Each One, Reach One - And "The Ripple Effect"

I am dedicating the time and other resources involved in creating this topic on Lumigrate to Alice, "Amazing Alice" I'd later come to call her, who had collaborated with me on showing people how to be 'active' from home in the political process, even when unwell, as she was at the time. I can't imagine she ever missed voting in an election; I've kept a low profile and my 'nose to the grindstone' during this latest election hubbub which is now in the fallout phase after the election on Tuesday (November 8, 2016).  Alice died in July, and in March, as I'll relate below, she inspired me with her words from her hospital bed, via Facebook status update: Each One, Reach One.

"Amazing Alice" - 2009

This is the photo Alice used as her profile picture on Lumigrate, where she contributed greatly for about a year, midway from 2009 to 2010.  It was added to be among her profile pictures on Facebook in July 2009, seven years before her passing. 

I recall encountering her by seeing her writing contributing to conversation threads at a page having to do with "fibromyalgia" as the operating word from mainstream medicine and media, on a page that was from 'the System', such as a "national" or "American" "association".  She was "ripe for learning", not sounding angry, and very articulate, I recall thinking.  

I want to provide an excerpt of her writing at Lumigrate here:

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My heart aches, I have a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, I have a sinking feeling and I am overwhelmed by the tragedy in the Gulf. People here along the coast are in mourning. Our way of life is going away as the oil comes in.

I have lived along this Gulf Coast all my life and have loved the many things the area has to offer. I have always felt better when I could breathe the salt air and hear the rushing of the waves lapping upon the shore. The sights, the sounds, and the feeling of being there have always lifted my spirits, calmed my nerves and left me in awe and wonder of God's creation. I have always found solice when I am near the water. It has a calming effect on the body, mind and spirit, while at the same time being invigorating. I love it.  We all love it. That is one reason the oil gushing into the Gulf hurts us so much.

After many weeks of watching this all unfold with that feeling of impending doom, we now have oil coming ashore. The oil spill has been called a “Slow Moving Disaster”. It is impacting our economy, our people, our way of life. The local evening news is hard to watch with the fishermen, business owners and people with a wide range of occupations loosing their incomes and not being reimbursed by the oil company as they were promised. The wildlife, birds, fish, sea life and plant life are dying, and we are dying a little inside with each tragic report.

Not everyone realizes that Alabama has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Our sand was sugar white and the water is blue-green and clear. Now all of that is being darkened by oil, and we have only had a little oil come on shore to date. It is much worse in Louisiana, but the bad news is that more is on its way and it will eventually impact all of the Gulf Coast. Yesterday I saw images on television of dark gooey oil on shore at Perdido Pass and into the inter-coastal waterway. This area is near the Alabama, Florida line. The oil boom that was to keep it out of those areas just funneled it in instead of keeping it out.

I grieve that our young people will not know or be able to enjoy the coast as we did growing up. I wonder how long it will be before they can swim in the water, fish, flounder, set out crab baskets, sail, go boating, use cast nets, or do any of the things that we took for granted before the oil spill.

So much of our lives have been centered around the water. When I was born, shortly after World War II ended, my parents lived on the beach at Point Clear, AL. My paternal grandparents, my aunts and uncles, and my mother had lived there all during the time my dad was serving in Italy during the war. When my dad came home from the war there were no jobs to be had so my dad, my grandfather and my uncle fished for a living until they could find other jobs.

When I was young we always gathered with extended family members at Gulf State Park on Sundays after church during the warm months. We would have a picnic, go swimming in the lake then go walking along the beach, picking up shells, walking in and out of the surf, delighting our eyes with the beauty and our ears with the sounds, and enjoying all that the beach had to offer.

When I was a teenager and dating the one I love, the beach was our destination every Saturday during the warm months. During this time my grandparents lived on Bon Secour River (about 6 miles from Gulf Shores) and we spent a lot of time there swimming, fishing and boating.

We continued to frequent the beach during the early years of our marriage; almost every Saturday would find us at the beach. When our son was growing up we shared with him our love for the water, the beach, the bay, the local rivers, public piers, and other coastal attractions for swimming, fishing and recreation.

