Whole Food Signatures

I was talking with my friends Nate and Michele and they told me about this crazy article that talked about how some foods loook like the organ they target. Talk about ingenious design. Here's some of what I found out:

A stupendous insight of civilisations past has now been confirmed by today's investigative, nutritional sciences. They have shown that what was once called "The Doctrine of Signatures" was astoundingly correct. It now contends that every whole food has a pattern that resembles a body organ or physiological function and that this pattern acts as a signal or sign as to the benefit the food provides the eater. Here is just a short list of examples of Whole Food Signatures.

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye...and YES, science now shows that carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.

A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart is red and has four chambers. All of the research shows tomatoes are indeed pure heart and blood food.

Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows that grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalising food.

Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds are on the nut just like the neo-cortex. We now know that walnuts help develop over 3 dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.

Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.

Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don't have enough sodium in your diet the body pulls it from the bones, making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.

Avocadoes and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats 1 avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? It takes exactly 9 months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit.
There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).

Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the motility of male sperm and increase the numbers of sperm as well to overcome male sterility.

Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.

Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries.

Grapefruits, Oranges, and other Citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.

Onions look like body cells. Today's research shows that onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells. They even produce tears whichwash the epithelial layers of the eyes.

Bananas, Cucumber, Zucchini and more target the size and strength of the male sexual organ. It's true!

Peanuts have a profound effect on the testicles and sexual libido. Peanuts were banned as a food for males by the church often during the middle ages. Most people don't realize that argenine, the main component of Viagra, comes from peanuts.

Other than this, the weather got really nice over the weekend and I've got the worst allergies since San Antonio. I get two days off now. 27 dresses is at the Broadway Kino movie theater in Landstuhl and Julie has tomorrow off too! Maybe a movie and a doner is just what I need tomorrow. Yum.

Long past due...

18FEB2008 was the "No later than" date on my furniture and goods coming from the states. 18... no sign, 19... no call, 20... nothing, 21... let's check. Oh yeah, of course they're here. I don't know how long they have had them and haven't taken the time to actually look when I ask. So yay, I have my HHG, right? NO. They will be delievered NEXT WEDNESDAY! At least it's a day off for me. I'm irked but completely thrilled. I will finally get to start spending more time in my house and comfortable in my house istead of going elsewhere just to have ammenities like a comfortable couch, full kitchen utilities, etc. Now maybe i'll do 1/2 as much driving and save on gas while I spend some quality time looking for a different car instead of just picking something.

Rant on Pachebel's Canon

For anyone who has ever played an instrument or been to too many weddings where pachebel's canon was played over... and over... and over again.

My Valentine

This is my wonderful Valentine: my kitty. (with his new black collar with rinestones. yes, my kitty has jewelry. He's very attractive)

I had a good weekend. On Friday night a group of us went to the movie theater and saw Fool's Gold with Kate Hudson. Didn't know what it was about before we went. It was very cute. I'm sure it's on DVD in the states by now as most things are by the time they get to us here. Then, we went to the bowling alley across the street where our cars were parked to pee because the girls bathroom line was far too long to stand in. We ended up bowling two games. I was grateful to be with a group who was just as talentless as me at bowling. The next night we went over to Nate and Michelle's for an amazing salmon dinner with french lentils and green beans. we started with with a cauliflower cream soup and ended with a salad. we also watched Dane Cook comedy and had far too much wine to go to Club21, the club ontop of the rathuas (city hall) in Ktown as we had planned. Bummer. So, I stayed the night and woke up in the morning to amzaing omlets with spinach, tomato, peppers, mushrooms, and cheeese. I'm sure those of you know me are thinking, "is she really eating all of this?" and the answer is, "yes, every bit." Sunday was a wonderfully lazy day.

My week started off slower than it ended on Friday. We had one patient. Then we got some "clinic" kids (the holiday actually meant the clinic was closed and we became the clinic/er for peds). A billi baby... typical. A blood draw... no fun. Then we got a respiratory distress 12m/o. He was HUGE for a 12 m/o. Very big kid. Didn't want anymore albuterol and had HR in the 180's for hours. Then he ran a temperature Tmax 100.7F. First time I really believed the validity of Q4 vitals on stable patients... wooh.

