Caretaking and Bereavement

Dad and me in much younger years.

My father passed away 3 months ago. Because I live over 1700 miles away from where my parents live, I was not involved in the day to day care of my father once he became ill. My Mom, sister and youngest brother were the day to day care takers and they did an amazing job under a stressful situation.
I always knew my father would die young due to his heavy cigarette smoking, excessive alcohol intake in his younger years and dietary choices but he managed to almost make it to the age of 73. He had been in the hospital several times over the last few years with serious cases of pneumonia. I was pretty sure that he would die from complications of emphysema.
However, in May my father became jaundiced and a stent was put in his bile duct. The doctors were not sure what was going on, possibly pancreatic cancer. Because of his weak lungs, they could not do exploratory surgery without risking his life. My father decide to “go home and live the rest of his life”.

After a fall.

Due to abdominal pain, he was unable to eat very much. Hospice came and helped set up for his needs at my parent’s home. He began to sleep more and got weaker, but he was still moving around by himself four days before his death. He had a couple of falls trying to get to the bathroom and he was kept in bed after that. I was lucky enough to be there, arriving about 16 hours before he passed. I helped care for him, gave him some gentle massages and the last words he said to me was “I love you”. In the early morning hours his breathing became shallow and stopped, then I heard his last heartbeats with my sister’s stethoscope.
For someone who is a physician, with a very large extended family, I haven’t been exposed to death all that often. I have been so lucky. My Dad is the first person so close to me that has died. I know as I get older that this experience will become more and more frequent.
Anyone that has known me the last 15 years or so also knows my cat Stretch. (His picture is part of the header of the blog.)  He is a very personable kitty and is the first pet I’ve had that got under my skin and feels like a being with a person. Stretch is at least 18 years old and perhaps older. This last year or so he has been getting thinner and his hip pain seems increased. He acts just a bit senile and just isn’t the same being as when he was younger. I really miss the younger him but try to enjoy him now too, despite the decreased camaraderie and extra work taking care of him entails these days. My husband and I are already grieving our loss of him, even though he isn’t gone yet. 

Stretch thinks he's a person!

I would never confuse my cat with my Dad, but I feel like there are some similarities in these situations. Being able to care for someone you love as they experience decline in their health and then their eventual passing is quite tiring and frustrating. But there is also something good there. I’ve looked all over the Internet to try to help explain what I feel about this, but can’t find it. I guess even though taking care of someone that is nearing death is often tiring and frustrating, being able to care for them and hopefully make the experience less traumatic for them is such a caring, human thing that it can bring spiritual growth.

 "I love you this much!" or "I once caught a fish this big!

It is 3 months since my Dad passed away and I’m still going through some of the stages of grief. I miss my Dad. I miss the thought of him going fishing, discussing biblical theories, even chain-smoking the damn cigarettes. If you have the chance to take care of someone close to you nearing the end of life, don’t be afraid. Do it! One should always listen to the person, help them feel comfortable and keep their dignity. Help them maintain independence in their daily life as long as possible. You’ll be sad at the end, but glad you did it.

Breakfast Spaghetti!

Bacon, eggs, maple syrup and spaghetti!

I love pasta, but don’t eat it as much as I want due to Mr. Inappropriate’s gluten sensitivity. But he can have spelt noodles and he loves bacon and eggs, and can't shut up about bacon on maple bars, so I came up with this recipe.

12 ounces turkey bacon ("real" bacon is also good)
3 quarts boiling water
spaghetti or pasta (enough for 4, I used spelt but I bet angel hair would be awesome!)
4 eggs
¼ cup half and half or cream
½ large onion, diced
1 tablespoon butter or olive oil
1 teaspoon crushed garlic or 2-3 cloves minced
¼ cup butter, melted
½ cup maple syrup
salt and pepper to taste
¼ - ½ cup cheese, Parmesan is best, but I used cheddar this time
  

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put aluminum foil on a cookie sheet, then cut turkey bacon into 1 inch pieces. Spread over the cookie sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes until crisp. Remove and let cool.

Put 3 quarts of water on to boil, then dice the onion.

Brown onion in 1 tablespoon of butter or olive oil in a large skillet or dutch oven over medium heat for 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic and brown for an additional 2 minutes. Remove browned onion and garlic from pan. 
Crack the eggs into a bowl and add ¼ cup of cream, salt, and pepper. Whip air into the egg mixture and set aside.

