Dandelion

In my lawn it’s just a weed.
In a salad, something to feed.
But wait don’t be sour
It’s also a pretty flower.
Even better a gentle blow
Brings back to me a childhood glow.

Lentil Curry Recipe (Vegan)

1 small bag of lentils (cook as directed on bag)
with onion salt and garlic salt
 
Add after lentils are cooked all this to a crock-pot:
1 large can of stewed  tomatoes
1 box of frozen spinach
 
3 cloves of garlic crushed
1 T Curry Powder
1 t sage
1 thumb of Ginger (diced and blended)
1 t dill blended
1 t mustard seeds blended
1/2 lime or lemon blended with half of the rind
1/2 t oregano
1/2 t turmeric
1/2 t cumin
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t basil
1/2 t thyme
plus a little of any other spice you can find in the cupboard…
1-2 cans coconut milk (Add just before serving because cooking too long makes it separate.)
salt to taste

Supplements prescribed by Dr Platt for me

In addition to taking 100mg of Progesterone before each meal and 0.125 mg of Levoxyl each morning, Dr Platt prescribed a gym bag full of supplements. The supplements that Dr Platt prescribed for me are expensive. Initially the cost of supplements was $14 per day. I searched for cheaper sources for all of them. Dr Platt does sell them at a discount compared with others. In many cases I could not find a cheaper substitute. Some of them were only necessary for a couple of months. This may sound expensive, but compare it to being off work for 4 months. Here is a list of all he prescribed:

Carbozyme

one each meal, $27 for 90 from drplatt.com

“For treatment of asthma, cardiovascular disorders, arthritis, food allergies, autoimmune diseases, osteoporosis, depression, gas, bloating, heartburn, weight loss.” (All quotes are from drplatt.com)

I replaced with natural papaya & pineapple enzymes from Trader Joes to save money.

Alpha Lipoic Acid 300mg

one each meal, $41 for 60 from drplatt.com

“Antioxidant, regenerates Vit C & E, helps diabetes, improve memory”

I replaced with Alpha Lipoic Acid from Trader Joes to save money. Three 100mg capsules each meal. ($5.99 for 90.)

CORvalnM

 three servings a day, $62 for 56 servings from drplatt.com

“Restores the normal energy balance in the cells to help eliminate chronic soreness, stiffness, fatigue and fibromyalgia.”

I can feel the difference immediately after eating this. I usually mix it in with a green smoothie in the morning. I often use only one or two servings to save money.

7-keto DHEA 100mg

one at 1am and 1pm, $32 from drplatt.com

This keeps me from getting drowsy in the afternoon and helps me sleep at night.

FibroMax

one at 3am and 2pm, $64 for 120 from drplatt.com

This keeps me from getting drowsy in the afternoon and helps me sleep at night.

N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC)

twice a day between meal, $35 for 120 from drplatt.com

“Helps liver ailments, heart disease, hypertension, high cholesterol, mucous build up in lungs, bronchial infections, colitis, elevated lipoprotein (a), hair loss and memory loss.”

Vitamin D 5000 iu

twice a day, $26 for 120 from drplatt.com

“Reduces effects of psoriasis, promotes bone health, prevents Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, MS, diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis, back pain, breast, colon, prostate and lung cancer prevention.”

Ultra-Biotic 30 billion

one before bedtime, $22 for 30 from drplatt.com

Aides with digestive problems, liver ailments, candida, IBS, Crohn’s disease, ulcers, leaky gut syndrome, acne, depression, constipation and diarrhea.

I replaced this with Acidophilus & Probiotic Complex from Trader Joes to save money.

Chromium 1mg

one with Breakfast, Lunch, & Dinner, $45 for 180 from drplatt.com

“Regulates blood sugar and insulin resistance, sugar cravings, high blood pressure, Crohn’s disease, colitis, ulcers, migraines, PMS.”

CoQ10 CF 50mg

one daily, $40 for 60 from drplatt.com.

“Essential for heart health. Enhances immune function, reduces need for insulin in diabetics, boosts energy levels, very helpful with mental and motor functions in Parkinson’s disease. An antioxidant with anti-aging properties.”

