HAPPY EASTER?.....better late than never

Due to me not being able to up load pictures this is what would have been on Easter day...



Creepy Hollow is not too happy about my newest thing to make him look silly...;}

"This crazy white thing doesn't look like bunny ears!
They make me look like I'm some sort of weird Ninja not THE Easter Bunny"

[That's him whispering that in my ear...;}]

This "theme", decorating was done in a hurry, as storm clouds loomed in the distance...

so it was a race to get something up. I had been holding off from decorating outside due to the usual threat of vandalism. The inside had been done since the removal of shamrocks.

I did take the time to screw the rabbit to the tree stump with 6 long screws [used different heads] so if the rabbit decided to take a "walk about" like the "Alien Brothers, he'd have to take the heavy stump too! The egg garland was wrapped in the branches so it would take for ever to be figured out in the dark...;)

So enter my Easter world...

Thumber's favorite spot...

She thinks no one can see her...

I love the different colors at this time of the year. Yellow is so sunny and invigorating, that it takes the gloom out of winter. You'll find in my general color scheme, that I am not too fond of paleness. Like the crow that I am, I think boldness catches the eye better.

Got to have lots of humor when you come into this place...;)

That was Easter......




During that time, I fell into an obsession with these...

PoD asked me to build a box that would house all of the kid's Easter goodies so the cats and dogs wouldn't get them.


So I came up with this idea...

These are "Fortune Telling" balls!

They are neat hiding spaces for their little treasures, coins, etc....




I've been so obsessed with them, that I have them in other colors, too. I've a pink one that I plan on filling up with chocolates and will use it as a door prize for the Ladies Night Gala coming up on the 24th. A deep blue one for the Paranormal Symposium in Sept....




P.S. For those concerned...my grandson is all better now and acting like nothing was wrong......?

HUH....?

This pic says it all for us right now...and not in a funny way




We are in a quandary on what is wrong with my grandson's health [11]?




He's been having problems with food recently and has been occasionally been throwing up after eating? PoD's gone through all of the questioning on problems in school/home...so it wasn't emotional. Then went through all of the types of food possibly ingested without knowledge and removed possible acidy ones from their menu. Acidic stomachs run in the family...that wasn't it?




She's had to keep him out of school, in the beginning of the week, because he had some flushing of the skin [beet red] but normal body temperatures with some stomach pains...?




Pains got worse...took him to emergency...




Nothing?




Doc says it might be a virus?




Thursday evening we spent at the school gym, watching his sister in her mixed badminton finals [they lost] and all was fine with him health wise. He even had rode his bike home and ran back to the school, out of boredom. All was well...




Friday morning he's not well again and by 7 that night he's bent over in agony! Intense pains in the right pelvic area? All symptoms pointing towards appendicitis?




Back to the emergency... Doc agrees, which ends up, them having to go to the city hospital east of here...2 hours away!




Happily PoD's dad was able to take them, as she doesn't do well with driving in the city and I stayed with AJ.




As usual things move like slow motion in the city hospitals!




Saturday morning blood testing was finally done...NOTHING SHOWED...no infections!




Prognosis...it's a STOMACH FLU....probably viral but they still wouldn't rule out the appendix?






This kid is laying there, curled up with pain in the lower pelvic area and they call it the FLU?




He is throwing up but we figure it's due to the pain! There is no diarrhea or high fever? All he can ingest is some liquids as any solid food [pureed even] gives him more pain?




Their advice...pain [morphine] killers. For an 11 yr old?




PoD requests a cat scan be done to see for sure that it isn't appendix related and was told that they figured it would radiate him too much?




All of that sounded short but in fact took all day and they had to stay over night again to make sure....?




