O'Rio Grande 'n' Me - Come Play (and Learn) with Us!

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Mardy Ross's picture

They say every person who loves dogs will have three really special ones in their lifetime.  I'm on my third, and I've not owned any of them, technically.  Meet O'Rio! And he's the first male for me, the previous two extra special ones (to me) were females.  And did I get an epitome of a big, male dog to learn from/help heal /BE with for part of life's journey or WHAT?  

      

The first thing I 'noticed' about him, aside from how BIG he is, was that he seemed kind of 'mixed up'.  Was he an alpha dog that wasn't feeling well, was he a beta dog who wasn't feeling well?  He had to be next to someone and have a hand on him at all times, something I'd seen with my first 'extra special dog'.  Why the anxiety? 

I'm going to provide a link right off the bat, to the American Psychological Association website, no less! www.apa.org/monitor/2012/09/gut-feeling.aspx  (From 2012, September.) Here's an excerpt that includes the portion that made me say 'I want to add this into the topic about O'Rio'.  

 

Research has found, for example, that tweaking the balance between beneficial and disease-causing bacteria in an animal's gut can alter its brain chemistry and lead it to become either more bold or more anxious. The brain can also exert a powerful influence on gut bacteria; as many studies have shown, even mild stress can tip the microbial balance in the gut, making the host more vulnerable to infectious disease and triggering a cascade of molecular reactions that feed back to the central nervous system.

Such findings offer the tantalizing possibility of using beneficial, or probiotic, bacteria to treat mood and anxiety disorders—either by administering beneficial microbes themselves or by developing drugs that mimic their metabolic functions. The new research also hints at new ways of managing chronic gastrointestinal (GI) disorders that are commonly accompanied by anxiety and depression, and that also appear to involve abnormal gut microbiota.

As exciting as these investigations may be, research on how gut bacteria affect psychological well-being in humans is still in its infancy. For one, the studies have been almost entirely limited to rodents. Second, researchers have only begun to probe how such effects occur. Finally, correcting microbial imbalances to treat disease requires first defining what constitutes a healthy gut microbiome—something that scientists are still trying to understand.

"We're just scraping the surface," says McMaster University gastroenterologist Premysl Bercik, MD. "Definitely the animal data suggest that bacteria can have profound effects on behavior and brain biochemistry, probably through multiple pathways." Untangling those biological processes and learning how to apply that knowledge to boost human psychological health will take many years.

 

So this is typical mainstream, BigResearch, BigMedicine, BigPharma approach, there's a LOT of information out there without doing more studies on laboratory animals.  I prefer to think at this point in time we can replace that money-making type of research with other forms of money-making research that won't be as costly to animals.  So just take this information with a grain of salt, knowing that mainstream was 'rubber stamping' what more traditional, holistic, and simplified types of medicine and healing have been telling us for a long time.  BUT a lot of people still rely on mainstream, 'bona fide' research studies in order for their brains to wrap around concepts.  We were trained that way in our mainstream education! 

I wish I'd taken photographs at the start, as he made so much progress, and rapidly, before I realized how inspirational his story is and started taking photographs.  I'm hoping I'll find there are photos of him somewhere of his recent past prior to our working together.  When I took him to the vet and he was 97 pounds and they said 'good, that's down from 127 pounds', I was still getting used to handling him.  (It turns out that perhaps the scale was not calibrated when they were in construction at that time because by April he was back at the vet for chronic ear itching, diagnosed as yeast, and he weighed at 108).  

It took all three of us -- veterinarian and her assistant and for a while, me, to 'manhandle' him.  But he also was overall a 'very good boy' at the veterinarian's office.  And I just hoped we'd be able to limit the amount of time, energy and money for veterinary input and that, mostly, he'd have fewer issues requiring 'attention' from any of us! Enjoy life every day without 'and now it's time to work on your ears (again).  SUCH AS WITH CHRONIC CONDITIONS IN PEOPLE, it'll take some time, some effort, and a lot of love  to get to the underlying causes and make adjustments AND reverse symptoms. 

By May, I was getting the input of a German medical doctor who is a Facebook friend and who I have credited on the auricular medicine topic at Lumigrate.com, Claus-Peter Kessler.  "Learn to test" is his mantra.  Test what? Test what you are sensitive to, and then you have to avoid those elements you are sensitive to.  It's normally mercury, perhaps aluminum or other elements and usually one thing, not two but it can be two and rarely more than two.  I knew that intuitives could look at products and pictures of people and see similarly, but it never dawned on me that Dr Kessler would or could 'test' by looking at a photograph of O'Rio, until I told him about O'Rio and sent him the link to this topic.  

"He's sensitive to mercury" was a message in my Facebook inbox within minutes.  WOW, I didn't know you could do that via a photograph, with the provider / teacher in  Germany and here we are about 25 miles from Utah near the desert of central western Colorado!  

And so, it began.....  (as the saying goes )

I started thinking about the tennis balls that he's had to tear up and play catch with, or I invented an indoor game called 'Ballie' when he had kennel cough early in 2016.  I can imagine they're highly likely to have mercury in them.  When I did an Internet search on mercury in tennis balls, I got a link to a website about a man who had figured out ways around some of the downfalls of balls with dogs.  I like this resource, and am going to include the link here: http://peterdobias.com/blogs/blog/113515973-dangers-to-be-aware-of-if-your-dog-loves-ball-play

He found a ball for children that he thought was better for most purposes --- not of course thinking about sensitivity to elements in the ball like this section is about -- but I sent the link to Dr Kessler in hopes that ball might be tested by his experienced filters and mind and tell me what he saw.  "Learn to test" was his response.  I explained why I have not yet gotten to the point of being able to learn to test and so he had sympathy and continued to educate me.  

"Since rubber or plastic and colors are in play, the ball itself might have traces of mercury (test and then don't buy it). If the ball itself is ok and you play with it on a lawn (water, fertilizer, pesticides, Roundup ) can contain traces of mercury, it will be on its sputum , rinse the mouth and clean the ball. If the person playing with the ball uses mercury containing body lotion, soap, hand creme, it will come in its mouth too. Just a few examples to show you why the best answer to give was, test !!!"

 

Please, come with us for some FUN learning .... For starters, why did I name him O'Rio Grande? 

                                                                                                                     

This 'view' is similar to what I saw a lot of the winter (of 2015/16). It was nice to walk and not have to remove "THE Stuff" that collects from the environment when you're walking on dirt (though there will be some in the snow, just now as much as in the summer -- heat, humidity -- but it's in the air, soil, water, so it'll be in the snow too).  Or, nice to not have to put boots on him.  More about THE Stuff later.  Trust me, we'll get there. It's what this is ALL about, really. 
 
When I was working on a good name for him to use for his Lumigrate 'work' (he's a 'working dog' breed, after all), I'd not yet learned that border collies have a different structure in the shoulder area and their gait is said to be 'locomotive-like'.  They put their head down and stalk animals similar to how a cat will move, crouching.
 
Since my family-o'-origin in the Denver area long ago, and the overall community of Grand Junction, where we are now, both had quite a history with The Rio Grande railroad, it 'fit' for me.  Rio Grande is Spanish for 'big river'.  In years past, what kept coming up for me with 'angel cards' when someone honing their craft with that was practicing on me for fun, was The River Queen.  Essentially, the message was to learn to go with the flow and it's a terrific asset, if you push against it/ resist, you'll exhaust yourself.  It resonated with me, and that's what I've done in the years since. And here I am. So this all fed into why it 'fit for me' to go with O'Rio Grande. 
 
And due to his black and white coloring, he does look like an Oreo cookie, and O'Rio sounds like Oreo.  This is fairly easy to remember, too, important when talking with people who you hope will connect with their computers and search bars, finding resources they've become 'aware of' but want to learn from (becoming 'educated'). When I first started working with him, he looked like a 'double stuff' cookie.  Now, he's down to a reasonable weight and he's looking like an old fashioned, single layer of white filling in the center Oreo.  
 

Looking at this picture of O'Rio in the grass, below, I don't just see a dog wanting to play more ball, I see a dog that's going to have a foot bath after being in the grass. I don't just monitor how 'hoarding' he is with the ball, how 'obsessed' with it, versus how much he'll actually play 'fetch'.... symptoms I use to monitor where he's 'at' symptom-wise. I've brought the balls inside (different ones, naturally -- lowering the 'Stuff' coming in the house on the balls) and we play inside a lot too, and I let him show me what HE thinks is fun. It's very different than how many dogs or people would want to play with a ball. But it changes with his symptoms overall, interestingly. 

If he has rolled in the grass, we address that, too. It'd be nice to have the use of the tennis courts to run around on and not have the exposures one gets from the grass, which is watered with water that collected in a pond (which grows 'THE Stuff').  

 


 

O'Rio's 'Baseline' of Function When We Started And First Progress Highlights

I began working with this "big black beautiful boy dog" in June of 2015.  I wasn't thinking of having him become a feature of Lumigrate until his symptoms started reversing soon after, and I'd tell people about it and it inspired them in ways the same information hadn't before.  It inspired me, too!  Since dogs' intestines are shorter, among other reasons, they'll have a faster turnaround time from things that have to do with the gut, and don't we all know the importance of the small intestines by now?

I wish I'd taken photographs of him at the start.  My recollection the first time I saw him was that his white chest reminded me of the species of male birds that inflate their chests as part of their mating ritual.  Little did I know, his weight was on the way down, it had been over 125 pounds.  It was 97# when I took him to the veterinarian due to concerns over the skin lumps (was one a tick?)(it wasn't) not too long after I started helping with his care. 

I 'noticed' that he squatted to pee / urinate, not lifting his leg.  When he'd ambulate faster than a walk, his back legs 'bunny hopped', which was unusual for a dog of only 7 or so. That's how stiff his joints were. I'd been told ahead of time he was 7 or 8, but when I first saw him it seemed I was looking at an 11 or 12 year old dog.  When he'd walk up stairs he'd almost fall up them, he'd hesitate to walk down them and have to calculate things -- nothing was coming easy for him.  He reminded me of me!   

O'Rio didn't even seem male to me.  He was rather confusing to me, I have to admit, I just couldn't 'read him' like I usually can a dog.  I wasn't instantly comfortable with him because of this.  I came to realize he was just not feeling well, and he 'wasn't himself'. He had complex chronic conditions/ illness! He wasn't feeling 'big and strong', 'alpha', or whatever you might want to call it. That would, thankfully, change rapidly.