The beauty of our area was never lost on me, I always knew this was a special place. We call it God's country. During high school our bus went down Spanish Fort Hill every day and from there we could see a panoramic view of Mobile Bay.  Oh, so pretty. The drive to school took us along what is now known as Scenic 98. The drive is through some of the most beautiful scenery you could find anywhere, and all along the way there are glimpses of the bay. The sunset over Mobile Bay is spectacular. We love to go to the the public pier at Fairhope and enjoy the sunset over the water. We love everything about the coast, the water, the scenery, the birds, sea life, wildlife, the marshlands, the estuaries, and the delta. We love all of it.

A couple of weeks ago we went to Gulf Shores to see the beach we love one last time before the oil reached our shores. It was too beautiful to express in words, not even photos do it justice because the beauty is in the whole package, sights, sounds and feelings. We walked out on the new pier at Gulf State Park which is the longest pier on the Gulf of Mexico.

The old pier was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. People on the pier were catching fish, laughing, talking and enjoying the day, but the dread of oil coming our way was on everyone's mind. As we talked to people it was evident that the dread was filling the hearts and minds of all. Some expressed anger and some expressed sadness.

Everywhere you go, people are talking about the oil spill and the devastation to follow. We do not know what will happen, but with 2.1 millions of gallons of oil entering the Gulf each day, the impact cannot be light. We know that life along the Gulf Coast will not be the same as it was before the tragic event of the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon Well off the coast of Louisiana.

We are all in mourning, we mourn the lives lost in the explosion, we mourn the loss of animal and plant life, we mourn the loss of income for so many of our people, we mourn the loss of the beauty of our area, we mourn the loss of our very way of life.

To read the full topic created by Alice, posted at Lumigrate in June 2010 -    http://www.lumigrate.com/forum/reflections-our-way-life-spill

The power of the Internet is more apparent than ever to me, today, as I write this new topic.  It's my first new topic in 23 weeks, when I created two related to what's defined in mainstream as 'autism'.  Prior to that, I'd last worked on new topics a year ago, in November 2015.  There are some interrelated, and not related, reasons for these gaps in my writing activity, but generally I can say that I've been 'off learning, becoming more wise, hopefully, and processing things which I'll later be able to approach via my contributions at Lumigrate. 

I also continue to work individually (or in groups) with those who I become connected with, and this covers a wide variety of things -- people obviously, and dogs and cats more recently.  Since May of this year, my two primary households where I provide guidance and assistance, where I had been connected initially about one year before, have experienced drastic changes which have required more attention in terms of time and energy resources from me.  And more wisdom, insight, and information.  

The United States' presidential election results and processing occurred yesterday; I was pleased with how things turned out because it indicated to me that the power of the Internet in terms of a means for people who vote to obtain information has finally turned a corner. 

I've related this "story" more than ever recently of how, a decade ago in the fall, I started getting an insight about needing to get more energy and vitality in order to do what I was seeing in my future professionally.  I didn't yet know what that was, I just sensed it ahead, and struck out to find a provider to help me with what I had learned in years past, when living in the Front Range of Colorado. I'd been early to get to using computers, at University in 1979 and at my work off campus at a techie-type company, in 1982.  I'd learned to set 'baud rates' and electronically send files to the federal government offices when working for a large visibility research project which established itself at Colorado State University in the early to mid 1980s. 

And then I went into health care, where I essentially did not use a computer, aside from at internships at the Veteran's Administration, until 2005! Initially working at the student health center in health education (1992-1994), then into the occupational therapy program (1994-1996), where I completed internships at lunchtime or just after with my supervisor on December 20, 1996, and was across Denver in Lakewood by 2 pm starting training as the lead and solo occupational therapist in one of the many 100-ish bed skilled nursing facilities in Colorado. 

It had irritated me to no end that I was having to write the same things over and over with pen and paper and I inquired about computerization; it turns out the company I worked for -- the largest in the United States at the time in providing contract therapy services into skilled nursing facilities -- had already bought a laptop and portable printer for every therapist and gone towards using computers.  BUT, the low skill level of the workers was insurmountable, so they went back to paper and pen.    

Lumigrate was inspired by events that unfolded in 2007, just after I'd had a very long 40 hours in a hospital for an elective surgery on December 14, 2006. My first new patient, on my first day in the new calendar year of 2009, was a lovely woman, Helen, who had a diagnosis of 'fibromyalgia', something the clinic I contracted at had not allowed me to develop a program around despite requests from the first MD I'd marketed to when hanging out my shingle, so to speak, in early 2005 when they joined the large, allegedly unaffiliated medical building in Grand Junction, Colorado. 

