing cause so little of it is made available to the body .. so how can that work .. but it apparently does. I really didn't think it would work .. which wasn't exactly helping things along I know .. but I do tend to be on the scepticle side .. though open minded .. bit in the way I've approached this. I was willing to give it a go but underneath I guess I wasn't that hopeful.

Guess I'd rather not have had to have a constant bug to try it out on too .. but there you go .. one of the side effects of the medication.

Thursday

There are so many antiviral herbs and spices out there .. I guess all you need to do really is find ones that work on the virus and any bacterial infections rather than boosting the immune system too much. And check out anything to do with cytokines.

It's just a precaution anyway for most people .. most people will get through this being treated at home with antiviral medication and will be fine. All the herbs and spices do is give a helping hand. Good thing to know about though. I'm sure that there are much better combinations than I've been using cause I just chose mine from what I'd been reading after reading about liver problems for someone else .. went for the same thing as I'd read about it's effectiveness for a few conditions and it seemed a good bet. Now I'm looking around a bit more. Ginger is good got the tum though .. so I think as an antiviral too it can stay in ..lol!!! A bit of crystalized ginger never went amiss anyway .. think it worked better than the chews anyway .. and powder and the fresh root must be just as good .. though they say .. for garlic, it's the oil that is effective so dried garlic doesn't help for some conditions .. suppose there must be some it does .. but generally it seems .. no!!!

I suppose it just helps things some.

It has helped me a bit and that's for sure .. I was really going down and down after getting the flu at the begining of the year and things did seem to improve and haven't gone back to how they were since drinking this tea though I'm still getting colds .. but they seem more like colds now .. than continuous flu.

Wednesday

Still miss my liquorice sweets though .. but obviously they are out for me now because of my meds. As I said before though .. a couple of mugs of liquorice tea a day should be ok .. and as I started feeling better with just one .. maybe it would really be better for me with just one and then adding a bit of tumeric to my evening meal.

I still think that whatever it is in the liquorice is dampening down the virus though not boosting the immune suppressing properties of my meds .. though I don't know .. but that's what appears to be happening.

The liquorice tea should be dampening down the possibilities of a cytokine storm too .. haven't really checked that out .. I don't think the possibilities of having one are very great for me cause my meds have dampened down my immune system anyway .. and my age has probably weakened my immune system some .. though it's still strong enough to wreak havoc in my body through the autoimmune illness and to a degree where the meds aren't able to deal with it properly.

Suppose I could try boiling peanuts too .. lol!!!

Even if you are healthy you have to be careful of eating too much liquorice .. there's a story on the BBC somewhere about a woman who was admitted to hospital after eating lots of the stuff.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3733757.stm

It does boost your blood pressure too so you need to be careful there too .. I'm eating fresh garlic everyday to try and keep mine steady.

Will never eat liquorice again myself because of my meds .. but drinking one or two teas along with eating fresh garlic to lower my blood pressure .. the dried garlic doesn't have the same effec .. should be ok.

herbs and spices

The new pain relief didn't work .. had quite a bad effect and I've decided to hand me bottle of pills back to the chemist and leave it at that.

Actually made me feel suicidal .. and when I looked up the list of side effects .. found this was one of them. Not a rational thinking things through .. but a flattening and lowering of emotions .. I could quite easily have picked up a bottle of pills and taken the lot and not cared a bit.

Topical at the moment cause apparently tamiflu can have a similar effect .. I knew my feeling like that must be a side effect from the new medication so checked it out .. and it appeared very likely that it was so I knew that I just had to sit it out .. just as I had to the tremours and dizziness. The worst was over in about 4 hours.

Won't be taking that again. It's fine for some people .. but I've been reading quite a few stories from other people who had quite a few side effects from it.

Never again.

Looked at the black elderberry remedies this afternoon .. but, after this morning, thought ... no ... lol!!! Don't think so .. though with other remedies that counteract the bad effect for a panademic flu .. usually there wouldn't be this worry .. it's the lack of immunity and an immune system that might fight back too hard that's the problem.

Chinese liquorice is a herb that counteracts a bit of this effect I believe though I'm not sure if it corresponds with the bits the black elderberry boosts or just part of the same system.