Your water should be boiling by now, so cook the pasta according to package directions.
Melt the ¼ cup of butter in the pan you used to brown the onions and garlic. Mix in maple syrup and increase heat to medium.

Once the pasta is cooked and drained, dump it into the melted butter and maple syrup large skillet and mix. Pour the egg mixture over the pasta. Do not stir. Turn off the heat.

Add the onion/garlic mixture and the bacon to the top of the pasta. Look for the egg mixture to set up a bit, like scrambled eggs. Then you can stir it all together. You can let it sit, covered for the flavors to meld or just dish it up right away. Then sprinkle on as much cheese as you dare. It serves 4-6 people.  I think this makes a great Sunday night meal or possibly brunch.

 

As a naturopath, I recommend adding a green vegetable to this meal, but don’t if that will spoil it for you.

Radio Interview on 7/24/12

I just remembered that I could post a link to the radio interview I did on KMUN with Ann Goldeen on July 24th.  I came prepared to discuss "Obesity, it's not what you think",  but we did wander around the topic somewhat.  I really hate hearing my recorded voice, so I haven't listened to this myself, except when I was there recording it.

http://coastradio.org/audio/2012/health/AG072412.mp3

The points I wanted to get across the most are: 

Poor nutrition and a sedentary lifestyle DO cause health problems, in people of ALL sizes.
Everyone should be trying to eat well and move as well as they can, regardless of size.

Diets do not work for 95% of the population.

BMI is not a very accurate measurement of obesity.

Human beings deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, regardless of how they look or what you think is going on with them.

Weight by itself is not a problem except in extreme cases where it impacts mobility or you are starving. Fat people live longer than thin people and are more likely to survive cardiac events. If fat people actually do cost the medical system more, it would be around .12% more, if that.

Just for the fun of it, here's a link to Kate Harding's BMI Project.

It’s A Hot One! Homemade Ginger Ale

Today the forecast is for 88 degrees and no chance of rain with sunny skies here on the North Oregon Coast! This is such a rare thing for us, I almost revel in it! Our high is usually 65 degrees with 60 percent chance of rain.
So we’ve buttoned up the house so we won’t get too hot, because no air conditioning here! I decided to make something cool to drink, my favorite: homemade ginger ale!  Ginger is a great digestive herb, as well as anti-inflammatory.  It rarely has side effects, although there are some cautions about ingesting a lot of ginger and taking blood thinners.
I have a iSi soda siphon to make carbonated water, so there is no fermentation involved, I just have to make the ginger syrup.

I found and adapted this recipe from the website    HerbCare.
You need:
4 cups of water
4 or 5 inches fresh ginger
4 packets of NuStevia white stevia powder
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon lemon extract

Bring the water to boil in a small saucepan. Peel ginger and cut into chunks and chop with the food processor or by hand into fine pieces. (Sorry, I didn't get a picture of me peeling and chopping the ginger. You can see from the picture below, I pretty much mince the ginger.) Add the ginger and stevia, reduce the heat to low, and simmer gently for 8 to 10 minutes.

Strain the liquid into a heatproof container, then stir in vanilla and lemon extracts. 

Cover and refrigerate. Once the syrup is cool you can fill a glass with ice, pour in about ⅓ to ½ glass of the ginger syrup and fill the rest of the glass up with carbonated water. I like my ginger ale kind of strong, so I use ½ ginger ale syrup to ½ water.

I have substituted other sweeteners such as maple syrup or honey, but those made it too sweet for me. (If you like it sweeter, then do use maple syrup, honey or increase the stevia.)  I have used fresh lemon juice previously, but it didn’t taste the way I wanted it to taste.

What’s your favorite cool summer drink?
Cheers!

Scotch Eggs Redux

I just finished putting my Scotch eggs in the oven and decided a reminder of this recipe might be appropriate at this time of year.  Click here: Scotch Eggs Recipe

Happy Passover or Easter or Spring everyone!

Fecal Transplants

Fecal transplants, also called fecal microbiota transplants are a way to change the micro flora of large intestine. Healthy donor stool is collected, suspended in water, normal saline or milk and given to the patient through enema, nasogastric tube, or other scopes or tubes.

