The Remedy for Vertigo That You Won't Believe!

My CFIDS and Allergist doctor, Dr. Dantini in Ormand Beach FL used to work with the space program at NASA.

I was in his office one day complaining of having vertigo after being bedridden with pneumonia for 3 1/2 weeks.  He nonchalantly told me a story which I thought was a line of bolony but here is what he said:  He said no astronaut walks off their space vehicle after landing, no matter how short the trip into space was, because during that time the brain loses track of were the floor is and finding the floor is the brain's full time job in all positions except lying down.

He told me to lie down and stand up again at a minimum of 6 times and a maxiumum of 20 times.  This simple movement will re-program your brain to remember where the floor is.  I was the biggest critic but I tried it because I DID NOT want to be on the pharma meds.  And after 8 times of lying down and standing up the vertigo was gone and has not been back since.

I have passed these crazy sounding advice on to many other people at this time and have yet to find someone tell me that it just didn't work for them.  Pretty cool huh?  Yay and cudos out to Dr. Daniel Dantini, ENT/Allergist, Ormand Beach.

This information was not meant to be medical advice.  I am not a doctor.  I am only sharing what has worked for me.  Good luck and peace be with you and all the jazz!!

How The Dog Pack Works for Queen Char and Bruno

A funny story about Bruno - our 5 1/2 lb yorkie/Pom/hairless Chinese crested dog. His purpose on earth is to protect and heal me right? Well every morning as we wake up the pack order resets to Me, Bruno, Walt (my husband) in Bruno's mind. Walt has his routine pack submission things he automatically does to move up to being number two in the pack. And Bruno quietly slips into third place for.that.day.only.

Well we have a friend New Amanda staying with us and Bruno is rebelling and beyond humiliated that she gets his chair and that he somehow has to be number four. I had to do some serious dog whisperer on him tonight to get him to even act on my commands. But I told New Amanda - in the morning it resets!

Here is the 'Look' - What do YOU think he's saying?

What Is Up With Lizards and Lawn Furniture?

If you've followed my story at all you know that we lived full time in a 34 foot motor home for 3 1/2 years and then moved into a house in Florida 8 months ago and then to ANOTHER house in Florida 1 month ago.  I'm getting progressively worse at moving as it happens - I'm so disorganized and feel like I don't want to spend the little bit of time that I get feeling good organizing stuff that I've grown very detached to over that last several years.  Among this "stuff" we have 4 pieces of patio or lawn furniture, camp chairs - whatev.

When we left Denver these chairs were in pristine condition.  They saw the light of day a couple of times a year when we were camping or went to a concert in the park.  We have two Coleman foldup chairs and two Sports Authority Alpine brand zero gravity loungers that we call the "Big Ass Chairs".

The Coleman chairs had - and notice I say HAD - a little foldout table on the side with a cupholder in it.  The Alpine Big Ass Chairs were - and notice how I say WERE - strung with a stretch bungie type string.  This furniture stayed pristine from Bend, to Las Vegas, to Phoenix but it started a serious decline in Dallas in the summer of 2011 where it faced temperatures over 100 degrees for over 90 days with no rain.  The hottest summer on record in Dallas and the worst drought in history.  It was devastating for Texas and for our lawn furniture.

Up until we moved to Florida, in the RV, in the fall of 2011 we thought that the lawn furniture was for us - I guess really anywhere else in the United States when you have lawn furniture is IS for the people.  The lizards in Florida though did not get that memo.  They got the memo that said that lawn furniture is the exclusive domain of horny little reptiles.

These are not big lizards - from 2 inches to 4 inches maybe.  They LOVE lawn furniture. And it doesn't matter if you're a gecko or an anole - apparently they have a corrupt lizard real estate agent selling them the deeds to our lawn furniture.  And they don't just sleep there.  They fight there; court there; do the hanky panky there; and of course hide there.

And that brings up a funny story - and I'm throwing Norgin under the bus here for the sake of a laugh.

When we were getting ready to move from the RV to the house in New Smyrna Beach we had no furniture here.  Everything "house" oriented was back in climatized storage in Aurora, CO. So we set up first with our lawn/patio furniture.  We had the above listed chairs plus a small, glass topped patio table. 

I had Norgin, a client of our neighbor Chuck, come to help me.  He loaded the furniture into the back of the Prius and we took off from Sanford to New Smyrna Beach, a 30 minute trip.  Between the RV Park and Walmart in NSB three lizards made their way onto the dash while we were driving.  Norgin bravely and calmly handled getting them off the dash and out the window.