My other patient was an 18m/o who had a MRSA+ abcess on his buttox that had been I&D'd in the ER and brought to us. When I got him, they were saying he was going to go home after the surgeon loooked at him. well, about 2 hours into the shift, dad comes out and says he needs a dressing change beacuse he'd had a dirty diaper. talk about contamination of the wound site if we didn't. So, I had my plan. My wonderfully organzied and simple plan. After all, this kid was going home, right? So we get to it and I've got my 2X2's, my saline to flush the site, my tape, and a new diaper. We're good.... no, no we're not good. This poor kid was crying "ouch, mommmy." because the wound was still pouring purulent drainage. I don't mean draining, I don't mean leaking or seeping. I mean pouring. what looked like a bug bite sized wound and redened area was actually a pocket that went the whole lenngth of the butt cheek. This poor baby was in so much pain and they wanted to send him home. I had to summon assistance and by this point my measly supplies were far from sufficient. In the end, I probably removed almost as much drainage as the surgeon removed on the initial I&D. I immediately went and wrote a long progress note on the dressing change and what was going on. Not two hours later, the surgeon comes to look at the site and think it looks GREAT! There's no drainage... it's still firm, but wonderful looking.... yeah... you know why?? He ended up packing the wound again with a wick that would help keep the site opening patent for drainage instead of sealing and pocketing the pus thus creating ANOTHER abcess and probably a worse one. We convinced him to keep the kid another day so we discharged him today and he remembered me. In the end, this kid did not like me. Whenever he saw me, he stopped smiling, stopped talking, and just looked at me with big open eyes. His free hand would reach for his mom and he would just look at me. I hate being the bad guy. I also feel sorry for Dads the past few days. Both of these kids dad's were their primary parent in the hospital with them, and the only thing they cried was "moooommmy." Poor dads...

Still no stuff... It's officially LATE!

Knock on wood

... I must have jinxed today by talking about how crazy yesterday way. Today we went into overdrive. We had 1 discharge and 4 admits.. no wait 3, nope now 4, oh and maybe another... ok, 4... sometime...soon... like, right now. 1 has to go to 6, 3 to 5 so 5 could go to 3 and new can go to 3 with 5. Yes, I'm so glad I was not the charge nurse who had to decide all this. And I still got to go home at 1500. Anyway, aweseome day, but crazy. I took a new approach to my education as a new nurse and I took two stable patients all by myself today and had no intervention from other staff. Granted, probably the two easiest patients on the floor, but that's still two out of a full unit and I was able to give the mom who had a horrible LATCH some full-time teaching which was nice for her and the baby. Now my weekend finally starts! Hopefully I will do something fun. I could take myself on a trip somewhere nearby. I'll have to do some research.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I just got home from my extremely crazy day at work. Peds went from essentially having no one on the floor to being full. Well, not full if we started doubling up the rooms, but each room has a patient. We're trying to get one patient air evac'd to WRAMC this weekend because he's 3mo old and came in for Failure to Thrive. But, his labs are WACKO. His glucose came back this morning in the 700's, but he's still a bright eyed and bushy-tailed baby boy. He has some metabolic disorder that we can't diagnose from here. That will be a fun day when I am the nurse that goes with the patient on an evac. We made a feeble attempt to draw blood from this baby's veins. That was tough. Mom wouldn't let us get blood from the AMAZING vein on his scalp. So, we had to do multiple arm sticks to no avail, he's been stuck too much (except the great veins in the SCALP!). I didn't actually stick him myself, I was just the assist. Then we had to admit a 5 year old who was very combative to put an IV in. compared to the baby, his veins were GREAT! Again, not my stick, I had to help his mom hold him down. If i had to, I would have been confident in him though. We have a few teens on the floor for who all have various teenage friends wandering around to add confusion to chaos. All these kids are super sweet and for the most part have great parents too. I could stay on Peds if they'd let me, I like it. I have spent this week in various forms of standing around, being a shadow, acting as a tech more than a nurse, and beginning to excersize my skills. I did some meds today and thoroughly enjoyed being independent on that fact. I could draw up .5 ml of benadryl and not have 3 people check it, sign it, date it, initial it, and follow me into the room. Even on Peds, I'm the electrician of the unit. If electronics don't work, they already call me. At least I'm good for something ;-) Tomorrow we have a patient safety day. No 4 day weekend for us...but I do get my Sat and Sun. I work my first full 12 hour shift on Monday... which really is more of a 14 hour shift. Yay for being a grown up.