The first time he put his head back a little and went WOOF in the house, bossing me (in a good way), I both felt my heart skip in shock at how loud it was, and it being filled with joy at seeing him 'come back' to his 'real self'. His front feet came off the floor he barked so enthusiastically.  You go, boy, hear yourself roar! Besides, it's going to do all kinds of good things for your body to do that natural, needed activity.   

It had not occurred to me until relatively recently that dogs would get what in humans is called by some 'fibromyalgia', or "adult autism", but having had that label given to me in decades past, I could 'relate' to what he was experiencing.   

He had such a wide, flat back, too.  I really wasn't sure how much of it was fat, muscle, skeletal structure. And all the lumps, I wasn't sure if some of them were in the muscle such as you'll get with fibromyalgia in people, clearly some were fatty tumors, some were very pronounced and hard, like balls under the skin. I wasn't going to be concerned about 'weight', just about nutrition, exercise, water purity, toxins (hence deep tissue massage, mentioned already).  

You can't talk about dogs without getting to poop pretty soon, so here we are.  One of the more interesting things I discovered was that he's so 'wired' to have a 'job' of 'herding'/watching you that he won't go far enough away from the house to poop, meaning that he was only peeing when he'd go outside by himself.  Then when you'd talk him he'd poop about five times.  So, in the morning he now gets an escort outside so that he can keep his eye on his person and take care of getting OUT what should be getting OUT ASAP, so as to not re-toxify the body.  This is a concept most people are surprised to hear about, how frequently we should be pooping, too.  

I wasn't that familiar with border collies, which is what his father had been, but I was familiar with retrievers.  When he and I got comfortable with each other, and my being 'in his house', I got to really rubbing my hands over his body, and I could feel lumps all over the place --- lots of different types of lumps. 

The owner had told me how smart he was, and I saw it early on with the rubbing, because the second day, he came and sat in front of me with his back to me -- asking to have another massage. Naturally, I obliged. This is one of the things I believe helped him improve so rapidly.  I'd later learn from looking on YouTube for information that border collies are considered 'the most' (I'd say one of the most) intelligent breeds. I have to agree, and I'm rapidly becoming a fan of the breed, particularly when mixed in a mutt like O'Rio!


 


 

Our First Encounter as O'Rio, Educating About Reversing Symptoms

For nine months now, I've worked not only with the dog / O'Rio, but with his environment and I am part of helping reduce the exposures everyone and every-thing experiences from the property and home. I now feel I've learned the ropes enough to be bringing the info to YOU, and through O'Rio is the ideal and FUN mechanism. 

Example: Yesterday I took him for a walk in town at a popular park. A little boy of about 2 said to his mother as they walked the other direction past us "There's my puppy, Mommy" so I offered to have the boy get some doggie time.  When I said that O'Rio basically had doggie autism, the mother said "My brother has that".  She had a lot of features you'd expect to see in people who are more affected and afflicted from 'THE Stuff", they're just not (yet) identifying themselves as being on the continuum.

So I had the opportunity to educate about how we're all with symptoms and it's only the most profound symptoms that will sometimes have people getting diagnosed / labeled officially. And it's reversible -- O'Rio's improved behaviors, lessened overall anxiety, better and safer coordination sensory processing, and overall functional abilities are observable when playing ball and are testaments to this REALLY BEING SOMETHING WORTH LEARNING and considering DO-ING similarly!

 

Putting Oneself in Harm's Way on Exposures to Do the Work - 

Taking One For the Team, So to Speak

I had a big decision last year when getting to work with O'Rio.  As a person working to improve my well-being by reducing the new exposures to THE Stuff, and get out of me what's gotten inside and "taken up house" in my body, being so closely working with a dog is going to increase my exposures, as will working on the house and property to get rid of 'THE Stuff' as much as possible.

I'd just reversed a lot of my symptoms earlier in the year by doing 'one of the protocols' (to the letter, too, so I could judge it fairly). Did I want to risk losing that ground? I decided that the circumstances of how I foresaw things about O'Rio's property over a year before meeting him and his family was a clear and divine sign that this was what I needed to make a priority.  

And now, nine months later later, I've initiated bringing the story to YOUser here, and will continue to edit and update it to keep it current.  My symptoms have fluctuated, perhaps as a result, but overall, I'm doing fine. I didn't do any 'protocols' for a while, I just lived as much like an average person would live in terms of diet and whatnot.  

And I'm doing this on a budget that would be what most Americans (and others) with complex, chronic health issues for a while, impacting functional status (and therefore income) would have for their reality.

 

 


CLEANING - HOUSE, THINGS IN THE HOUSE (including LAUNDRY, the DOG...) 

Put this in a 'thought cloud' like a cartoon around his head, below:

 

"Is it REALLY so important to clean the vents, I'd rather go on a walk .... But as long as you're doing the cleaning, how are you doing it, and what's up with that? I s'pose it'll help others if they know how to do this --- okay, I'll wait patiently --- I trust you, we always go on a walk, eventually" 

 

 

To help explain this aspect, I want to weave in a 'bona fide' researcher's information.  You can hear an interview with Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker at this link at YouTube ..... and what you'll see at that link includes the info I've copied and pasted, below (which I've bolded and made into shorter paragraphs in order to make it easier on the brain and eyes for YOUsers at Lumigrate), hoping it will 1) help you connect the dots of information and concepts and 2) encourage you to go to the link and source's website(s) for additional information so you get the whole thing and potentially go on to discover much more information. (Or put it on your list of things to do when you have time and want to go on to other information.) 

 www.youtube.com/watch

Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome with Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker. Dr. Shoemaker is a pioneer in understanding how low-dose biotoxin exposure, including toxic mold and algae, impacts our health and contributes to disease. Find out what chronic inflammatory response syndrome is, how people get exposed, and who is susceptible.

In this episode, we cover:

What is chronic inflammatory response syndrome?
How people get exposed to biotoxins
Who is susceptible to exposure?

READ FULL ARTICLE: http://chriskresser.com/dr-ritchie-sh... (available Thursday 8/13/15)

Below: What you'll find at this link ^ at Chris Kresser's website, made a little easier to read by bolding and more paragraph breaks by me for our YOUsers' afflicted and affected brains, is:


 

Dr. Shoemaker is a pioneer in understanding how low-dose biotoxin exposure, including toxic mold and algae, impacts our health and contributes to disease. Find out what chronic inflammatory response syndrome is, how people get exposed, and who is susceptible.

RHR-new-cover-lowres

A few years back, we were living in a home that I later learned had mold, and I was exposed to mold and started to develop some symptoms after my long journey back to health.  I started to feel some symptoms again that I hadn’t felt in quite some time and knew that it was something different than what I had been dealing with before.  And so over the last year or few years, I’ve been investigating that further, exploring a few different avenues, and after quite a bit of research, I came across SurvivingMold.com, which is Dr. Shoemaker’s fantastic website.

So I have a personal interest in this topic for my own health, and then it’s something that we’re also seeing a lot of in the clinic, so I think you’re really going to enjoy this interview.

In this episode, we cover:

4:38  What is chronic inflammatory response syndrome?
12:56  How people get exposed to biotoxins
29:18  Who is susceptible to exposure?


.....

Actually, what I found most interesting was right at the 45-50 minute area, DOGS were mentioned at about 47 minutes..... here's the portion from his transcription:

Chris Kresser:  Well, I’ll definitely have you back on the show to talk more about genomics and PAXgene analysis and NeuroQuant and VIP and some of the treatment part of this.  There’s so much, of course, that we could talk about.

We’re nearly through with the biotoxin pathway.  Stage 6 is MARCoNS, and this is a good segue because we’ve been talking about low MSH and the downstream effects of low MSH, so tell us a little bit about MARCoNS — you mentioned it earlier in the show — and what happens when someone has a colonization of antibiotic-resistant coagulase-negative staph in their sinuses.

Ritchie Shoemaker, MD:  Remember the first time you were a medical student and you drew somebody’s blood.  They had a heart valve condition and they were doing poorly, and you were asked to do the work, and back from the laboratory came a report of a skin organism, a coagulase-negative staph.  Maybe it never happened to you, but it happened to me, and the attending would say, “What’s the matter?  Didn’t you clean the skin properly, stud?”  

And come to find out now if you have an artificial hip or some prosthetic joint put in or if you have a heart valve that’s been installed, the third most common cause of those hips and heart valves needing to be pulled out are these coagulase-negative staphs that form biofilm, and they laugh at the idea that they’re benign.  So does the guy who had to have his chest cracked a second time.

The group at Newcastle University in Australia between Sydney and Brisbane were the first that I know of to publish in the world’s literature showing these organisms make a compound called a delta toxin that breaks down MSH by itself.  They also will cause a change in these organisms and start making antibiotic resistance factors, and curiously enough, as they make compounds they send out from their biofilm — you know, biofilm is like a polysaccharide or a sugar igloo that lets these little organisms that should be swimming around like planktonic forms, being very nice and happy by themselves, in a group they will have differentiation of function.  

It’s fascinating.  Why these organisms can live as a group together is curious, number one, because everybody was independent to start, but they start living like a multicellular creature by some organisms having genes turned on and other ones turned off, and they go around and round and round, making these extracellular products that are genomically active, that knock out MSH, that foment inflammation, all the while sitting in the back of your nose, not announcing to anyone in the world that they’re there.  The Australian group found them.

We do nasal cultures with a special lab technique that stops the overgrowth of these slow-growing organisms.  Normally if you try to put those onto a culturette, what’s normally in the nose will just grow so fast, the biofilm former hadn’t even woken up to get out of its biofilm to, say, make a new cell, so your culture comes back negative.  But we now know that specific of these coagulase-negative staphs not only must be eradicated to return to health, but can be reacquired with re-exposure to water-damaged buildings or to loved ones who have these organisms or to, of all the things, the family dog. 

 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^THE FAMILY DOG ^^^^^^

Chris Kresser:  Right.  All right, so finally we have pituitary hormone effects, which, of course, can cause a just shockingly diverse range of symptoms because the pituitary governs all hormone production in the body and hormones regulate just about everything.  What are the main players here, and what are some of the characteristic symptoms?  One that comes to mind is the electric shocks from static electricity, a red flag symptom there for CIRS.

