A Journal of my personal (daily) experiences

By: Mindy Goldis

Vegan Food Chef and Educator

Specializing in macrobiotic/raw food cuisine

Week 4

Day 22 – Tuesday December 22, 2009

My twenty-second day experiences: I slept very well last night and woke up a couple of times. First at 1 am and then at 6 am to use the bathroom. I stayed in bed till 8 am. I woke up with good energy and some neck tension. No bowel movement to speak of, but I know that it will come back when it is the right time. Nothing to worry about. No body odor to speak of. I also noticed that I have more ear wax buildup this morning. I can’t believe it is week 4 already. I know the rest of this will really fly by. I was thinking about the completion of this journey, not because I am ready to end it or am ever hungry as that is not the case. Forty days is two days shy of 6 weeks, so when I get closer to the end, I may actually add on the 2 days. What is the difference doing two more when I have already done the 40 days. I have told some people what I am doing and most of them can’t believe it! No one has told me to stop or to eat. I wouldn’t listen to them anyway. As a general rule, it is best to not discuss your program with others, especially those who would give you a negative reaction. This is a personal matter and is better to keep it that way! I accomplished a lot today. I made a bunch of phone calls in the morning and then went out for my daily walk on the sand. I noticed that my rings are getting looser on my fingers and also the shoes I always wear are loose, as well (they are velcro straps and I have it at the tightest it can be). It was very windy and I only was able to go for ½ an hour (usually do for 1 hour). The temperature wasn’t that warm either, even with the sun out. I spent a few hours at the library working on my computer and caught up with a friend I had not seen in a while. By the time I left, it was dark and the wind was whipping around and the temperature was downright chilly. I had to take care of something before going home, so I walked fast to try and keep myself from getting chilled (I was prepared with hat, gloves, jacket, leggings). I managed to do ok, once I was moving for a while. I couldn’t wait to get home and take a bath as it was a perfect night for it. I got myself settled at home at about 6 pm and got everything prepared for the bath. I used bath salts (‘Letting Go,’ warming ginger bath from Little Moon Essentials) and the beeswax candle (Pheylonian Aura Pot: True Romance Dolphin Energy). The temperature was perfect when I got in and I got out very slowly so my body can adjust to the change in temperature. I know this particular bath salt variety, really works on detox, because I can feel it! What a wonderful way to end the day! I ran out of the neem balm I was using on my cracked soles of my feet so I found something else from my co-op that I really like, it is called, Jen’s Original 12 Herb Salve from Ho’ano Botanicals in Hawaii; hoano.com or 808-691 -2326. I went to sleep at 10:40 pm which was later than usual and I don’t plan to make it a habit.

Day 23 – Wednesday December 23, 2009

My twenty-third day experiences: I slept well last night and woke up at about 7:30 am. I felt a bit lethargic and weary. I did not have a bowel movement this morning. I had some tension and tightness around my neck and shoulders. The coating on my tongue is not that severe anymore and I have no noticeable body odor. My energy improved once I was awake for a few hours. I took care of some things at home and then I left to go to the library. I dressed in layers because it has been chilly lately and my body is much colder than usual. I did not go for a walk because it was windy and I didn’t want to be cold. I worked for a few hours at the library and came home before it was dark. I am much more tired today, so I plan to get to sleep earlier then last night. I went to sleep at 9:25 pm.

Day 24 – Thursday December 24, 2009

My twenty-fourth day experiences: I slept well last night and woke up once at about 2 am to use the bathroom. I went back to sleep till 7 am. I woke up feeling a bit lethargic, but otherwise my energy was good. I have a bit of neck tension, my tongue is not as coated and no body odor. Still no bowel movement to speak of. I am getting out early this morning to go to the library so I don’t have to be there once it gets dark. It was a nice day outside with no wind. I still dressed in layers, to be on the safe side. I worked for a couple of hours and then went for a walk on the bay. I got home and felt a bit weary and drinking more fluids, usually helps. I made some phone calls and then got into a cleaning frenzy. I did my regular weekly dusting and washing the floors and also wiped down the windows and cleaned the dust from the wall heater. I noticed that I had a build up of wax in and around my ears and that my hands were getting dried out (probably from too much washing with the faucet water which has chlorine – if only my whole apartment had filtered water – only have on my sink for drinking [can only use with cold water] and shower). I will sleep well tonight after all the housework I did. I went to bed at 10 pm.