I still don't have my HHG. If i don't get a call by Monday, they're late. To make myself feel better, and treat myself to a wonderful V-day alone, I bought a 40" Sony Bravia LCD flatscreen. Yes, it's amazing. Now I just need surround sound to go with it. Oh, and some FURNITURE!! I'm glad I have my PS2 so I can watch movies. That's probably what I'll do tonight. I'll make myself some of my ever famous penne pasta, find a romantic movie like The Notebook, and veg out on the couch with my loving kitty... and some cookies. I can't stop eating the cookies. I can't make cookies anymore because I'm the only one eating them... but they're just so tasty. I like them with milk, and milk is good for me, so the cookies must be too... is my logic working for you? Don't you want a cookie right now?

I am working on the selling of my car. Not too seriously yet, but I'm asking around and getting some info. I'm hoping it will go well. Maybe I'll spend some time this weekend making some more effort. I now have my eyes open for a VW Golf.

My cat, being the love bug his is, is crawling all over this keyboard wanting attention. I am going to get cozy and enjoy the rest of my night.

I'm back

After a forced hiatus, I'm back! I now have my own internet! WOOHOO!! I am extremely happy with all of this. I am also very tired after a long week of finally being a nurse and of cooking late dinners with my new friend. I'm so glad it's finally the weekend. I have to do it all again starting Monday.

My kitty friend has been a trip. He's very talkative and chirps like a bird. he's constantly banging his head against me to demand petting. He also likes to lay on his back. He is afraid of strangers in a funny way. When the internet guys came, he sat on the stairs to see who they were, when he realized he didn't know them, he RAN upstairs and frantically climbed the ladder to the loft (which i have been unccesfully kitty-proofing and way every few days after he figured out how to bypass the previous way). Then, when they were gone, he was very scared to let me bring him down. He doesn't go up there as often as his did when I first got him, now he's waiting for me at the door or the bottom of the stairs when I come home. He likes to sleep with me, but he doesn't like the slippery fabric the is my poncho liner and acting bedspread.

This week was a lot of administration. But, I got to start in the hospital yesterday. I went to APU (the day surgery unit) and spent the morning starting IV's. I had a comparitively good success rate. I got most of them, although I did blow a couple veins and I did succomb to a few AC's over hands. Still, I got some good experience. Then, I went up to pediatrics, where I will be doing my first rotation, and introduced myself. I got myself oriented to the unit and to some of the staff. I also got to play with the med pumps and do some minor patient care. Peds has a really low census right now. This afternoon, there was no one on the unit until a 3 day old baby came in for hyperbilirubinemia. He was orange as a pumpkin and had lost >10% of his body weight since birth. The pediatrician on his case is an Air Force Capt. who looks very much like the janitor from scrubs. I smile every time I see him. According to the pediatrician and the lactation consultant, this baby wasn't getting any milk because he wasn't getting onto the nipple far enough. So, essentially, at 3 days old, he'd had nothing to eat and therefore was not pooping either in order to ecrete the bilirubin through waste. The LC got a good feed going and he went to town for forever so I set up my amedd e-mail. Then, I did the admission with LT Kapp, went over the bili-bed (the baby tanning bed), and helped mom get another good latch with his next feeding. It all just sort of came out. I wasn't supposed to be doing patient care today really. I was supposed to be watching and learning. But, it was impossible not to just jump right in because the mom was uncomfortable with a male nurse. Other than that, I went to the lab this morning and did blood draws. Yay for more experience poking people. I only had one person that I had to stick twice becuase I missed the first time. That was also my first person who happened to be very tiny.

The water here is really hard water. It's killing me. I have been itching like crazy for weeks. It's reminiscient of Lake Itch from Michigan. It's also been 20's-30's and dry which makes life that much worse. I scrape my car of ice almost every morning still. I'm taking benadryl round-the-clock, which I'm sure isn't helping me be any less tired.

These are my clocks. They started off perfectly synchronized. Now, they are nowhere near it... But, they are the 3 important times zones: CET, PST, and CST. They go wonderfully in my blue, platinum, and lime green kitchen.





These lovely orange/red curtains have since been updated with a mulberry sheer curtain behind it. The window sill has also been updated. However, it will look lovely with my chocolate couch. The curtains change color depending on the light. I like them.





The green goes very well with the chairs that I have upholstered for my dining. I'm still deciding if this will be the dining room or if one of these walls will be the future home of the giant flat screen LCD TV I am going to purchase soon. How soon, I can't tell you...





These are my Ikea dining chairs that Julie and I upholstered with curtain fabric from Mobel Martin. They're not perfect, but they're comfortable and they look good. I'm excited by their unique existence. The highlight in the fabric is a green that matches the above curtains.

Now... if only I had some furniture to go with all of it!