#trying to keep my arthritis under control without meds | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

amour-de-tous · 4 years

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Finally, the update on my health

TW: lots and lots and lots of talk about health, and bad health, in particular, below. So I know I never really updated everyone on What Was (is) Going On With My Health. It’s been a huge mess, and I run out of spoons every day just trying to eat meals at the right times to take my meds. Shortest version possible (believe it or not): at the end of May last year, 2019, pretty much all my joints and extremities swelled up unbelievably. Like I couldn’t put my feet on the floor because they were so swollen it felt like the skin would split open. I had to sit in a chair all day with my feet elevated on a stool and pillows just to keep them from continuing to swell, and I had to sleep with pillows under my feet to keep them from swelling more during the night. I say “sleep” loosely, because I was getting about an hour to two hours of very interrupted sleep every night. The swelling was so bad that just to leave my chair where my feet were elevated, and go sit at the table to eat meals, my feet would swell so bad it was hard for me to walk from the table back to my chair. Then my hands started going numb and tingly, but not in a “my hands are asleep” kind of way, but more an “this is excruciatingly painful but I still can’t feel my hands” kind of way. I couldn’t close my hands into a fist, and I couldn’t open my hands either, they were frozen in a sort of half curled position. There were several weeks where I couldn’t hold a fork or spoon to feed myself. There were months upon months were I couldn’t brush or wash my hair by myself. I spent months with my hands/wrists/feet/ankles packed in ice every 20 minutes to try to control the swelling. I also had this awful brain fog situation where I couldn’t focus on anything. Even if I had been able to hold a book, tablet, or phone (which I couldn’t, because my hands were so bad), I couldn’t read because I had absolutely zero concentration or focus or comprehension. Even watching TV was almost impossible because I would zone out and come back to awareness and so much time had passed I’d have no idea what was going on. I literally spent three or four months just sitting in that chair in pain, staring at the ceiling, crying on and off. So, so much more below the cut.

I could barely attend my niece and nephews baptism. We were there for as long as it took for the actual service to happen, and while I tried to stay for the meal and gifts and such, I was in such excruciating pain--and using a cane to even be able to walk--that we had to leave early. My niece’s 4th birthday was a few weeks later, in late June, and again I was there with a cane and in excruciating pain. I’m my niece’s favourite person and having to tell her Auntie couldn’t get down and play with her, or hold her, was terrible. By the end of June, my PCP had run enough tests to be outside his area of knowledge and referred me out to a rheumatologist. The earliest the one I wanted to see could see me was January. This was the first week of July. So I looked around for whoever could see me first and chose them. The soonest someone could see me was, unfortunately, on my birthday last year, July 15th. So I spent my birthday seeing the rheumatologist, being diagnosed with carpal tunnel, tendinitis, and what he suspected was rheumatoid arthritis. Once I left his office, I spent my birthday getting bloodwork (8 vials, yikes, which continued monthly for the remainder of 2019), and then getting fitted for a set of wrist braces that I would have to sleep in for maybe the rest of my life, and wear during the day when the pain was so bad. The rheumatologist literally said to me “well, none of your labwork confirms this and we don’t really know, but we’re gonna treat you as if you had rheumatoid arthritis”. Although he kept running tests to try to confirm the RA, he didn’t look anywhere else to try and figure out what I actually have. So they started me on medication(s), and referred me to occupational therapy and physical therapy. I was so bad when I started going that my PT consisted of sitting in a chair and (trying) to flex my ankles in different directions, and then a lymph massage to try to reduce swelling. My occupational therapy, when I started, consisted of trying to pick up pieces of sponges and put them in a cup. I was so bad that was actually almost impossible for me. They also referred me out to have a nerve conduction test, where they stuck needles all through my arms and electrified them. It was the worst thing ever, let me tell you. Then I got referred to a hand surgeon (who is lovely, actually) for surgery. He decided to hold off on surgery and see if steroid shots would help (they did, to an extent, and I am so grateful for that). Fast forwards through months and months of testing and bloodwork and physical and occupational therapies and medications, and the swelling had reduced enough that I could stand up or walk to the bathroom or eat dinner without swelling up so bad anymore. Being at PT and OT still meant I came home and had to pack my feet and wrists in ice and elevate to take care of the extra swelling, but it was better. Not good, not right, but better. Fast forward more, still, and it’s December. At that point I could stand long enough to help cook dinner, or even run an errand or two before I was in too much pain and had to sit and elevate again. In mid-March they released me from PT and OT. Not because I was better--I still couldn’t (and can’t, now) bend my wrists at all--but because the prescription had run out. I’d basically used all the allotted amount I had. This ended up being alright in the long run, since aside from one trip to the lab for bloodwork, I haven’t left my house since my last day of OT on March 13th, due to Covid. Turns out having an auto-immune disease and being on immunosuppresants makes you REAL high risk for Covid, and I’m just not playing that game. At the beginning of April, I finally got to see the rheumatologist I WANTED to see all along (via video visit! Didn’t even have to leave my house and be exposed!). She’s awesome and is really set on finding an ACTUAL diagnosis for me and not just saying “we don’t know”. Had 9 vials taken from me in her first round of bloodwork, and then she said it looked like it could be Lupus and did more tests. She’s now pretty certain I DON’T have Lupus OR rheumatoid arthritis. I had an appointment with her at the very end of July (video, again), and it turns out she thinks I have something called sarcoidosis. This is going to require a CT scan, for my lungs and heart, to see if the disease is in them. Evidently with this particular auto-immune disease, your body overreacts and encapsulates what it thinks are dangerous foreign bodies (but really are just part of your own immune system) and creates “granulomas” around them. Basically think of an oyster creating a pearl around an invading body, except in this case instead of pearls, I have lumps of stuff that hurts me. Horrifying to know I have to walk into a hospital at this point in time, of my own free will. Like I said before, aside from one set of bloodwork, I haven’t been exposed or been out where I could be exposed at ALL. All that goes out the window once I walk into a hospital for a CT scan. :\ After the CT scan, depending on the results, there’s other tests I’ll need. Chest x-rays, EKGs, pulmonary function tests, lung biopsies (YIKES) and others. She seems fairly confident that this is the correct diagnosis for me, but wants confirmation and also to see progression of disease. At any rate, she’ll be changing my medication. Which sucks for so many reasons, not the least of which is I just picked up 360 tablets of it that I now won’t be taking. :| Also the fact that now I get to try a new medication and do the “am I having side effects or am I just anxious” song and dance. She’s also talking about needing to put me on steroids which I am REALLY unhappy about. I suppose it’s better to go on steroids than to die, but I’m still really unhappy about it. In other, related news, I’ve developed hypercalcemia. Which means there’s too much calcium in my blood, which can cause a HOST of other problems. So I’ve been put on a no-dairy, low calcium diet. Do you know how many items have calcium in them? Almost everything, that’s what. Also, they fortify all the non-dairy “milk” products with calcium. They all have as much or MORE calcium than dairy milk. It’s been a NIGHTMARE, to the point where I’m actually afraid of food now. I’m obsessively reading labels and doing research online. “How much calcium is in 81 grams of kiwi, after all?”. Nightmare. Dairy was my #1 love and foodgroup, and having to suddenly figure out all new things to eat and ways to cook while simultaneously being in pain and *exhausted* 24/7 because auto-immune is not. fun. at. all. It’s already all my energy every day to help make, eat, and clean up a meal. I literally have to sit in my chair after a meal with my feet elevated to recover. Now having to spend all this energy on a whole new diet plan is a nightmare. Basically this whole thing has been a MESS. It’s been 15 months, I’ve been being treated for the wrong disease for 14 months, the news I’m getting now is worse than the news that flattened my emotional response all those months ago, I still can’t function, and I can’t work. Oh, yeah. I haven’t played an instrument since May 2019. My whole life revolved around my music, and now I can’t even play to make myself feel better, because my hands don’t work. I’ve also been out of work since then, too: my last concert was April 2019. I haven’t made any money since. But I have had co-pays out the wazoo! Which reminds me that they raised the price on two of my meds, because of course they did. Thanks, congress. This has been really, really hard. My anxiety has skyrocketed through this, and my depression isn’t doing much better. Although physically I’m not as bad as I was, I’m nowhere near normal, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back to my normal again, either. The best I’m hoping for at this point is to be able to eat calcium again someday, to not have my organs eaten up by this disease, and to continue existing. It’s been exhausting. It really, really has. That’s not to mention the added stress and anxiety over Covid, and the fact that neither mom nor I can even go to a grocery store because of my high-risk status. We’re averaging getting groceries about once a month right now. It’s super fun now because I have to read the label on EVERYTHING but Aldi doesn’t post their nutrition labels online and!!! That means I have to either guess or not get things! Great! All this to say that I miss being on tumblr. I miss all my friends here. I miss talking to you all and being able to laugh with you and geek out. Things have been really hard for me (and there are multitudes I haven’t included in here; even if my hands would allow that much typing, I’d probably hit a character limit. Just: I miss you all. I love you. I’ve been a wreck, but I think of you all often. <3