I'd been connected almost at the same time but slightly later, to the behavioral health and wellness group that was included when the building came together, and the co-founder/co-owning partner was instrumental in 2007 in asking me to collaborate with him and co-create an education group for people with complex chronic fatigue and pain.  It took a full year to come to fruition where we were hosting the area's most benefitical providers we'd learn of from those coming to the live forum, and I'd have seen along the way, and started investigating and planning, the path to what later would become the Lumigrate on the Internet that I'm ever so appreciative of today! 

Essentially, on that 'fate-full day -- in a good way, just not fun at the time', nursing was overwhelmed with inexperienced new graduates from the RN program at the local university, which was combined with many experienced nurses either having their employment there end for various reasons. I was grateful to later meet an amazing RN who worked there briefly, who had hired lawyers and was not gagged from saying what was going on. 

I never met anyone from the hospital who was involved in my case, nor did I get a response from my feedback on my 'exit survey', as I'd hoped, and it shows us how our teaching situations are often things done 'wrong'.  And to exemplify the 'better way' in the same situation and timeframe, the MD that did the surgery was fast to apologize about the post-op bungling that went on via the hospital staff when I presented the second week in January at my post operative appointment.  He'd say that there had never been a problem before that so he was not scrutinizing the staff as he would had he realized what was going on with staff that week. He'd then ask when I went back to work, as if he knew I wouldn't wait until cleared at that appointment. 

He was right, I'd been back to see the new patient the week before -- a patient that would change my life forever! I'd been back to oversee the assistant doing treatments prior to that as well, and was never working without him/solo, so it was safe for all involved.  I'd even gone in within a week post op, with my dizziness from TMJ dysfunction having been caused by the intubation, to shove paperwork into the fax machine so providers authorizing treatment could not be detained by my absense.

A year later, after chasing around a kidney infection which had started in 2006 and come back or worsened, I'd needed more imaging studies for things about my cranium, and had simply not had the time.  I'd imposed upon my patients on the afternoon after a barium enema study, which ended up being a nonsensical waste of time, energy and money, AND as I'd have to excuse myself every few minutes to make a trip to the toilet to evacuate more of what the prep kit hadn't affected fast enough, and barium, I realized it was not in my health's best interests to work as an occupational therapist providing insurance-based care. 

And that was BEFORE Colorado was one state to lead the 'edge' of requiring vaccinations for influenza in their medical worker pool! (Please be clear, I'm pro-learning about vaccines, pro-planning for vaccines, pro following through according to your vaccine plan, and this is going to be an individual decision, and is based on individual's genes and medical status, their biochemistry, among many other factors to be taken into consideration.  For self and anyone you're responsible for, including pets! 

See the vaccine topic at Lumigrate.  Caution, it's long, but there's just one, it's comprehensive.)  This ties into your RIGHTS, please see the topic by Alex Birchfield, which I'll be reminding people of this Veteran's Day as it will be it's 5th Anniversary on Lumigrate and has gotten an impressive number of reads!  I've contacted Mr. Birchfield recently to give him that update and thank him again for his providing such a wonderful topic thread.  He's an old friend of mine from the non-traditional student organization at Colorado State University, we were not the usual age for students -- among other things that made us 'not the norm'. 

With my post-op surgery medication 'mangling', I would later surmise that they'd started including the costs of the medications I was being given by IV somewhere the nurses / providers would see it, something I'd learn was an industry change in the years since. I think this because the cost of the medication was part of the explanation given to my by the experienced nurse who was having to deal with me once I cleared mentally and started taking control of my situation again; it was not an apology, unfortunately. 

This difference, of how the RN and MD handled the situation was a big learning experience for me.  Doctors are taught in continuing education that their risk of having a lawsuit goes down if they apologize for errors.  Naturally that has to be done in a certain way, which they're also provided.  

In my case that 'fateful day' in mid December 2006, the medications provided and not provided created a 'perfect storm', in a sense.  Morphine, which I'd asked to not have from the start but nobody would consider not giving it to me, made me be in another 'realm' plus made my brain trigger nausea, and the error was that nurses decided to give me an approved stomach motility stopping medicine instead of the more expensive anti-nausea medication. 

