Clarity

All those amazing plans I had for 2022..... well they didn't happen! I studied digital marketing, I tried to open the t-shirt shop on several different platforms but nothing happened. I quite simply got stuck, I got anxious and I ran out of $$

But I did get to spend lots of time with Miss Charlie, helped a dear friend and spent more time with my parents and my sister. 

The other thing that 2022 brought me was Clarity.

I discovered what I want to do with the digital marketing.... it's not an agency, well not for now any way

I found a course to help me with the t-shirt shop that's still in the plan

I found an affiliate marketing course that I will also be able to earn an affiliate income from and I'll write a separate post about that as I'm launching into that space this week, like now, I have my links and I'm ready to go

My big moment of clarity was when I realised that my North Star was working with dogs. Body work, essential oils, raw feeding. I have a whole business plan. All the other stuff just falls in and around it. 

And I keep finding moments of affirmation. So right now I'm working on creating the time to make this all happen. I just need to follow the plan. And while I do Miss Charlie is still by my side 😊

A Journey from Mainstream to Alternative

 

This is Miss Charlie, so far she's been 14 times around the sun. I made the choice early in her life to raise her naturally as possible. And by that I mean a raw species appropriate diet, minimal chemical and vaccine exposure. Thru this journey I may have become what some people may say is a bit of a hippy. I wasn't always this way, it's been a slow evolution over my lifetime that was somewhat accelerated in the last 15 years. 

For a certain portion my life I was a meat eating, junk food consumer who smoked, drank moderately everyday and had no issue using household chemicals and weed sprays. What changed? Well these two fur children who went over the rainbow bridge before their time.

Meet Bobo and Mollie, mum and daughter, they both passed away as the result of liver disease. Mollie left first at 3 yrs 8 months old and then Bobo 2 years later 11 years 4 months. I was told after Mollie passed that lightening wouldn't strike twice  and that Bobo wasn't at risk. The vets were horribly wrong and lightening not only struck twice but 3 times in the same family. And this where my path drew me away from conventional veterinarians and on a journey towards health both in my own and my fur childs life.

When Mollie was diagnosed with liver disease in June 2005 I went on a quest for the best way to support her and I found an ebook called "Hope For Healing" It was written by a lady with first hand experience of canine liver disease and focused on healing thru diet. I purchased, downloaded and showed Mollies Vets. They read it and then told me they didn't think much of the nutritional approach as they were 'men of science'!! My first thought was well isn't nutrition the original science, aren't plants the inspirations for many medicines. Somewhat perplexed I incorporated a mix of the 2 worlds. Had I been living in the city I would have taken her straight to a naturopath, but I was stuck with what I had in my regional town and Mollie went into liver failure a few months later in September and we gave her her wings a couple of days later on September 17th 2005

Within the next 12 months I was concerned about Bobo, she showed some elevated liver enzymes on a blood test and I was told it was nothing of concern. on a further test a locum vet tested her for Addisons and it came up negative. I was then assured again that it was impossible she'd have liver disease as well. How wrong they were! I still remember the day in August 2007 when I took her to the vet after I noticed her urine was brown. On looking at her urine sample the vets faced turned a shade of grey I hadn't seen on a human before. I took her to a specialist in the city but she never came home. Bobo got her wings on 7th September 2007.  

Both girls had surgical procedures within the months before their liver disease was diagnosed. Neither had a blood test to check their liver enzymes prior to their anaesthetics. A simple blood test could have prevented the dire situations we ended up in. around the time I lost Bo it had become standard practice to test liver enzymes prior to giving anaesthetics but unfortunately my vet had't caught up on this yet.

After losing these two I no longer trusted mainstream Vets. It's taken 14 years for me to find one that I can work with but we'll get there in a minute.

And then there was Ruby, she was Mollies sister. Mollie chose me and Ruby chose my sister. Just before I lost Bobo we'd found a naturopathic vet in our town, Dr Catherine. Bobo saw her once before she passed away. And my sister started taking Ruby to her. Just after Bobo passed we tested Ruby's blood and her liver enzymes were elevated. Strike 3! fortunately we caught her early enough and with the help of Dr Catherine and beautiful care from my sister she lived another 7 years and passed away at 13 1/2.