AJ and I took in the Midget's hockey game that evening, which turned out to be quite entertaining. The game was good too...disappointing cause they lost...;(
This town sure likes it's hockey! One doesn't have to like the game because there is entertainment in the audience. Every time we scored, this young guy would run down the steps, throw himself [belly bared] against the glass, pound on it, screaming his head off and then run down the length of the ice doing this 2 or 3 more times. They scored 5 times! He was finally halted by arena caretakers before he could hurt himself and the glass. This guy was no light weight either! Must add that he was also colored blue and yellow with what I figure was felt markers and not the washable ones...;}




Aj and I got some good chats in and I was able to get her mind [and mine] off of what might be something serious with JD. I had thought of taking her to the theater production that night but it was not a subject that would have been interesting [a LOT more expensive] for her age. So I missed this years production...oh well. Hope it went well as there was a LOT of people at the game?






Meanwhile...

PoD had to contend with poor sleeping arrangements which wasn't helping with her rages on uncaring doctors....the usual run-a-round was being to tell!




Only to be sent home with still NO definite answer on it being appendix related!




Our problem...




We live 2 hrs away from a full service health center, 1 hr away from a partial care facility with our town's doctors [2] going on their spring break!




NO DOCTORS THIS WEEKEND!




No clear answer on the appendix either!




This kid is still throwing up, can't eat, can hardly drink, doubled over in pain!




When PoD got back they went the next morning back to our emergency to see our doc AGAIN! This time he was pissed and sent them immediate to ANOTHER city 2 hrs away in the other direction, this time for the cat scan !




FINALLY they rule out the appendix!




So what was it...


Mesenteric Lymphadentis [what it means] under abdominal pain/appendix.




In english, it means his lymp nodes in the right pelic [5 of them] are all inflamed but not infected YET.


This is caused by a VIRUS? A word I am truly HATING!


Which is UNTREATABLE!




Until they become an infection which only then an antibiotic can be prescribed...but not until then?




Meanwhile...




He has to live on pain killers!




For how long....3 to 4 weeks?  On pain killers!




This means no school.


So how much activity is allowed when he's at home?




The pain killers do help with some food/liquid consumption but as to what he can eat without causing more pain is still a big question mark!




The big problem still exists for this weekend....NO DOCTORS!




There are still lots of questions on what caused this to happen? Why wasn't there any signs of problems in the blood work? If it was from a cold then it should have showed he was ill? Why the flushing of the skin?




PoD has found from talking to his teacher that he'd been unusually quiet and seemed to be in some pain...as long as 2 weeks ago? He's not one to complain much and we adults have a tendency to wonder if they are faking it or not.


He had been complaining of sinus problems and headches. One always blames the common cold or allergies?




With him still in so much pain she doesn't want to take any chances with no doctors so they are heading to the Edmonton [Alta] area for Easter where they have family. At least she knows that any type of help is only a 45 minute drive to LOTS of doctors!






????????.....
I, for one, have never heard of this ailment!




I have numerous brothers, sisters, relatives and brought up my own family without ever coming across this problem? I have experience tender lymph nodes there once in awhile but to have that kind of pain which makes me throw up...NO! I've experienced pain so bad that it makes you throw up once when I dislocated my elbow and that was BAD!!! So what my grand son is going through is hard for me to watch without being able to do anything for him or my daughter.

AS FOR THAT DAMN VIRUS THING....?

Asparagus -- Who knew ?

 

This came from a friend ...

My Mom had been taking the full-stalk canned style asparagus that she pureed and she took 4 tablespoons in the morning and 4 tablespoons later in the day. She did this for over a month. She is on chemo pills for Stage 3 lung cancer in the pleural area and her cancer cell count went from 386 down to 125 as of this past week. 
Her oncologist said she does not need to see him for 3 months. 
  
THE ARTICLE: 
Several years ago, I had a man seeking asparagus for a friend who had cancer. He gave me a photocopied copy of an article, entitled, Asparagus for cancer 'printed in Cancer News Journal, December 1979. I will share it here, just as it was shared with me: I am a biochemist, and have specialized in the relation of diet to health or over 50 years. Several years ago, I learned of the discovery of Richard R. Vensal, D.D.S. that asparagus  might cure cancer. Since then, I have worked with him on his project We have accumulated a number of favorable case histories. Here are a few examples: 

Case No. 1, A man with an almost hopeless case of Hodgkin's disease (cancer of the lymph glands) who was completely incapacitated. Within 1 year of starting the asparagus therapy, his doctors were unable to detect any signs of cancer, and he was back on a schedule  of strenuous exercise. 
Case No. 2 , a successful businessman 68 years old who suffered from cancer of the bladder for 16 years. After years of medical treatments, including radiation without improvement, he went on asparagus. Within 3 months, examinations revealed that his bladder tumor had disappeared and that his kidneys were normal. 
  
