My cousin Bryan, who is an electrician, offered to replace our electrical equipment since it was completely worn down and out of date. Electrical issues are always a big fear of mine in this old house (considering one of our old farm houses burnt down when I was 2 from faulty wiring), so I was excited enough to take before and after pictures. My father and I now have new plugs in the kitchen, living room, and my bedroom for all my computer crap. We no longer have to unplug the fridge in order to use the microwave, and we no longer have to turn off the air conditioning in order to do laundry.

This is good stuff.

Anyway…BEFORE

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My dad cut himself on a large piece of glass tonight, enough that he had blood all over the floor when I came into the kitchen. I cleaned and dressed his wound, it may be open enough to require stitches, but he won’t go to the emergency room. I can’t say that I blame him, I probably wouldn’t either. Beyond just the cost and 2 hour wait, I just don’t like doctors or hospitals.

I had him sit in his lounge chair and keep his hand above his head to help stop the bleeding. He decided not to take his blood thinner medication tonight, but make sure he takes it first thing in the morning.

I actually had to run out to my car and get the first aid kit out of there, since apparently my home stock is running low. (Reminder for myself).

I just get scared when he gets hurt like that. I know the human body has the ability to heal itself, but he just seems like such a special case. Even the smallest wound could cause problems with his circulatory issues.

Why wasn’t I a doctor? At least I have some brief experience at the emergency vet.

I’ve been doing a lot of research on vitamin supplements lately, mostly to work towards making my body in the best shape it can be, and because I know I don’t get enough vitamins on a daily basis with my current diet anyway.

A brief rundown:

A multivitamin - A necessity for anyone, it helps keep up your basics.

5,000 mcg of Biotin SID - I take one pill a day which helps your hair and nails grow and stay strong. It’s a B vitamin, so you can’t overdose on it, and I’ve heard of people taking 10,000 mcg of Biotin a day (sometimes I’ve taken two a day). But anything you take excessively will force your organs to overwork, so it’s not necessary to go crazy with them.

Vitamin C - 1,000 mg SID, An antioxidant, good for producing Collagen, boosting the immune system, improves iron absorption,

Omega 3, 6, and 9 (with evening primrose oil) I forget the dosage TID - An all around great supplement to take, great for your joints, heart, helps prevent brittle hair, depression, etc

Hyaluronic Acid 50mg SID and sometimes BID - Joint health, skin elasticity, potentially helps prevent premature aging

Triphala - Also helps skin elasticity and prevent premature aging (also helps hair folicles), helps prevent acne, promotes moisture, cleans/tones your digestive tract thus helping to promote weight loss,

Alpha Lipoic Acid - Another great supplement for energy and a powerful antioxidant

Some supplements I intend to start taking, but haven’t yet:

MSM - Great for energy, helps remove toxins from the body, is an essential ingredient of protein for collagen (your most common protein in the body).

Bhringaraj - improves hair thickness, color and quality

Prenatal Vitamin - Also helps with hair and nail growth

Evening Primrose Oil - My current Omega oils supplement is about to run out and was discontinued by GNC so I am going to start taking this separate.

*SID is medical term for once a day, BID is for twice a day, TID is three times a day (from when I was employed at the Vet)

A lot of the supplements I take are for the hair and general health. I’m trying to get my hair to grow out to its natural color faster, as well as I’d like to get it down to my waist again like when I was younger.

I am also doing more research on other supplmenets, when I can find time.

I just spent a good part of an hour scrubbing the bathroom. It really needed it in this dusty old house. I used a more environment friendly mixture of baking soda and vinegar, and it may require just a tad more elbow grease, but it’s so worth it. You need a good brush scrubber though, which I didn’t have, so I had a heck of a time. Plus we have a porcelin tub, so everything sticks a little more sound.

Sure smells a lot better than any of that other stuff too.

I’ve been wanting blue morning glories for a while now, so this year I decided to plant some. I got my first bloom today

But these are the type of people I work with. Incidentally, I’m in on the challenge.

A dear friend of mine, Melissa, volunteers for a Wolfdog sanctuary in North Carolina. Another local sanctuary down there just recently closed down, and the 24 dogs they had been tending to needed a new home. The sanctuary where my friend volunteers agreed to take them in, however the wolfdogs were in very bad shape. Malnourished, some with heartworm, some had never had a rabies vaccine, some with large wounds that were never tended to and healed badly. They were completely neglected at their old sanctuary.

This all happened in April. Since then the dogs have been moved to the new sanctuary and are progressing ever so nicely with the dedication of the staff at Full Moon Wolfdog Sanctuary. But they still need some help, mostly with shots, medical treatments, etc.

The animal caretaker, Tam and a woman named Alicia are going to be participating in Blogathon this year, to raise money for these Wolfdogs. You can sponsor Tam here or Alicia here. I’ve already pledged $100 myself.

If you’d like to read the full story (with pictures), please visit this entry on Melissa’s journal.

My dad went to the doctor the other day, and they said his leg has healed more in the last 2 weeks, than in the last year when we started going to get these ulcers healed. This is good news. In August it will be a year since we started going, and they’re still not healed. Not to mention the amount of time it took before we decided it was time to go to the wound care center.

Of course they’ve been saying that it’s been looking better this entire year too.

Regardless, I am hopeful.

My father has been doing very good with his diet too. When he has the munchies, he eats special granola bars instead of potato chips. He ate a salad for lunch yesterday, and some of my kiwi as a snack, and we had corn on the cob for dinner.

I on the otherhand have not been doing as good, mostly because I -always- forget to prepare a lunch the night before, so I have to throw together something quick in the morning, which usually ends up being unhealthy. I will have to work on it, since if we are both eating the same stuff, it’ll be a lot easier for him to stick with it. Plus it will cut out a lot of the bad stuff in my diet, and I’ve been wanting to eat more organically anyway.

My cousin Bryan is coming over Sunday to replace our fuse box. The one we have now is so old, that it still uses glass penny fuses. I plan to take a picture of the old one before they put in the new one, just for a keepsake, but it’ll be nice to be able to do laundry and run the air conditioner unit in the window at the same time, or run the refridgerator and microwave at the same time. Anytime we try to do those now, it blows a fuse.

But that’s what you get for living in a place like this. Did I mention the walls were cardboard with no insulation?