Charlie came into my life a month after I lost Bobo. And after taking her to the vets for her puppy vaccines I soon realised that I couldn't go down the conventional path any more. I decided that she'd have her first heat before she was spayed and that I would titre test her rather than vaccinate annually. So I started taking her to Dr Catherine just after her 1st Birthday. From then I mixed Dr Catherines  guidance with a whole lot of research and here we are today. 

Based on what I'd been thru with Bobo and Mollie, I decided to raw feed, reduce toxins and not vaccinate. her first few vaccination Titres were on the higher end of the scale and at the point where Charlie let saw Dr Catherine at about 4 years old she was still covered by her original vaccinations. I recently had her Titres checked again and they haven't changed she's still fully covered and still hasn't had a vaccine since her last puppy shot. 

The decision to allow her first heat before spaying, proved to be a wise choice, I'm fairly sure it was at the suggestion of Dr Catherine, and it turns out that there has been research since that indicates that although spaying early reduces the risk of mammary cancer it also increases the risk of other cancers. Allowing sexual maturity only minimally raises the mammary cancer risk but significantly reduces the risk of other cancers. When you start researching there's a whole world of information that your vet either isn't taught or simply doesn't have the time to find.

We've recently found an amazing conventional Vet who is open to my ideas and hasn't shamed me for my hippy ways. Charlie currently has an issue with high parathyroid hormone levels and we're working together to solve the issues that come from that. Charlie has Hyper Calcemia as a result of the elevated parathyroid hormone. Parathyroid hormone is meant to increase when the body needs more calcium released into the blood. Calcium isn't just for bones, it also played a part in heart and nervous system processes, but when the levels are unnecessarily high it can damage the kidneys. So we've got her on diuretics to move the excess out and I'm trying to find how this all started. Let's just say I've learnt a lot about the parathyroid lately, but the condition is rare in dogs so there's not a lot of info out there. But at least we now have a Vet who is willing to discuss and consider what I find. 

The path from mainstream to alternative has also been reflected in my own health journey. In taking notice of nutrition for Charlie I also stated to take notice of how I was taking care of myself and new information literally kept falling in my lap. I kept finding ads for health summits, books to read and in more recent times podcasts. I became fascinated with immune health and inflammation.  And what I've learned for me applies back to Charlie. Not everything is the same but the principle of maintaining immune health and minimising inflammation are the same. And now I'm studying Human Nutrition, the information just kind of bounces back and forth between the 2 legged and 4 legged worlds. 

It's such an amazing path to be on and I'm honing in on where I want to take it. With the way the world is at the moment and what we've all been thru since March 2020 it's apparent that it's now more important than ever to find something to do that lights you up. 

I'm finding more and more every day that I want to be marching to the beat of my own drum and be home with Charlie. I'm not guaranteed how much longer I'll have her, I'm planning on at least another 5 years, and judging by the way she bosses me around and how otherwise healthy she is I'm hoping I'm right. But for now she's welcome to hog the bed every night for as long as she wants ❤️

Love always 

 

Lib and Charlie xxx

 

 

Firsts

Today was a day that I never thought that I would experience but then 2020 has been a year of things that so many of us believed we would never  experience. It's been a year of firsts for a lot of people but in many ways for all the wrong reasons.

Why was today so different for me? Well today I took my 93yr old father to his first appointment with a Radiation Oncologist! 

Now the first thing you may be thinking is "wow your dad is 93, he's pretty old". Yes he has been on this earth for 93 years but no he's not old, at least he doesn't look it. He's a very young and reasonably fit version of a 93 yr old that is except for the reason why we went to see an Oncologist.

Which leads to another first... 2 months ago Dad was admitted to hospital with a bowel obstruction. Scans were done, a tumor was found and an ileostomy was performed. I should mention that I am now a full bottle on how to change an ileostomy bag and trouble shoot issues with leakage, stool consistency and gas. And that's something else I never thought I would be saying or writing. You see it's been a very odd year. 

In my last post I mentioned that I'd been stood down from my job when my state locked down due to the pandemic and then stood back up when everything reopened. Then 2 months ago both of my parents were in hospital for different reasons and in different locations. There was a lot of driving, worry and late nights.  