Case No. 3, a man who had lung cancer. On March 5th 1971, he was put onthe operating table where they found lung cancer so widely spread that it was inoperable. The surgeon sewed him up and declared his case hopeless. On April5th he heard about the Asparagus therapy and immediately started taking it By August, x-ray pictures revealed that all signs of the cancer had
disappeared.. He is back at his regular business routine. 
  
Case No. 4, a woman who was troubled for a number of years with skin cancer. She finally developed different skin cancers which were diagnosed by the acting specialist as advanced. Within 3 months after starting on asparagus, her skin specialist said that her skin looked fine and no more skin lesions. This woman reported that the asparagus therapy also cured her kidney disease, which started in 1949. She had over 10 operations for kidney stones, and was receiving government disability payments for an inoperable, terminal, kidney condition. She attributes the cure of this kidney trouble entirely to the asparagus. 
  
I was not surprised at this result, as `The elements of material medically, edited in1854 by a Professor at the University of Pennsylvania , stated that asparagus was used as a popular remedy for kidney stones. He even referred to experiments, in 1739, on the power of asparagus in dissolving stones. Note the dates! We would have other case histories but the medical establishment has interfered with our obtaining some of the records. I am therefore appealing to readers to spread this good news and help us to gather a large number of case histories that will overwhelm the medical skeptics about this unbelievably simple and natural remedy. 

For the treatment , asparagus should be cooked  before using, and therefore canned asparagus is just as good as fresh. I have corresponded with the two
leading canners of asparagus, Giant and Stokely, and I am satisfied that these brands contain no pesticides or preservatives. Place the cooked asparagus in a blender and liquefy to make a puree, and store in the refrigerator. Give the patient 4 full tablespoons twice daily, morning and evening. Patients usually show some improvement in 2-4 weeks. It can be diluted with water and used as a cold or hot drink. This suggested dosage is based on present experience, but certainly larger amounts can do no harm and may be needed in some cases. As a biochemist I am convinced of the old saying that `what cures can prevent.' Based on this theory, my wife and I have been using asparagus puree as a beverage with our meals. We take 2 tablespoons diluted in water to suit our taste with breakfast and with dinner. I take mine hot and my wife prefers hers cold. For years we have made it a practice to have blood surveys taken as part of our regular checkups. The last blood survey, taken by a medical doctor who specializes in the nutritional approach to health, showed substantial improvements in all categories over the last one, and we can attribute these improvements to nothing but the asparagus drink.  As a biochemist, I have made an extensive study of all aspects of cancer, and all of the proposed cures. As a result, I am convinced that asparagus fits in better  with the latest theories about cancer. 
  
Asparagus contains a good supply of protein called histones, which are believed to be active in controlling cell growth.. For that reason, I believe asparagus can be said to contain a substance that I call cell growth normalizer . That accounts for its action on cancer and in acting as a general body tonic. In any event, regardless of theory, asparagus used as we suggest, is a harmless substance. The FDA cannot prevent you from using it and it may do you much good. It has been reported by the US National Cancer Institute, that asparagus is the highest tested food containing glutathione, which is considered one of the body's most potent anti carcinogens and antioxidants. 
 

Seeing I'm a big fan of this vegetable I will be giving this a try as it sounds okay to me. Too bad it's expensive!

Didn't promise anything for Diabetes but who knows?

Maybe I will TRY to grow some this year....;}

Then I came across this other article...