Just put the kettle on for a cup of tea.

Some of, if not all, of my friends have put away some liquorice tea bags,star anise, ginger and have some fresh garlic at hand. Seems like a good idea.

I believe the Chinese government is advising people to use star anise in their cooking more often at the moment .. but I don't really know how much good that would do .. it takes a long time to extract the ingredient from the star anise plant and then it's only part of a complicated chemical reaction that goes to make tamiflu .. but still I bung a star or two in my team It's important to use the chinese star anise for cookery rather than japanese star anise used for decoration.

Doubt that it helps much, if at all .. but it seems a good thing to add. If only for a bit of emotional support.

Also use fresh garlic .. and bought some bags of raw peanuts, and tumeric today .. lol!! Can do no more!!!!

I expect other people have found better remedies to try to ease the symptoms of their colds .. just by reading the articles on the net or talking to their local herbalists or health food shop staff. I chose what I did as a base cause it was what I was reading about when I was looking for help for someone's liver .. that's all.

As I said before probably best to ask someone knows about it all if you're interested in the subject .. and check with your doctor.

Tuesday

Well, E has apologised .. trouble is .. someone told me that she's going round telling lies about me .. I've had to explain to the poor dear that one kinda cancels out the other as she obviously can't work that out for herself .. suppose all her energy goes on other things and she can't quite get her head around that one.

One day though ... you never know!!! Miracles happen .. but then again .. in this case .. maybe not. Can't really see it happening.

That has to be about it now. Well .. no .. obviously not I guess. But, nearly .. I hope.

Monday

Got my Gordon Smith book back today .. the so u want 2 B a medium one .. I'd left it behind while sorting out some notes and picked it back up again today. I missed having it around ... lol!!! Even though I think it would've been interesting to know more about what these people were experiencing so it would be easier to understand.

Perhaps he'll write another book!!! Part 2 .. lol!!! He's quite a prolific writer.

I got a very nice note back from the guy who got caught up in the E/ladywithlittlerecall saga thanking me for telling him how it is .. E had threatened to sue him!!!! He couldn't stop laughing .. well, don't think he could .. so if you hear the sound of a distant rumble of laughter .. it might be him!!!!!

She has managed to hoodwink quite a few people .. even after having to admit she's had umpteen different profiles and had to leave the site at least three times .. but, ofcourse, there's the guestbook message from the woman who's losing her memory!!!!

Who's ofcourse still involved on the centre of all this .. and has really annoyed a very close friend, who has really had enough of E, by insisting on negotiating with E. What about .. we're not really sure. But I think the friend was going to go to the guvs this time .. only to find this other woman negotiating with her.

She almost lost my friendship too .. but her memory really is bad .. and things can get very jumbled. So I just have to stay around and realise that really the only thing that's changed is her memory .. and if she starts getting snappy and bad tempered that is a part of the memory loss too.

I was really shocked by her this evening though and it's becoming obvious that something's got to give soon. Especially at work. She's her own boss to quite a degree but even that can't stop the inevitable.

Monday

Back to the hospital today .. for a vegeatarian peattza .. couldn't find the peas though .. I think mine must've rolled off .. or they had run out of them.

It was peppers/onions/cheese and tomatoes. Whoops, I almost forgot the bread .. wot is a peatzza without bread?

I do not know ... onions/tomatoes/peppers and cheese. It's easy the other way round - it's bread. But that way round - I do not know - unless it's a cheesey ratotootley .. like you get in the tins without the cheese.

How tempting it was to do the lavatorials here. Lemuures say to me .. ur humour has become lavatorial since you have been in the hostipitals. Too many bedpans I think .. or maybe not .. as you have to have the bedpannies and commodes and not the lavatorials.

But, still, being a lemuure, I now have the lavatorials on the brain it seems and the alphabet becomes difficult around the letter p. Maybe I should go into cownselling .. as it seems I have bedpans on the brain.

I need the analysis.

...........................

I've said to the guy who's pit all this stuff up on his profile .. could he just remove the wirral bit without mentioning names .. the lady who's memory is going's name to be precise .. cause it involves someone who isn't very well.

