.......healthy start to the New Year.....

...... to the New Year began with a cleanse in December which lasted until Friday.  That's when my body decided to simply cramp up and cause way too much pain.... nothing left to purge, I am now drinking plenty of fluids to keep hydrated, salmon oil pills (which I can taste when I burp!!), and a fiber pill once a day.  I am still taking the Metformin at 2 x 500 mg per day.  After seeing Dr. Laura this morning to follow up on a correction for the pain in my neck and right scapula, I ordered 'Barley Greens' from AIM in Vancouver.... I am now a distributor so I can get the wholesale prices.  Along with that I will be taking fiber (pill form is easier) and a pre-enzyme to help utilize foods better.  I can honestly say that today, I am feeling better.

Later in the evening I received a call from Victoria.....I could tell by the tone in her voice that there was something wrong.  Earlier in the day I saw her from the upstairs window trying to clear out her driveway... even from this distance, I could see the slump in her shoulders and I immediately thought she had lost Walter.  The tremble in her voice announced her husband Walter's passing from a brain tumour Friday evening.  The sense of lonliness in her voice was echoed by her letting me know that she was putting her coat on and getting ready to go to the hospital when she realized that he would not be there. "Marita, my Walter, he is dead and I donna know how Ima gonna do this without him" she states in her thick Italian accent.  He promised her weeks before he passed that he would always be there for her, all she had to do was ask him for help and he would be there.  "but Walter, the snow, itsa coming and I donno how to a usa da snow blower thing?"  Walter told her that she would know.  Victoria explained to me that she had shovelled and then marched into the garage when she got up the nerve to look at the snow blower .  When she reached it, she  looked up and said "Walter, Ima gonna try dis now, you gonna help me, OK?"  Without hesitation, she found her fingers touching the power and a few touches later, the snowblower she had never used fired up.  She blew out the driveway with Walter looking over her.  I offered to have her over for dinner.  No.  I offered to bring her dinner. No.  I offered to help her any way I could.  No.  This is one stubborn lady and Ima gonna just hafta bring her sumthin anyway!!!!  She will lay vigil for her brother who is also dying.  When both have been cremated, she will travel back to her homeland to lay to rest the two people she loves.  She bids farewell and promises to talk when her week of planning slows down. I send her love over the wires....

Cancer you truly and unequivocally suck!!!  

I say a little prayer for Victoria and pull myself out of this ominous mood I have been feeling all week...Walter, please continue to watch over Victoria and I will keep an eye on her from here.  It's time for me to decide to just keep going no matter what.

We don't know what is to come and right now I can't think about what might happen, only try to live in the here and now and be all I can be for my family.  So what do you do when you live in the present....simple, call up your tattoo artist, send them your composite drawing and make a date to tattoo the only arm that you can. Yup, the right front forearm.... the one they keep trying to poke will hopefully soon showcase a piece of artwork in keeping with the strength and fragility of life....