#health stuff #diagnosis #health talk #medication talk #eating talk #uhhhh what else #needles talk #blood talk #disability talk #I'M A MESS Y'ALL #i love you and miss you #ponderings and musings #asa health stuff

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lucywithlupus · 5 years

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The Ultimate Kit for Arthritis Survival

Behold, the most powerful Ziploc bag you will ever meet. Hello guys! Today, I bestow on you some wisdom. During the first years or months of having a rheumatoid disorder, keeping track of your pills and doing your everyday activities can be a challenge. Especially when you do not have things to help you out in moments of need. So today, I am going to tell you the best and only items you may need to take with you in your already (let's face it) messy bag to save you in those creaky moments. Without further ado, here we go: Ultimate Kit for Arthritis Survival!

Musts

Your Meds It goes without question: where you go, your meds will follow. You know what you take and what allows you to stay functional during the day, so please take it with you in case of an emergency! Maybe that day your rheumatoid factor spiked up and decided to ruin your day, or maybe you have to go somewhere for longer than needed and you are stuck in the sticky situation of not having your meds available when you have to take them. So please meds in the bag. Even if you think you won't need them! Take all of the ones you take during the day! You have no idea how many times I was saved by my anti-inflammatories when being away from home. To make it easier, use those tiny pill containers to place them inside. Curse pharmacies or something but pills doesn't come in rainbow colors and may get confused if you just shove them in there with no order or nametag. Don't carry the whole jar though, it may explode!

Thermometer Your thermometer is your best friend. You know you have a best friend when both of you have a common enemy: fever. Basically, fever is caused in your body when your hypothalamus is trying to maintain temperature homeostasis- aka regulate your body temperature- at the moment pyrogens attack. Pyrogens are substances that induce fever, and these could be either microorganisms and viruses- aka infections- or pyrogenic cytokines, which are produced by your own body when inflammatory processes - like rheumatic inflammation- are going on. So keeping a thermometer is always key to have your body levels on check. You don't even need to check that often, only when you feel something is not right. Just make sure it is not an original mercury-filled thermometer, as those may break in your bag and poisonify everything you own. Including the bag. And you. Instead, I would recommend an electrical thermometer: they are pretty inexpensive, more accurate, less difficult to see and even beep when they are done so you know you waited enough time. So throw one in there too! What's next?

Panadol Panadol is your other best friend. Love her in all her gentle yet pain slaughtering glory. Scoop some panadol pills and place them into your small pill case, making sure to write her name down so you don't confuse yourself later! Warning: Be careful when consuming panadol often, it does not cause harm but may affect your liver in the long run. Just follow the package instructions and we'll be all good to go.

Med schedule This is actually something many people forget about because it just seems so unnecessary: why keep my schedule in there when I can just memorize it or use an app instead? Well, it makes sense because you are basically placing your plan of attack right inside your bunker. Right in the wall where you can see it, grab your ammo and battle out. Sometimes when I used apps, my phone died or I had it in my pocket and never saw the reminders. It is always better to trust the good old post-it note and smack it right there inside the bag for when you really need it.