Ritchie Shoemaker, MD:  I can remember when I used to collect data on ACTH and cortisol.  I would see some people with an ACTH of 100 and cortisol of 25.  You’d go, “My god!  He has an ACTH-secreting tumor!”  And I said, “Well, I’ll fix the CIRS first and then see what happens,” and guess what?  ACTH would return to normal.  Cortisol would return to normal.

Or someone who was told they had adrenal fatigue or some idea like that with very low ACTH and low cortisol, and lo and behold, as you fix the inflammation, that returns to normal as well without poisoning the person with extra cortisol.

We saw the same thing with testosterone.  Levels were low and because the enzyme called aromatase is upregulated like crazy, we saw high levels of estradiol, all due to little MSH.  And without adequate MSH effects on gonadotropin, you never had normal testosterone pathways, so it was disaster if people took, you know, a little bit of testosterone to try to improve that.

But over 75% of patients will have a problem with antidiuretic hormone.  You’ll see these folks, and they say their headaches are migraines that last a week.  Well, that’s not a migraine.  You’ll see them in the cardiologist’s office with a positive tilt table because they’re volume depleted with low ADH because they’re not holding onto free water.  They walk around with high levels of osmolality.  Their headaches are there from the salty blood.  They’re tired because when they stand up they start feeling weak, woozy, and wobbly, and they’re told they have POTS syndrome if they have pulmonary hypertension and low VIP along with it.

But you’re right.  The best symptom of all — one day I had two people tell me that they turned on a lightswitch with their elbow, and I said, “What in the world would you do that for?”  It was not in any book, and I had read the book and it wasn’t there.  

And they said, “No.  It hurts a lot less when I get the static shock on my elbow compared to my fingers.”  I’m going, “What?  You have a bad light switch or something, grounding?”  “Oh, no, no.  It’s doorknobs, on a car, outdoors, and people and drinking fountains.”  I’m going, “Wait a minute.  How in the world does this person have an electromotive force on their skin being discharged to ground,” and so I took a wild-ass guess and said, “Let’s measure their electrolytes in their sweat,” because we do that with cystic fibrosis.

 The highest chloride levels you find there are in cystic fibrosis.  But the levels of chloride in these folks with static shocks was even higher!  They were batteries on their skin.  It was all because without ADH they lost free water, the blood got saltier, the sweat gland poured out extra salt onto the skin in an effort to bring the osmolality back to normal, and that all worked fine until the person tried to open a door.

Chris Kresser:  Yeah!  And that’s a memorable symptom.  It’s not one you’re likely to overlook once you tune into the fact that it can be a red flag for CIRS.

Ritchie Shoemaker, MD:  You know, if your listeners are paying attention, and I’m sure they are, they’ll probably say, “You know, I have that as well.”  And yet when you as a physician ask a patient, “Do you notice that you get an increased frequency of static electrical shocks?”  They’ll look at you with this, “How did you know?!”

Chris Kresser:  Yeah, it’s amazing.


 I'll conclude this portion of information from Chris Kresser and Dr Shoemaker, reminding everyone of 'algae', 'mold', 'biofilm' being keys in what was discussed.  At the end of the interview, Dr Shoemaker states that people should stick with things that have been well researched.

Research which I opted to heavily cover in 2015 and continuing into 2016 so far which provides the foundation for how I'm cleaning, including in the photograph here with O'Rio looking on and wishing we'd just go out and enjoy the outdoors came via a self-taught researcher who has attended a little college in order to learn more science for his studies on what's in the environment which is making people sick.  Steve Beddingfield's work is included on many other topics in the forums at Lumigrate because I felt he was really onto something.  

I have tried to make it very clear what kind of people are following his work (those who are fed up with not finding long-term solutions to chronic, complex problems), and leave it up to YOUsers to take it to heart or not.  My simply providing a variety of options for information, from ALL that I can find out there -- whittling it down to provide very select information here, is what I intend to bring to YOUsers.  Here's a link to the topic I created and maintain / update about cleaning.    

www.lumigrate.com/forum/cleaning-your-environment-and-doing-laundry-light-new-information-toxins-and-earths-environmen

Please look it over, consider if the information is what you feel is going to be right for YOU, and then get on cleaning in accordance with what you learn there.  I've included some photographs and information directly from Steve Beddingfield's Facebook group which should help people see how to interpret and 'connect the dots' of information.  

Again, make notes of where to come back and pick up.  Make the commitment to the time for studying. Let me know if you're having difficulties, perhaps I can tutor you or connect you to resources for more assistance. This is much easier when you have the support you need for question and 'the learning curve'.  It's not really that difficult overall, it's more the amount of time and ability for learning from reading that often is deterring learning and then action! 

 

 

Contributions To Support This Work

If you wish to be part of that aspect, contact me (the About tab, or the pinned to the top blog topic at the blog tab are both updated to be current).  I'm easy to find on Facebook, my current phone number is area code 970, then number is 462 and then eight six six two. I also have email (see afore-mentioned resources as I prefer texts or calls or Facebook). 

YOU CAN SUPPORT THESE AREAS THAT ARE IN NEED OF BEING DEVELOPED HERE (ANONYMOUSLY)

 

 

You Dirty Dog --- Time for a Bath (and then to launder the things he has surrounding him in the car).

 


 

Taking the "Red eye" (just kidding, but he loves hanging out in the back seat of the car).

The red eye symptom comes and goes and has responded to information provided by those I've focused upon for learning about treating 'THE Stuff' as I call it, in humans and other animals.  

 My right eye was red in this July 2013 photo (from a 35 year (from when we graduated high school) reunion photo.  

It was red for two months prior to this, I finally went to an optometrist before the trip for the reunion, concerned by it's lack of improvement with time.  

The doctor looked long and hard at my eye as I'd presented recent pictures of the massive chemtrail spraying that had started on June 1, 2013 by day .... the evidence was in previous pictures of it going on in the area or at night.  

It had not occurred to me that what's in the chemtrails was to be dealing with something in the environment running amok. I didn't put it together with the trees dying from the top, or the grasses not greening up that year. Or the black dots that were in the toilet bowl now, that hadn't been there in previous years.  

The $100+ drops the O.D. prescribed didn't work, I used the whole bottle and it was improved but was like it is in this picture. The appointment was only about $75, but still, $200 down the drain and then you find out you can treat it ...... for much less, if you just find OTHER SOURCES OF INFORMATION and take other avenues.  NOT that one should never go to an optometrist, ophthalmologist, or for some EVER do anything but that..... This is simply what is working for me. I might have gotten major blocked things unblocked by many sessions with a D.O. practicing in the cranial vault / Cranial Academy realm.  If I'd not had done that work (at $125/session), I might not have been succeeding with what treatments have worked for me 'way outside the box'. 

The afore-mentioned prescription, expensive, medication / drops was the same medication that had worked in the past for conjunctivitis for me, it would come on when I was around cigar smoke. I suspected we had something in the environment causing it, I just wasn't knowing what I had not yet learned --- about THE Stuff.

My 2013 eye symptom went away when I ONCE AGAIN buckled down and focused about the gut and the candida overgrowth that occurs in virtually all of us who have fallen from good health, which is truly almost every person today. Whether they know it or not, that's how I view it now. 

So this experience leads me to think about what does O'Rio need for this red eye of his ... and I've 'noticed' that I'm getting itchy eyes from the 'dog house cleanup' to go after THE Stuff.  We need to be so aggressive now in cleaning ducts, laundering things, and many, many, many more things we'll cover here. 


 

Coordination and incoordination.

He'd just yawned, but this is similar to what his face did the second time I drove up to the house, he was halfway happy to see me and halfway barking in his protective bark and it was the only time I saw it aside from when I caught something similar when taking this picture). Bendable and hyperflexible -- lying on the hard floor, he would not do this initially due to pain levels having decreased after our time together .  It would be a couple more months before he'd start doing a lot of stretching of his spine and other joints -- very good to see.   


 Bone Broth did the most miraculous thing seemingly instantly, certainly within a week.


Guess which of these vegetables he LOVES as much as bone broth?

(His owner's daughter, here on vacation, had a great time feeding him pieces and said 'I never knew dogs would eat vegetables....').  

 

 

 


 

 

 

Energy Clearing ---- 

Via Kandy Griffin Vandawalker, who is yet another 'grate' connection from Facebook (meaning they end up on LumiGRATE).  Here's a photo she offers in her Facebook group as a before photograph .......  

 

 

And 'after'.  

 

 

Beginning with a YouTube video link: 

https://m.youtube.com/watch… 

 

DIRECTIONS FOR ENERGY CLEARING PROTOCOL LISTED HERE

ATTENTION ALL NEW MEMBERS!!!!!!~ PLEASE READ THIS POST IN IT'S ENTIRITY~

HAPPY CLEARING- HAPPY HEALING!!!!!!!

 

The link below is a 30 minute audio with a 5 minute video at the end (fast forward to last 5 minutes) of the lovely Miss Kimberlee Schultz showing you exactly how to perform the clearing protocol on yourself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO74D1POTCs&feature=youtu.be

If you're interested in seeing the three day presentation that took place in Phoenix, Arizona in June 2015, please join Kandy's group and see a link  "A CALL TO ACTIONS" at bottom of page.  The group's name is "Energy Clearing Protocol" and this is a link: www.facebook.com/groups/EnergyClearingProtocol/

Note from Mardy:  I really ask that anyone who is using my suggestions about Facebook which they find on Lumigrate contact me as well. Thank you. Link: www.facebook.com/mardy.ross

 

Hello!~ We are here to teach you all what I have learned and how you can help yourselves!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My story~~ I have been a nurse in New York state for 22 years. 

About 16 years ago, I started noticing that I was experiencing more and more symptoms of illness as time went on. I was somewhat ill for about 5 years when I got SLAMMED with Morgellons. I had been experiencing facial skin lesions since the early 90's but never thought much of it. I had a flu shot (I know, I know) about 11 years ago.

Within 12 hours, I was full blown with a GI (vomiting and diarrhea) and an upper respiratory infection which went from bronchitis to pneumonia. I suffered alone for 12 days, hallucinating, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, delirium, cough with nasty sputum and found myself passed out on the bathroom floor at one point.

