Well, TS Estelle is gone. She fizzled out overnight, in the cold waters that surround our islands. It's those cold waters that protect us for the most part from such nasty weather. It's also what helps to cool our islands.

All we'll see from the remnants of the once tropical storm is some much needed rains, such as we're getting now. My yard is so dry in spots, even with the occasional brief rains that there's dust under my Italian cypress trees!

As for that traffic accident that shut down Volcano Highway for hours, they originally mis-reported the ages of the victims who were killed. One was a 53-year-old woman, Jeannette E. Manahan, who was the front seat passenger, from Elmherst, New York. The other was the 31-year-old uncle, Clinton Keliiholokai, of the 18-year-old driver of the other vehicle, Stanley Keliiholokai, from a nearby community. Both of them are 'ice' addicts.

That makes me think of a recent Wal-Mart stop I made, where in line to check out, I overheard the cashier telling the man in front of me that he had already bought his limit earlier that day. When it was my turn, I saw 3 boxes of diphenhydramine-containing cold medication she had put aside that he was trying to purchase. This is the main ingredient in manufacturing illicit crystal methanphetamine or 'ice.' How stupid can he be that not only is he buying this to make that crap, but he goes to the SAME cashier on the same day to try to get more?!

A witness to the accident was one whom they passed in their rush north toward Hilo. He is a neighbor of theirs & former National Park ranger & firefighter. He had direct knowledge of the neighbors' addiction problems from the numerous times police showed up for domestic violence calls. The boy had been in several youth offender programs. He had left the car & tried to get someone to give him a ride away from the accident. Smart people rolled up their windows & locked their doors.

Both drivers are in the hospital, their conditions upgraded from critical to guarded.

What is it about that stupid drug that has people so caught up in its abuse? The things the people using the drug do is terrible! Even in the 'hippie' era, drug users respected others. These current drug abusers have NO respect for others or property! It was this drug that caused the other accident (on March 24) I mentioned in the last blog, where they careened out of control & hit a tour bus, killing everyone in their car. The investigators found thousands of dollars & the drug within the smashed up car. Is the 'high' worth it? When I was a kid, a fender-bender made front page, that's as few traffic accidents as we had back then!

The sad thing is that our island suffered another traffic fatality on the same highway much further south the very next day, Friday. A 23-year-old woman from Naalehu, Sunny Kalua, is dead after colliding with an oncoming pickup truck driven by 19-year-old Eric Perez. There isn't any additional information available at this time about the cause of the accident. The boy & a female passenger from Kalua's car are in critical condition.

I wouldn't be a bit surprised to find out that this accident was the result of some illicit drug use or alcohol, since both can devastatingly impair the judgment & physical abilities in drivers.

The oil spill? Not a word that I could find about it in today's paper (no Saturday local paper... I forgot)!

One of my favorite movies (which I blogged about previously) is on..."Pay it Forward." It's showing on the local CBS channel. I hope you've had a chance to see it, since it presents some things worth thinking about & doing for others to truly be human & humane, like some of those at the recent accident scenes, who provided emergency first aid for people they didn't know & wouldn't benefit from, other than the 'feel good' of knowing they helped someone. I'm off to watch my movie...

Here on the Big Island, we've had 3 Civil Defense radio announcements this past week. The first was the one I mentioned in my last blog, about the bomb scare.

Yesterday, we had one regarding a severe 2-car traffic accident on the Volcano Highway. They shut down the highway to do their investigation for several hours, because the accident, a head-on collision, resulted in the deaths of 2 passengers; one from each car. A 19-year-old young man died from one car & a 5-year-old child from the other. One car's passengers were tourists from New York.

The latest I heard on the evening news from Oahu is that they say speed & alcohol are now being considered as factors in the crash. Apparently, the car with the local people was over-taking other cars in a no passing zone. This is the second time a fatal accident involving passing in a no passing zone has happened on that stretch of road in recent months. The last killed (officially) 4, but also took the life of a near-term baby. Also, speed, alcohol & drugs were a factor in that collision.

I don't get what these people's hurry was. The maximum speed limit on this island is 55! We have no interstate freeways. I know there are times when I'm supposed to be somewhere by a certain time, like medical appointments, but if the traffic's speed is less than the speed limit, I just figure there's a reason I don't need to go faster. Like when I went to my appointment Monday, getting there about 10 minutes late. It turned out that the one I was to see was running behind on her appointments, so I still had to wait to see her.