Antibacterial gel Bacterias are everywhere. I think my microbiology teacher put it best: they are on you, in you, I shall repeat, inside you and all around you. And the sad thing about rheumatoid conditions is that immunosuppressors- aka medicine that lowers your immune system's ability to defend itself- are a very common treatment. Which means that you are under constant attack by the outside world, everywhere, all the time, every day. No pressure. Throwing some nice scented antibacterial gel in your bag is just a habit for me (look at the small bottle! It has sparkles in it!) It just takes one thing off of my mind to worry about. Every time I please, I just plop some of that clean goodness in my hands and bam! No germs. Don't abuse this, because they can be harmful to your skin, and sometimes can even contribute to germs getting stuck in your hands if they are not actually "antibacterial". Be careful and pick the sparkliest one.

Moisturizer or pain relief cream Everyone has a moisturizer at their house. Jot it in your bag, or a small amount, just to make sure you have a medium to massage your joints in when they get inflamed. Maybe today you run too fast or went up those stairs too enthusiastically. So in those moments its great to sit down, examine your inflamed joint and rub the pain away. Icy Hot is a great brand for chronic joint problems: it burns terribly at first but then it leaves you icy cold and fresh. Other gym-branded pain relievers will do as well since muscle tearing conditions like lupus also apply to what the packaging indicates. Give yourself a break and soon you can continue with your day as nothing happened :)

Optional These are items that you do not need to have. It would be worth to spend on them eventually, but if you do not have the money or ability to get these, then do not worry. The items above will do just fine for now. (Remember tho: student discount codes exist too!)

Tissues: keep you fresh and ready if you are sick or have a fever. Gloves and mask: just to protect your nose and mouth from the smoke and overcrowding. Pretty inexpensive if you know where to find them. Worth investing the extra money instead of using disposable ones.

Heart rate monitor (HRM) or sphygmomanometer: definitely more of a luxury item, but are now found relatively easily in phone apps and smartwatches. People use them at the gym, on hikes and, sometimes, just bored on the couch to checked if they are secretly a robot.

Spyro-majigger is basically what the doctor uses to measure blood pressure. Keeping track of your heart action is great to make sure the medicine is not giving you tachycardia and that fever is controlled. It may be useful in your next appointment!

Eyedrops: keeping those eyes clean of any superficial dust during the day.

The actual bag: now, the Ziploc bag is an option, but if it were me, I would recommend investing in an actual cloth makeup bag or school pencil case to carry your medicine. It's discrete, much nicer and less likely to break in your pockets or purses or schoolbags. Just know to wash it regularly and keep what's inside at bay.

And that is all that I have for today, folks! See you around! Love you! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Observen, la bolsa Ziploc más poderosa que ustedes conocerán.

Hola chicos! Hoy dia les daré un poco de mi sabiduría. Durante los primeros meses de tener una condición reumatoide, fue un desafío planificar mis pastillas y hacer mis actividades diarias. Así que hoy les diré algunas de las cosas que tú necesitarás llevar contigo en tu (seamos honestos) desordenado bolso o mochila para esos momentos de riesgo. Sin más preámbulos, aquí vamos: El Ultimate Kit para sobrevivir a la artritis.

Cosas que debes tener

Tus medicinas

Fuera de bromas: donde tu vayas, tus medicinas te seguirán. Tu sabes lo que consumes y qué te ayuda a mantenerte funcional durante el día, así que por favor agarra lo que necesites en caso de una emergencia!Quizá ese dia tu factor reumatoide decidió subir abruptamente y arruinar tu dia, o quizá debas ir a algún sitio por más tiempo del necesario y estás atorado en una situación pegajosa hasta nuevo aviso, sin tus medicinas para salvarte. Así que: medicinas en la bolsa. Incluso si piensas que no las vas a necesitar! Lleva todas las que tomes durante el dia! No saben cuantas veces fui rescatada por mis anti inflamatorios cuando estaba fuera de casa.Para hacer las cosas más sencillas aún, utiliza esos mini contenedores de pastillas para organizarte. Las malvadas farmacias no hacen pastillas de todos los colores del arcoiris y podríamos confundirlas si solo las tiras en tu cartera sin orden o el nombre escrito encima. Solo no cargues el jarro entero: se rompera!

Termómetro

Tu termómetro es tu mejor amigo. Sabes que tienes un mejor amigo cuando ambos odian a la misma persona: fiebre. Básicamente, la fiebre es causada cuando el hipotálamo trata de mantener tus niveles de temperatura estable. Este balance corporal se llama homeostasis, y puede perder el control cuando los pirógenos atacan. Pirógenos son substancias que inducen a la fiebre. Esta se produce en el cuerpo ante la aparición de microorganismos y viruses o citocinas pirógenas, que se producen por tu propio cuerpo cuando los procesos inflamatorios reumáticos ocurren. Un termómetro siempre es clave para tener un buen registro de tu temperatura. Ni siquiera necesitar chequearte tan a menudo, solo cuando sientas que algo no está en orden. Por favor no utilices uno tradicional lleno de mercurio, pues se puede partir y envenenar todo lo que tu tienes ahí. Incluyendo la bolsa. Y a ti. En vez de eso, opta por un termómetro eléctrico: el precio es más bajo que nunca, son más precisos y menos difíciles de usar, incluso suenan cuando ya puedes ver qué temperatura tienes y te evitas la espera dudosa. Así que agrega un termómetro también ahí! Que sigue?

Panadol

Panadol es tu otro mejor amigo. Ámala en toda su gentil y asesina-de-dolor naturaleza. Toma unas cuantas y agregalas a tu pequeño pastillero, escribe su nombre para que no te confundas!Advertencia: Ten cuidado cuando consumes panadol muy a menudo. No hace mayor daño en exceso pero puede afectar a tu hígado a la larga. Solo sigue las instrucciones del empaque y estaremos listos para salir.

Antibacterial

Las bacterias están en todos lados. Creo que mi profesor de biología lo explica de la major manera: están sobre ti, en ti, repito, dentro de ti y en todo tu alrededor.