I couldn't talk because of the nausea, so how to communicate? I had my cellular phone with me, and I could text, but nobody texted back then and it wasn't a way to communicate with staff.  They relied upon a microphone and speaker in the bed, kind of like being at one of those fast food cafes or drive ins where you talk to the box and they bring you the food you order.

The morning I was about to have my problem solved and leave in the early afternoon, they oriented me to the bedside table that was actually out of my view along the wall; there was the three ring notebook they provided of all the information you'd need when starting your journey at the hospital, including how to order food.  That had come up that morning, when they told me to order my food and I didn't know how -- they'd ordered it the day before, which was the terms of my discharge -- show them I could eat and drink, and take pills, and keep them 'down', show them I could shower safely. 

Despite my saying I was surprisingly nauseous, I was told 'you'll feel better if you take a shower, so we'll get you some tea and pudding, you'll take your medication by mouth on a full stomach, then go shower and get dressed and we'll discharge you."  So, 26 hours later I did all that, AND stood at the nurses station -- relatively clear, by comparison to how I'd been, and nicely but firmly demanded they call my MD and get discharge orders.  "You've been in bed sick for 24 hours, he's not going to do that" they responded.  To which I countered : Trust me, if he hears I'm standing here at the nurses station asking to be discharged, he will.  He did. 

It was the right thing to do.  In the mean time, I'd gone on to say I didn't have a bedside chair in my shared room as the large family of my roommate was using it, and my bed had all my things on it ready to go when my ride arrived, so I'd be sitting at the closest chairs which were in the hospital main entrance.  It was an old hospital built about the time I was created (mid 1900s), which has recently been replaced. 

May a lot of their problems have been 'facility influenced', and overcrowding was a problem at that high-demand time.  The room I was in was in a corner and was normally used for storage of extra things but made into a patient care room for high demand times.  There was no television for instance. 2006 was before I had a smart phone, so I had no Internet, just what you could get from cellular at that time.  

I felt like I thought I'd booked a trip to a destination resort and ended up being waylaid into some sort of Alice in Wonderland, down the rabbit hole, experience. I wish to relate some detail here about it because, as the next decade of my life unfolded, and I grew more 'wise' and 'in touch with the spiritual dimension(s)', I'd realize how guided this had been. 

I'd realize that I'd had a bona fine epiphone, you might say, when gathering my things up and readying myself to be presentable to the nurse's station and ask for my discharge.  And that, in some way, it lead to this moment, and my increased appreciation this week, in particular, and this year overall more than ever, for the power of our (mostly) free Internet!

I thought about the young man patient from the previous year we'd had for occupational therapy who we'd helped by having the right therapist (a young man who was technically not a therapist as his credentials were as an OT 'assistant') he could open up to, who was a great provider and wisely told me what the patient had said to him about being tired of fighting the cancer treatment's nausea, and he wished to die.  I then called the mother, after calling a behavioral therapist who I thought would be a good facilitator for this family, whose funds were thin.  "I'll work something out with them, Mardy, just have her call me."   Overall I did a lot of good treatment for patients as an occupational therapist, until my leaving to create Lumigrate and get into more "creative endeavors for the medical transition occurring in the United States." 

Overall, I worked with a lot of really good providers, too! I want to make that perfectly clear.  Yes, there were the bad apples, and they were horrendous and sometimes dangerous.  Sometimes they were simply uneducated, uncaring, unwilling to put in the extra effort, or they were self-serving to simply do what the System required of them for employment, a raise, whatever it was that was the reason they were there.  I have been in health care for reasons that are to do with the overall, the long term, and focused on the patients and education.

The System only allows you to educate on what they want their customers to know.  And I'd not have been well enough to work or maybe not even well enough to be alive and functioning at all had it not been for things I'd done for years and decades that I'd learned about from things other than insurance-based medicine.  Hence, Lumigrate was created.  And as I dug through layers of the 'onion' about the lies, the fake truth, the actual truth, I've covered it in the forums and blogs.  

My last day practicing as an OT in order to leave for 'functional and integrative medicine' and create Lumigrate was Leap Day 2008, and we went out on a high note.  My COTA and I had successfully nurtured and tutored two internships in the last six months, the second of which was finishing the end of February as well.  I'd had to do internships to become an OTR and I felt like I was giving back to the system before leaving the system, and that felt great! Each one, reach one, as Alice would say in 2016!