After that experience, I became sicker and sicker until I became so debilitated that I could no longer function. I was experiencing 70+ symptoms and did so for over 3 years. I would have "spells" where I would start with low abdominal cramps followed by explosive watery diarrhea, then came the facial and upper body "wet" flushing, followed by a drastic drop in blood pressure.

The moment I thought I would faint, I would get SEVERE nausea and projectile vomit. These spells happened sometimes, 8-10 times a day.....sometimes 30-40 a week...IT WAS BRUTAL!!!!!!. I also suffered SEVERE joint pain, brain fog and fatigue. I would sleep 18 hours a day and wake up feeling as if I had never slept.

I was misdiagnosed with everything from peri-menopause- Cushings syndrome- Chron's / ulcerative colitis- CARCINOID CANCER and many other things. I spent a week at Roswell Park in Buffalo, for the oncologist to call me on a Saturday morning to tell me that I had NO CANCER anywhere in my body, but no one could seem to figure out what was wrong with me. My liver was shutting down and my adrenal glands were not working. I had low estrogen and high testosterone which is not normal for a female. I became a Morgellons Monster!!!!!!!!!!!

When I returned from Roswell, as you can imagine, I was in shock. I had prepared myself for cancer but now was told, it wasn't cancer. I was back at square one. Three days later, I sat in front of my computer and prayed. I begged my creator not to let me die!

The next day, as I was entering some symptoms into a symptom checker, a page on Myalgic Encephalomyelitis came up, as well as a page with information on fibromyalgia. I read the symptom lists and determined that I had 90% of both pages!

I printed the lists, highlighted my symptoms and took it to my MD. He dismissed me, so I fired him. I found a new MD who took me very seriously, I had all the testing to rule everything else out, and was officially diagnosed with CFS/ME and fibromyalgia.

I went home from the MD's office and put the information into a website that I had CFS/ME and fibro and if anyone had any information to help me, that I would greatly appreciate it!

The next day, a stranger wrote to me and told me to find a certain form of acupressure. She told me it was the only thing that would save my life. Without question, I entered it into Google and put my nearest city. I found a chiropractor 20 minutes from my front door who treated me. (I live in upstate NY, a no man's land..... the odds of a practitioner being that close are slim!!) wink emoticon 

I was sent an email with an article about Morgellons as I was going through this treatment. Once again, I diagnosed myself and KNEW that this was what was wrong with me!.... I did not go to an MD with the Morgellons info, as I caught on very quickly that patients were not only being dismissed by the medical community but some were even being labeled "delusional".

What I realized in the end is that I was massively infected with Morgellons ( which I personally believe are nano/bio hybrid materials brought to you by the science of nanobiotechnology and your friends underground.)

The treatment that I went through cleared me of 99.9% of my 70+ symptoms!! It did it through gently detoxifying my organs, glands and systems as I was desensitized to foods that I was sensitive to, along with vitamins, minerals, bacteria, virus, fungus, parasites, molds, worms, mosquitoes and sooooooooo much more!!!!!

I began seeing this practitioner on June 12th and by Sept 24th (3 and 1/2 months later) I was back to work full time, with only small skin lesions on my face. All other symptoms resolved!! After I went back to work, I took a second job, saved all my pennies, flew to Texas and trained to become a practitioner of the same treatment that resolved my symptoms!!!

In the same timeframe that I was going through treatment, I started the morgboard site. From there, we gathered hundreds, sometimes thousands of people telling us their stories, sharing their photos and wanting to be a part of something.

From there we started Morgellons Research Group. MRG gathered in Oregon and we did a 5 day conference. What I learned at that Morgellons conference is what I am here to share with you.

In order to understand what I am about to tell you, You must first understand certain facts.

Fact #1~ ALL MATTER VIBRATES

Fact#2~ Because ALL MATTER VIBRATES, it releases energy.

Fact #3~ The energy released from every item that exists, can be measured

Fact#4~ That energy field is referred to as the items ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD/ SIGNATURE

Fact#5~ Because of Quantum Physics, we can now MEASURE the emf of EVERYTHING. In essence, we can measure the "aura" of a tomato, a rock, a piece of metal, a human liver, a vitamin, a virus ect.....

Fact #6~ Something does not have to be ALIVE/LIVING to have an emf/s- a rock, metal ect... all have their own signature...they are not "living" per se.

Fact #7~ Muscle testing does not lie. The history as I have learned it is: In the 60's, a chiropractor figured out something called applied kinesiology. He figure out that if he placed something (let's say a tomato) in someone's hand and tested the strength of their other arm as they push up against the practitioner, the practitioner can determine if that person is sensitive to a tomato by the strength or weakness of their arm.

Fact #8~ There are some pretty smart companies who caught on to this early in the game. They create a software program with all of the EMF measurements.... they take a small vial filled with distilled water and alcohol and "upload" the EMF of the item (tomato) and then label the vial tomato. Instead of practitioners having a closet full of groceries to muscle test, they now had neat little vials.

Fact #9~ When I went for my first treatment, my practitioner "muscle tested" me for vials... organs, glands, systems..... All of the vials I tested "weak" for, he put into a container. The muscle testing told the practitioner which organs, glands and systems in my body that weren't working properly..... (I tested weak for 28 out of 30 vials...I was in rough shape, dying...literally!) I held the container as he tapped up and down my spine with the sides of his hands, then did acupressure around my body.... he then sent me home to drink as much water as I could tolerate.

I continued treatments...went on to clear me for foods, vitamins, minerals, hormones, immune system, inflammation response, bacteria, virus, parasites, fungus, molds, radiations, lighting, electricity, metals, chemicals, and on and on and on........

Fact#10~ When I went to Oregon with the amazing people of MRG, is when I learned that I could write the word on a sheet of paper and muscle test the person for the paper. I got either a strong or weak response of the person's muscle testing...... If I tested the same person for the same vial as the word written, I got the same response. If I placed the ACTUAL ITEM in the person's hand, I got the same response!!!!!!! If I just "thought" the word, guess what?.....YES!!! I GOT THE SAME RESPONSE!!!

Fact #11~ We only use about 10% of our grey matter in our skulls.

Fact #12~ Our bodies and brains are super quantum computers- we are emf based- every part of our body has it's own emf (liver-stomach-lymph system ect)...... and you have your own emf (aura)-

we all have a certain amount of SOFTWARE (information) in our bodies. If we are sensitive to something, it means that that word (information) is missing from your databank. i.e.- If a person has iron deficiency, it is because "IRON" is not listed in that person's databank. If the word isn't there, the body doesn't know what to do with it, so it let's it go. You now have iron deficiency. Once you add the word IRON to the databank the body now recognizes iron and knows what to do with it, holds on to it and utilizes it properly!! make sense?.....

OUR BRAINS ARE QUANTUM COMPUTERS.....WE CAN "DOWNLOAD" the information our bodies need in order to work properly.

Fact #13 ~ There are those of you among us who have done these clearings as I instructed and you saw the results of how it works and what it does! 
 

 

Fact #14~ Fact # 7

Fact#15~ I continue, on a daily basis to be astounded by Morgellons sufferers. We are the most resilient, kind hearted, loving people and have suffered above, beyond and below what most people can't even begin to fathom.

Fact # 16~ My Grandma used to say "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right! wink emoticon 

Fact #17~ I have seen this work repeatedly and am living proof that it works.

Fact # 18~ Here I am before and 7 years after treatments!

Namaste.

All of my love and blessings to each one of you!! heart emoticon 

Here is the conference of THE PHOENIX RISING which took place in Phoenix AZ June 2015. This presentation will open your eyes and connect some dots for you as to what is happening to our world and everything in it...... including us. Please watch this video series.

http://www.acalltoactions.com/…


The link below is a radio interview I did with Eugene and Kimberlee; it is about how all of this began.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZqjCg56pAU

 

 

 

 

Other information from this 'blurb' copied, pasted and edited, above, which is kind of an 'outtake' but might be of interest to people reading at Lumigrate to see what they'll find at the Facebook group, if they chose to go. 

*********************************************************If you go to the top of the page, under the hope quote cover photo, there is a FILES tab. If you click that tab, there are several pdf's.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ****************

Please begin with ORGANS-GLANDS-SYSTEMS---skip a day with no clearing--- ******************************************************

3rd day, clear for FOODS/VITAMINS pages----

then skip a day with no clearings....********************

after that, you can clear for one pdf daily.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

hold the sheet(s) of paper in your hand. Tap up and down your own spine....from the middle of the back of your head to the top of your rear end and back up and down..... 8 times (or 4 sets of two up/down)..... By tapping up and down your spine, you are TURNING ON YOUR COMPUTER.... by holding the words in your hand, your skin is porous.... your "computer" is downloading the information through your porous skin, into your computer........ Now, when this information (the emfs) enter the body, they travel in a circular motion through the body..... like a vehicle on a road, they travel in certain pathways which is where the acupressure comes in.

Find the dip on the top of your head- 
~ rub it for 20 seconds in a clockwise motion

Find the web of your left hand between your thumb and forefinger 
~rub it for 20 seconds in a clockwise motion

Find the dip under your left outside ankle bone 
~rub it for 20 seconds in a clockwise motion

Find the dip under your right outside ankle bone 
~rub it for 20 seconds in a clockwise motion

Find the web of your right hand 
~rub it for 20 seconds in a clockwise motion

You have now completed a circle of acupressure and UNBLOCKED THE PATHWAYS that these emf/s travel on

Now you are instructed to drink 1-2 liters of water.

When you clear for organs, glands, systems, your body will detox what doesn't belong there. Liver detox is what saved my life. My liver was shutting down. It was loaded with Morgellons materials, as were most of my organs and all of my glands...some systems too!!

When you clear for hormones, immune system, you are balancing the functions of those things.....

when you clear for foods, vitamins, mineral, bacteria, virus, fungus, mold, parasites, worms, radiation, lighting ect... you are desensitizing yourself from these things by putting the information into your "computer"....... If you are sensitive, you will muscle test weak for it.... if you hold it and do the clearing, after completion of the acupressure, muscle test again and you will be strong. 

 

 


 


Thank you in advance, GrateFully ~ Mardy


 

My greatest desire is that all people who have the capacity to learn and to make changes have the opportunities to do so. Lumigrate's 'motto' has been "Lighting the Path to Health and Well-Being" since our launch in March of 2009, seven years ago later this month.