Y lo más triste de las condiciones reumáticas es que los inmunosupresores- o medicina que reduce la actividad de tu sistema inmune y este no pueda defenderse- son un tratamiento común de la artritis. Esto significa que tu te encuentras en la línea de fuego cada vez que sales al mundo exterior, todo el tiempo, todo el dia, todos los días. Sin presión.

Tirar una botellita de gel antibacterial con un olor rico en mi mochila se volvió un hábito para mí (Mira la botellita! Tiene escarcha adentro!). Solo el tenerlo quita esa preocupación de mi cabeza. Cada vez que yo plazca, puedo poner un poco de este amiguito en mi mano y bam! Sin gérmenes.

No abuses de esto tampoco, por que algunos pueden ser malos para la piel o incluso contribuyen a que los gérmenes se peguen a tus manos si en serio no son tan "antibacteriales" como dicen. Ten cuidado y agarra el más brillante.

Crema humectante o crema para dolor muscular

Todos tienen al menos una botella de crema humectante en casa. Ponla en tu cartera, o separa un poco en otro envase, para asegurarte de tener algo con qué masajear tus articulaciones si estas fueran a inflamarse.Quizá hoy corriste demasiado rápido o subiste esas escaleras muy vigorosamente. En esos momentos, es bueno sentarse, examinar tu articulación inflamada y sobar hasta que ya no te duela.

Icy Hot es una marca buenísima para problemas crónicos de las articulaciones: te quema increíblemente al principio pero después de dejar frio hielo y fresco. Otras cremas musculares de gimnasio también funcionan, pues cuando los músculos se desgarran después de un buen entrenamiento, producen la misma situación que el lupus en tu cuerpo.

Date un descanso y pronto podrás continuar con tu dia como si nada hubiera ocurrido :)

Opcional

Estos son artículos que no necesitas tener. Valdría la pena invertir en ellos eventualmente, pero sí en serio no puedes costear telos o no tienes la habilidad de conseguirlos, no te preocupes. Los que mencioné antes está bien por ahora (Recuerda que los descuentos de universitarios existen!).

Tissues:para mantenerte fresco y listo si estás enfermo o si tienes fiebre. Guantes y máscara:sólo para proteger tu nariz y boca del humo y de los sitios con mucha gente. Ahora los precios son bastante favorables si sabes donde encontrarlos. Es una buena inversión a diferencia de las máscaras desechables.

Monitor de frecuencia cardiaca (HRM) o esfigmomanómetro:definitivamente algo más costoso, pero ahora los puedes encontrar en tus apps de teléfono y smartwatches. Las personas los usan en el gimnasio, en caminatas o, a veces, aburridos en el sillón chequeando que no son secretamente un robot del gobierno.

Esfigmo-nosequé es básicamente lo que usa el doctor para medir tu presión arterial. Tener un buen record de tu perfil cardiaco es excelente para asegurarte que tu medicina no te de taquicardia y tu fiebre esté regulada. Quizá sea útil en tu próxima consulta médica!

Gotas de ojo:mantiene esos ojitos limpios de cualquier polvo superficial durante el dia.

La bolsa:ahora, bolsa Ziploc es una opción. Si fuera yo, recomendaría invertir en una pequeña bolsa de tela, estuche de maquillaje o cartuchera para cargar tus medicinas. Es discreta, más bonita y menos probable de romperse en tus bolsillos, carteras o mochilas escolares. Solo recuerda limpiarla con frecuencia y revisar qué hay dentro de vez en cuando.

Yyy eso es todo, amigos! Nos vemos pronto! Chau!

#lupus #lupuswarrior #systemic lupus erythematosus #inflammatory arthritis #juvenile idiopathic arthritis #invisibledisabilities #chronic pain #chronically ill #invisible illness #disability #chrons #fibromyalgia #fibrowarrior #gouty arthritis #psoriatic arthritis #types of arthritis #rheumatism #rheumatic #awareness

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supremekalmllc · 4 years

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New Post has been published on https://supremekalm.com/five-things-to-know-about-hemp-cbd-in-pet-products/

Five Things to Know About Hemp-CBD in Pet Products

Given that we’ve all been staying home lately, it seemed like a good time to talk about our four-legged friends and CBD. In fact, if I think about it, I first saw hemp-derived CBD (Hemp CBD) “in the wild” at my local pet store here in Seattle. Now CBD is so ubiquitous that I hardly notice it sitting on the counter when I pick up dog treats.

That changed when I started looking into Hemp CBD pet products in preparing for a CLE put on by the Seminar Group. Below are five things I learned about Hemp CBD for pet products in preparing for my presentation at CBD Considerations in the Northwest.

1. Many pets, like humans, have an endocannabinoid system.

The endocannabinoid system (ECS) is a signaling system found in the cells of most mammals, including humans, cats, and dogs. The ECS is essentially a network of receptors in the brain, organs, tissue, glands and nervous system. The ECS is far from fully understood but is believed to promote homeostasis in mammals, keeping internal systems balanced despite external factors. This can include regulating things like appetite and digestion, motor control, sleep, and muscle and bone growth. Endocannabinoids, produced naturally in the body of mammals, are neurotransmitters that act as messengers in the body to communicate with itself.

Endocannabinoids connect to receptors to relay messages within the body. There are two main endocannabinoid receptors:

CB1 receptors â€“ mostly found in the central nervous system which includes the brain and spinal cord.

CB2 receptors â€“ mostly found in the peripheral nervous system, which includes cells and organs.

Unlike endocannabinoids which are naturally occurring in mammals, phytocannabinoids are produced by the cannabis plant, as well as other plants. Phytocannabinoids include THC, CBD, CBN, and CBG. THC binds to the CB1 receptors, but the way that CBD interacts with ECS is not fully understood in humans or animals, despite the fact that Epidiolex has been approved as a drug for treating epilepsy.

The impact of phytocannabinoids on the ECS is far from fully understood, whether in humans or animals, but there are some findings on phytocannabinoids and the ECS in dogs. For example, the US government conducted studies and found that dogs have many cannabinoid receptors in their cerebellum, brain stem, and medulla oblongata. This is believed to explain why THC causes static ataxia, an inability to sit still causing shaking and imbalance, in dogs. Remember, sometimes things that are safe for humans are dangerous for animals, including chocolate which is toxic in dogs.