Why rush? You don't really get where you're supposed to be much sooner than had you not rushed. I find that sometimes I end up passing those in such a hurry they had to zoom by me when they get boxed in ahead of me. Hehehehe! You certainly don't make it on time when you get pulled over for speeding & you don't get there at all if involved in a traffic accident! It might just be the last time you travel anywhere, short of in a hearse!

We had another CD radio announcement this morning. They closed off a section of downtown Hilo due to an oil spill & clean up. The area they indicated was near a McDonald's, gas station, church, YMCA, grocery store & several small restaurants. I haven't heard any updates about the spill details. I find it odd that it was an oil spill. With as much area as they closed down, that doesn't make sense. It does if it was gasoline, being volatile & knowing there's a gas station in that area. I'll see what the Hawaii Tribune Herald says about it tomorrow.

I found an interesting new link accidentally while researching the info on Tropical Storm Estelle, which is predicted to become a hurricane within the next 24 hours & may head for Hawaii. This link is to webcams that focus on Puu Oo vent, the site of the long time current eruption. Click on it at nighttime & you'll see the glow of the molten lava. Who knows, you might even be able to catch active bubbling or fountaining! http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/cam/index.htm

If TS Estelle becomes a hurricane & decides to change its trajectory to WNW instead of the due westerly direction it's currently taking, I'll be posting another hurricane watch like I did last year.

God has put me in the right place at the right time again to help someone else.

I went to Hilo to see the VA psychiatric nurse again Monday (finally... since the receptionist either forgot to make me another appointment after my last visit, or the nurse forgot to let her know I needed one!). She is concerned about my emotional & energy states (lack of for the latter) & wants to put me back on one of the anti-depressants that does help me. I talked about my herbs, which she supports. I just haven't been making my tea again lately. She warned me off the St John's Wort, which I won't use (it can cause heart attacks!).

Anyway, after leaving the clinic, I stopped in Wal-Mart to see about getting something to grind up the flax seed I bought last week. While there, I went to their vitamin & herbals aisle to see if they happened to carry a liver-care herbal blend the Chinese herbalist had me take in the past. It's a detoxifier. An associate putting stuff on the shelves showed me a liver-care they do carry, but it doesn't appear to be an herbal blend. The bottle listed certain chemicals, but not their source. It's not like the one Wes recommends, which is actually a tablet made from the whole herbs, rather than extracts.

As I spoke with the associate, she told me about having osteoarthritis. For this, she had been taking Celebrex for 10 years, but stopped it when she developed severe sensitivity to sunlight & got a nasty sunburn on her face. She's Hawaiian mix, so normally sunlight doesn't bother those of dark colored skin. Next, she told me she had a liver biopsy because she noticed she was feeling weak & tired all the time. Apparently, they first did a liver function blood test called an SMA-20. She said that the biopsy showed severe scaring of her liver. Then she tells me the doctor told her she has Stage IV liver cancer & has about 6 months to live! They won't even treat her with radiation or chemo, because it's so bad.

I gave her the information about the noni-aloe vera-tumeric month-long treatment as well as mentioning some of the other herbs that help defeat cancers, especially soursop. I also suggested she visit with Wes herself to see if there's something else he can recommend for her. She's raising her grandchildren & they need her to live!

I should have also told her to apply for Social Security Disability, because she won't be able to continue working for much longer & she's most likely only part-time, so could still qualify even though she's working. I hope I run into her again the next time I go to W-M, so I can let her know about getting financial help from SS for herself & her grandkids. They are very fast on approving it here for someone like her. Usually within a month to 45 days.

I specifically mentioned that she told me about taking Celebrex for 10 years for a good reason. One thing about Celebrex & Humira. These are 'chemo' drugs used in short-term treatment of OA & RA. Note the words short-term! It's most likely one of these that Debi's nephew was taking a few years ago that had him deathly ill! He couldn't keep food down & hardly ate while in treatment.