I first heard about fecal transplants about six weeks ago at a naturopathic gastroenterology seminar. It was presented by a young naturopathic physician, Mark Davis. He had only been a licensed ND for four months, but had been researching this while he was a student.

Fecal transplants are not a new thing. The earliest documented use in humans goes back to 1958, when Ben Eiseman, MD and William Silen, MD coauthored “Fecal enema as an adjunct in the treatment of pseudomembranous enterocolitis”.

Since then there have been several articles written about how it has helped cure ulcerative colitis, inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome and hospital acquired clostridium difficile. I could cite them all, but that would make a very boring blog post!

It sounds quite gross but it makes a lot of sense.  Probiotics in yogurt or supplements have 1 to 15 of the microbes that the feces have and they help somewhat in many types of digestive disturbances. Donor stool will have 500 to 1,000 species. From what I’ve read, 85 to 95% of C diff colitis patients treated with fecal transplant have been cured, and 50-90% of IBD and IBS patients respond.

Of course you want to have a healthy donor that has been tested for communicable disease and no history of gastrointestinal issues, no recent antibiotic or immunosuppressive or systemic anti neoplastic drug use, food allergies or several other issues.

If you wanted to have a fecal transplant done, you would visit your open-minded gastroenterologist or naturopathic physician in Oregon. Dr. Davis has an at-home protocol as well.

Fecal transplants are not a federally approved treatment as there really isn’t a way to give synthetic feces. (Yet! I’m sure a big pharm place is working on it!) I’ve heard of some studies that are ongoing in Europe and also Seattle, WA.

I think that if I had bowel issues that couldn’t be treated with the usual natural remedies and diet or gentle antibiotics, I would consider getting a fecal transplant.  What about you, too gross or possibly a treatment?


-Seminar Notes “Treat the Gut. Addressing CDI, UC, IBS and more with Fecal Microbiota Transplantation” by Mark Davis, ND January 21, 2012

-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13592638

-http://brightmedicineclinic.com/bright_medicine/home.html

Could you live without shampoo?

I attended a gastroenterology conference this weekend, and, as usual it fired up all sorts of brain cells. I always have to take some time to “digest” information I learn at these conferences before I can tell others about it. You’ll be told eventually, even about the Fecal Microbiota Transplant. (It is sort of what you think.)

But, I’m not ready yet. Last night I was catching up on all the blogs I read and I came across a post about not using shampoo. Well, it was a link to simplemom.net in a post by already pretty’s Sally McGraw.

Commercial shampoos and conditioners have all sorts of chemicals in them. Chemicals that really shouldn’t be near your skin. They also may have “natural” extracts and molecules which may not be good for you. During the conference I learned that some even have gluten, to which many are sensitive. In simplemom’s blog article she writes about going shampoo (and conditioner) free after reading about it several times.

Why stop shampooing? Shampoo is a detergent and it strips the oils from your hair.  Simplemom goes on to explain “Most shampoos also contain mineral oil, which is a byproduct when gasoline is distilled from crude oil. It’s added to shampoo (along with hundreds of other products) to thickly coat the strands, giving hair an artificial shine. And since it can’t absorb into skin, like the other ingredients, it acts as a barrier on our scalp, preventing oil from being released — thus requiring more shampoo to strip away the grease. This is why the more shampoo you use, the more you need.”

How does one clean hair without shampoo? It sounds like you can pretty much make up your own recipe depending on your needs but the simple version is baking soda and apple cider vinegar. (Separately, can you imagine the chemical reaction if you used both at the same time?) Now you don’t have to imagine it, see it on youtube!

First, mix one tablespoon baking soda with a cup of water. You can even reuse your old empty shampoo bottle for this. In another container mix one tablespoon apple cider vinegar in a cup of water. Then, wet your hair thoroughly. Apply the baking soda water to your scalp, starting at the crown and mainly focusing on the scalp. You shouldn’t use the whole amount unless you have a lot of hair. After a few minutes, just rinse. Then apply the apple cider vinegar water to areas of your hair that are dry, usually the ends, wait a few minutes and rinse it out.

When I told Mr. Inappropriate about this, he said something about “crunchy granola blah blah blah” and the guys at work laughing at him. But the more he thought about it, the more he was willing to experiment with it. Think of the savings on shampoo and conditioner if it works! So we will try the no shampoo experiment next week. I’ll let you know how it goes!