When it comes to CBD the, research is limited but a small clinical trial at Colorado State University found that CBD oil reduced seizures in epileptic dogs meaning that it may have similar effects as found in humans.

2. The FDA regulates pet products and does not approve of the use of Hemp CBD in most scenarios.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has taken a position on Hemp CBD in pet products that is very similar to its position on Hemp CBD in food. CBD products intended to have a therapeutic benefit or intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease are drugs under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. The FDA has sent warning letters to manufacturers of Hemp CBD pet products who made such claims. There is no equivalent to dietary supplements for animals, so structure-function claims about Hemp CBD also can classify pet products as drugs.

New animal drugs are subject to pre-market approval. The FDA requires that sponsors of new drugs establish that the drug is safe and effective. At this time the FDA has not approved any drugs for animals.

Similarly, animal food products are also subject to pre-market approval. Food must be approved for specific species. The FDA has not approved the use of CBD in animal food either.

The FDA regulates pet food labeling but has a powerful partner. The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) establishes model labeling regulations which are in turn implemented by many states. AAFCO is a non-profit, non-governmental agency that doesnâ€™t have actual regulatory authority over pet food. Instead, it is an important advisory body that works with the FDA. AAFCO members include state agencies, the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine and the Candian Food Inspection Agency.

3. AAFCO says that â€œhemp and hemp products may not be used in animal feed or pet food in the United States.â€

According to a statement released by AAFCO in 2019, â€œhemp and hemp products may not be used in animal feed or pet food in the United States.â€ AAFCO reasons that although private companies are working on applications to determine that pet food is safe, those applications have not been approved.

4. Some states follow the FDA and AAFCO (like Washington) while others are more lenient.

To really understand the power of AAFCO in regulating animal food, look no further than Colorado. Colorado was one of the first states to embrace hemp and has passed legislation that allows Hemp CBD to be added to man food and dietary supplements, so long as those products are prepared in licensed food handling facilities. But things are different when it comes to pet food.

According to the Colorado Department of Agricultureâ€™s website, the same is not true for animal feed:

Currently, CDA does not approve registration applications for commercial feed products that contain industrial hemp since it is not an approved ingredient recognized by the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO, an organization of state agriculture departments from all 50 states) or the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Veterinary Medicine. CDAâ€™s decision not to approve these products complies with AAFCOâ€™s position on industrial hemp as well as the positions of other state agriculture departments. Products in the Colorado marketplace containing unapproved ingredients can be subject to Withdrawal from Distribution Orders.

But not every state follows AAFCO. For example, Florida allows for hemp extract in animal feed.

5. Pets have been a major factor in the changing attitudes of Hemp CBD.

One of the first states to strongly regulate the sale of Hemp CBD products was Indiana. Back in 2018, I wrote about how Indiana had passed comprehensive legislation on labeling and manufacturing Hemp CBD products. Since then, many other states, including Utah and Texas have adopted similar labeling standards, making Indiana a leader in Hemp CBD policy. Thatâ€™s in large part thanks to Indiana dog and CBD user Teddy McDermott.

A few months before Indianaâ€™s Governor Eric Holcolmb signed Indianaâ€™s CBD legislation, he got involved in a public dispute regarding CBD products and pets. This started when Hammond, Indianaâ€™s mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. publicly stated that he would be giving his aging dog Teddy, CBD. McDermott did this in defiance of Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hillâ€™s statement that CBD products were illegal in Indiana. Gov. Holcomb joined the Fido-based fray when he told the Times of Northwest Indiana that he was open to treating Indianaâ€™s â€œfirst dogâ€ Henry with CBD oil if it could relieve the miniature schnauzerâ€™s pain.

Perhaps Governor Holcomb did his research in treating Henry with CBD but I like to think it had to do with McDermottâ€™s dog Teddy and his Twitter feud with AG Hill. Donâ€™t worry, I have receipts:

Is this how Indianaâ€™s Attorney General (@AGCurtisHill) wants to see me dressed? All because @tommcdermottjr gets me CBD Oil for medicinal purposes?

My Doggy Daddy says he needs to go out of state to get my medicine now. Whatâ€™s going on here in Indiana?#IStandWithTeddy pic.twitter.com/29KETnCPxS

â€” Teddy McDermott (@MayorTomCanine) December 14, 2017

Look what my Doggy Dad ordered for me this Christmas, another batch of #CBDOil to help w/ my arthritis.

Thanks goodness the Indiana AG (@AGCurtisHill) took the weekend off from checking our mailbox, bc the US Post Office has no problem with delivering this medicine.#TeddyforAG pic.twitter.com/56U2a7PQ3W

â€” Teddy McDermott (@MayorTomCanine) December 27, 2017

Teddy even went so far as to quote-retweet AG Hillâ€™s praise of former US Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinding of the Cole Memo.

Indianaâ€™s Attorney General @AGCurtisHill is a #politicalgrandstander who is trying to curry favor w/POTUS- heâ€™s probably hoping to catch a job with Jeff Sessions & the US DOJ- as he has no chance to be re-elected in Indiana

Then again, what do I know, Iâ€™m just a dog#TeddyforAG https://t.co/3A3czKScWl

â€” Teddy McDermott (@MayorTomCanine) January 7, 2018

Fast forward to May 2018, where Teddy enjoyed some well-earned bragging rights for winning the battle for Hemp CBD in the Indiana legislature.

My job @ in #Indiana is now complete, #cbdoil is legal & available over the counter.

Now my doggy daddy (@tommcdermottjr) wonâ€™t have to get my meds mailed into Indiana under threat of punishment by @AGCurtisHillâ€“ & I can walk normally now, without a limp. https://t.co/fbwjnAh917

â€” Teddy McDermott (@MayorTomCanine) May 1, 2018

Dogs like Teddy helped normalize CBD in conservative states like Indiana. Hemp CBD pet products exist in a legal gray area but in most cases appear generally to be safe. However, stakeholders still need to establish the safety of these products with AAFCO and the FDA. Remember, what is safe for you may not be safe for your pet, so proceed with caution when giving your pets Hemp CBD.

