Friday: Didn't think about it all day. Pain apparently minor. Again couldn't sleep on it. I thought that taking pain reliever might be enough to get rid of the problem, and took a 'packet' of 1 aspirin and 1 Advil with 1 Vit. C and Chromium. The pain was slightly worse than before, and I didn't sleep well. I think I took another packet during the night.
Saturday: The pain was bad enough that I didn't get up all day. I couldn't move my arm without extreme pain. It was painful to touch, as though I were badly bruised, but there was no discoloration or swelling.
During that day, we considered the options of what it might be, and came up with three: bursitis, heart attack, arthritis. Arthritis I dismissed out-of-hand, since this was a sudden attack, with no precedent. We gave serious thought to heart attack, but I had a hard time believing it. In either case, bursitis or heart, aspirin seemed a useful treatment.
I began taking aspirin and Vit C every hour, with no noticeable benefit, and began to raise the aspirin to 2 with each dose. I ate very little - boiled potato with butter around 6:00 pm, and cooked corn and peas with grapes and grape tomatoes around 10:00. I also had about 15 chocolate chips scattered throughout the day, with the vague notion that if it was heart, a little bit of stimulation wouldn't hurt.
The pain never let up at all. At night I applied a plaster of menthol, camphor and capsicum. I think it helped calm the pain enough to allow me to sleep, but I'm not sure of that. It did *not* make my shoulder feel 'warm'.
Sunday: Looked to be a repetition of Saturday. I was beginning to get really worried, since it wasn't fixing itself and I still had no handle on what it was or what to do about it. I tried getting up, but was exhausted within an hour and went back to bed.
I ate potato, and put on the pork roast to boil, since I knew it was going to spoil if I didn't get to it. There was no chocolate and plenty of aspirin. And pork.
The second time I took three aspirin, late in the day, I really stopped and thought about it. Realizing that it wasn't helping, I began to wonder whether it was making the pain worse. Remembering having heard that eventually aspirin makes arthritis worse, and knowing that it was absolutely no help now, I thought it a high possibility. I stopped taking aspirin (extremely acid-forming), or any pain reliever at all. I increased my calcium supplements, and got serious about baking soda.
Monday: Things were a tiny bit better; I got up in the morning to fix Dale's breakfast and sandwich for lunch. I didn't add lettuce, since I didn't see any way of doing it one-handed. It just looked like too much pain for the benefit. But I got through the rest all right. Roy took Dale to work. I ate almost nothing all day. I had potato, and pork and saurkraut.
Tuesday:Again a tiny bit better; essentially a repeat of Monday, but more aggressive with both the calcium and baking soda. Feeling enough better to think, I made a doctor's appointment for Wednesday, and looked up 'acid alkaline' in google. I spent the whole day researching pH, and what foods leave the greatest alkaline residue. I was amazed to find some rather sweet foods on the list, practically topped by dried figs, which I love but had avoided in my efforts to keep sugar intake low.
By Tuesday evening, I was doing well enough that I felt like I was on the mend. Then I ate pork and saurkraut. Nono. It apparently has a high acid index.
Wednesday: Significantly better. I could move my shoulder slightly, enough to move my elbow an inch or two from my waist. I began to be able to type. With Roy driving, I went to Benson medical supply on Colvin and Kenmore and bought pH paper. With that, by 10:30 am, I had established that my urine pH was 4, which is dangerous by any standard. I went out and bought some raw foods which I thought might be helpful - green beans, peas, spinach, carrots - also V8 juice, and dried figs and dates. By 3:30 after a lunch of potatoes and raw peas, my urine was up to 5, a significant improvement I resisted the pork and saurkraut that evening, and had a much better night.
Thursday, my fasting pH was 7! Feeling justified, I was not as careful on Thursday, feeling that I could now eat 'normally' as long as it was predominantly acid-forming foods. It was a bit previous, and my urine later in the day had dropped a bit - probably 6.5. Nevertheless, with a great deal of difficulty, I could move my arm into a greater range. Also, from that point, I 'felt' better and more ambitious. Roy and I worked in the yard, and I pushed myself until very tired.
Friday I was too tired for a repeat of Thursday, but maintained my diet, and sleeping on Friday night was relatively easy.
So I feel that, as long as I keep the pH up, I am essentially 'over' the acidosis which I believe was the initiating problem. I have yet to 'recover' though. I need to heal the wounded bone (with minerals) and work through the range of motion.
No, I'm the wimp. I'm not going to a hospital unless I absolutely have to. First off, I'm not sure what kind of serious painkillers they can give me. I've now discovered that Lortab and Dilautid have no effect on me, and they would spend two or three days establishing that to their own satisfaction. Since I *do* seem to have a high level of pain tolerance (except with childbirth!), I'd rather stay out of their hands.
And they would never have tested my pH. They just don't do that. The doctor totally ignored the pH strips that I brought in, taped in order to a paper and labeled with day, time, what I had eaten, and what the reading was at the time. Just dismissed it. It had the same 'feel' as when they ignore you because what you're saying is going to prevent insurance from paying for it. What really got me was her insistence on my trying Naproxin when I'm sitting there holding the proof that I'm dangerously acidic!
I suspect, without any reference to back it up, that the dying off of yeast cells also causes acidity. I had been attacking them aggressively, which you aren't really supposed to do. I know that yeast itself uses the dying cells for food, and wonder whether that indeed means that the dead cells are acidic. Between that, a sudden increase in my meat eating, and the spike in aspirin, it would hardly be any wonder that the body had to fight back.
I followed your link, and wouldn't be surprised if that is indeed the 'diagnosis'. Which doesn't change one whit my own belief that the basic problem is acidosis.
In any case, the damage already having been done, it is now a real challenge to move and stretch the area and get full usage back. A lot of the arm strength is simply gone - or at least too painful to use - but I am improving!
I didn't mention that I dismissed bursitis, having had it in my knee years ago. Just didn't have the same kind of symptoms.
1 comment:
Wow! what an idea ! What a concept ! Beautiful .. Amazing …
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