Lumigrate would "go live" on the Internet in late March 2009, just before my 49th birthday.  The big computer built for video editing would arrive exactly a year before, and I thought of it on April 1 2008 as the big April Fools Day joke, that I had no idea how to take it out of it's boxes and install the software, let alone learn how to use all of it. Thankfully, a wonderfully talented and intelligent woman had just moved to town and I'd cross paths with her then-husband when looking for office space.

I'd be able to employ her for just over a year, allowing us to get videos produced, the website and all the trimmings that were entailed onto the Internet, AND, most importantly, Facebook accounts AND me comfortable with using social media.  And Twitter.  Because of the contacts I made with those on Facebook, I didn't drop my efforts on Facebook and spread myself thin with other social media platforms.  

One of the contacts I made was with "Amazing Alice", who agreed to write on Lumigrate, about life from her perspective, and her use of religion and spirituality as a tool for wellness, as Lumigrate was about 'integrative medicine' and bringing together the whole person -- mind, body, spirit is the simplest version of what 'whole' is.  We'd had a mutual Facebook friend who had initially been as 'into' Lumigrate as the rest of us, it was like we'd created an innovative ripple effect in those I reached via Facebook, who turned away when I said we'd be including yoga info in the future.  In her religious beliefs and learning, yoga was something to be avoided and thought of as negative or from the dark side (in their belief system). 

Alice was a devout Christian, and we'd had success with the writing of a creative Jewish daughter / mother team I had asked to write about their faith and words / vocabulary, so this was to 'balance' and round out the spirital aspect in our forums.  These were non professionals, they all had chronic pain and fatigue and identified with their daignoses of having 'fibromyalgia', via mainstream medicine (the System).  It would serve to give them an occupation (occupying time doing something fulfilling), and they'd each be one to reach one!   

Alice and I talked on the phone at some point and she said she'd never known anyone who wasn't a Christian.  I explained my perspective of being very neutral, and how I thought it was by design of what she'd call 'God' (I would call it god, G-d as Yenta would, Source, source(s), and 'the great author of all things underway', along the way.)  She was older than I, and in 2009 many people of all ages couldn't figure out how to navigate around a website like Lumigrate, let alone download the videos I'd provided. 

But Alice did! She turned to Lumigrate as soon as she got home from being diagnosed with diabetes.  At that time she was housebound essentially, using a motorized cart at stores if she were to go to a store. She'd had a diagnosis of 'fibromyalgia' from mainstream medicine, and surgeries in the past with hardware in her spine; it was needing to be replaced and she built herself up to get that done in the fall of 2009. 

Alice would learn concepts from Lumigrate (and my Facebook sharing about what was on Lumigrate), such as foods an inflammation, and then wrote beautifully about using Lent to make changes in her new-found health front.  She had an attentive and capable husband, and one son who was a big younger than I but 'same generation'.

She was an avid gardener as well as home maker, including preparing foods, and she provided a 'mess' of great, traditional recipes from her family's cache prior to her surgery.  I suspected she was wanting them to be 'out there' in case something happened to her in surgery.  Thankfully, she made a surprisingly easy recovery from that, and would go on to write on Lumigrate until the time of the environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico; Alice and most of the people she knew and loved in the 'live world' were in her home area of Mobile, Alabama. 

The last topic she wrote for us was about her trip out to see the Gulf when the event was unfolding in June of 2010. The link to the forum which was always and remains a collection of her topics, is at this link: www.lumigrate.com/forums/health-issuesdis-eases/fibromyalgia-chronic-pain-and-chronic-fatigueexhaustion/life-good-alic [1] .  (And there's a topic at the blog tab about her having cancer, as well. That was an almost four year journey, so I've provided much information there but it's not in a 'cleaned up, streamlined' format)

I happened to be sharing much of my time / life at the time Lumigrate launched and was newly on the Internet with a man who was from the South, as the Grand Valley of western Colorado is also a petroleum producing area.  He learned to cook from his 'Mama', and I had the best time I've had on Facebook sharing what Pablo Blanco and I were doing, having Alice and others comment, and provide recipes -- all of us, even Mr. Blanco were into teaching about how to cook their delicious foods! 

He had vast experience with the industry, including off-shore operations.  I saw his reaction, heard what he had to say, and drew my own conclusions.  I some how knew things were massively occurring, and I needed more wisdom.  I needed to learn more.  The world was not as I had been taught it to be.  