The post Five Things to Know About Hemp-CBD in Pet Products appeared first on Harris Bricken.

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jenroses · 7 years

Text

Sometimes it’s really hard to write about other people’s happy times when it reminds me of when I was strong and thought I could do almost anything.

Sometimes it’s an escape, but sometimes it’s just a really rough reminder of how hard I’m struggling right now.

The true answer to “How are you” behind the cut. It ain’t pretty.

The nausea is bad right now. Every week it’s a little worse, Saturdays. The dosage hasn’t changed, once a week I sit on the toilet lid while my husband is in the bathtub, and I swab alcohol between the stretch marks on my belly while he reads some old book or another (literally old, he’s on this kick and I think he’s up to the late 18th century? Maybe 19th? Idk.)

I swab the top of the tiny vial of vile chartreuse poison. It’s thick: in the little glass container it rolls thinner than honey, but thicker than oil.

I pull out a syringe and draw .8 ml of air into it to push into the vial, in order to not create too much suction inside when I’m trying to pull the thick liquid into the needle.

The flashback comes when I get ready to inject, every time. When I was pregnant, I pushed a much larger amount of fire into my belly twice a day, every day, for most of ten months. It hurt, it bruised, and it kept me from clotting, and it meant that I survived a pregnancy without clots, long enough to give birth to a bundle of ornery sunshine.

Methotrexate does not keep me from clotting. This is poison, and it’s only once a week, and the needle doesn’t even hurt going in. It doesn’t hurt pushing the medication in. But I know what’s coming.

I do this before I head to bed. It’s almost always six or seven in the morning, because I dread it, and I want to milk the last of the “feeling okay” I’ve finally managed to achieve by the time I’m six days out from the shot. So I stay up too late, and then collapse into bed and cease to function for the rest of the weekend.

I sometimes think that I’m making too much of it. It’s only a little bit of chemo. For cancer, it would be 10-25 ml, not .8. It could be worse. I could be taking it orally and killing off my gastrointestinal tract. With the blood thinner I’m on, that seemed like a bad idea, so shots it is.

When I let myself think that way, I do ill-advised things like decide I can fix shit and push through, like I did today when there was a crisis in the house over the fact that a DVD had come from the library as a blu-ray, for which we have no player. So I went to a store that had no electric cart to buy things that are literally way more expensive than a season of Game of Thrones could ever be, and came home to discover that there was literally no way to install anything on the computer that was supposed to get it. I sat there for an hour trying, on the wrong chair, which I should not have done, and then spent another hour trying to figure it out on a different computer. I emerged victorious, with a migraine and a blossoming fibro flare.

I take... take feels like the wrong word. I subject myself to methotrexate in order to keep my immune system under control, to prevent my body from waging war on my gut, my liver, my salivary glands, my lacrimal glands and the membranes around my knuckles. It doesn’t work nearly as well as steroids at making me feel good, but might have fewer side effects long term? It’s hard to say. Something is going to kill me, and whether it’s the rheumatoid arthritis or the medications to fight the rheumatoid arthritis, or the blood clotting disorder, or the meds I take to prevent clots from forming (when the real problem is that once clots form, they just don’t STOP)... I don’t know. My grandmother lived to be 101 and right now that feels like too damn long.

I have children. I have a husband. They need me, god knows why, and so I stay. I spent most of my time with my son today yelling at him. He’s five and it’s absolutely not his fault that my skin is so sensitive that touch is painful to me. I’m sure there’s probably a more graceful way to tell him that I just spent every last bit of energy I had making a couple of eggs that may or may not stay down and no, I don’t have the energy to deal with him wanting a new packet of salami and cheese when he hasn’t finished the cheese from the last one. He spent most of the day hanging out with his dad and his oldest sibling. My daughter is fortunately well cared for. We are protected from each other, but I wonder often what she thinks of our new reality, where she always has someone, but it’s almost never her mother because I can’t risk her feet or her teeth, because I can’t risk my temper or my lack of coping. Because I can no longer lift her, this child that I carried on my back for three straight years because she hadn’t learned to walk yet. I only stopped because I ended up with a clot and couldn’t lift anything.

Writing has been hard this week, because when I write I draw on my experience, and right now it hurts to remember that once, I was a dancer, once I was a competitive swimmer, once I stood in front of people trying to ignore a bigot and roused them to speak out against him.

When I write I remember the things I could do and the places I went. I did so much. And it feels like that is over. The last convention I went to hurt. I had a scooter, and pillows, and a hotel room to retreat to, and it hurt so, so bad that I now associate conventions, which were fun, once, with blinding pain.

The last one I went to was just before I was diagnosed. My joints were on fire. I thought I would need a wheelchair forever afterwards.

I’m afraid to go back to the doctor and tell them how much the methotrexate is hurting me because the alternatives are thousands of dollars per month.

We can afford it, I just hate being that much more of a burden. That money was supposed to let us enjoy my husband’s retirement. But the idea of going on a cruise? I don’t see it happening and I don’t know how to break it to my husband that it might not be possible.

I keep feeling like there are things I should be doing, like I should be trying, TRYING to exercise, like I should be trying to do something about my weight even though I know that trying to do something about my weight is not actually going to result in making healthier choices. There are barely any foods I can eat. No foods that are unambiguously healthy for me. The last thing I need to do right now is tell myself I can’t eat the few foods that don’t actively make me sick.

But today I tried to push through and I feel like I’m going to lose the entire week to it.

I have no extra resources for social niceties. I’m completely social-scripting my responses to comments on my fic (please keep making comments, it matter so much, just understand if my responses are short.) I’m making huge social errors because I’m misreading things because the only way I social is by applying cognitive effort and I just don’t have it right now.

I hear about people living and doing relatively normal things with RA. But my RA was not correctly diagnosed in a timely fashion. In retrospect, I think it started in 2014, but they didn’t have the right test in common usage so they shrugged and attributed my symptoms to “I don’t know some sort of inflammatory process probably related to EDS” and so by the time I was diagnosed, 29 joints were on fire and the antibody levels were so high they could not be accurately measured.