I mentioned in my last blog about 'side'-effects from some of the anti-biotics that the doc wants me to take for the RA. One 'side'-effect I didn't mention that I read about in one study of the cyclosporin (anti-rejection drugs)/cephalosporins (antibiotic) groups (made from a fungus from certain areas of Europe) is that it caused lymphomas in the rats in the studies. (Note: I'm allergic to the cephalosporin antibiotics, as is my son, so this is one class she cannot put me on for my RA.) Lymphoma is cancer of the lymphatic system. The lymphatic system is a primary organ for filtering toxins out of the blood. So is the liver! Since everything you ingest or is injected is filtered through these organs, I'd say her long-term use of the Celebrex can be directly linked to the Wal-Mart associate's liver cancer! I don't know her history though... she may have been an alcohol or drug abuser, which could have caused severe damage & scarring of her liver, leading to liver cancer.

Here's my real concern... since many drugs cannot be used for long-term without devastating 'side'-effects, what about when one stops taking them? That means, without radical dietary changes, the disease can take hold again!

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Today, the Big Island joined Oahu & other areas of the nation with a phoned in bomb threat & possible bomb left in a congested area, leading authorities to be concerned about terrorist activity. A bomb threat was called in for a major shopping center in Kailua-Kona. They found an unattended brief case in the mall & quickly evacuated the shopping center & closed it until they could get the EOD in from Oahu hours later. The briefcase turned out to be benign, with clothes & such. However, they still have concerns over the phone call.

Also in the news is the old Puumaile & Hilo Memorial Hospital. It's soon to be demolished, to make way for a long-term care hospital for Veterans. See this article:  http://starbulletin.com/2004/08/18/news/story14.html

I saw in the article that the hospital was originally built to treat tuberculosis patients in 1951. I doubt they did much of that there, since I was born in that hospital 4 years later & my little sister another almost 3 years later. But who knows? My mom carried dormant TB, so each year, she made sure my sister & I had our TB tests, even to the point of getting chest X-rays for it sometimes. I've never had a positive reaction to the TB skin test, but my sister has.

In regard to that Veterans hospital, it is going to be connected to the Hilo Medical Center financially in part. Therefore, from what I was told by one of the people involved with getting the appropriations, any bed not occupied by a Veteran will be filled by non-Veterans. How likely this will be is slim, since the number of beds they will support is a lot less than what they originally opted for. One thing that has yet to sink in with our governments is that the Big Island of Hawaii has about 50% of all the Veterans for the entire state! Many of them hiding in our forests.

The demolition party is slated for next month. I hope to be there. I'd like to get a physical momento of the hospital I was born in. I was told that it still contains the tableware, hospital beds, etc that were used at the time they closed it as a hospital! In more recent years, it has been used as the administrative offices of some of our county's departments.

I often try to keep up with advances in medicine, especially in areas that concern my health & women's health in general. Something that showed up in my Web M.D. email newsletter has me very concerned. It has to do with hormone replacement therapy (HRT). In my opinion, the drug companies are trying to justify continuing to give these drugs to women, even with the nasty effects they impose!

You can read it for yourself here:  http://my.webmd.com/content/Article/92/101752.htm?printing=true This link is to the 'printable' version of the article, which is 2 regular web pages. Basically what they say in the article is that the studies they recently performed (by computer simulation) prove that HRT use in the short-term even with the possibilities of heart disease, stroke, blood clots, and breast cancer is outweighed by its benefits in relieving menopausal hot-flashes. Excuse me?!

Some things people need to understand about menopausal symptoms:

• Hot-flashes are short-lived. They last a few seconds to a few minutes at a time, once or more each day.
  
• Eventually, the hot-flashes STOP entirely, only returning with the use of some prescription medications.

Some things to understand about using HRT medications:

• Can cause heart disease, stroke, blood clots, and breast cancer.
  
• Stopping the use of the HRT brings ON menopausal symptoms, so using HRT only DELAYS hot-flashes, because they no longer recommend long-term use of the drugs. They aren't going to put you on HRT for the rest of your life (which the use of can shorten!).
  
• They extract the hormones for HRT & birth-control pills/patches from the URINE of pregnant mares! Are we horses? These are HORSE hormones!

How can they consider it 'quality' life, knowing that it IS shortened by other diseases CAUSED by the drugs? Even if it's only a few weeks, as determined by computer analysis? I see PROFIT as the researchers' goal. Yeah, let's put the women on this stuff... maybe we can reduce the numbers of women in our society; get the bitches off our backs & out of our lives! Women are worthless in society anyway... they don't contribute much to finances & yet drain finances! (I'm being sarcastic here.)