Why Asparagus Makes Your Pee Stink by Hannah Holmes

"This is of no practical importance," the urologist tells me. "It wasn't part of my training. It's something we contemplated over pizza and beer." When I admit that I have actually timed the arrival of the distinctive odor in my pee after eating asparagus (about 15 minutes), the good doctor suggests, facetiously, that my groundbreaking research might lead to a tenure-track position at a fine university. It is a sadly neglected field. But I'm not the first to ask. In 1891 a scientist named "Nencki" had so very little to do that he convinced four guys to eat seven kilograms of asparagus (that's about three and a half pounds each). He collected the pertinent pee, worked some medieval magic on it, and concluded that the smell was due to a metabolite called methanethiol. So there you go. Nencki claimed that as your body metabolizes asparagus, it produces this smelly chemical, which your discriminating kidneys see fit to dump into the bladder. This probably doesn't qualify as red-hot science, but it's warm enough to spark differing opinions. In 1975 a chemist from California claimed in Science that gas chromatography had fingered a different culprit: S-Methyl Thioesters, to be precise. No methanethiol. Then there's the 1980 reference in the British Medical Journal that simply refers to "metabolites." Another asparagus scholar favors "six sulfur-containing compounds." I'm voting for methanethiol, partly because the guy who did the gas chromatography left no forwarding address, and partly because the methanethiol entry in my aging Merck Index of chemicals is so interesting. Methanethiol is composed mostly of sulfur with a splash of hydrogen, plus some carbon, a brew famous for its effect in rotten eggs, cabbages and paper mills. Convincing, no? Merck also notes the asparagus connection and, most intriguing, warns that methanethiol may be a narcotic in high concentrations. Now if you're scowling at your screen and muttering, "My pee doesn't smell like asparagus," first ask yourself if you eat asparagus Even if you do but lack the smell, you're still OK. In fact the fabulously funny book, The ReSearch Guide to Body Fluids (by Paul Spinrad, Juno Books, N.Y., 1994), says just 22 percent of survey respondents experience asparagus pee. Early investigators thought genetics had divided the world into stinkers and nonstinkers. That was until 1980, when three researchers had the presence of mind to wave pee from the nonstinkers under the noses of the stinkers. Lo and behold, the problem proved to be one not of producing the stinky pee but of being able to sniff it out. If you've been deprived of this gift, don't give up hope. To increase the concentration of methanethiol molecules available to your snoot, you could either intentionally dehydrate yourself before you dine (this is unhealthful); or pee into a cup and sniff that. Or eat three and a half pounds of asparagus for lunch. And if you experience a narcotic effect, you could be looking at a tenure-track position at a fine university.

HMMMMMMM............?

I was up before the birds and the sun this morning!

What a gorgeous morning too!

A slight breeze [a little cool] and only had a sweater on...

Snow is almost all gone [in back yard] and it's even dry around the garage door...:)

Nice morning to have a St. Patrick's Day Parade...

through the first sign of spring at my place...

WTF!!!!

Did look around for something that might have been wrapping it's arms around me....;}

Okay........It's dark out at that hour 


and it can be somewhat creepy.....

Happily it was just a stuck shutter or else the parade might not have happened...;}

Once again....

Notice how dry the ground is, yet it is still too frozen to be able to remove the bush lights.

 Enter into my....... "Green World"

Which just happens to be full with the decor from the wedding. I'm leaving some out for display so grads and whomever can give some ideas to or confuse even more...

It's sure crowded! Happily I don't need to get through it that often...;}

Didn't find the pot of gold but someone left gold nuggets around "Creepy Stump Dude"

This is Thumber's favorite spot to look out the window to a world that scares her?

One thing I love is ivy!

I can't grow it worth a damn but love to use it to decorate with...

Bad thing about lots of foliage is...

where to put it...

It can't be kept in a bag or box for too long, as the leaves become crumpled looking...

I even have a shamrock tree...

bet you thought shamrocks only grew on the the ground...;}

Notice all the space on the desk?

Other computer has gone for a rest break and I am finally becoming happy with this one. My old eyes appreciates the smaller screen too!

Bigger is not always better when you have to sit that close...

Guess the parade has ended and its time for me to start to work...

so

 

HAVE A HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY

from ME and CREEPY HOLLOW