A lot of people with RA just have RA.

I have RA, EDS, Hashimotos, Sjogren’s, fibro, sleep apnea, allergies, IBS, and Factor V Leiden. I’m probably autistic, definitely neuroatypical, with massive sensory issues and a brain that does amazing things in a lot of areas and is utterly inept at the things people expect to be easy. If I write people well it’s because I’ve been studying human beings like an anthropologist since I was three years old. (I gave my mother a sheet of paper on which I’d drawn a wide variety of facial expressions because I was trying to understand facial expressions.)

Someone asked me once, “Have you considered that your problems might be psychological?” I laughed in his face. The idea that I could, via mental illness, magically clot the blood in my veins or sabotage my own thyroid? I mean, I absolutely have anxiety and intermittent depression issues, but ffs, those things don’t make my salivary glands swell to the size of golf balls. I get tired because my body is attacking myself, and exercise makes that process worse because it fucks with my immune system which is pretty good at fucking its own self up.

Someone asked me once why I pursued so many diagnoses. The answer was, “Maybe if they figure out the right one, they can fix something.” It’s not because I *like* collecting diagnoses. I miss being able to eat normally. I miss being strong and physically fit. I used to swim 10 hours per week. I used to ride horses. I used to go camping and loved it. I used to be able to build things with my hands.

I have to remind myself not to do those things.

I have to, because pretending I’m not sick makes me sicker.

Every shot I take seems to push me into a flare. Not a huge flare, just a few joints reminding me that this isn’t over. That this will never be over.

I got through the twice-a-day-Lovenox routine because I knew it was finite and i knew there would be a baby I wanted very much at the end of it.

I will be on methotrexate or something like it for the rest of my life.

It feels like poison. The sneaky poison that you think isn’t poison until your lips go numb even though you didn’t drink it. And then I sleep and think, “Well, at least I can sleep.”

And then I wake up and my whole body hurts, and the exhaustion pulls at me so hard, and I’m supposed to eat something so that I can take the small dose of steroids I’m still on, and I don’t want to eat because my stomach is on a boat.

Saturdays might as well not exist. Sundays aren’t much better. By Monday I can drag myself to physical therapy. By Tuesday I can drag myself to the grocery store. By Thursday I start to think, “I really should exercise” and on Friday I fight dread about the coming shot.

This morning my husband said, “I blame Trump.”

And I said, “You might as well. Stress increases inflammation, and most of my stress in the last six months has started with That Man.”

It is no mystery to me that so many people died last year.

The mystery is how we keep going when it’s hard.

“How are you doing?” asks a cashier. They all ask this. Everyone, locally. It’s a reflex thing.

And my brain won’t let me give the flip lie of an answer. I can’t say I’m fine. I’m not fine.

“I’m doing,” I echo. (Right now this feels like a lie, too.)

Sometimes they say, “How are you today?”

And I just say, “I’m here.”

Sometimes what doesn’t kill us just doesn’t kill us (yet).

I’m not stronger, I’m just not dead.

#Mine #rage against the chemo #I'm not fine #medical reality #rheumatoid arthritis #writing (or not)#needles #I cried at the best buy counter today

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charis2770 · 7 years

Text

Author: This is a really hard post to write. A lot of you who are reading this already know a little bit of my story, if you follow any of my other blogs. It’s always been important to me not to come off sounding whiny to anyone, because my purpose in creating those blogs has nothing to do with personal gain in any way. I remember being young and confused about my sexuality and my desires. I remember my lack of education about BDSM causing me to make some mistakes that could have had disastrous results. A lot of my writing may be not much more than porn, and it’s definitely meant to entertain, but it’s a lot more than that too. On my blogs, it’s my fervent hope that people will learn something about how BDSM can and should work. That they won’t feel so alone, or feel like freaks, or allow themselves to be abused or taken advantage of. Those things will always be my main goals, and no matter what else happens, I hope to continue to be able to provide a safe haven for everyone to learn how kink should work when it’s done right, and how to keep themselves safe, and to be a place where they’ll be accepted and loved for who they really are.

But I’m going to tell my real story. When I was 22, I met a man. We discovered that we were both into BDSM. I was so excited! A big strong guy (yeah, okay, I admit it, men like Asami and Mike and Erwin and Thor are my weakness) who got off on Dominating his girl, and who made damn good money as an added bonus? I thought I’d found my fairy tale. For a long time, we were really happy. We explored our kinks together. The sex was amazing. We got married.

Then his father’s illness got bad enough that they decided to dissolve their company. He thought finding a new job would be easy. At the same time, I discovered I was pregnant. We’d been married less than 6 months. And he couldn’t find a job. He started painting houses during the day and waiting tables at night. He was a hard worker. But the stress started showing his true colors. He had a temper, and stress brought it out. By the time our daughter was born, I’d learned to be afraid of him. We still had good times. He got a great job back in the city where I’d grown up. Being close to my parents helped. He could go out drinking all he wanted, and I wouldn’t be alone with the baby because my Mom is the best, and lived for being a Grandmother. But it kept getting worse. He decided I didn’t need a safeword because “we knew each other so well.” He’d “punish” me under the guise of consensual BDSM whenever he felt like I’d messed up. He wanted an open marriage. I was cool with it. Partly because I honestly don’t have a jealous bone in my body, and partly because it meant he spent less time with me. It was fine until I found someone I was interested in too. Then he turned into a jealous, angry monster.

During that time, I learned I could be a pretty great Top, and started exploring that part of myself. I got really good. My experience as a sub gave me an empathetic connection with my submissive play partners. Since he controlled all the money, I took several people’s suggestions and tried out being a ProDomme. I was good at that too. My home town wasn’t exactly a hotbed for clients, but I was able to make a little extra money of my own. He hated it, and the verbal, physical and sexual abuse got worse. Then I realized how scared my daughter was. All the time. For her, I was able to do something I couldn’t have done for myself. We moved in with my mother. There is no doubt in my mind that if I had not, and if it hadn’t been for my child, I would have died soon if I hadn’t left. The divorce was hell. We met, and agreed not to bring up the BDSM because he told me the courts might take our child from both o us. I agreed. He outed me. So he got to keep shared custody. And proceeded to abuse our child to the point where they ended up in a psychiatric hospital at age 14. That was just the first stay. There have been several others. It was a long process, but they’re working so hard to be stable, and live the life they choose. They only see him now when they choose to, but the damage he did to both of us will last for the rest of our lives.