Ironically, the immature feline who had come into my life on Thanksgiving 2009 was to lead the way, and challenge me to learn and grow, and perhaps be one of the early people to see that our pets have autism! That is what I assert, at least, and this summer when I wasn't writing on Lumigrate I did get an opportunity to speak with Dr. Temple Grandin by phone, and she agreed with me about animals other than humans having autism symptoms, increasingly.  "SpoildeyCat" had gotten the message -- Each One, Reach One. 

I chose this photo for inclusion here because of the ukelele, which was the first instrument I was given to play, my mother played uke a bit, and Pablo Blanco also was into playing Americana, roots, bluegrass, and had a nice collection of stringed instruments and drums.  He also helped in naming the kitty, as he invited me to come to his house when I was about to leave with SpoildeyCat for the long drive back to Grand Junction.  "I have a kitten now", to which he said "I just got a dog, so it'll be fine, come on by." The dog would need to be rehomed, it was too 'high needs' for someone with his schedule and without extensive outdoor work done to keep it contained, which he wasn't going to do with the way his industry shuffles people around the US.  And off he went within a year, to places east.

She reached me, "teached" me -- each one of our feline and canine pets can be such a powerful teacher, same as people.  And with the megaphone I have, which is Lumigrate, I've worked to learn more and teach what I come up with worth sharing.  That I couldn't save her life, that she died of something I knew was treatable if I could only figure out what it was and what to do about it, inspired me to 'double down'.  I'd find 'the rabbit hole' of the 'truth movement' and go into it shortly after her euthanization via a homeopathic veterinarian, many miles away from my -- our -- home.  

Two years later I'd have come out the other end of the rabbit hole enough to see the light a bit, but hadn't fully 'processed things'.  And I'd have another experience of Each One, Reach One.

In 2015 I'd have the great 'luck' of being connected to the dog with fibromyalgia symptoms, autism symptoms, MS symptoms, OCD, anxiety, depression, etc., who was so open to what I'd bring to him for reversing symptoms.  He'd made fast progress in reversing symptoms, and I'd come to call him "O'Rio Grande" because he looked like an old steam locomotive going down the tracks when he'd walk in front of me on the driveway after snow. 

 

O'Rio, winter of 2015/16 on his driveway to home after a walk of about 1/2-2/3 of a mile. In rehabilitating O'Rio (and his house, see below), I applied concepts I'd used when I worked as an occupational therapist in mainstream medical system rehabilitation, one of which was to teach patients recovering from complex chronic illness, fatigue, pain, etc., to put stock in how they were feeling OVER the amount of time or number of repetitions of an exercise, as has been drummed into us in school and by most mainstream, system-oriented teachers or organizations.  So more frequent but shorter walks. 

Instead of picking up the mail on the way in, we'd take a break in the evenings and walk out again to get the mail, as one example.  I'd have loved to be an OT in 2009/10 in Mobile, Alabama and work with Ms. Alice! I hope the concepts she could pick up from what I provided at Lumigrate or in conversations 1:1 with her were of benefit.  Each one, reach one.  And with Lumigrate, each one (concept) can reach as many people as find it on the Internet! 

                                                            

O'Rio outside, doing his 'job' -- watching over the animals, in this case me, on a day when a long walk was not the focus of my time for wellness of mind, body, spirit -- but cleaning the acumulated 'stuff' (which I call 'The Stuff' to simplify what's circulating in our air in homes, cars, buildings, outdoors, etc.).  I chose this one to include here in part because I know Alice had said in later times she recognized she had OCD to do with things being clean. 

I fondly remember calling her after she had recovered a while from her massive spine surgery in late 2009, it was spring 2010, and she was rejoicing being mobilie and strong enough to scrub the bathtub/shower walls.  Having been an occupational therapist for a long time, I had a good idea of what her providers would be approving for her in terms of 'restrictions', and suggested she might check in with them if that was such a good idea at that point in her recovery. 

I shared with her what I've told so many over the years -- whether people were recovering from brain injury, soft tissue injury, or orthopedic / bone, there's a tendency at one point in the recovery to 'get back to doing what you've missed doing' before you're strong enough for it. And it can cause a setback.  Sometimes those setbacks occurred with patients I was working with at a point in their recovery and in their insurance / reimbursement money funding timeline (two different things, but interrelated) and it would totally change their outcome and life path.  