At this point I am going to say we are so grateful and blessed that we live in Australia. It seems that there is a different perspective on cancer care here. Maybe it's dads age but there has been no pressure or rush to get him into treatment. After an initial panic in the emergency room 2 months ago everything seemed to slow down to a very careful and considered pace. It's like the universe opened its arms and said "I've got you, I'm carrying this. Although it's been a flurry of appointments with the Surgeon, his GP and his Health Coach (yes we got him a health coach) there's been time to consider the next steps.

But back to today... The oncologist we saw was amazing, he was lovely and very interested in my Dad and his story. He asked Dad where he grew up and dad told him a little of the story of his childhood. To which the response was "have you written this down? " Now my Dad is an awesome story teller, he's fascinating and his life and his parents lives are fascinating. It needs to be written. Thank you Mr Oncologist for suggesting this. 

But back to why we were there, it was essentially an information session. A here's what you've got, here's what we think is the best course of action, go away and talk to your GP and your family and decide what you would like to do. And start writing your story. 

On the drive home Dad and I got to pondering as to why this cancer challenge was presented to him at this point in his life. Dad's religious and he was pondering why God brought this to him now. And considered that maybe he might not know the true answer this side of heaven. I am little bit more 'A Course In Miracles' so my response was that sometimes these things are brought to us to bring about positive change or enlightenment. Maybe in this case it was for my Dad to meet the man who was to tell him to write his story. Maybe it was to meet the health coach who would set him on the path to live to 100!

Although the first few days of Dad being in hospital were stressful, we've all now settled into a state of relative calm. There is no fear or sense of worrying about what's to come. I listened to a cancer summit recently and the first this the first speaker said was "peacefulness is paramount" I'm happy to report that we are already there. 

In my last post I mentioned that I'd decided to study nutrition. After I wrote that I'd decided to leave it until next year. And then we took Dad to the health coach and then an opportunity to study online came up and I enrolled. I was inspired by Dad's coach and right when I was thinking I should just do this the right door opened and I'm on my way. I must also fess up that I'd started to think maybe I wouldn't be any good at it. But then I gave myself a pep talk and decided that I was not longer allowed to think that way and that really I could do anything I set my mind to.

I know some of you are still thinking "you got him a health coach!" umm well I have no faith in dieticians, well not the ones the hospital was offering cause I saw what was on his plate pre and post surgery with a possible cancer diagnosis and I wasn't impressed. My apologies to any dieticians out there, right or wrong these are my personal thoughts. We wanted to focus on Nutrition, Dad wanted to deal with this more holistically and Dads amazing doctor recommended the health coach. Which is kind of cool and synchronicity all in one given my desire to be a health coach. Dad's really into it and I'm loving the opportunity to observe. 

Well it's late here and I really should go as I have to take Miss Charlie to the vet tomorrow. That was another thing chucked into the mix of everything this year. 2 weeks ago Charlie got up and was staggering around like  a very drunk person. Somehow I've learnt not to panic. I considered the possible causes and called a vet. After quite an extensive appointment, which included the senior health check that was a little overdue, the conclusion was that she had a perforated ear drum. How ? I have no idea. But it got her to the vet, and I got to find out that the lump on her side that I'd been planning on getting checked but hadn't was not at all nasty. It was just a fatty lump that older dogs get. Phew!! Thank you doggy version of vertigo, I can stop worrying about the lump. 

It seems the Universe is throwing in a fair few silver linings amongst all the chaos. I may feel pummelled most days and like I just want to lock myself in a quiet room and not come out, or go to sleep and not wake up until 2021, but there's some genuinely good stuff coming out of the chaos.

Anyhoo I really just wanted to stop by and catch you up as it's been a couple of months and I'd promised myself not to leave it so long between posts again. 

I'll be back again soon with further updates and some insights that I'm learning in my nutrition course.

Jim Kwik the speed reading guy always says the best way to learn something is to teach it. So I'll share what I learn along the way.

Hopefully the chaos of 2020 starts to slow down my nervous system needs a break!

Until next time stay well and stay happy.

Love Lib and Miss Charlie XXX

life's a beach!

Today was kind of a work day, but yesterday my sister and I took out four legged fur babies for a run on the beach. Windy weather meant we only had to share the beach with some kite surfers and they were mostly up in the air so our girls had plenty of room to run.....