On our own, it started to get harder and harder for me to provide for us. With shared custody, there’s little to no child support. My body began to fall apart. Back in 1988, I was in a major car accident in our family truck on January 2. I was driving. I sustained a multiple compound fracture to my right femur, literally erased my nose on the steering wheel (there was nothing but a hole in my face where my nose had been) and serious brain damage. My 15 year old sister was killed. By me. It was an accident, but I still don’t remember how it happened. My parents tried not to blame me, and they did a good job not showing it. But that’s the kind of thing that never leaves you. And now, as I get older (I’m 47 now), the effects of that accident are still taking their toll. I have severe scoliosis that was worsened by the wreck. I have 4 herniated disks, general osteoarthritis, facet syndrome (the small spines the stick out the sides of the lower vertebrae start to lose their connective tissue and bone starts to grind on bone), sacroiliac joint arthritis, and bursitis in my right hip. I have to take 50 mg of morphine twice a day, 7.5 mg of percocet three times a day, and 4 mg of tizanidine (a muscle relaxant) three times a day just to avoid screaming in agony. They don’t help a lot, but they keep me sane. I’m dependent on the drugs. I hate it, but most of my conditions have no treatment. I can’t drive, can’t do chores, and can’t work. I’m trying to get on SSI benefits, but it’s a lengthy process and I’ve already been turned down once. I’ve also lost my medicaid, and am trying desperately to get accepted back into the program. WIthout my meds, I could go into cardiac arrest from the withdrawal symptoms and die.

The one bright side to all of this is that a couple of years ago, one of my followers messaged me with a suggestion about a story she hesitantly asked if she could write with me. I agreed, and we began to communicate. A friendship formed. She flew out to visit because she wanted to meet me in person. I just had a hunch she was someone special, and I was right. She’d come from a pretty rough background herself, having been raised Mormon and having had her family’s religion used as an excuse to abuse her in many ways. She wanted out of Utah so badly, but was too scared to just randomly move to a strange place where she knew no one. During a single two-week visit, we already felt like family. She decided that here with me was where she was meant to be, and he spouse agreed. They moved here, and in with my child and I. She is now my collared, live-in sub, and has become a sister to my genderfluid offspring. All three of the people who live with me work their asses off, but it’s not enough to support all of us, cover our medical expenses, and take care of all our needs.

It kills me that I can’t contribute. I’m the kind of person who needs to take care of people. I love being able to help my followers. It makes me feel like I have a purpose. It’s almost impossible to describe how painful it is to be able to help people I’ve never met but to be useless to my own family. I’m here for them to talk to, but when finances are our biggest problem, I’m no help at all.

That’s the reason for my Patreon. I’m not trying to get rich. I’m never going to spend your hard-earned money on frivolous or selfish things. I want to be able to keep the power on another day. I want us to not have to choose between electricity and having enough to eat that day. I’ve found I can’t promote my Patreon on AO3 anymore, so I’ve created this blog as a place I can direct people to try to explain why this is so important to me. I hate sharing this story that sounds so pitiful. I do have documentation to prove that every word of it is true. I’m not making it up to try to make people feel sorry for me. I need your help. I hate asking for it. I want to be a whole person who can have a job and put money in the bank. But my writing is all I have. Even if you can spare just one dollar a month, you’ll be helping me support my family in a way I haven’t been able to in a long time. It’s humiliating to ask, but my family’s welfare is more important to me than my pride.

So if you like the work I’m doing, I ask that you check out my Patreon and see if there’s a way you can help. It’s set up for monthly pledges, but one-time contributions are an option too, as are story commissions. I’ll be posting some of my drabbles from my blogs and other ideas here as well, so you can experience pieces of my work I don’t publish on AO3 if you’re not a follower of any of my blogs. If you can help in any way, you will have my undying gratitude.

All my love,

Heather

#charis2770 #about the autho #this is my life #why my Patreon exists

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frenchkisst · 4 years

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“I just want to say the keto diet is amazing!”

We received an inspiring message from Wayne who’s markedly improved his health with a keto diet.

“I’ve lost 48 pounds (23 kilos) since June 2019. I have more energy, I’m fitter than I used to be, and I’m no longer in pain from arthritis in my hands,” Wayne says.

Here’s his story, which has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Wayne’s keto journey

I just want to say the keto diet is amazing!

I recommend the keto diet to everyone.

I’ve lost 48 pounds (23 kilos) since June 2019. I have more energy, I’m fitter than I used to be, and I’m no longer in pain from arthritis in my hands. I recommend the keto diet to everyone.

My partner introduced me to keto last year. I’ve been on diets in the past, but I’ve always put the weight back on after some time. Before keto, I indulged in biscuits, cakes, and chocolate regularly.

These days, I eat a big breakfast with avocado, eggs, and bacon. Lunch consists of broccoli and fish. If I’m hungry in between meals, I snack on macadamia nuts and almonds. But I’m no longer as hungry as I used to be, because I eat loads of protein and drink water.

If I have a meal in the late afternoon, I’ll only have a small evening snack like carrot sticks and cream cheese. Every once in a while, I make keto beef stew for dinner.

Before, I used to eat plenty of rice, which wasn’t great. These days, I substitute it with cauliflower rice. I think exercise is great on the keto diet since it helps you feel even better.

My top three tips are simple: minimize your carb intake, increase your fat intake, and if you haven’t yet tried it, use coconut oil for cooking meats, eggs, and vegetables.

Best, Wayne

Comment

Congrats on your incredible progress and success Wayne! Your story shows a very common example of how eating higher protein, lower carb foods frequently gets rid of the cravings and snacking on high calorie high carb foods. It can make a world of difference. Keep up the great work!

Best, / Dr. Bret Scher

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