I've been experiencing hot-flashes for several years. At one point, they completely stopped, which was wonderful. Unfortunately, one of my doctors tried another medication on me which he hoped would help my depression that's normally used to treat other illnesses... primarily seizures. My hot-flashes came back big time! Upon reading about the medication at Mayoclinic.com, I learned that hot-flashes (flushes), night sweats (I also experienced) & bladder-control issues (I also deal with frequently!) are common 'side'-effects of the medicine! I couldn't understand why he put me on that, knowing I have incontinence issues!

I only took the drug for about a month approximately a year ago, but the 'side'-effects are still bothering me! It's like it completely set me back to day one of the hot-flashes.

I cannot take HRT, no matter what supposed benefits it has. My breast cancer is hormone-receptive positive... primarily estrogen. However, plant estrogens do NOT have the same effects as HRT (the 'side'-effects). They do not boost breast cancer possibilities, nor cause heart problems, strokes or blood-clots. However, they DO alleviate menopausal symptoms including hot-flashes & minimize bone loss, lowering the possibility of developing osteoarthritis. Because they are plant-based, they are not used by cancerous cells for cancer growth, working much the same way as tamoxifen in that case, without causing endometreal cancer, as tamoxifen does.

One thing's for sure, the more research I do on health issues, the more I'm finding that points out that what makes the difference in maintaining a healthy life is DIET... what we eat. And we need to stop the pesticides, herbicides & hormones/chemicals that are either fed to what we eat or in their & our environments.

I read another scary article:  http://my.webmd.com/content/Article/92/101794.htm?printing=true (Also the printable version of 2 pages.) This one is about studies that the USGS (US Geological Society) has performed on our drinking water. They've found that some areas's water may contain drugs that may have been disposed of by flushing down toilets or drains. Also, filtration systems in sewage treatment plants aren't designed to filter out chemicals (they take care of bio-hazards). This is not new news to me... or environmental groups for that matter. Think of the mutated frogs discovered many years ago in Minnesota. Think, too, about the rise in birth-defects in our country! When are they going to stop using synthetic chemicals in our world?

On another vien... I've been recently diagnosed with ANOTHER auto-immune disease! I've been seeing the VA Rheumatologist since last year at this time. She knows about my fibromyalgia (an auto-immune disease), but the previous appointment I had with her in June, she was concerned about my sed-rate in my blood labs. I had a lab repeat just before this appointment & the results were the same. As she explained to me, the high sedimentation rate in blood is indicative of arthritis... in my case particularly, RA, or rheumatoid arthritis. It explains why my feet hurt sometimes when I try to walk after being seated for some time. It also explains why my hands/fingers hurt sometimes.

She wants to put me on one of a list of anti-biotics that they now use for treatment of early stage RA. All have 'side'-effects that I don't like. Two of them can cause vision problems including blurring or loss of color vision clarity. Two of them cause sensitivity to sunlight (rashes, blistering, reddening). One of them is familiar to many people because it's a tetracycline. This was used when my mom was pregnant with me to prevent nausea (yet it CAUSES nausea?!) & resulted in children having yellowed & weak teeth (like MINE!). It also weakens the bones, reducing bone density in utero. Maybe my mom using tetracycline while pregnant with me is why I have early osteoarthritis as well as the yellowed & BAD teeth?

I read the Mayoclinic.com information for the 3 drugs she recommended & another she didn't mention ( a gold drug... possibly not carried by the VA). Yeesh! She didn't say how long I'd have to take them & I forgot to ask. Am I going to have to take them for the rest of my life?

Taking anti-biotics opens one up to possible infections, especially that of yeast infections in women. Long-term use also causes bacterias to build resistance to the drugs, making it harder to defeat bacterial illnesses. This affects the people around those who take the anti-biotics as well, possibly exposing them to drug-resistant infections, which can result in death!

I asked the doctor about dietary things that help fight RA. She said omega-3 fatty acids. I asked where they are found & she said fish... I'm allergic to them. She said omega-3 fatty acids are available as suppliments, but when she looked them up on the VA's pharmaceutical list, they're only available to Veterans AFTER 'routine' drugs have been tried & failed. Shit! This is SO stupid! Feed us pharmaceuticals that have detrimental 'side'-effects & may not work, but cause other illnesses needing other drugs instead of giving us healthy things that God has provided for us in the first place which improve our health without disasterous 'side'-effects. I don't get it.