Day 25 – Friday December 25, 2009

My twenty-fifth day experiences: I slept well last night and woke up once at about 2 am to go to the bathroom. I woke at 7 am again and then stayed in bed till almost 7:30 am. I felt a bit weary upon awakening, but it dissipated as I got my day started. Still no bowel movement to speak of. The coating on my tongue is minimal and have slight neck tension. My energy is good and it is a beautiful sunny day outside (which helps a lot!). It is a short day for me because the Sabbath starts at sundown, so I am glad to have done all my cleaning yesterday. I took care of what I needed to do at home and then went for a walk. Was a bit windy, so glad I had a jacket with me. I then went to the library (which was closed for the holiday), but I stood outside with my computer and I’m able to get wireless internet. I didn’t stay long. I felt good throughout the day with no lack of energy. I came h0me and did some things before sundown. I had a wee bit of a #2 at 4:05 pm, but was basically negligible, to say the least. Once the Sabbath started I was able to relax and read and when I next checked the clock, it was 6:15 pm and I already felt like going to sleep, but of course, I did not. I went to sleep at 9:30 pm. It was another cold night and I made sure to keep my body warm.

Day 26 – Saturday December 26, 2009

My twenty-six day experiences: I woke up about 2 am to use the bathroom and then the rest of the night was a bit restless, as I was in another ‘thinking’ mode. I seem to get these epiphanies in the early morning hours and the ideas kept coming and wouldn’t let me sleep much. I did stay in bed and I’m sure I did fall asleep again, because I had a dream about fruit. I haven’t had a dream about food since I started this cleanse. It was an interesting scene, in which I was somewhere (not sure?) and there was an area with fruit trees and strawberries growing. I picked some strawberries (but didn’t eat them- did I remember that I was on a cleanse and not eating, even in my dream? How strong-willed I am, even in my dream!) and also found some plums that had already fallen to the ground and I took them, as well. Then I went to show my Mom and tell her about what I got. I went back to where this was and saw there was more fruit that was already picked and in some kind of odd looking bin. Nobody was around and I didn’t know if they were free for the taking or not. That is all I remember. I got out of bed finally at 8:30 am. I felt something stirring inside of me in the area of my colon and it seemed like I would finally have a #2, since the last one was on Day 15! I was correct in my thinking. It came out soft, small in diameter but long and quite smelly, as first. I was happy that it did! Who knew that you could still have an evacuation after this many days of no food. The body, in its infinite wisdom, knows what it is doing if you let it happen and not force it to do something through unnatural means (others may say that it is toxic for the body not to have a bowel movement, but when you are doing a cleanse for this long without eating, the body is healing in other ways and the timing for it will happen when it is necessary and of course, regularity will resume soon after you start eating again). I was feeling a bit weary and sluggish today since I didn’t actually sleep as much as I’d have liked to. I still had energy, but not for much activities. My tongue has minimal coating and no body odor to speak of. I was proposing to go to services at my synagogue, if it would be a sunny day, but the sun didn’t stay out long and I didn’t want to be cold. I did get outside for some ’sunning’ to get my Vitamin D before the cloud cover. I lay down for a nap at about 12:30 pm for an hour, but couldn’t fall asleep because my mind continued to think and process. The resting was good, anyway. I did not go out for my walk on the beach today because it was most cloudy. I was reading in bed most of the day and drinking (and always peeing!), of course. I went to sleep at 10 pm and was totally exhausted and ready to replenish my energy reserves for the busy day I have tomorrow.