I've seen the average learning person with chronic illness on Facebook go from being totally unaware of the effects of food on inflammation back in 2009, to massive numbers having reversed symptoms by getting on the bandwagon of proper diet for consuming their nutrition.  

Essential oils are a mainstay now in homes, whereas in 2009 they were something few were using.

Borax was never talked about, now it's another mainstay, same with baking soda, apple cider vinegar or other vinegars, and on and on. I should say here, this applies in countries where Codex hasn't had it become an unavailable item, that is (unless black market or other creative ways of obtaining it).

Borax, for example, is not available in other Western countries, the US is going to be the most capable of pushing back so they're rolling out the restrictions in a very well-thought-through way. Again, use the Lumigrate search bar to see what I have about Codex or go to the overall Internet for further education IF that's where YOU are at with learning at this point in time, energy, etc. 

I've also seen the times get 'challenging' and 'heavy' for everyone, essentially --- as we're going through the proverbial needle's eye on Earth, from the old system to the new.  The house of cards of the former powerhouse mainstream system is falling, and what has been in place as grass roots is getting nurtured with every person who changed some or all of their time, energy, money resources from old to new. It's going to be a very difficult time, this change.  I'm grateful to be a part of it. I'm grateful to YOU to being here, being part of it. 

 
 

 

Oh, My Guinness! Hops and Heartworm

 
Since the O' part is intended to be about March and our timeframe of this new topic being around St. Patrick's Day, it's interesting to me to work in this link and highlights I'll pull out from a dog resource.  Heartworm and Guinness beer, but you have to be a savvy consumer and be sure it's brewed in Dublin, apparently.  And other details, as you'll see below from what I extracted and included here for Lumigrate YOUsers' ease and streamlining learning. 
 
The author of this topic is not exactly correct in stating the 'carbon' has to bubble out, because it has nitrogen, or that was my understanding.  Clearly this is something for me to look into more! And consider seeing if O'Rio would benefit from partaking in small amounts of a certain type of hop used in Dublin's Guinness brewery. (Stay tuned looking back on this topic as I will be editing it as we go along on this FUN path to learning more, doing differently and more, and providing the results for YOUsers of Lumigrate! 
 
 
My favorite highlight of this article is this portion: 
 

"Veterinarians go to school for a long time, and have lots of training and experience to back up their recommendations for modern medicine.  No one here is refuting the credibility of a dedicated and intelligent professional.  But it’s not uncommon for those in the world of medicine to become biased and to disregard anything that hasn’t been favorably peer-reviewed and cited 87 times."

 
 

Other key parts extracted from the topic at the link (but truly, please GO see the source, there's a LOT of interesting information there beyond this!):

"Many owners give their pets regular treatments, but because of a growing tolerance, some dogs contract heartworm disease while taking preventatives. And it’s worth keeping in mind that when parasites are attacked with poison, they can release their own toxins, causing the host’s (your dog’s) immune system to go haywire trying to fight its invaders.  Because of these factors, many are choosing to try a different approach."   

I'd add here that the chemical in the hops is poisonous TO THE PARASITE organisms.  I know this is implied but sometimes when people are new to things they can have difficulties with this type of statement.  My thought when reading this portion flashes to what THE Stuff is all about, and the basic way my teacher has gone about treating himself, his dogs, cats, and grand children, plus has aided other adults in learning about his protocol which is about as simple as it gets.  

It uses red reishi mushroom for the effects in the body of what occurs when you effectively stun the 'interlopers' (and then at some point sooner or later, they die)(and along the way affect the organism they're in because they're in a process).   Parasites, bacteria, virus', tumor cells, fungi cells are affected by fenbendazole, an FtsZ inhibitor, but not mammal cells.  This is a simple overview, and the point for me to suggest more study about fenbendazole, FtsZ inhibitors.  Write it down if you need.  Use the Search Bar at Lumigrate if you wish to see what is on Lumigrate from me as resources or go free wheeling it on whatever search engine you prefer on the overall Internet. Or turn to books, whatever it is YOU prefer to do.   

Since these interlopers die from being stunned, and not being able to do their bodily functions, you'll want to get them out of the body doing this treatment ASAP, which means the intestines need to be working well enough to do that job.  So that's the first part to focus on, in my opinion.  Dogs are much simpler than humans when it comes to their intestines, overall.  So that's another reason it's great to have a fun beginners topic revolving around O'Rio Grande. 

I start people off learning about SIBO, and suggest it for people studying for dogs, cats, livestock as well.  SIBO is, I believe, THE NEXT BIG THING that people will find out about through mainstream --- small intestine bacteria overgrowth. Here's a link to the topic at Lumigrate about it.  Perhaps come back to it for further study and for now go on and get the overview on this blog topic.  I just did another YouTube search of SIBO and there are a lot of videos BUT NOT A WHOLE LOT.  Go and find one that looks good to you.  Then find another one. And so on. 

These "interlopers" that are stunned by the FtsZ inhibitor (in his protocol it's fenbendazole) will die at some point if they've been affected enough by the chemical, which acts as a poison to them, and not to mammal cells.  However, similar to what's said here about the veterinary medicine and certain breeds of dogs having it be not a good choice for them in particular, there are some mammals that are said to have reactions to fenbendazole.  Some species of birds.  However, at this point do this.  Write it down if you need to (and then come back here)(write down where here is if you need....).  

My info about Safeguard brand fenbendazole for veterinary uses covers this, so that's a resource if you wish to stay within Lumigrate.  Or do what I did to create that information when I was researching it, and search the Internet overall for Safeguard fenbendazole.  Look at ALL THE FORMS OF IT.  They have versions that are for specific types of animals -- horse, dog, goat being some of the more common. AND they have pellets that are marketed apparently for people who have 'hobby farms' with a mix of animals but not a lot of any one type of animal.  

They're clearly saying, indirectly 'treat the whole system / family / farm', but naturally don't include humans since it's not been a product that was marketed (so far) for humans.  However, there was, long ago, a study of fenbendazole in humans. And it had favorable results.  I include that in what you can find at Lumigrate.  (I'm sorry it's difficult to understand all the information at Lumigrate, it's a difficulty of providing details enough to be helpful for those who seek details.  Hence this topic that doesn't deviate aside from recommending IF a person is able and wanting to look into the details, how to do it....)

So, while this is relatively easy, and I hope it's FUN learning through the story of O'Rio and other dogs I'll introduce here, there's no way around that YOU have to put in the TIME and ENERGY to learn quite a bit about things in order to be independent or less dependent on others for assistance in healing.  I can help streamline that process for people, so contact me (see the About tab or the blog topic pinned to the top about Mardy Poppins).

I can connect people to others who can assist. Many learn here of the Facebook groups I mention (which is not all the FB groups I know of by the way, some are secret and I keep it that way here but will represent people in those groups related to questions and whatnot). So back to Guinness and heartwork in dogs....

"The amount of beer recommended for the heartworm treatment is minimal, so the risk of toxicity or alcohol poisoning is slim, but obviously should be taken into consideration.  But if the risk is there, why try it all?

Well, health risks come with any treatment.  Ivermectin, the main ingredient in most heartworm medications, is itself a poison – an anthelmintic.  It kills worms, but it can also be fatal for many dogs.  Dogs sensitive to Ivermectin have an anomaly that allows the drug to pass through the blood brain barrier and right into the central nervous system, causing respiratory distress, seizures, comas and death.  Breeds especially susceptible to Ivermectin poisoning are sheepdogs, shepherds, Whippets, silken windhounds, Skye terriers and Collies.

Give 1 ounce (approximately 2 tablespoons) of beer per 25 pounds of dog.  You may allow the beer to sit out to become decarbonated so your dog does not become gassy or develop bloat.  Not all dogs are beer hounds, so it can be mixed in with food if they won’t just drink it.  Give them this dosage once, and then once again in two weeks, and only once a month afterwards. 

If they test positive for heartworm within the first couple of months, give them thedosage every two weeks for three months.  If you’re not a beer drinker and won’t be enjoying the rest of the beverage after you administer the treatment, just recap the bottle and store it in the fridge until the next treatment – the hops won’t go bad.

Please remember, this article is only presenting an alternative view.  We are not medical experts and are not suggesting that anyone try treatments of any kind without thoroughly researching and discussing them with professionals."

 

 


HISTORY AND BACK STORY

Not everyone is up for the time and attention it takes for history and backstory details.  Other people LOVE IT and it helps them connect in a different way to the information.  So I offer it on this thread, but pushed down further, and I've put the more 'nuts and bolts' information, above. 

My History Relative to Dogs and an Innovative Mother and Teacher

I've walked and hiked thousands of miles with dogs in my lifetime. Snowshoing for some of them when I was a teen and daily 'going up the hill' was just part of what I did for our dogs. I grew up with parents owning an AKC kennel which they operated from the mid 1950s, five years before I was born, until I was in elementary school.  

A favorite picture of me with one of the dogs I had the good fortune of having around when a child. 

When I was growing up, my friends teased me that I was going to grow up and get pregnant and give birth to puppies, I was such a dog person.  The home movies of my first steps were not inside with me stabilizing on the coffee table, like happens for many children, but on a beautiful big, beautiful English 'flat coated' golden retriever  .... who was to have another dog come along and engage it to play and onto my butt I went.  

                      Notably without having much expression about it (more about that, later, but essentially it would come to my mother's work as an elementary teacher and doing a little informal research on psycho-motor processing on all third graders which was indicating everyone by that point in time had some symptoms or others of what would be 'autism spectrum' in the allopathic labeling of things.)  

 

 

My mother decided to go back to college and get certified to teach in the public school system; she chose K-6 certification and I had the 'good fortune' of having my mother teaching in my own elementary school.  

This had it's advantages and disadvantages. One advantage was I got to know 'the inside scoop' about my school, it's teachers and administrators, as well as the kids.

My mother was an innovator, somehow learning early on about 'sensory integration dysfunction', which it was called back when I first 'learned of it' in occupational therapy school in the early 1990s.  "This is what my mom was doing with kids", I thought in that 'applied neurology' class.  

I also remember thinking that it seemed like it was a minor version of autism, and ultimately there was a continuum and each person was somewhere on it -- a pristine, perfect neurological system at one end and as impaired as the worst case of autism would be at the other. AND WE WERE ALL SOMEWHERE ON THAT LINE. Later, 'autism spectrum' would become a term, so let's just take my idea and make it so it's simple the 'applied neurology spectrum' and we are ALL ON IT SOMEWHERE.  