All I can do.

He shouldn't really have put anything up without checking it out first but there you go.

He'll have to rewrite all the other stuff he had up there about this other profile I guess.

I expect the guvs might tell him to take the lot down.

Alternatively .. they might just laugh..

.............

Well, the shit has hit the fan so to speak ..our lady with little memory has been going round telling people that E is profiles that she certainly didn't open .. the scores are too high .. and someone has put everything that she told him on his profile. I've just written him a PM telling him that everything else he's written is for sure .. but possibly not this .. and the reasons why.

E has been telling everyone that all the rest of it was just a joke .. hah!!! .. but she is going to the govs about this other one .. I don't think!!!

I think the govs will have to come into it now anyway .. it's got way out of hand.

......................

Haven't looked at my new books!! I expect the altered states of consciousness one is mainly about deep relaxation .. though I don't know .. cause I haven't read any of it yet .. bought it without turning a page.

I've finished talking about the teas now I guess .. other people on the net have spent ages putting up loads of information and there are plenty of people locally, where ever you live, who can give personal advice .. which is much better I guess and you can always double check things back on the net and make your own mind up .. and talk to a doctor.

Did some more sorting out. I do have a cold but things do seem to be a bit better since I started drinking these teas. I sneezed yesterday morning again .. just a little one as usual .. my body can't manage more I don't think. Did take out antiviral tissues and used handscrub .. you do your best but if hardly anybody is taking precautions I don't see how things will be kept at bay for long. Bought a 50p bag at the Peace Festival to put my tissues in too .. but really 2 food bags would do the job better .. one for clean ones and one for used ones I guess .. and that is what I'll do I think. I always used to try and sneeze into my arm anyway .. after getting told off down the market once for not being more careful .. she was right too. I was always careful after that .. or tried to be .. and got thanked for it .. lol!!!

Sinday

I did pop down to the Peace Festival .. trouser hunting .. and found a couple of pairs I liked this year. My brother was one of a group of hippies that started it off way back .. there were only 4 or 5 stalls at the first one.

He feels that the message is over commercialized these days .. but I dunno .. ur not going to wear many of the clothes there and use the patches if you're too into commercialism I don't think. I did think that last year's festival did come off as very commercial though ..much more so than any other time I'd been or this year's. Suppose it depends on the stalls that have booked in..


One of his friends brother organized it this year .. but I guess they need to start getting the organization organized because if he hadn't been such a good organizer things could've been over rushed to get things done on time.

Most people I spoke to about the festival insisted that they were too old to go now or they didn't like the crowds .. which rather surprized me .. I couldn't stay long cause of the sun .. but I thought it was fine .. and much better than last year .. well, I found some trousers there this year. Be nice if they had a sewing machine on site to take them up if you need to though ... lol!!!!

I'll manage.

Actually what was rather noticeably missing from something like that were craft stalls I guess. But I guess maybe they belong back way back when .. cause I guess the internet takes care of anything like that these days.

Right .. have to continue with the sorting out and tidying up etc.

..........................

I found a book on Astral Projection .. OBEs .. on the Oxfam bookshop this adternoon .. one on altered states of consciousness too .. without drugs ..which should be interesting.

Don't suppose I'll ever have an out of the body experience before passing but I don't mind .. though sort of practice wouldn't've been a bad thing really. Though an OBE is different from a NDE so maybe it wouldn't've been that much practice!!! lol!!!

It's very similar to the one I've got back home I think. Not had much of a look through it yet but the way it's presented seems much the same. Think the books were for sale at much the same time.

Anyway .. guess it's possible that I might be experiencing the real thing soon. Not scared ..slightly apprehensive maybe .. but I suppose not. I'm optimistic!!!

............................

Well, started to look at and research other herbal antiviral treatments. Black elderberry looked a winner .. brilliant test results .. only trouble is that it contains a chemical that helps produce more cytokines which have the potential to cause a cytokinetic storm which could potentially damage the lungs .. especially if the virus mutates and becomes more virulent. Cytokinetic storms were a major problem in the early 20thC flu panademic.

