Thursday, August 6, 2009

Tool Promoting Health

Check this out.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Eating for Healing

I am so excited I have finally found “smoked paprika”. Rachel Ray cooks with it all the time and I have never been able to find it in the stores. It also contains NO SODIUM. Having a healthy diet means eating less salt even if you don’t have a heart condition. I cooked chicken quesadillas with smoked paprika and Mrs. Dash’s Southwestern Chipotle seasoning for lunch and it was awesome!

Besides having a low sodium diet, one of the other ways I am eating for healing is by taking communion every day. I use Matzo Unsalted Crackers which have piercings and stripes from the cooking process. The Bible says that by his wounds and stripes you are healed. Meditating on the stripes and piercings of the cracker and Jesus creates an intimacy within my relationship with Jesus. It helps me think about all Jesus did for you and me. I also use Welch’s grape juice or a sweet Jewish wine. The crushed red grapes (wine or juice) represent the blood of Christ Jesus that was shed for the covering of our sins. Jesus is our intercessor. It is because of Him that we have access to God and can call him Father. I usually take communion in the morning (sometimes with my kids) before I pray and at night with my husband before we go to bed. Not only does communion bring me closer to God but also to my family when we share it together.

Crushed red grapes in the form of juice or wine are very good for us. They contain resveratrol which is an antioxidant that helps protect the heart through lowering cholesterol and lowering risks of blood clots.

Thank you God for making things that taste good, spiritually good for us as well as physically good for us!

Monday, July 20, 2009

How You Know If You Are Brokenhearted

1. Right Sided Sleeping- You only feel truly comfortable sleeping on your right side. You may try to sleep on your left but something doesn’t feel good about it.

2. Needing to sleep on two or more pillows- You may think you have sinus drainage and need to be propped up but in actuality the slight cough you have may be heart related congestion.

3. Coughing mainly or only at night- You may think this is mainly a sinus related cough, but it is actually a heart related congestion.

4. Exercise/Activity Tolerance Low- You may be able to do many high impact activities well but you take more time than others to recover.

5. Pulse Rate High at Rest- Your pulse rate might range between 95-110 when you are at rest. You would need to buy an at home blood pressure cuff to determine this.

6. Extreme Weight Fluctuation- You may weigh 130 one morning and weigh between 135 and 140 the next. Weigh yourself every morning to see if your weight fluctuates to an extreme.

7. Sensitivity to Salt- You may feel bloated by eating only a little salty food.

8. Sensitivity to Fluids- You may feel bloated or gain weight just by drinking water or other fluids.

9. Lung Pinch- You may feel a slightly uncomfortable pinch under your left pectoral muscle.

10. Lung Gurgling- You may feel or hear a gurgling in the bottom of your chest cavity. It feels and sounds like a growling stomach.

How I Found My Heart Wounded

In April this year I was feeling good finishing up my masters degree and student teaching at a great school. I was so blessed to be able to reconnect with some wonderful old friends I went to high school with- Shannon and Verena. I was also able to work with Allison, who was a part of my church family for many years. I knew her as a girl and taught her at church more than a few times. What a blessing it is to be mentored by people you love and feel completely comfortable with as they bless you with their God given skills, gifts and talents. God blessed me with the most awesome atmosphere. I felt completely at home. I felt the hand of God.

On April first, I had a luncheon I had to go to at the University. I was running late. My cooperating teacher had been sick and I did not want to leave her too early in the day. When I got to school, I couldn’t find the room for the luncheon because it had to be moved at the last minute. I ran all over campus trying to find where I was supposed to be. My right foot had been bothering me for some time. It was swollen so I thought maybe a kid had stepped on it a bit too hard. My feet got stepped on a lot because I was working with second graders. I finally found where I was supposed to be and breathlessly stepped in with my swollen foot that had gotten worse after my run around campus. After our meeting, my supervising teacher asked me about my foot and told me I should get it checked out just to make sure it wasn’t a “blood clot”. When I got into my car, I called Sion and told him my foot had swollen a lot and he said, “I hope it’s not a blood clot”. This freaked me out a lot! I had not yet told him what my teacher had said. So I went to the emergency room with one swollen foot, only to find out there was something wrong with my heart.

I was in the hospital for a week having heart tests done. I had “heart failure”. But ironically, all of the tests confirmed that I had good arteries, good valves, and believe it or not… a good heart! My good heart, however, was wounded and failing. Maybe a virus attached it. Maybe my difficult pregnancies and miscarriages wounded it. Only God knows at this time.

I have felt the love and prayers of my husband Sion and my kids Evan and Zoanna. I have felt the prayers of my family and friends. I have felt the blessings of old friends, new friends and strangers. I have felt the presence of God stronger than ever. God has allowed my heart to grow stronger. God actually allowed me to graduate in May. I am so blessed!

Please continue to pray for me. In April, my EF (heart ejection fraction) was approximately 15-20%. In May, my EF was approximately 25-30%. I am having an EKG done on July 13th and we are praying for an EF of 40% or more. God can do it!!!