What my mother found in her screening all the third graders in our school, for basically the 1970s though it was a few years before 1970 and ended with her early retirement before 1980, was that we ALL HAD SIGNS OF IMPAIRMENT .... except Shellie.  Shellie was a girl in my class who has given me permission to tell people she was 'the one that was fine'.  My class was the first class my mother screened as well.  Was she not as good at it yet? Was it that we were born in 1959 and 1960 and by the class born in 1960 and 1961 and those after, things that 'load us down' were worse?

At any rate, there was that one 'girl' who I have stayed in touch with, mostly through Facebook because she is also a major activist today.  Not focusing on health, but The System, The Matrix, whatever you wish to call it. They're very much reported on and even in Huntington Post for a raid their place sustained and reacted to the summer of 2013.   Ironic, really -- that the one student now is active about The System, and my mother was forced to stop teaching. Shellie's foundation and collaborator is in 'unschooling', too.  Just a sidenote and I find it ironic and interesting and hope YOU do too.  

My mother could have compromised her values and kept teaching, mind you, and stopped screening the students AND doing sensory integration activities in her fourth grade classroom a few times during the week.  This was not in the curriculum, you see -- no longer was there latitude given to professional teachers to determine what they were going to do, it had to be strictly 'the curriculum or go away'.  

To add more dimension to this little storyline, it gets better when Trey Parker enters.  Many of you reading will know that name.  He's well-known in the younger generations for his part in co-creating the comedy cartoon show (and movies) South Park, and was in the first group of students (if I have my timeline right) who, in third grade, didn't get screened by my mother -- because she had been driven from teaching by the combination of The System and her morals, as I've said, above.  (To not compromize on the nonsense of sticking verbatim to a curriculum and not doing what she had proven with years of teaching to help these more affected students.  It would have been good for ALL students (except Shellie maybe) to have these activities to help reorganize their sensory systems at that important stage of development).

So, the 'messed up' community and school inspiring Mr. Parker, which is shown in the show, was also my home community of origin! Naturally, many other things are part of their inspiration, but it's fun to watch the show and see what they're perhaps referring to from our 'home town'.

I've been told the lady mayor character, described as Nazi-like with blond hair and glasses, is inspired by the woman principal who came into the school in the mid 1970s and started focusing on my mother's methods.  It kept escalating, and rather than be fired -- a tenured teacher was in fear of firing -- she retired early.  

Naturally, this affected their finances, which lead to my parents selling the property they'd bought for HER dream retirement -- in Belen, New Mexico. An adobe house on a lot of land with good water and lots of it, with every kind of food source growing on it -- the Native American / Mexican couple who'd built the place had been self sufficient.  I didn't want to further burden them and figured out a way to live cheaply in a trailer and then mobile home off campus and get by working part time typing for the Statistics Department at CSU.  But I'd go 'home' every other weekend -- 'my dog' was there, and my beloved's family lived across the road. 

It was "just the way my mother was" (think "autism spectrum characteristics"), she'd drop whatever her old passion was when she found a new 'thing' to focus on.  This didn't happen often, she'd stick with something about ten years, she had a persistence and strength to her that was intense.  

For that reason, dogs had been dropped when teaching became her 'thing'.  Hence, I, as the youngest and with an ill father and 'checked out, distracted mother', who I'd now consider 'ill' but we didn't back then, was left holding the bag caring for what was left of their kennel operation.  

The only time I'd call my dad at work was when I'd find a dog with a medical emergency, and he'd be home within an hour, taking them to the veterinarian, which was about 15 minutes away, at that time.  Eventually one moved very near, but he only had cats by that point.  

He'd buy the big bag of kibble, 'the big brand' back then, of 'dog chow', and put it in the barrel.  But everything else was up to me. Back in the early years of my life when my mother was still involved with the dogs I'd get into the barrel and want to eat the kibble and she'd discourage me from doing it --- I didn't really understand what was in it.  But thankfully, I (mostly) obeyed.  Over to the corral, where I'd inherit the care of two equine characters when I was a tweenager, I'd eat some of the corn in the 'omalene'.  Now, I'd not do that, knowing what I know about corn.  But so it was.  Fond memories from a woman who had many symptoms of environmental illness all along.  

By the time I left for college, they/we were down to one remaining dog, my 'Peachie'.  And so she was there when my mother quit teaching and was home all day.  She became a house dog (with freedom to come and go, and with acres to roam, a creek to get in and "enjoy" the water, etc.).  My father would retire not too long after she did, and it was 'meant to be' that he had Peachie there to keep him company.  My parents weren't very happy together or as individuals, but my dad loved dogs, and having a dog around gave them something positive all the time.

In early 1985 I got the call I'd expected -- Peachie'd been in a lot of pain when I was home at Christmas. Dad had taken her to the vet to have her euthanized; she was the longest-living of any of their dogs at almost 16. With optimal nutrition, no toxins from required or other vaccines, and other things you can chose to do -- what would her lifespan have been? Holistic veterinarians will say dogs should live into their 20s, cats to 30 (which varies a great deal with breed), when fed a proper diet for what their bodies need AND NOT feeding them what 'loads them'.  

Realizing I Had Environmental Illness ---

AND Lotsa Company (whether they knew it or not!)

At some point, I realized there were more oddball illnesses in my 'of-origin area' than the norm for the United States, it seemed.  I wouldn't see the overlap of me and Peachie and dogs overall with people until 2015. I wouldn't see myself as unwell until a very pin-pointable day, in my late 20s (in the late 1980s).

I'd thought of myself as 'well' even though I had symptoms going back to birth of environmental illness.  

When I first thought of myself as "unwell", I was in my late 20s.  I had been living for ten years in Fort Collins, Colorado by then, a 'college town' which was by then a University of about 20,000 and city of 100,000. Today, it's part of the Smithsonian's new display about innovative cities in the United States.  

I was continuing to drive or ride along if my significant other was driving for the two hours each way to visit my 'home', so I was keeping up on the area's former and current people's goings on. I had a massively demanding job with the University, and the program had grown with our funding savvy and we were in new, cheap housing with outgassing from everything from carpets and paints to new partitions and bookcases.

Example: A new bookcase for the Director was moved about a year after we'd moved in and there was a clear outline of eggshell color in the paint which was originally white.  If I knew then what I know now, I'd have resigned that day. But I didn't yet know what I had not yet learned, same as YOU. We're in this together. Hang in there, keep learning and it'll (usually) pay off! 

One day I just couldn't get out of bed. My eyeballs wouldn't stay where I was trying to look, I couldn't get out of bed and shower and get ready for work.  Until mid morning.  I drove and parked and walked to the building which was a slight incline and started up the stairs and had to stop in the midway landing to rest.  "And so it began....."

And so it continues for me today, still figuring out what's causing symptoms, what can be done about them, opting to do what I opt to do, passing on other things.  "Keeping on keeping on." Creating Lumigrate in 2007-2009 and working on information to add to it ever since, and guiding people who wish the individual guidance.  

The man I'd grown up knowing as the good cowboy-like neighbor who taught my family about horses (and shared a load of hay with us every fall) crashed with his health around the same time as my chronic fatigue crash.  

I might interject here that my primary care physician told me there was a cluster, or 'outbreak', in Fort Collins at that time.  This was never, to my knowledge, in the media and the area's specialist the doctors were told to refer to never let on anything like that when I had my appointments with him.  He'd been educated by National Jewish Hospital in Denver.  I'd not yet learned about how the mainstream hushes things up, buries things, bought up all the mainstream media so they could pretty much control what the masses would learn.  Thanks to the Internet, we're liberated from that IF we chose to use the Internet and truth-telling, truly independent sites. (Lumigrate is one and mostly what I do is try to find the better information out there and present it ... making it easier for YOUsers.)

The neighbor man next door to where I grew up had 'universal allergic' symptoms and would purchase a small house in the Denver area, it would be stripped of carpeting and minimally furnished. He'd read a newspaper in a box that would decrease the exposure of what was coming off the newspaper, I recall.

He would die the same week as another neighbor man / father who had become diabetic and wasn't particularly compliant with the mainstream diet for that, I was almost like part of that family at one time.  I went to his funeral and then to the home of the universal allergic man to sit with his wife for a while since 'everyone' was at the funeral of the diabetic man. At that time, whether there was a connection or not with these men's health issues I was not sure, but it at least got me thinking, or re-thinking. 

Everyone who grew up around me and had children, if they had children, seemed to have one child in the mix that was really affected by something, and none of it was the same as the others'.  But I'd compare to the people I knew from living in Grand Junction who'd grown up all over the United States or the world, and ....... they didn't have these things happening. Back in those days we tended to think of illnesses as being similar if they were coming from a cause.... Convergent thinking it's called.  One thing causes an outcome.  And divergent thinking is needed to understand environmental illness (and wellness).  

It never occurred to me that there could be ONE THING in the environment, or a combination of things, that would trigger hundreds of different conditions to come on.  Today, I've come to see the value of an emerging theory that ultimately teaches that hundreds of identified, labeled, mainstream conditions are caused by one thing -- hence we all have the same dis-ease / dis-order, essentially.  (I prefer the term disorder, as it's from the system getting out of order.)  

The dogs have it.  The cats have it. And the symptoms of autism, most commonly thought of as being in human children, are included in the mix of symptoms. 

By now, I have found out that people from my area of origin, if they're aware of neurological impairment disorders are saying that they're seeing there's a lot of it in the area, and wondering why.  They thought it would be to do with well water everyone had and so many septic systems nearby.  I'd say they were on the right track in saying it was in the water, but it's also in the soil and the air (and in the plants and .....).  

Other mountain community 'thinkers' from further south and west, higher up in the Rockies will say they've noticed 'a lot of Parkinsons gets diagnosed'.  Or 'we moved out of _____ because everyone who'd lived there a while was sick'.  And they moved to Grand Junction where I'd thought everyone seemed unwell, I've never seen such behavioral unwellness anywhere else I've lived.  

My father would, near the end of his life, be diagnosed with one of the progressive neurological diseases, and if you "Google" any of the more common ones with 'personality disorder', you'll find there's a behavioral component connected with these movement disorders.  Think what THAT does to a community or family (or other) system with rising percentages of behavioral issues!