Even though my immune system is weakened by my meds I don't think I'd risk it .. people are very divided on the issue though .. and there are other herbs/spices that dampen down this effect so you could maybe cancel one effect out with another.

So ... I guess that's out for me. Don't think I'd risk it. One of my brother's friends is very worried by the flu so I've just said .. tell her about all this. I sneezed this morning .. disinfected myself .. put some antiviral tissues in me bag and went out .. didn't sneeze again though .. and still don't feel too bad in me cold affected way .. ain't thinking of swiss clinics .. haven't since two days after I started my teas. Though other things are still making me feel pretty lousy. But colds were pushing it over the top a bit.

Will have a go with the curcumin, tumeric/black pepper, piperine idea instead .. maybe .. will have a good read up on it though first. UUIt's suggested that you don't really need the piperine .. that the effects are still the same without it .. does the curcumin just start something off then just by being there at all as so little of it is absorbed without the piperine. I think eating tumeric to guard against dementia was effective without using piperine .. it still helped stop the platelets from attaching to the brain. Can't remember piperine being mentioned. That was one of the first herbal remedies I read about .. well, apart from chamomille. I guess there must be better things than I'm doing .. it was the most convenient really .. bit like a medical ready meal I guess. Don't need anymore packs of teabags anyway for quite a long time .. wonder what the capsules are like though .. think I prefer the tea bags though as the teas taste nice and I'm drinking more water .. and you can add other herbs/spices to your cuppa .. though that might change the taste ... lol!!! might make it taste nicer .. or .................................. um .. not!!!

the ongoing saga

Well, the E saga continues .. but she really isn't worth talking about .. hasn't changed an iota ofcourse .. though you'd think butter wouldn't melt in her mouth from the stuff she's putting up on her profile and the replies to the entries in her guestbook.

I have been very diplomatic the woman who's memory's going and managed to make her change her mind that at least one of the profiles she thought was E's really isn't .. she'll forget soon enough I guess amyway. What I don't inderstand is how she keeps a job going. I think she must do her evening's computing with a couple of glasses of wine .. but even so it doesn't quite explain it.

Anyway, I hope this last incident +plus one other which've resulted from her and her friend continuing to keep on going over to Es profile logged in will spell an end to it. E, ofcourse, has managed to twist it all atound for her own ends. Not that the guvs will be fooled .. they've thrown her off the board at least three times now .. and I expect she'll be going again soon .. though I think it's best to have her where they can keep an eye on her because she'll soon be back, lost amongst 200,000 people on the site.

She's a scam artist .. managed to stop her just as she was running down the home straight that time .. and she doesn't care what the consequences are to getting what she wants. I just hope the next people she goes for are a bit more aware. Still, if they have their doubts there are plenty of people apart from the guvs to turn to .. and I have told people that if they hear anything along those lines they can direct them this way .. I've a disc called E***.

She's been quite clever sorting out the spot of bother that's come her way .. wouldn't've expected it going on past performance .. but there you go. None of this last lot would've happened though if these people had taken some notice of what I and the people who'd set profiles up to help in situations like this had said. Can't really blame the woman with the memory problems .. though she likes "to win" and hates "to lose" and that was coming through loud and clear!!!! She thought she was protecting me too!!! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell .. she was also enjoying the sleuthing .. sadly once this would've been a good thing .. but, right now .. she's not well enough.

It's very sad.

Though I really don't know how someone can be this out of it .. and still hold down a job .. say one of E's profiles is fartsmeller201 .. she'd suddenly pick up another 2 fartsmellers .. fartsmeller206 and fartsmeller207 .. that don't exist on the site at all .. you can do a profile search .. which they've now made a whole lot easier so there's no chance of missing anyone out .. and connect E to these imaginary sites as well. My best friend on the site said to be kind to her .. and I am .. always have been .. and very diplomatic. I just try to not talk about E now cause it just keeps her interest in her going I think .. though I can't do anything about what E's done .. but hopefully if she stops visiting her profile while logged in that will change .. though no sign of that happening at the moment.

Sadly what I managed to get her out of the day before yesterday has had no effect what so ever.

E isn't the slightest bit worried by her now that she's got that nice message in her guestbook .. and is just taking the piss.