I replace this with CoQ10 150mg from Costco to save money.

Zinc 50mg

one daily, $13 for 90 from drplatt.com

“Heals wounds, strengthens weak immune system, improves lack of taste or smell, lessens mood disorders, helps ulcers, improves eye health, prevents prostate cancer, aides gastrointestinal problems, bowel disorders, rheumatoid arthritis, macular degeneration, chemical sensitivities, dementia and epilepsy.”

Dr Platt added Zinc at my second appointment with him.

In addition to Fibromyalgia I also had prostate problems. He said that the Progesterone will fight any cancer that might be in my Prostate. He also prescribed the following supplements for my prostate. Also note that the Zinc above will help as well. After the first couple of months Dr Platt said I could stop taking these.

Ultra Natural Prostate with 5-LOXIN and Standardized Lignans

from LifeExtension, twice daily, $32 for 60 from drplatt.com

Zyflamend

from NewMark, twice daily, $56 for 120 from drplatt.com

I also had significant digestive problems including acid reflux. I had seen a GI doctor and recently had both a colonoscopy and an upper GI endoscopy.

Dr Platt told me that the problem with my digestion was that my stomach was not making enough acid. To solve this problem he prescribed two suppliments:

Betaine & Pepsin

from Ortho Molecular Products, one or two each meal, $23 for 225 from drplatt.com

This really works. I take one for most meals, but for anything that I know normally gives me acid reflux, I take two. My acid reflux is gone as long as I take this.

DGL Deglcyrrhized Licorice Root Extract

from Ortho Molecular Products, use as desired after meals, $19 for 60 from drplatt.com

I take this after meals anytime my digestion isn’t right. At first I had to take two after every meal. Now I am down to about one a day.

All well now

I continue to feel well. You don’t realize how great it is to be normal until you have been really sick. It is clear that the progesterone cured my fibromyalgia.

Eddy’s Ability to Function

I spent 4 1/2 months functioning at 10 to 15%.  I defined fully functioning as having energy and clear thinking for 10 hours in a day.  While at 10% I had one hour of energy and clear thinking a day.  Getting out of bed, taking a shower, taking my medicines, eating breakfast, and going for a walk was a major accomplishment for the day.  Two weeks after starting Dr. Platt’s treatments my ability to function suddenly jumped up to 90%.  It bounced around for a while but has stayed steady at 100% even after returning to work.  I did drop to 80% on November 11, which was a holiday for me.  I had spent the previous two days studying hard and stayed up until 1 am working on school work on November 10.

 

eddys-ability-to-function-chart

My Fibromyalgia is gone

This morning I woke up and checked my Fibromyalgia tender points.  All 18 tender points do not hurt.  I think this means my Fibromyalgia is gone.  Fibromyalgia requires 11 out of 18 tender points to hurt.

Reflections on Constructivism Learning and Teaching

The reason that I am such a big fan of constructivism is that it is my primary mode of learning.  My father tells me that when I was young I would sit and watch my grandfather work.  He could see the gears in my brain turning.  I wanted to not only understand how he was doing it, but also understand the why.  I needed to understand how each part was connected and what made it work.  I had several learning disabilities growing up–long before it was politically correct to identify them or compensate for them.  I was never diagnosed with ADD, but I am sure I had it.  I was a poor reader and was diagnosed with dyslexia in 7th grade.  My parents asked the doctor what to do about my dyslexia and he told them to let me be who I am.  Don’t try to force me to clean my room or conform to what was expected.  Shortly after that we moved to a new house.  There were not enough bedrooms for all the kids, so I was given a room behind the garage.  My mom felt bad that I had such a poor bedroom, but I was ecstatic.  My room could be as messy as I wanted and no one nagged me to clean it up.  There was plenty of room for my hobbies and I got to have my dog sleep with me in my room.  My best friend lived across the street and we had dreams of having our own radio station in my room.  But my room was such a mess that it interfered with the dream.  So my friend suggested we clean my room.  It was such a foreign concept to me.  Mom was the one that helped me clean my room, not another 14 year old boy.  It was from him that I learned how to clean my room.  And once we go it clean, I did a much better job of keeping it clean.  I like to think of this as the constructivism approach to learning how to clean.