Day 27 – Sunday December 27, 2009

My twenty-seventh day experiences: I slept well and woke up at about 4:30 am to go to the bathroom. When I got back into bed, the neighbor above me decided to put on the radio or TV. It wasn’t loud, but it was just enough sound/noise to prevent me from falling asleep. I put my fingers in both my ears, but it didn’t help. I was kept awake for almost 1 ½ hours. I really didn’t get any sleep after that and then my head starting swirling and spinning with ideas and thoughts like a tornado at the height of the storm. I stayed in bed till 7:45 am and then finally got up to start the day. I was feeling a bit weary and had some neck tension. I did not have a bowel movement this morning. There is some slight coating on my tongue and my right underarm has some smell (weird that only one side has a smell, but I have noticed that before). I noticed some more buildup of wax in my ears and mucus from my nose. My energy overall is good. I was able to do some ’sunning’ outside this morning and went out to take care of an errand. I spoke on the phone with some friends I had not been in touch with in years. Then there was partial sun through the clouds, mid-day, when I went for a walk. It was still a pleasant temperature, but I did make sure to bring extra layers of clothing with me. I spent a couple of hours working at the library, but I did not drink enough while I was there and my head started to bother me. I made sure to have more on the way home. I am feeling much more tired tonight and will get to bed early again. Overall, it has been a good day and I got a lot done. I was like a sleepwalking zombie by the time I went to bed at 10 pm.

Day 28 – Monday December 28, 2009

My twenty-eighth day experiences: I slept well last night and woke at about 4 am to go to the bathroom. I went back to bed and as it had happened some other days, I really didn’t sleep anymore. My mind was swirling, even though my body wanted to be quiet. I remained in bed, in any event. I finally got up at 7:15 am and had a bit of weariness. I still have some neck tension and mild coating on my tongue. No bowel movement this morning. I have another busy day of activities, including numerous phone calls and work on internet when I go to the library later on. I got to make my calls this morning and get some ’sunning’ (at first it was very cloudy and then cleared up and was actually pleasant outside). It was a nice day for a walk, too. I was out by 1 pm. I did have some layers on, but didn’t feel cold and there was not much wind. I spent more time at the library then I originally intended to, but I did get a lot done. I was definitely worn out from being on the computer for so many hours (I need to take breaks, but I get involved and then I keep going with the flow). I came home after 5 pm and then remembered that I wanted to find a health club that has a scale to weigh myself on (as I am trying to do so on the same day, once a week). I made some calls and found a place close by. They have a manual scale and the manager there says it is fairly accurate. I did some research on the internet and I’m not quite sure I agree with that. When I got there and weighed myself, it was 114 lbs. I don’t think that I gained 3 pounds since last week (plus it was later in the day – 7:30 pm) and is manual vs. the digital. I did have clothes on, too (wish I could do it naked, so I get the best reading or at least with very thin clothes) so I plan to go tomorrow to another health club in the neighborhood and weigh myself again. If they have a digital scale, then I can see what the difference is. I plan to get to sleep early tonight so I can get out tomorrow morning, since the library opens earlier. I went to sleep by 9:40 pm.

ATLANTA (Associated Press) — Griffin Bell, 90, the shrewd Southern lawyer who grew up with Jimmy Carter and later became U.S. attorney general after Carter was elected president, died Monday in Atlanta. The cause of death was said to be complications from pancreatic cancer, kidney disease and being 90.

From the perspective of someone still in relatively good health, it often seems like medicine can go too far in treating the ravages of time. I think there comes a point when you feel like you’ve lived a rich, full life and now it’s time to go do something else, like maybe die. Throwing the incredible expenses of the modern healthcare establishment at the elderly and infirm just doesn’t always seem wise, especially if you hit one of them in the eye with an otoscope.

I’ve been incredibly fortunate with my health for over 55 years, and haven’t spent a night in the hospital since that whole birthing thing back in 1953. I’ve had my fair share of the usual modern maladies that almost everybody goes through – measles, mumps, mole removal, molar removal. I had what we politely called a “nervous stomach” in my teens, I’ve had a couple of lower back issues that kept me prone for days at a time, and I got chicken pox as a Christmas present from my son about ten years ago. Only three times have I gone through anything more serious.

My first such episode occurred in 1989. For years, I had noticed a brownish area just inside the top of my left ear. I chalked it up to poor hygiene until one day when it started bleeding. I knew that blood was only effective when it was coursing through your veins and that having it drip off the end of your earlobe wasn’t as good. I made a visit to the dermatologist who took one look at the wound and made his frightening pronouncement – ear cancer.