I suspect the other woman thinks E has dome what she has because she's pissed off with her .. well, she was and, to an extent, is .. but, much more than that. she's manipulated the situation so well .. that she can now take the piss because of the guestbook message.

I'm a bit annoyed cause she calls me her best friend on her profile so it looks as if I'm a friend of E's too by association. I am her best friend .. though she never listens to what I say though she says she does ..she says she's protecting me from E ... E isn't the least bit interested in me now cause she doesn't see me visiting her profile site and she wouldn't be interested in any of us if people didn't keep on visiting her profile. All it's achieved is a nice .. which was meant to be sarcastic .. message in E's guestbook from someone who says she doesn't like E and wants to warn people about her and is friends with someone who was warning people!!!!

Hopefully not talking about E anymore will make her lose interest eventually.

Saturday

Think me brother might remember next time .. guess he was really feeling ill. It cleared up quickly though .. but I could tell that it'd tired him out. He doesn't sleep that well anyway so this was added tiredness.

Quite a nice day I think .. bit cloudy .. but doesn't look like rain .. at the moment. Waits for huge masses of clouds to come drifting past window!!!!!!!

Hope the clouds drift on.

Thursday

Fell asleep a couple of hours ago and haven't long woken up. Decided to make me cup of tea before bed .. wasn't sure whether to or not .. then decided it would be for the best.

Gave the website address to someone today .. thought she might read my blog but she didn't. Will leave it for someone else too .. should've told her too but didn't get round to it as we were talking about NDE's etc so will potter it round for her and the last copy of that NDC book I got when they had a pile in The Works. She'd been ill and had an experience boardering on that kind of thing and she has had a lot of sadness in her life in that kind of way recently so she can have it .. after all I have read it .. they were a real bargain too at £1.99.

Actually will give her my blog address so she can visit the herbal sites and read what I've written ... will save me writing it all out again. lol!!!

Have just got Gordon Smith's animal book from The Works which looks a lot better than the medium book .. full of experiences .. where the medium book wasn't which was why I didn't think it was very good .. but maybe he thought people shouldn't be influenced by other people's experiences .. though if you attended a development group then you'd hear about them so why not share some in a book. Anyway his book in The Works looks like good value for £2.99 .. will make up for the other one .. just my opinion .. the person who reviewed his book on mediumship on Amazon gave it 5 stars so obviously thinks it's a very good read.

Anyway, off to bed now.

Those herbal sites are brilliant!!! I'm not saying that I haven't felt having a cold but treating myself has certainly made a difference from before.

.....................

Just waiting for my tea to cool then I'm off to bed. Not been a bad day all things considered .. there had been quite a bit .. well, comparitively speaking .. it only takes the smallest fraction to cause a spot of bother .. of muscle movement .. but I could feel the difference in movement .. had me breathless after climbing the stairs a couple of times too .. then I got my breath again. I could even feel a slight difference in my back .. particularly the right side. It was my tummy muscles and ribcage that were causing the problems though .. stomach when I was sitting down and ribcage when I was climbing the stairs or walking up a slope. Though, having said that, my ribcage has had me puffing a bit for a couple of minutes.

Just had a drink of my tea .. nice to drink it warm .. usually drink it cold .. no reason other than I've just left it.

Haven't read up on my new meds but will do before I start them .. just start with one the first day .. then two the next and then three on the third day.

T'was wrong what I was told about synthetic opiates .. seems it's the receptors that stop responding to the meds .. and they all use the same receptors .. rather than different forms of the meds working differently .. but I'm still pleased that I listened and went and saw me doc though to talk about it. At least we're giving this a go. It's a drug designed for something else but works for some forms of pain tool Worth a go.

...............

I'm ok .. my tummy muscles are just pushing down a bit.

I've found a small bottle of prednisolone too .. which I was worried about before cause I'd used me spare bottle from the hospital up .. and I like to have some extra ones around the place .. that's sorted out now!!!

.........................

I'll be taking a new pill for me pain soon .. my doctor thinks some of the pain is due to crushed and damaged nerve ends so he's going to try something that has been shown to work with this kind of acute pain .. i.e bad long term pain .. he says he's had quite good results with it .. so I'll just have to see what happens .. I think the % of people it works for is quite high.