I 'got it', where she was 'at', though, as I'd done similarly after my surgery at the end of 2006, thankfully it was a minor issue that wasn't a permanent setback.  Underscoring that all our experiences can help us from that point forward, to be more understanding and better at helping others -- after we 'reach one'.    

(For the blog topic that I created in 2015 about O'Rio's recovery, which I've taken photos from to include here, go to the blog tab and scroll down OR here's the direct link: www.lumigrate.com/blog/orio-grande-n-me-come-play-and-learn-us [2]  )

 

There were the tire tracks and ditch, as shown in the picture, above, and O'Rio would get out ahead of me and puff like a train when the air was cold to get the condensation showing; I'd later learn that border collies -- his father was a border collie -- have locomotive-like shoulders which are unique to dogs.  And they're considered one of the smartest, if not the most intelligent, breed.  Intelligence and autism, go hand in hand. AND if you added an 'n' on the end of Grande, it was similar to Grandin, the woman who became famous for her autism activism after doing some much for the animal sciences industry.  

The HBO movie, Temple Grandin, was just on HBO this week, and I watched it several times, I hope it's safely saved on O'Rio's home's recording device.  Each One, Reach One applies to Dr Grandin's life, as well! As a young woman, her mother did an amazing job for the 1950s and 1960s, in particular, of taking Temple to providers to get input, and not doing some of the things they recommended, such as institutionalization. 

She would take her to the right boarding school, where the science teacher took special interest and facilitated a relationship which lasted the rest of his life, and greatly benefited Temple.  Which ripple effected out to greatly help the world via her work in the animal science and food production industries -- half of the cattle in North American now go through more humane and efficient production facilities due to her unique insights and intellect, as well as persistence.  

Because of Facebook, I got to encounter, befriend, and reach one Amazing Alice back in 2009. In the fall of 2012, just as I was reeling from my biggest professional provider's having pancreatic cancer, Alice would announce she had breast cancer.  She wanted to have people learn from her experiences she shared on Facebook what it was like to have fibromyalgia (chronic pain and fatigue, high risk of infection, etc.) and cancer.

There is an extensive, detailed blog topic about Amazing Alice, which I have transferred highlights of what she share on Facebook, but I dropped into the background after sending her gifts at the time of her first surgery, and let her have her time in her "live" community, as well as what she created via her Facebook.  She naturally gravitated toward women with cancer and those issues, but I saw that she went back to her home making and textile work. Embroidery, for example.  By this spring, I sensed her life here on Earth was coming to an end, and would check her page often.  And when I saw this, it resonated so deeply for me: 

Early mornings awake are lonely in the hospital. Then I think of how very blessed I am to have so many who truly care for me. I pray for those who are lonely all of the time. I challenge each of you to reach out to someone who needs a little encouragement, someone who needs to know someone cares. Each one, reach one.

March 12, 2016 - "Amazing Alice" 

 

A few days later, there was a cryptic prayer request from her son, who later elaborated, as follows:

Here's a little more insight into my cryptic prayer request this morning: My mom is being sent home from the hospital today, which is great news. However, her doctors have discovered that her cancer has spread too quickly and too far in her right lung. As a result, continuing chemotherapy is no longer practical.

She will be sent home under palliative care. There is no way to estimate her longevity from this point forward. She will continue to receive care for complications that arise from her illness, but the cancer fight is over.

The goal now: enjoy life! To that end, we're planning to spend some time down there on a spring break trip, and we'd like to take Mom to the beach while we're there.

If you could hook us up with an affordable beachfront house or condo along the Alabama coast for Easter weekend (or maybe the weekend after), please let me know.

Thank you all for your continued prayers. God hears you, and he has been faithful to comfort us during this tough time.

March 16, 2016 - Alice's one and only 'child', son Wayne. 

In Alice's honor, and her son's per his request, I'd take O'Rio out for a walk most every day that had the intent purpose of 'taking Alice with us'.  By May I'd get word that he, and therefore I, would be going to the Front Range for the summer.  It was a long 10 weeks in a way, but it was packed with 'coincidences', you might call them with a wink, and other learning experiences with people, which I knew were not random, but guided and intended to be taken seriously.  So I've done that. 