My symptoms of fatigue, migraine, body pains have always been very similar to his, but different stages of life -- he had chronic fatigue at 19 or 20, I in my late 20s, fibromyalgia symptoms in my mid 30s and after, whereas his chronic body pain was worse in his midlife. But there's nothing more motivating to do the WORK to reverse symptoms than seeing what your demise is going to look like if all you do is mainstream eating, medicine, supplements, etc. (He was a mainstream guy despite my attempts to get him out of the box.) 

And I now realize, our animals were affected and afflicted as well, and I'm hoping to share my experience with this, through O'Rio's story for now, and help others take a look at it from this perspective and see if it resonates for them. The Ripple Effect.

O'Rio's similarities to Peachie's helps me gain some confidence in saying this.  When I met him he was so much like she'd been her whole life with needing to be beside you being touched at all times.  If you stop, the nose 'tool' almost instantly will come rotate your forearm -- keep petting me, they are saying.  This almost instantly disappeared with O'Rio when I made him bone broth soup, and had improved prior to that with the other things I'd done. 

One of the main reasons I didn't have any pets from my mid 20s until my mid 40s was my health issues took a turn in my 20s, which lead me to be reactive to dogs and cats for a long time, until I got my health reversed and was 'weller' again. I wasn't yet figuring out what was causing the domino effect of symptoms, and sadly, lived pet-free for a long time in order to reduce the 'load' on my sytem.  

It would be years or decades before I'd learn of the 'elevator analogy' from one of the invited experts we've included in the past at Lumigrate's forum area. Here's the graphic I had drawn of it in 2012.    

 

Finding providers or other means of learning, and DOING what those sources taught to do about health took a LOT of money, something many people with chronic illness are familiar with if they've been looking for solutions.  Therefore, I didn't put what money I had into other things, such as buying a house which could accommodate a dog, and if I had a dog then I'd have less money to put into providers my insurance didn't pay for, or vacations and travel, or high quality food.  

I thought of my health as a TOP PRIORITY and INVESTMENT.  And it worked! I'm still here, doing fairly well considering all the circumstances.  So I hope what I've learned and have to teach helps others. If YOU want to be one, please use Lumigrate's resources which are no-cost and consider contacting me to contribute feedback or in other ways. I guide individuals (and small groups, couples, families) as well, to navigate getting from where y'all are now, to where you want to go -- via information.  

Additionally, my time with a dog wouldn't have been enough back when I worked as an mainstream health system provider (my degree is in occupational therapy, 1996, CSU), which I stopped doing in order to start Lumigrate and become the non medical person tutoring and guiding or assisting learners AND creating the materials I utilize (which are available for FREE to ALL via the Internet, here).

I often worked 12 hour days and had long commutes on top of it. I had an aging / failing parent who was living alone on 'rugged' property in the mountains. I was, for a while, so exhausted and miserable, around the time I was 40 I'd think that if I couldn't get things to improve, I didn't want to live a whole lot more days. It was just too hard, not 'worth it'.

Scooter The Wonder Dog, Who Became a Wonderful Therapy Dog in Later Life

It was around this time that Scooter the Wonder Dog (and her owner) came into my life and not long after that I had the opportunity to move to western Colorado, where they followed. That's when the photo below was taken. Prior to moving, I got to work as an occupational therapist using her in the facility I was stationed at, as a certified therapy dog.  

It was fantastic. The first thing I'd told adults I 'wanted to be' when I grew up, was to work with service dogs for the blind. Back in the old days it was only 'Seeing Eye Dogs' I was aware of. It never occurred to me the growing demand for dogs to help people with a variety of issues. Now, there are such fabulous pairings, and these dogs are significant investments to keep their wellness levels up, same as pets.     

 

 

I had things come together in western Colorado which had me 'turning around' within three months of arriving --- money from a good paying, full time OT job with full benefits, close proximity to a provider who was doing his best to try new things for environmental illness, more of which helped than harmed or didn't seem to matter, and some support from a special person in my life for a change, which was short-lived.  I last saw scooter in summer of 2004, and first saw O'Rio in summer of 2016, a dozen years later! 


 

Cancer

In the fall of 2009, it was clear to me that cancer was going to be something that Lumigrate was needing to address. It was going to become a tsunami, was what I foresaw in my mind's eye and felt in my gut.

That wasn't part of my original plan, but I've gone where the needs and desires have taken Lumigrate's YOUsers. Cancers in dogs have always been a concern and are on the rise, and some of the information coming out in late 2015, in mainstream medical journals then reported on by mainstream media, was about what I call THE Stuff (but disguised and 'buffered' in the way it was presented) and cancer; the cells of a tumor in a man being found to be tapeworm cells, not human cells.  The man was in Columbia. (Again, take notes if needed, search Lumigrate's search bar as I include it -- or the general Internet on your own.)

O'Rio is so 'lumpy' it pains me to think about how much of THE Stuff he's gotten inside of him, and how far we have to go reversing his symptoms.  Conventional veterinary medicine has taught us to think and say that it's not harmful, those 'fatty tumors'. 

By 2012, two of the people who were writing in the forums at Lumigrate were diagnosed with cancer; one a medical professional and the other was a woman with fibromyalgia initially, then diabetes, then cancer. I decided to no longer have others contributing written information directly in the forums because it was very time consuming to make the relationships, explain how it worked to write and who had the intellectual property in different situations --- basically a good deal for them so then we'd get underway with their providing information eventually, with more communications about what content I wanted to focus on at Lumigrate. It was awesome, but it was time consuming and I was lagging overall in what I had for our YOUsers. And I felt it just had to be done, to the core of the onion -- the center of what's causing things and what to do about them.  I could operate faster solo.  

So I rolled up my sleeves and started creating all content myself, but changing my format to announcing to certain Facebook groups or even communicating individually with those posting really good information, that it would be copied and pasted but edited onto topics at Lumigrate.  This was for several reasons, one main reason is to get people seeing how they can, if they are so inclined, independently get a lot of support, advise, help, and contribute to the learning  process via social media and other Internet places.

These are usually women, usually mothers who have symptoms as do their children. They're used to the risks of the Internet for being turned in to county services if people find out who they are doing this healing work that's not what the mainstream approves of and wants (as it takes money and power away from them and their plans for people and society overall).  

Many have a similar story -- they'd spent their reserves on expensive providers and treatments in the past, which helped for a while or overall but ultimately didn't solve the problem in their case so they kept working and learning, and found their way to these 'high level learning and teaching groups', I call them.

This is similar to what I'd created in 2007 in my allopathic medical building for a short time, with live locals and knew the next step was to go to the Internet with a website, which launched in March 2009, seven years prior to my creating this topic. 

Feline Friends Are a Big Part of This Too

Significantly, particularly to this story about autism in animals besides humans, I had an incredible feline friend come my way in the  five month old kitten needing rehoming and fostering on Thanksgiving 2009.  She was 'meant to be', and was with me until she had to be euthanized in April of 2013.  

I always saw she had sensory motor issues, but by winter of 2011/12 it went to another level, with symptoms I would later were similar to what some autism moms describe with their children once they become adolescent or young adult.

Ultimately, I didn't get to 'the root of the matter' in what was causing it and what could be done to reverse symptoms, and she was to be euthanized in April of 2013. I learned about mainstream versus homeopathic veterinarians in the process, and came to see that feline autism is a reality. This was only LATER substantiated by a homeopathic DVMs video story about reversing symptoms in a cat in New York.  I suspect we'll see a lot more about animals and autism.  

It broke my heart to see what we went through, SpoildeyCat and me, and how she appeared to welcome the euthanasia, her symptoms were so mentally confusing and awful for her. I learned an incredible amount and set a new intention in my anger, frustration, and grief --- I was going to get to the bottom of what is messing us all up!

Going "To the Mats"

I recently watched You've Got Mail with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks (and his lovely dog which was an intricate part of the story in a small way in my opinion). "Go to the mats" was his advise to her, which all the men recognized as being from the legendary movie The Godfather.  Well, that's what happened to me after SpoildeyCat was to have such an insane and premature ending to her life, in so much psychological pain due to the confusion of her normal thoughts and reality and what occurred in an 'episode'.  So, I essentially 'went to the mats' in my mind and intentions, and ...... connected with what I think is the solution, ultimately.  Now getting to utilize the information on O'Rio (after having trialed things on myself in 2015, too.) 

It's one thing that I've been damaged since before birth in innumerable ways, I've accepted that, and worked consistently to undo what I can, to bolster and offset what I can, using a mind, body, spirit (integrative medicine) approach.  I'd wish that someone would have fought for me but nobody I know directly did -- I did this myself. No family supported my efforts, quite the opposite.  No friends for a long time, either. So I know how it feels, and I fight now for those who cannot, such as the dogs, cats, children with ineffective parents and guardians.  I provide the information, to the best of my ability, which I have to offer. All free for those who wish to dig in. 

I've dug to find the underlying reasons, too, which is "functional medicine". And I've brought these things, to the best of my ability, while believing them to have enough validity or being provided by truthful enough providers.  I reinfoce the concept of 'these are ideas, YOU need to study, feel, think, process, decide what YOU take action on (or not).  

As time went on, I got more discerning and experienced with who is REALLY on the upside of providing to people. And by late 2014 I was in a major 'shifting' place; by Christmas I was seeing that the information about what I'd later term THE Stuff was potentially THE ROOT CAUSE of complex chronic conditions -- hundreds of them.  But it's extremely difficult information to wrap the ol' brain around, particularly the more infected and therefore afflicted with symptoms a person is. 

The animals and children with similar symptoms, too (and plants, insects) -- we need to fight for those who cannot do it themselves -- we need to find the threads of information, and in my case, bring them to people so they can benefit -- that's why I created Lumigrate long ago.

It was monumental to me that an 'autism mom' in a Facebook group about THE Stuff talked about her kiddo's symptoms --- which were very similar to my long-deceased cat's. This mom's kiddo's symptoms were reversing rapidly with the 'protocol' given to address THE Stuff, and I wished I'd known of this in time to help my cat.  