I called my favorite health food store in Keaau, Keaau Natural Foods, to speak with their owner, Wes. He's a Chinese herbalist & more. Unfortunately, he was busy, but I asked the woman who answered the phone about what other sources there are for omega-3 fatty acids to help with RA. She told me that they have suppliments which aren't based upon fish (because of my allergy) but aren't quite as effective. Fish oil contains EFA, the fatty acid our body uses to reduce inflamation & prevent coronary problems such as arterial plaque build-up, but AFA-alfa-linolenic acid found in other sources has another step in the molecular breakdown before it can be utilized. She also told me about some seeds that are rich in the omega-3 fatty acids, including flax & hemp. She said that the seeds should be crushed to get the oils into the food, or one could just take the oil.

I stopped into the health food store yesterday & got quite a bit of information from Wes as well as a few articles. He said that hemp seed also contains omega-6 fatty acid, which can work against reducing inflammation by actually increasing inflammation. Flax does not have omega-6.

I already had some knowledge of the benefits of hemp & flax seeds/oils in diet, but as always, I'm learning new things. It was the rheumatologist who told me that omega-3 fatty acids have been clinically proven to help in the treatment of RA. It's the health food store that's helping me find other sources for the fatty acid than the fish I'm so allergic to. Odd thing is I used to buy hemp seed & added it in my cooking (hemp seed's GREAT on pizzas!). I stopped when I lost my refridgeration resource a few years ago & haven't picked any up since. It's been since then that I've been experiencing the pain when I walk. Hemp & flax seeds & especially the oils must be refridgerated to prevent the break-down of the omega-3 fatty acids. Without refridgeration, they quickly become useless & are nothing more than plain oils. Read more about flax & omega-3 fatty acids here: http://www.sangsters.com/nlm/flax.shtml

I don't want to end up in a wheelchair because of my feet! Unfortunately, suppliments from the health food stores can be expensive & aren't usually covered by health insurance! Also, most suppliments which are covered by prescription insurance are synthetics... chemically synthesized supliments instead of the real thing & may not be as beneficial &/or could have 'side'-effects.

Another auto-immune disease I have had is Raynaud's Syndrome... the precursor to Lupus (which fortunately hasn't developed). The symptoms of this are loss of circulation in the hands &/or feet. Fortunately, I had only experienced temporary loss of circulation in one finger & it hasn't happened in quite some time.

The doc asked about my analgesics use, but since cold-turkeying the ibuprofen over a year ago, causing me to be in extreme pain for about 2 weeks, I'm mostly enduring my pains. I usually only resort to the ibuprofen when I feel a headache that could go migraine or if my other pains get worse than the '5' on the scale of 10 that I deal with every day. I don't want possible liver damage that the drug can cause ( which MOST pharmaceuticals CAN cause). The reason I cold-turkeyed the ibuprofen is because I had built up a tollerance to it & would need double the dosage I was taking for it to just touch my pain (not alleviate it)!

I also heard about bromelain as clinically proven to reduce pain from multiple causes. So that was another thing on my list for the health food store. It's effective for pains & inflammation from arthritis, injury & surgery, but only when taken between meals. It's effective with meals for indigestion. Like papain, it helps to start the break down of the foods you eat. The only posible negative effect of ingesting bromelain is that it thins the blood & can cause excessive bleeding, so they don't recommend it if someone's taking drugs like warfarin (a blood-thinner) or have gastric ulcers. You can read more about it here: http://www.wholefoods.com/healthinfo/wholehealth/bromelain.html

Another auto-immune disease I have, which I've mentioned before, is fibromyalgia. It's a disease in which inflammation of muscle tissues is the primary problem. No one yet knows the cause of this disease & it's often mis-diagnosed, with patients with it being treated as having 'hysterical' illness... 'all in the head.' I was one of those while in the Navy. The stuff I've mentioned in this blog can help with this condition.

I also have osteoarthritis. The naturopathic remedy for that is glucosamine-condroiten. The source for this suppliment is shellfish, which I cannot take because of my allergy. I have yet to find another source for those 2 nutrients. The only thing I know of that can help (moderately) to prevent further break down of synovial tissues (joints) affected by osteoarthritis is gelatine. Its effectiveness is minimal.

It seems that my body doesn't like me! Help! I'm actually surprised with all these diseases I have that I'm still able to get around much at all.