I know, I know...it's heartbreaking to think of the gecko going "Heyyyyyyyyy!!!!!" as he flies away but dang I purposely and shook and tapped those chairs prior to them going into the car and those little buggers chose to stay inside.

So we pull up to Walmart, where my strategy was to buy clear storage boxes to put stuff in from the RV in the house.  Remember, we had NO furniture.  So I open up the hatch on the Prius and Norgin reaches in to move the chairs to make room for the boxes and a lizard JUMPS onto his shirt!

He was screaming like a little girl, running around and slapping himself like a crazy man and I was laughing so hard I almost peed myself!  But I was SO apologetic too but laughing my ass off, so it really, probably didn't seem all that sincere.

Norgin is a sweetheart and I would never purposely embarrass him but Oh My Gosh this was funny.  I would have done the same exact thing but I would have sworn like an old sailor.  Norgin kept it to little girl screams so I know he's going ahead of me in the line to heaven.

So here is a little video of the lizard who has taken up residence on the big ass chair in the screen room.  Just prior to this he was bobbing his head up and down and making his red throat balloon out, which is a mating ritual.  He stayed right in this place for over 12 hours yesterday but today was nowhere to be seen.

And if you are of the curious type then you can click here and check out this site with lots of information about Florida Lizards

The lizards are our friends.  We welcome them with open arms because they are our best defense against fleas and no-see-ums.  So welcome home little dudes...welcome home.

Peace be with you and all that jazz....!


Copyright (c) 2013 - Chardale Irvine - All rights reserved.

Hi Judge Davis. My name is Cadence. Please give me back my dad Adam Mackley

Update as of 6/15/2013 - No action was taken at court on the 16th.  Adam still has no access or recognition of his rights as Cadence's father.  He has ZERO contact.  He can't check on her well-being.  She will not be with him on his second Father's Day as his daughter.  Unless there is a miracle today.  We can hope and pray right? That her mom Adrienne Barney will see how important that is.  That she can open her mind to the healing that she herself will feel if she does that.  Living a lie kills the soul Adrienne.  It will kill yours and will kill Cadence's.

Please sign our petition to encourage the State to give Adam Mackley back his parental rights Give Cadence Her Daddy Adam Mackley back.

It is pretty simple really  This little girl needs her dad.

Pray for a change of heart.  Court is today at 3 pm mountain time in Provo, Utah at the courthouse.

Please sign our petition at: Give Cadence Her Daddy Adam Mackley back.

You may publish or forward this to anyone who might help bring Cadence back.  We love you Cadence and we miss you SO much!  Love Grandma Char and Grandpa Walt.

Thank you.

I Have This Problem: Getting Stuffed Up When I Lie Down

And the solution?! It's so simple it is bizarre. Two ways I've found to deal with this:

1 - Stand up and pinch your nose closed. Keeping your mouth closed bend over and straighten up. Keep doing this holding your breath. You will feel pressure building in your head. Stop when you can't hold your breath any longer. Your nasal passages will now be open.

I did not discover this. The Russians did.

2. Another thing I do is to pop a strong breath mint in my mouth right before I lie down. The peppermint keeps my reactive nasal passages open too.

Thanks for stopping in! Please visit this petition site and sign the petition to help my son get his daughter back: http://www.change.org/petitions/restore-adam-mackley-s-constitutional-rights-let-him-be-cadence-s-father

Thank you!!

Peace be with you and all that jazz!

Copyright (c) Chardale Irvine 2013 - All Rights Reserved

The Accidental Advocate

That is me.  The Accidental Advocate.  For a variety of reasons I find myself advocating for surprising groups and perspectives.  There seem to be so many ideas and messages that need a voice and a forum.  I stumble into them all the time and being the curious person that I am I usually have to do some investigation to find out what is behind this new idea (new to me, that is) and to figure out just why I haven't heard about it or thought about it already.

Of course I advocate for CFIDS/ME research - because I have this illness.  Of course I advocate for the reform of the medical system - because I struggle with it daily.  But do you know that there is a crosswalk in Aurora that is only there because I birddogged the city until they put traffic control in on a busy street near an elementary school?

I'm not a sign carrying protester usually but I sure can write a mean letter.  And blog....I guess too:)  So, here  I am, after a three month hiatus, getting back on the blogging horse, so to speak.  And my first plug will be for Father's Rights and Equal Parenting.