Another autism mom who has become celebrated as 'the worm whisperer', when speaking at Autism One in 2015 (which I saw on video in early summer 2015), described emotionally how horrible it was to have a son who became violent and dangerous when adolescent. I commiserated, a 10# cat gone mad is surprisingly dangerous. I had to heal my PTSD about cats after she was euthanized. 

The Story of The Connection to O'Rio and His Family / Home

Interetingly, about a year before, in the spring of 2014, I'd started seeing in my mind's eye, an older white RV, a very distinctive design.  What was it about? I even had a conversation in May of 2014, just after finally shipping some of Spoildeycat's ashes off to where they'd have a final resting place where we were brought together in 2009, with a woman who was having her van's oil changed and was waiting outside the UPS Store.  

When she bowed and made her departure when her service was done, she said that she didn't really want to talk about my purse, which is how we started talking on the patio that day -- she just knew she was supposed to talk with me.  She'd studied with a spiritual guru whose name I recognized, from the Denver area.  I was wrestling with whether to get a job 'in the system' (as an OT) and be able to continue to afford my own home, or this idea I had brewing of selling most of my things, putting startup basics and 'precious things' in storage, and somehow traveling.  

It was a very intense time for me.  Friends (the wife's an OTR and has written on Lumigrate about driving rehabilitation) had suggested I do as they did and join the bevy of people who are RV-ing it, without having known of my 'inner vision' I was seeing of the distinctive RV. But what I was overall learning about what's going on in the world today, for me, being out around wherever in an RV was just not going to be what was best for me. It didn't appeal.   

I ended up finding that exact RV when I pulled into park at O'Rio's house to meet him and talk further with the owner about my working with him. Anymore, I'm not surprised when these things occur, but I'm still in awe of how Source(s) work! And I have as great a story about how I got connected to where my things are stored.  

As a matter of fact, one day I was driving to go look into storage options, my gut basically had me make a last minute turn on the road that I would, three months later, be given as directions to get to O'Rio's house (with the RV).  I'd even come to a stop despite no stop sign for my direction, right at their property line.... I remembered it because someone who'd bought my propane tank the week before was stopped at the sign, which I thought an interesting coincidence.  Particularly when I asked them why they were there that day and time.  Totally random 'synchronicity'. 

"I know there's someone around here I'm needing to connect with".  And this was true! 

And so it began, life and learning about how to live better today through the lessons brought to light by a dog.  I had no idea he was an impaired, ill dog -- and neither did she, really. This just seemed 'to be expected' of dogs these days -- he was middle age.  "I don't know why he wants to stay in the garage in his crate, he can come in the house", she said.   

Granted, what I'm bringing to him (and his humans) in terms of how to be healthier by doing things differently is significant. (AND also bringing it to YOU here, to also glean from and gain knowledge.) Ultimately, that's what this blog topic thread is about, BUT as I worked with him more and he taught me things from his perspective, I felt sharing via a blog topic was going to be a 'grate' way to help Lumigrate YOUsers.  We've recently had quite a time with a bout of kennel cough, and before that an ear problem resurfaced.  

I've had to roll up sleeves and learning and try many things from the 'holistic tool box'.  Since he's overall in a plateau but with these issues cropping up, which might be a 'healing crisis' in some aspects, I have my moments and wonder if he's going to get turned around enough before cancer becomes a problem, or something else.  I just trust that what's supposed to be will be, and I'm going to walk the path with him to see where it takes us. And bring it here for YOU.  

I know my cat taught me much about death, in how she acted when my father passed AND in her final exit.  Both, by the way, returned shortly therafter to send me signals from the other side. Again, always awesome to experience and not surprising but 'just WOW!'

So far the only death we've experienced together was last week -- when he had the kennel cough reaching the peak of it's cycle.  Going on an 'easy and short walk' near his house, trying to not get him breathing hard or choked on the collar, he spotted a prairie dog which ran into a ditch.  As he got faster and healthier, I was wondering when he was going to catch a rabbit, it never occured to me he'd surprise a prairie dog in a place it would bolt away from home and take refuge where he could get to it. 

Watching in amazement at how O'Rio went after his prey, I heard a squeal and then silence, then the sound of plants being pulled up.  OUT CAME O'Rio, with two long strands of cat tail foliage and the prairie dog moving a bit. It actually looked like a pheasant in a way, I wasn't sure what I was seeing, and it all happened so fast.  I thought what I saw running was a rabbit, as in that area that's normally what is there.  

"Drop it" I ordered, and he did, but the prairie dog was not to move.  Not only did I want the animal to have his chance to recover, but I didn't want O'Rio getting any of the things he could get from a rodent -- fleas, a bite from the rodent, etc.  

Figuring it might be 'playing possum', we left it where it was and returned home.  The swamp naturally puts a lot of THE Stuff into the fur and skin so it's important to do regular wiping, bathing, cleaning of pets, using proper things that work on THE Stuff and certainly not ones that encourage its growth.   

Some people LOVE dogs, others non so much. If you're one who doesn't love dogs, I hope you'll consider taking this information in anyway, because it's all the same things that people ideally can do to have a higher health level. O'Rio Grande has inspired me in the last year in many ways, because it gets 'old' eating a certain way, for instance.  But when you see what results come from changing what he's consuming, and it happens SO FAST with a dog (because of their shorter intestines, primarily, I am told), then that helped me maintain my enthusiasm for how I feel I should go about my nutrition. 

Helping him heal -- a.k.a. "reverse symptoms of chronic illness", not the kind of heel where he is to walk along next to me (though we worked on that too) -- has made me apply what I know in new ways.  

Therefore, YOU can come along with us, make us part of your 'team surrounding you about health and well-being'.  If there's an aspect of health you'd like to learn more about which is not yet covered on this thread, YOU can support our work by letting us know what you'd like us to cover, and help create the topic which will then grow because of your input.  See below for information on connecting with me.

So, who is this O'Rio character? It took me a while to come up with a 'fitting name' for the dog that's the feature of this thread.  I'll get to where I came up with O'Rio Grande. But first ..... a picture of him with one of his many tennis balls.  I want to credit the area's tennis center for donating seven tennis balls in January.  In trade, I spoke with the person managing that day so they could hear a little about why it is that some of us -- human and canine -- are less coordinated than others.  

I shared the overview quickly of what I've come to believe and teach (and offer on Lumigrate) could be the root cause of our problems, and therefore planting the seeds on what can be done to reduce exposure and remediate what's already inside of us, creating the problems.  I included my mother's findings in the 1970s screening all children in third grade in our mountain elementary school, to point out that we all had symptoms 'on the spectrum' of what would be termed autism.  And it's not just humans, as O'Rio demonstrates.  

As I spoke with them inside the bubble of the tennis center, I thought about how our future will likely be one of being in structures all the time, if what's in the environment isn't able to be stopped.  

 

Coming Up With O'Rio Grande as His Name for Lumigrate and My Purposes

When it got to be winter, he was much smaller than he'd been when I started, but he was still a formidable size! He likes to walk about 100 feet ahead of me, at the same pace I walk.

It was now cold out a lot of the time, and his breath would come out of him in such regular intervals and he reminded me of a black, narrow gauge, steam locomotive going down the tracks.  Jethro (as in Jethro Tull and Locomotive Breath) was a thought but --- it just did not fit.                                                                                                                              

Then it occurred to me -- Rio Grande railroad was a big part of my family's history on my mother's side.  His coloring is like Oreo cookie, so O'Rio Grande .... Seeings as his symptoms are basically doggie autism, one could add an N on the end and it would be similar to legendary autism spokesperson Temple Grandin, too.  

 

Attributing this initial section's development in honor of my mother, on this day.  It was a similar spring Friday in March back in 1987 when I would learn of her having suddenly and unexpectedly died. It would be a major new chapter in my life.

At her funeral were many people who knew her as a teacher, a friend, a neighbor, and some, if they went back far enough, as the area's "dog person".  The woman who showed her dogs at AKC events was a welcome and familiar face from my childhood that I fondly recall in the swarm that greeted us as we made our way from the church to the limo.

What an overwhelming experience. I'd just been at that same church months before, as one of my classmates and friends had been killed (as in homocide), something I'd never have thought I'd experience.  In these times, we have so many passing from Earth, people, pets, and others, that I wanted there to be an option for people to support the work I do at Lumigrate in a way they could have something memorable and positive in return.  

If you'd like to support a section of the story of O'Rio, either in memorium to honor someone passed OR because you'd like to support a certain aspect of information relayed through the story of O'Rio, please contact me.  Below are some photographs and 'roughed in concepts' to start considering, or we can brainstorm and come up with something else. 

You can find me on Facebook or call me at area code (nine seven zero) 462.8662.  Providing phone for a month has been the most common 'want to do' by those 'doing'.  (I've been using mardy.poppins at yahoo dot com as an email address but have recently learned of the issues, similar to GMail and others, with Yahoo related to security of information and am forseeing making changes.)  

I hope this story of O'Rio, as it will develop aspect by aspect, step by step, will be an inviting and digestible way for people who desire to get ideas of what's causing health issues (and how to reverse them) in themselves, their families, their pets, their livestock, and their homes, cars or communities.  And yards -- don't forget the yards! That's been a major one for O'Rio! ~ Gratefully ~~ Mardy

 


 

... and that's JUST FOR STARTERS..... 






 


 

__________________

Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! is my motto. I'm Mardy Ross, and I founded Lumigrate in 2008 after a career as an occupational therapist with a background in health education and environmental research program administration. Today I function as the desk clerk for short questions people have, as well as 'concierge' services offered for those who want a thorough exploration of their health history and direction to resources likely to progress their health according to their goals. Contact Us comes to me, so please do if you have questions or comments. Lumigrate is "Lighting the Path to Health and Well-Being" for increasing numbers of people. Follow us on social networking sites such as: Twitter: http://twitter.com/lumigrate and Facebook. (There is my personal page and several Lumigrate pages. For those interested in "groovy" local education and networking for those uniquely talented LumiGRATE experts located in my own back yard, "LumiGRATE Groove of the Grand Valley" is a Facebook page to join. (Many who have joined are beyond our area but like to see the Groovy information! We not only have FUN, we are learning about other providers we can be referring patients to and 'wearing a groove' to each other's doors -- or websites/home offices!) By covering some of the things we do, including case examples, it reinforces the concepts at Lumigrate.com as well as making YOU feel that you're part of a community. Which you ARE at Lumigrate!

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