I began to approach all school my way.  One day I discovered that the teachers no longer required me to turn in my homework in cursive.  Cursive has always been a painful way for me to write.  But elementary teachers required it.  As soon I switched to printing, my grades improved.  I was able to write much faster.  I spent less time thinking about how to get the letters on the paper and more time thinking about what I was writing.  The teachers were also happy that they could read it.  One teacher commented that my handwriting had improved dramatically.  I tried to explain that I was now printing because it was easier and faster.  He gave me this blank stare.  “Printing is faster for you than cursive?  Then keep printing.” 

A couple of years later I was at a different school sharing a double desk with Larry, my new best friend.  The teacher finished the lecture early and told us we could do whatever we wanted for the next 5 minutes as long as we were quiet.  Larry whipped out a piece of paper and opened the math book.  “What are you doing?” I asked.  “The homework” he replied.  I stared at him confused.  Why would you start homework when you know you only have 5 minutes to work on it?  I slowly pulled out a piece of paper and followed is example.  I felt like I was cheating.  Aren’t you supposed to do your homework at home!  But the teacher never said we couldn’t work on it now.  I got half done with the assignment in the next 5 minutes.  I was amazed.  Homework always took hours and now I just completed half of my assignment in 5 minutes.  Once again I began to learn my way.

I still print to this day instead of write in cursive.  The only thing I write in cursive is my signature.  I have gotten pretty fast with my signature as a manager signing a stack of timecards and leave requests.  But now we approve the timecards on the computer and the job the used to take 5 minutes now consumes over a half hour of my time.  Computers sure make our jobs more efficient!

The one thing that computers have done for me is getting my words on paper faster than before.  When I was in high school I took typing on a manual typewriter.  I was really slow.  Up on the high bulletin board was this chart that covered the length of the room.  One day we arrived in the classroom before the teacher.  Larry suggested we move our names up to 90 words per minute.  Both Larry and I had girlfriends that were the fastest in the class.  So we quickly moved our names on the bulletin board.  The teacher noticed but didn’t say anything.  When the bell rang at the end of class our teacher said, “Oh by the way, Eddy and Larry, move your names back to zero.”  We argued that we knew where our names used to be and could put them back.  He said all we had to do was retake the speed test and we would move our names to whatever speed we attained.  The next class I took the test and immediately moved my name near the previous position.  But Larry kept taking the test and getting one or two mistakes above the limit.  So he spent the next month at zero.  He eventually started to creep forward, but neither of us was ever able to break our previous records.

Today I can time much faster than I could in high school thanks to computers.  Back then my record was about 26 words per minute.  But today I can type at 45 words per minute copying text and even faster when I am just typing what I am thinking.

So what does all this have to do with constructivism?  I have constructed by own knowledge and created my own ways of learning.  “Teachers teach as they are taught, not as they are told to teach. Thus, trainers in constructivist professional development sessions model learning activities that teachers can apply in their own classrooms. It is not enough for trainers to describe new ways of teaching and expect teachers to translate from talk to action; it is more effective to engage teachers in activities that will lead to new actions in classrooms.” (Hoover 2008)

I will always be a constructivism learner which means that I naturally teach in a constructivism manner as well.

Hoover, W. A. (2008) The Practice Implications of Constructivism, SEDL Letter Volume IX, Number 3 http://www.sedl.org/pubs/sedletter/v09n03/practice.html

To Blog or Not To Blog: That is the question

Some people love to blog. Others don’t have a clue what blogging is or why you would want to blog. Then there are those of us in between. We have figured out how to blog. Well at least we go through the motions. But we haven’t caught the blog bug. For those who have the blog bug, learning is a natural part of blogging. Tags are gateways to knowledge and connections to others with similar interests. But for those of us going through the motions, blogging is just plain hard work–with little gain for the pain.

