HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH

Happy birthday to my favorite daughter-in-law. I didn't get you a present yet. OOps! Maybe next year. You know I love you!

THE "C" word

No! not that "C" word... COLONOSCOPY. You have to read Lauren's blog about her trip with her mother to the ass doctor. It's hilarious. It's also a pretty common response from people when you try to talk about the subject. Butt holes and what they are connected to are taboo. Being a nurse I feel it is my duty to educate my family and whoever happens to read this about the importance of colonoscopies and to help alleviate your butt function phobias. First of all farting is good for the most part. It pretty much depends on if you are the receiver or the sender. It basically means your bowels and colon are working. The gas is formed because your bowel doesn't have all of the enzymes to break down certain foods and since your bowel is a muscle that is contracting and relaxing to move the digested food through, the gas comes with it and hence the fart. Beano does work by the way, that is if you remember to take it. A healthy bowel should poop everyday. If you aren't then you need to look at a few things like: how much fiber are you getting, are you hydrated, are you eating enough, are you constipated? Your bowel should work like a machine. Food in, poop out. The colonoscopy is a great tool to help find out maybe why you have problems or to see if anything is cooking in there that will cause you problems later. For the record, I have had three colonscopies. I was 36 when I had the first one and it is usually not recommended that you need one until you are over 40 and in some cases 50. I was going in for some colon repair work (caused by childbirth) and my doctor said that he was going to do a colonoscopy as well since he was going to be down there anyway. Since I was being violated anyway and I was going to be completely out I figured what the heck. He found 3 polyps, 2 of which were precancerous. Kind of freaked me out. 1 years later I had another one and he found a polyp. Finally the third one I was squeaky clean. During the colonoscopy the doctor looks for raised polyps and even flat lesions that may be suspicious. If he finds them he removes them at that time. polyps are usually benign (not cancerous), but if left in the colon they can turn cancerous. Which is what the 2 polyps that I had were doing. I think about what would I be dealing with now had I not went in and had the colonoscopy when I did. Our family needs to be diligent with our health concerns because the McKee side of the family has a high incidence of cancer. My grandpa McKee died of colon cancer. Family history of cancers puts us at a higher risk. Colon cancer is curable if caught early. Colonoscopies really aren't that bad. The worst part is drinking the prep the day before. Then, your given some nice drugs so you won't even remember the procedure. Afterwards the nurse will encourage you to fart. How cool is that...permission to fart. You should have no pain. The next day it's like it never happened.
This has been a public service announcement from nurse Patti. (Sarah is going to love that the blog right before her birthday announcement is about butts.)

Exactly what is good for you?

It's been almost 2 weeks since I have been trying to eliminate flour and sugar from my diet and I have lost 2 lbs. It seems that the longer I go without breads and sweets and such, the less I crave them. I did however partake in a piece of Nicholas's birthday cake. (Sarah made me, she secretly wants me to be fat). Anyway, I have been noticing commercials and ads more lately regarding weight loss and beauty and diet aids and I am amazed at what is being offered. Are we as a culture so lazy and gullible that we are buying these products and making some moron rich. As far as I'm concerned the only thing that will make you lose weight is discipline and hard work. The other thing that bugs me is the health claims that companies make to entice you to buy their products. For instance Green Tea. Green tea is in everything from beverages to nail polish. I saw an ad for a stretch mark cream "now with green tea". Are you kidding me! First of all there is no effective stretch mark cream. You will either get them or you won't, don't waste your money and the green tea isn't going to do shit. To even get the benefits of the antioxident in green tea you have to drink at least 12 cups a day. So drink it if you like it, but it's not the cure all. Since I'm on a roll...how about all the products that claim to detoxify your body. The best thing to detox your body is a good pee and poop, along with a good diet and physical activity. All the waste and "toxins" come out of our body the good old fashioned way as God intended. Not through the soles of our feet by putting some magic pad on them. My all time favorite though is ear candling. In case you've never heard of it, it's a long tube of a cloth like nature with beeswax to make it stiff where one end is inserted into your ear canal and the other end is lit on fire. The premise is that it will remove ear wax and clear up all kind of ear ailments. I read one web site where it claimed that ear candling will change your DNA. Just for the record, nothing will change your DNA. I was exposed to this technique when I was in Massage Therapy School. There are people who swear by it. It is the biggest hoax there is. So if you want to buy some ear candles and do it for fun, go ahead (just try not to set yourself on fire) but if you go to a spa and pay $70 or more to have it done you might as well roll up the $70 and set it on fire. Save your hard earned money for your children's education so that they can go on to college and invent some quick fix health treatment and make themselves rich off of the gullible american public.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KENNY

I bet you didn't think that this picture would come back to haunt you now did you? Sorry I couldn't help myself. I hope you have a Happy Birthday!

Aerobic Mowing

Did a little more aerobic mowing today. Yes, I'm wearing ski goggles and yes,those are Sponge Bob pjs. I get allergies really bad in my eyes and they itch so bad I just want to rip them out, so I figured if I protected them from the pollen maybe I wouldn't have a problem. IT WORKED! It's been about 5 hours since I mowed and my eye don't itch. YAH! I really don't have an explaination for the Sponge Bob pants. I just love him.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICHOLAS "GOOSE"

Happy Birthday to Nicholas. He is 2 today. His favorite things are Does and Bucks and Brm Brm's (4 wheelers). Oh and playing outside too! Nanu Loves U Nickel

Jax 4 wheeling

Jax exploring outside and my boys 4 wheeling

Getting Fit

Two days down of eating better and exercising. Well actually only one day of exercising. Jax and I went to Indian Trails Park and walked around the path (2miles). One mile was me pushing Jax in the stroller and the second mile was me carrying Jax and him trying to help me push the stroller. I wanted to go three miles but I figured pushing a ten pound stroller and carrying a twenty six pound child for two miles was really equivalent to three miles. For a little more exercise I used a push mower on about a half of an acre of our yard which is almost 8 acres total. I figured that was enough for one day so I rode my motorcycle around town. Riding my motorcycle is kind of like exercise. You have to use core muscles to balance when you are stopped and you can do inner thigh exercises by squeezing the gas tank. Actually after the first time I rode this spring my legs were sore the next day. Plus your forearms get a workout from squeezing the clutch and brake. Ok so maybe that's pushing it a little bit but any activity that gets you moving is good. Reaching for the remote and pushing the buttons doesn't count.