As of today it has been 90 days since my son, Adam Mackley, has seen his daughter Cadence.  It has been that long since I've talked to her on FaceTime as well.  On May 16th the 4th District Court gave parenting rights to Cadence's mom's husband Colton and took Adam's rights away - without cause.  It was a decision made on "legislative intent" by Judge Lynn Davis - who basically rubberstamped over a year's worth of biased court action by his underling Commissioner Thomas Patton.  These two men knowingly and with purpose, robbed my son of his constitutional right to be a parent.  We are circulating a petition to tell the judge that this decision needs to be reversed.  Please go to Change.org Petition to sign and show your support.

And as I plug for my son and my granddaughter I do so for all the fathers fighting for equal parenting in Utah.  It turns out there are many facing this bias.  Fathers turned into paupers as they pour all of their resources into paying legal fees to attempt to have ANY involvement with their children.  That energy and those resources could be put to SO much better use by having it focused on raising their children well.

Last week the Supreme Court granted custody to a biological father whose child was put up for adoption in Utah without his knowledge.  The State has been notified that it can no longer ignore the rights of biological fathers with impunity.

We are hoping and praying that Cadence is safe but we have no way to check. Her mom has struggled to make good decisions about her medical care and we are worried about that.  We just want our little girl back in her Daddy's arms.

We have not forgotten about you Cadence.  Love, Grandma Char

You Can't Go Home

As our transition from RV to house becomes almost complete I am starkly reminded of the fact that the friends who we left in Denver when we went on the road are not the same people now. I'm not even sure if we can even call them friends now. We certainly cannot rely on them as our support system now.

There is such a sense of loss with that and even more of an awareness of just how alone we really are now. It's a stark example of true existential loneliness.

Walt is flying back to Florida from Denver tonight where he went to oversee the splitting up of our stuff that has been in storage the whole three and a half years we have been on the road. Our 'house contents' basically under lock and key waiting for the next phase.

Less than half of what was in the storage will make the trip to Florida. We did a crowdfunding call and collected enough money to only pay for 350 cubic feet. We had over 900 cubic feet of stuff. The whole letting go of attachments was draining but also freeing. We are so grateful to the people who donated - it couldn't have happened without your help.

There is sadness as we close the door on calling Colorado home. Of our old friends only one could free themselves up to help or connect with Walt. The person that helped was one of our 'newer' Denver friends. The 'old' friends were nowhere to be found.

I was very angry about this and was expressing that to my dad when he said. 'They are not the same people now as when you left. You can't go home. Home isn't there anymore'.

I had thought of 85 different lectures and confrontations I would have with these friends. But alas, after my dad's sage observation I understand I have to let them go.

My kids and grandkids are still there. It's IS their home. They showed up to help and were amazing! It is no longer my home. And as the true gypsy I realize that home is where I am at the moment. I am here now in Florida. I did not come here to break connections and strands but that is a side effect. I came here because of my health and my husband's health.

I planted zuchinni in the ground outside last week. It is a metaphor for the planting that is taking place for us now in this new place. I still do not have any sense or feeling that I will actually be here to harvest them.

I realize too that maybe I have nothing my old friends need anymore. I can't teach them how to live and thrive in the same, familiar place. I can't teach them a way to signal it's time to clean the fridge because I only do that when I move. I do have a guest room near the beach so I hope they will find their way to us here.

46 moves for me and 30 something for Walt makes us outcasts and on the fringe. It is lonely but there IS a sense of freedom about it. With strands and most old attachments broken it leaves me and us open to new things. That's scary and I know because we have faced that fear over and over we may be the craziest yet most courageous people I know.

This is Walt's rental car outside of his the La Quinta Hotel in Aurora, CO on Sunday morning, February 24, 2013.

This is the view from Bruno's new PetSmart in Daytona Beach, FL after a heavy downpour on February 25, 2013. In the distance is the Daytona 500 Speedway where Danica Patrick set multiple new records for "firsts" for women in racing during Opening Day racing the day before.  From here I drove 14 miles south to New Smyrna Beach, where we live at 4:30 pm on a Monday on I-95. 

 

Peace be with you and all that jazz.....

 

For the latest update and status on how thing are going with Adam and Cadence check out the latest post at Keep Adam & Cadence Together crowdfunding

 

 

Copyright (c) 2013. Chardale Irvine.  All rights reserved.