I was offered something similar .. well, it's used for nerve pain .. some time ago .. but had to say no because I knew I didn't have a very good reaction to that family of medications so decided not to take it. This is something quite different and without so many long term side effects.

Felt pretty rough when I'd been up for a little while this morning .. but this cleared quite a bit once I'd taken my medication. Just as well as I had to be down the docs by 9.20 .. and, them, later in the morning .. off to the hospital.

Did a little bit of housework inbetween the two appointments and set of feeling ok .. perhaps I've been doing a bit much as I'm a teensy weensy bit queasy now .. but other than that much the same as usual. I know my muscles have relaxed a bit in that area in the last couple of days .. so I guess it's not surprizing. I've noticed some muscle changes around my tummy and my right side in the last few days .. which have been quite painful at times. Anyway .. have just eaten some ginger to see if that will steady things a bit. Have to admit that it did start after I took the aspirin .. so maybe my tummy is slightly raw at the moment with the muscle changes and the auto immune illness .. my mucous membranes etc are quite delicate to say the least. Not that it'll probably help in my condition .. but I wonder if there's a tea for delicate tummies!!!!!

Anyway .. that's how things are right now .. gonna have something to eat and then see how I feel about doing anything else.

......................

I have a cold .. sneezed this morning but still managed to do some sorting out .. which I can hardly believe .. I'm slightly puffy .. wondered if I had a cold when I got up this morning cause my tummy was slightly jippy .. a few minutes later I sneezed .. and was ok .. still not feeling too good but could and have been a lot worse.

Am much better than I'd expect to be.

Have to see how it goes. I'm sweaty but that's down to all the pain relief .. adding aspirin to the cocktail of meds seems to have made it worse. In fact I need to talk about the pain relief full stop and have done for quite some time now.

.....................

Things are quiet on that front now .. well, this way anyhow. I feel very sorry for the new woman that E has "befriended" .. but I guess she'll find out what's really going on with her soon enough.

I think E has another profile somewhere cause it seems she's been using the name she us using in guestbooks for some time .. so the new name she mistakenly signed with before her last profile was shut down must come from yet another profile!!!! Though it's possible it's another old profile and maybe it's been shut down too.

Anyway ..nothing can really be done without causing a lot of trouble .. and E has manipulated someone into putting a friendly message in her guestbook .. part of it was in self defense .. but she also thought it would wind E up. It was exactly what E wanted as someone else in that little group had warned the new woman about her .. and now there's a nice message from someone else in the group in E's guestbook.

I have even more new friends!!! Things did get nasty behind the scenes in private messaging. A number of these women aren't well and E went in knowing this. Anyway, I've sorted it out I guess and calmed things down. It's still possible, even after all this, that someone will potter back to E's to try and provoke her even though she's shown she'll not be provoked and can play whatever game it is she's playing much better and nastier than they can. God, it gets dumped on my plate everytime it goes wrong even though they'll talk about her to these people who have set up help profiles to deal with this sort of thing.

I can't help the new woman without calling the guvs in and I reckon they'll say they can't do anything at the moment cause it has to come from the woman herself .. so I hope I won't be getting involved again. The guvs know E very well .. three profiles down is quite a lot .. and there could be more .. doubt if they've forgotten her!!!!!!

Anyone who potters over and gets involved again knows the various people they can turn to for advice and how to contact the govs.

Hopefully it won't happen again. Hopefully I won't hear any of E's names again!!!!

Sadly the woman who's losing her memory is convinced E has six profiles on the go now .. she has one that we know of .. one that she set up a couple of months ago but only used for a couple of days .. came back to when her last profile was closed down .. but only for a day .. she still had her latest, well, possibly her latest, on the go then .. though it's possible she does have another one because of the new name she mistakenly left in someone's guestbook .. hadn't seen her use that one before!!!