Alice would pass in July, while I was overseeing O'Rio and another lovely -- LOVEly dog -- in Lakewood, of all places.  Yes, not only back where my first OT jobs had been, but the facility my grandmother had lived the end of her life in, a beloved woman like Alice, also named Alice, was right down the street!  O'Rio's owner would come to get him upon the end of the summer travels for her human 'immediate family', and she'd tell me of her new-found health frontier, which was being facilitated by Facebook groups specific to what she was identifying with. 

I'd return with O'Rio to their western Colorado home and, with Amazing Alice having died just as this news reached me about his owner, I'd recommit, in Alice's honor, to "Each One, Reach One".  I'd disappoint him daily as I'd work on rehabilitating his house further, so that the dogs and humans, cats, whatever will occupy the place, will have less exposures and thereby have increased wellness level potential. 

There's a blog topic about O'Rio Grande where I show people what I was doing with cleaning, I did not get photographs of the carpet cleaning more recently, or the floors in the garage, or getting things grouped up for the family to go through when they're home for the holidays and can decide what to get rid of out of the house to reduce what has to be cleaned, and what puts out 'stuff' that contributes to environmental illness. I got to see another cycle of the commercial, conventional agriculture going on around O'Rio's house -- see the dust from the tractors later, which gets airborn and drifts, settles, and then would get tracked in on tires, shoes, or the breeze with the open door or window. 

I'd 'feel for' anyone learning anew about 'environmental illness', as there are so many facets to it, and it feels daunting and overwhelming if you don't go about it incrementally.  Food/ diet.  Water we bathe with, consume, or use otherwise, such as hot tubs or pools.  Air.  House cleaning. Garage cleaning. Car cleaning. Products we put on our skin, in the air, in our washing machines and dishwashers.  Chemicals -- the whole world is made of chemicals but what's toxic, what's less, what's good?

O'Rio's owner would take in a young dog with extensive issues, who'd failed being adopted by others from her family or their friends, a dog with O'Rio had not been able to tolerate initially.  And he'd then 'graduate' in October, and join the young dog and his owner, to help them. "Each One, Reach One", he has done!  He's reached more than one.  He's reached many, through the platform of my work via Lumigrate. But it was inspirational to see how his owner was utilizing Facebook, as Alice had in 2009 (and before), and very aggressively approached 'taking action', being proactive. 

And so, I have put all my available efforts to support her, and her family system, by reaching one house to assist in rehabilitating it. (I was also working on a history project for someone with essentially the same condition who is reaching end of life, also educational and inspirational.)  I hope you have found this topic of value, and I look forward to providing many more new topics in the future, getting back to business as usual for my writing and production of information for Lumigrate.

Back in 2007 when I co-created the live education group which called itself 'The Fibromyalgia Forum', it was clear that cleaning of people's houses was a major issue.  I found a house keeper who would clean for a greatly reduced rate, for people I'd send her way who had complex chronic illness. 

In early 2008 I'd find a carpet cleaning business who would work at a reduced rate, using a special process that was allegedly better from an environmental illness standpoint.  I would contact him in October, and learn shortly after I'd connected him to a family with a large house and four unwell, young adult children, where he'd done a great job cleaning the carpets, he would come down with a rare lung disease and no longer be able to provide his services. He sold some of the equipment for what he could get for payment. 

It made me see that I can WISELY do ONE -- one house.  One history project (as a lot of 'stuff' comes off the items stored for, in some cases, 150 years, and not in a safe, educated manner because what ordinary people who 'get into family history' know about what's causing their environmental illness, and SAFELY box their items?)

I'll hope, as our Yenta would say, who wrote in the same time frame as Amazing Alice, who also sent her gifts to help her with her healing after surgery and for her recovery with the cancer treatment, my good deeds, my 'charity', tzedaka as Yenta taught in this linked-to topic will go noticed, "when my time comes" to pass living in this ol' body I have for this journey on planet Earth. And at the least, I'll know I've done my part here, in helping people, with what I had to offer and provide.  www.lumigrate.com/forum/tzedaka-charity-tree [3]

Now -- Each one, reach one --- who are YOU reaching? I can only imagine how many people who knew Alice, either via the Internet or live connections would put themselves on one of the exterior orbs.  I would!  Blessings to all who loved her.  "Mwah"

Live and Learn.  Learn and Live Better! ~~ Mardy