Health care information – Health Darkdaughta

I ate a bunch of sugar over Thanksgiving weekend. Who can resist all the tempting pies and other treats within easy reach over these holidays? I can’t. Especially when I’m 7 1/2 months pregnant.

I’ve been feeling fine, but a couple days after I got home from our trip I found myself with very low energy. I should have been tipped off by my feelings of not caring about anything and just wanting to go back to bed.

I didn’t have the normal symptoms of burning when I went to the bathroom or the frequent need to go, but I know I ammore prone to yeast and urinary tract infections when I’m pregnant. Luckily, I had an appointment with my midwife, Vickie Sorensen the same day I lost my energy.

I did the typical urine test at her office, and it came up high in luekocytes, which indicates infection, nitrites, which indicates the urinary tract, and a little blood, which also points to a UTI. The infection was starting to rage and I hardly knew I had it.

Vickie once had a lady who was in labor with a UTI and couldn’t push the baby out because her bladder kept having spasms. So Vickie said I needed to have the infection resolved within a week or she’d want me to take an antibiotic (which I strongly want to avoid).

I think the reason the infection wasn’t manifesting itself more strongly is because I had been drinking water with lemon oil in it every day. I’m sure this helped keep the infection at bay. But I wasn’t drinking enough in general. The lemon just wasn’t enough to combat all the sugar with the low amount of fluids I consumed while traveling.

I already knew most of what Vickie would recommend. Kidney herbs, 2 capsules, 3 times a day, infection herbs, 2 capsules, 3 times a day and some kind of essential oils. She recommended myrrh rubbed on my lower abdomen. Myrrh is also in her Infection Fighter formula.

I also really liked her suggestion of making a cranberry/apple drink by blending up actual fresh cranberries, which are in season now, with apple juice. I threw in a little yogurt and stevia, and I’m making a drink everyday. It’s delicious! Cranberry juice prevents bacteria from adhering to the wall of the urinary tract, so it’s good to drink the juice or take CranActin capsules if you feel something coming on.

I took 2 doses of the herbal formulas with some extra echinacea the first day, and by the next morning I had my energy back! I was very happy about that. After that I felt fine and tried to drink lots of lemon water along with my herbs and 1 capsule of On Guard for good measure. I also avoided white sugar.

Cranberry Apple Drink

Just blend up these ingredients well in a blender.

-1/2 cup apple juice

-1/2 cup fresh or frozen cranberries

-1/2 cup yogurt (optional)

-2 mini spoons pure stevia extract(opt)

-1/2 cup ice (optional)

-1/2 cup spinach, chard or kale for extra nutrition (optional)

Tools for Fighting UTIs

-Herbal infection capsules (I recommend Vickie’s or Dr. Christopher’s) 2 caps, 3 times a day, 5 drops On Guard essential oil blend in an empty capsule, 3 times a day, and 1-2 cloves raw garlic per day

-Herbal kidney capsules (again, I use Vickie’s & Dr. Christopher’s) 2 caps, 3 times a day

-CranActin capsules, 1 cap, 2 times a day, or a cranberry drink daily

-Myrrh essential oil rubbed on lower abdomen, 2 times a day (optional)

-For pain, Thayer’s Slippery Elm lozenges, 1 lozenge, 3 times a day

-Avoiding junk and white sugar is a must! Eat more raw, whole foods

-Make sure there’s no constipation in the digestive system. Take colon herbs or Doterra’s peppermint essential oil in a capsule if needed. The body needs to be free to eliminate all the toxic materials it possibly can.

-The tools for helping ourselves do exist and they work. If we just learn about them and try them, their function will become second nature to us. It’s empowering to be our own doctor!

Update – 12/17/10 – After continuing to have leukocytes on my next appointment, I had to beef up my protocol, and I learned a few things I want to share with you. Vickie suggested I cut back on the kidney herbs because they are diuretic and my lips and hands were drying out a bit. I went to 1 capsule 2-3 times a day, and kept taking the infection herbs 2-3 times a day. I started taking 1 raw clove of garlic per day, pressed into butter on toast, soup or blended in veggie juice. I also added 2 drops each of basil and oregano essential oils in capsule with the 5 drops of On Guard twice a day. I rubbed these oils on my lower abdomen (diluted in 1/2 tsp carrier oil) and bottoms of feet every night too.

As long as I focused on getting enough infection fighting power along with the kidney specific herbs, my leukocytes went down. The bottom line is, you have to get as aggressive as whatever it is you’re fighting. I really didn’t want to take antibiotics because I tend to have yeast problems and my babies usually get thrush when newborn at some point. So I had to get more aggressive with my natural remedies until I got the upper hand.

So when I am using natural remedies and they don’t seem to be working:

-I make sure they are high quality or fresh
-I use or take them more frequently (unlike drugs, it’s hard to overdose on the remedies I use)
-I increase the quantities slightly or add stronger therapies -I make sure I’m supporting my body with lots of water, good nutrition supplements and light, healthy eating.

I recently discovered the amazing benefits of handmade soap, suffering from dry skin since I was a child I decided to sample certain products as I didn’t want to keep applying creams and moisturisers. I shower twice a day and sometimes will shower in the morning and bath in the evening just before bed, working in an office all day this routine for me is of absolute importance. A shower in the morning wakes me up for the day and a bath of shower in the evening helps me sleep, also being hygienic is paramount. Looking for handmade soap is not the easiest mission by any means, a trip down the high street and the supermarket proved fruitless tasks, the only other alternative was to have a look online. I was surprised to find a huge array of such beautiful creative handmade soap companies online I was truly spoilt, after a few searches I finally decided to order some. I ended up purchasing some handmade soap and bath bombs in the end just to see what all the fuss was about. When I had my delivery again I was blown away with how beautiful these soaps were, the scent, the presentation everything about them was incredible.

That night I run a bath and threw in 2 lavender bath bombs and watched it as it fizzed away turning the water into a silky fragranced texture. While the bath was running I unwrapped lavender and chamomile soap and jumped in, I started washing myself with the soap and instantly felt the difference in quality, the generous amounts of lather and rich texture were gorgeous. I went to bed that night soothed and had one of the best night’s sleep in my life, the next morning when I woke I felt my skin, it was soft and hydrated like I had motorised the night before but it was all credit to the soap.