It's sad that she's pulled someone else into all this .. probably a few someone elses but there's nothing anyone can do .. she's being sugary sweet at the moment to them .. and there's that message in the guestbook to back up anything she says .. and it's gonna look very odd if the person who wrote that now says that E is a horrible game playing person!! E is playing on that in a way that could end up in a bad way for her though .. I did pop over .. without leaving any pawprints this morning .. and was rather surprized at something she'd put up .. lol!!

Maybe there will be more problems .. the woman who's losing her memory has just been over .. well she's not well at all. I found out that she'd been using things I'd been saying as her own .. so she does know .. at times anyway, that she's not very well. Very sad. If there is any trouble on that score I'll just drop a note to the govs. Someone who knows her very well kept on contacting me yesterday being very nice .. I usually hardly here from her so I guess I'm not the only one who knows. Trouble is .. the person who's losing her memory is talking about E too and saying things that don't make any sense which helps let E off the hook. I'll talk to the guvs if need be if any problems come up that way .. after all they do know E so guess they'll soon understand what's going on.

Guess I'd been a little too hopeful, huh. I'll still point people to the guvs and the help groups and will just step in if and when I'm needed.

Amyway, if we don't say anything to her about E maybe she'll forget or lose interest or something.

Anyway,unless something happens that's me last word on the subject.

And

What will I do if I'm asked for help again?????



It just can't happen.

Well .. if it does it isn't my problem .. there are people .. not the govs .. on the site to go to when things like this happen and an email will go off from me in future with the relevant site address and a pointer in the right direction.

These people say just what I do in a general way that you can apply to individual situations. In future that'll be what happens .. because I'm not one of those people and I've spent far too long sorting this out.

They'd been there too to chat about all this .. and that's where they'll be going to in future. This time she was obviously too embaressed to go and talk about it .. but, if anything happens in future that E doesn't start .. even if it's just started by letting her see that someone's visited her profile instead of logging out to visit .. they can get all the advice they need from one of these people.

Sunday

Well, it looks as if it's all over now .. we're talking about other things again .. seems yesterday really got to people. I warned them .. I really don't understand how anyone could believe E would ever be on the level in this situation .. well, they thought they'd riled her .. well, they had in one small way which I imagine she'd lied her way out of pretty effectively with the people she needed to and then she engineered a situation where it now looks like the people who really don't like her are her friends to anyone who actually doesn't know what's going on.

There's more to it .. yesterday was another day spent sorting all this out again.

I think everyone now understands that for E nice just means manipulative .. and that's being very understated about what she's thinking. She was very charming and very nasty .

There are still a couple of people who are still falling for it that we know .. but they're not part of the group of people I chat to .. they're friends of friends .. and, one woman .. who I warned someone to be careful about for a little while .. only because of something strange that had happened a year or so ago .. seemed a bit odd .. and it just didn't quite fit .. so just for a while be a little bit cautious .. she is fine with E.

The woman with the memory problems is ok with it all now too. It is so hard cause I'm not willing to upset her by saying anything about that .. I just want to keep things easy going for her.

She sounded happier by last night too .. though she's having pooter problems today .. hopefully not for long.

Saturday

Wellllll. We seem to have agreed to leave E alone now .. or .. if anyone goes to have a look to see what she's doing they log out first so they don't show up as a visitor on her pages.

There was a "bit" of worry in a certain little corner of the site yesterday for a while but I think all is well again now and any visits to have a peek at what she's doing will be done in secret and no paw prints will be left behind in the guestbook either .. no matter how tempting it might be.

Well, that's how things stand now .. but I'm not 100% certain that they'll stay that way .. though more hopeful than I've ever been before .. having E back in their lives wasn't a whole lot of fun.

Friday

I had hoped the E thing was over .. but it just rumbles on. It's left me pleased that I had a couple of days away from the net to be honest .. I am sick of having to keep on picking up the pieces because some people won't leave her alone and then they can't cope if she gets in touch with them .. they refuse to block her .. games .. games and yet more games .. huh!!! God, are peoples lives so boring .. living on this planet in the universe etc, etc .. that they decide to have this kind of drama in their lives day in and day out.