Williams (2004) explored blogs in higher education. Some have described the blog as the latest disruptive technology encouraging collaborating, sharing, and debate. Williams notes that there has been little scholarly work on blogs. A search on Google Scholar today reveals this article cited by 96 works.

I see blogging as a great optional learning activity. What I mean by optional is that the student chooses either blogging or another learning activity.

REFERENCES

Williams, J. B. & Jacobs, J. (2004). Exploring the use of blogs as learning spaces in the higher education sector. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 20(2), 232-247.

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=+Williams%3A+Exploring+the+use+of+blogs+as+learning+spaces+in+the+higher+education+sector&btnG=Search

Reflections on Blogging

I had heard much ado about blogging. But I mostly ignored it–no I totally ignored it. I wondered what the big deal was. Then my wife wanted her own website to publish her poetry. I’m an engineer, so I should be able to make her a website. I tried a couple of times and failed. Then she said something about our son’s website. She was talking about his blog! A blog? I thought. I ended up creating a blog for her and decided to try my hand at blogging. That is when I started this blog. I have wondered silently: Is it better to have separate blogs for each subject or just one blog with separate categories. I am going with a single blog, since I don’t seem to write enough in it as it is.

My Fibromyalgia Journey

A Physician first diagnosed me to have Fibromyalgia in 2002. At that time, my symptoms were minor and I was able to ignore them and function normally. Now that I know more information about the disease, I would guess that I had Fibromyalgia most of my life. My physician began prescribing medication to relieve my Fibromyalgia symptoms in 2003. I continued to function successfully until the summer of 2008. During 2006 and 2007 the stress at work began to increase dramatically. We were facing critical shortfalls of needed employees, yet our boss was reluctant to allow us to fill these positions. He also pressured us into reducing the number of managers, asking us fill two full-time positions with a single individual. In 2006 I reluctantly agreed to hold two challenging management positions simultaneously. Near the end of 2007 I was able to convince my new boss that I could no longer hold both positions. But filling the second position took another 9 months and by then the stress had taken its toll.

My Fibromyalgia symptoms became so bad that I was unable to work much of June and July. My tolerance for stress was reduced to almost zero. I suffered from unbearable pain and was no longer able to think clearly. My energy level dropped so low that I had difficulty getting out of bed, taking a shower, or going for a short walk. I began to my Fibromyalgia more seriously and started to search for better medical care. My search began with Dr. Stewart Silverman, who is one of the leading Fibromyalgia physicians in the country, and own of the co-authors of the book “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Fibromyalgia”. At the same time I began seeing a local Psychologist, Dr. Myrna Walters to help me deal with my loss of function and associated depression. I explored the possibility of entering the Cedars Sinai Fibromyalgia Rehabilitation program, but was disappointed to learn that they typically improved the function of participants by 20%. My ability to function had dropped from 100% to 10% in a couple of months. A 20% improvement would mean that I would only be left at 12%.

I continued to search for ways to improve my health and reduce my symptoms. I learned that a bother of a friend of a friend of my sister’s had good improvement from Fibromyalgia with Dr. Michael Platt, in Rancho Mirage, California. Dr. Platt is the author of a book: “The Miracle of Bio-identical Hormones—How I lost my: Fatigue, Hot Flashes, ADHD, ADD, Fibromyalgia, PMS, Osteoporosis, Weight, Sexual Dysfunction, Anger, Migraines.” I made an appointment with Dr. Platt as soon as I could and he prescribed Progesterone Cream, Thyroid medicine, and numerous natural supplements. He also wanted me to go off of the strong medications that I had previously been prescribed for my Fibromyalgia. He believes that Fibromyalgia is a result of hormone imbalance and that it can be cured with time.

My sister in the state of Washington has seen good results from various alternative medicine therapies. I will be going to stay with her for a couple of weeks with numerous appointments for CranioSacral therapy, lymph drainage, a homeopathic doctor, Nambudripad’s Allergy Elimination Techniques (NAET), and massage therapy.

Even with all of these medications, therapies, counseling, reduction in stress, and lifestyle changes, my ability to function remains at 10 to 15% of my previous capabilities.