Well, not exactly ear cancer. It was a skin cancer that happened to be on my ear. All those hours I’d spent on college break in Miami laying out on my parents’ patio without benefit of sunscreen hadn’t been wasted after all. I was referred to a cosmetic surgeon despite my protests that I already looked damned good, but they explained he’d be the one carving off thin layers of my cartilage until all the cancer was removed, then would rebuild what was left into some semblance of an ear. The procedure I’d be undergoing was called “Moe’s surgery,” which sounded like it might involve a conk on the head rather than traditional anesthesia, but actually turned out to be Mohs surgery.

The operation was done in a Charlotte doctor’s office while I was fully awake but feeling no pain. Everything went as planned and the doctor assured me that all the malignancy was removed. I couldn’t look at the cosmetic results right away, since they wrapped my whole upper head in a bandage. I was able to return to work the same day, looking like that guy playing a fife in the middle of that iconic Revolutionary War painting, except that I had a $4,000 doctor’s bill sticking out of my pocket. But my coworkers we really impressed at the dedication I showed by coming in with such an apparently brutal head wound.

My next significant experience came in 2003 while I was planning my first business trip to India. I had noticed occasional discomfort in my groin for a few weeks before a particularly acute episode sent me home from work to wander restlessly around my house. When I went to the doctor later that morning, he immediately recognized the wandering as a symptom of kidney stones (go figure). X-rays confirmed the presence of a crystalline mass lodged firmly in my urethra. “It’s about six millimeters in diameter,” the technician told me, but failed to note whether that was considered small, medium or super-sized. Regardless, it was bad enough to require what they refer to in the business as a urologic intervention. Unless I passed the stone naturally or wanted to risk the male equivalent of childbirth while 35,000 feet in the air over the Middle East, I needed to get this taken care of.

Shortly before the outpatient procedure, called a “simple basket extraction,” I thought I might’ve avoided it entirely. After using the urinal at work, I looked down to see a corn-kernel-sized piece lying next to the scent cake. Had I painlessly expelled the stone and avoided costly surgery? Unfortunately, it turned out to be exactly what it looked like – a piece of corn – though I fail to understand even today how it got there.

Going ahead with the physician-assisted removal turned out to be fairly simple, at least for me. The trickiest part was counting backwards from 100, and then waking up to ask when we were going to start, only to discover the doctor had not only finished but left the building. The nurses kept watch on me until I was able to wiggle my toes and pee on my own, which took only a few hours. Recovery was quick and relatively pain-free, and I’ve survived to this day without another incident.

What you’ll doubtless be glad to hear is the last experience I’ll recount was the highly recommended (by doctors, not by patients) diagnostic colonoscopy. As veterans of this wonder of medical science will tell you, the worst part comes the day before when you have to drink huge amounts of a foul liquid designed to cleanse your system of everything you’ve ever consumed. Once this is accomplished, you’re ready for your outpatient visit at the hospital. There was no backward counting this time; instead, you get an injection that puts you into a “dream sleep” where your dream consists of someone putting the proctological equivalent of a Swiss army knife (including a light, camera, scalpel, eraser, fountain pen and comb, I seem to recall) several feet up your colon. I do remember lying on my side and watching a TV show where the plot consisted of a cute little pink character named “Polyp” being snipped by a “Mr. Scissors”. The next thing I remember after that, I was arguing with my doctor about the billing.

It seems there’s a loophole in the way most insurance companies view the colonoscopy. They urge you to get one, they tell you it’s fully covered because it’s purely diagnostic in nature, but if they find anything that needs to be removed (which they apparently always do), then the diagnostic designation disappears and you’re suddenly responsible for a percentage of the $5,000 cost. Or, you could choose to have them maintain the status quo by shouting “hey, leave that thing alone” during your dream sleep. I almost came to the point of demanding that my gastroenterologist reinstall the polyp before I finally knuckled under and paid the fee.

I seriously doubt that any of these conditions, left untreated, would’ve led to my untimely demise. I suppose I could’ve had colon cancer, renal failure or an ear fall off, though chances are excellent I would’ve survived at least two out of three. Had they occurred later in life, I think I might’ve considered that option more seriously. I hope Griffin Bell didn’t suffer too much from treatments for the kidney and pancreas problems when his larger issue was that he was 90 years old. I’m not sure living to a ripe old age just for the sake of hitting a really high number is a worthy goal. It seems like the oldest living person is dying every other day anyway.

Thanks in advance