This time one of them .. interestingly enuff the hope this is the best day of your life one .. S for short ... lol!!! decided to warn a new friend of E's that E is a liar .. this new friend is totally gushing over E at the moment so it's no surprize that the new friend went and told her. E put up bait on her profile to reel a few people in and one of them fell for it. I warned her .. told her why I thought E was doing it ..said just leave things alone .. she said thanks for your help .. what would I do without you etc .. went to bed .. then got up the next morning and left a message in E's guestbook .. a very nice one that makes it look as if she's a friend if E's .. E sent some really nice PMs to both this woman and S .. the guestbook woman was taken in by them .. though left me messages asking what to do and or say .. I gave her a few choices including asking other people who run help profiles .. she was obviously a bit chuffed by it all though .. and ofcourse refused to block E again. She chose to just ignore her .. she obviously wants to keep channels open ... or did!!!!

E sent her a message to make sure S never did anything like that again.

I hope that will be that now.

But .. ofcourse .................................. E isn't blocked.

But .... I'm hoping ..............................................

friday

Whoa ... am back .. again ... lol!!!

Well u no wot I mean!!!

Tuesday.

I'm tired. Don't think that I'll be staying up very late tonight. Think nature will take care of things if I try anyway and I'll just fall asleep ... zzzzzz. Guess it's the heat.



Had another look at Gordon Smith's book .. guess I'll carry on dipping in and out of it for a while. He talks a lot about self awareness and compassion .. he says that developing compassion and empathy are essential for a medium .. there's quite a lot about self awareness in the book.

He talks about meeting your spirit guide too and healing .. and meditation and grouding yourself but the book is mainly about finding a group to work with and how to behave so as not to disrupt the group. I would've liked to've read lots of peoples personal experiences of circle work .. which is what these development groups are called.

Really though the book's message is find a teacher woth an explanation of what it's all about. I wanted to read about peoples personal experiences during training so to speak .. what happened and how they felt .. not anecdotes of people getting a bit carried away by it all or causing bad feeling through their behaviour .. important I guess too because I guess nobody wants their group to break up through things like that .. but I really would've liked personal accounts of what it was all like as you learnt .. even if the answer is quite often .. nothing happened. He must know lots of people who could've told him their stories. I think it's the personal accounts that make this type of book.

Have to say that the one person who reviewed it on Amazon loved the book.

Monday

I had a problem with my ISP for a while but .. obviously it's sorted out now .. about an hour ago!!

Read the book while I was off line .. don't really know what to make of it to be honest .. and again that goes back to what I said about going buy your own experiences and those of people you can trust. In a book like this where people could come forward and say such and such a thing happened then I think it would be much better if they did rather than just letting it stand there with no confirmation when it could have been quite easily gathered.

I'm left not knowing what to think. OK .. with the German thing even if he had recorded it I suppose you'd could then wonder that he just learnt a wee bit of German before that happened .. so you could never really prove it satisfactorily to yourself.

I believe that I've experienced things that makes it easy for me not to dismiss what he says .. but on the other hand I'd like to have more evidence .. I suppose it's too long ago now and you could never be sure so it's not really a good example to put in a book.

I wished too that he'd included lots of peoples accounts of how they'd experienced training as a medium .. his part on that could be easily summed up as go and find a medium who is training a group and how to behave in the group once you've found one. I'd've just prefered it if there'd been lots of people saying how they'd experienced it and what they'd felt during the time they were learning.

I have to say though .. with the german thing he wouldn't have been able to prove things one way or another anyway .. lol!! But I would've liked as much info as possible towards going that way .. like where in Germany this happened .. or a quick word with the interpreter that was working there.

I know Gordon Smith has undergone testing which he came out well from. And I do believe in life after life .. and like Mr Smith, believe that we are spirits here in life that go on to be spirits after this life. The only doubt I have about that really is that I haven't experienced it yet.

I just wish that he'd put as much information there as was possible to confirm what he said .. it's not often that you have a room full of people and an interpreter. Most experiences that seem to come from spirit seem to be in the butterfies mode in the ADC book or just between a couple of people which you can't really prove.

In legal terms it's all hearsay!!!

Which is why I say rely, for the mainpart .. I believed the butterfly story in the ADC book cause it felt OK to me along with a lot of the others .. on your own experiences and those of people you can trust.