A virus in the muscle

Oh my the pain...for the last 3 days or so I couldn't straighten my left forearm. The extensor ulnaris muscle (the outside of the forearm on the pinky finger side) was TOTALLY inflamed. Then my hand started to swell. So today, I can almost completely straighten it and notice the stress it put on the muscles of my left shoulder. Actually, it's times like this that I am so grateful I'm trained to be able to be rational about what happens in my body. It was very interesting to go through this little joy ride. The remedy: double doses of turmeric, regular dose of cayenne and ginger, water, multi-vits', B-complex, liniment on the area (Chinese and Castor Oil), hydrotherapy in Epsom Salt, rest, and alternate ice and warm. I knew it wasn't my heart because the pain and the symptoms were isolated. I had no chest pain and no shortness of breath. From middle age on, you should watch for chest pain, left arm/left elbow pain (dispersed) and shortness of breath. My left arm pain was specific. I came along with the onset of a mild sinus virus as well. These remedies work folks. And the virus's can settle in a specific muscle and incapacitate you for a short while. If you are concerned, as you should be, about heart health, Herb Pharm makes a fabulous heart tonic with Hawthorn. Being forewarned is forearmed.

Dreaming

It happened to me again; I had a very vivid dream. It was as though I was there. I wasn't just "viewing it" like a movie. The next day, the person I dreamt about came up in conversation; through my son. Similar connection happened through my son before as well with this same person. It was all fine and made sense given the history. I woke up the morning I had just dreamt it and said, "Wow, what was all of THAT activity?" It was all ordinary-but I felt like I had just been traveling, as though I'd been in a car, drove to Grand Haven (Lake Michigan), hung out with a large group of people and came back. It felt that real. My life has always been like this. There is really very little veil between this world and the next. I just live with it. No, it is not normal, but it is comforting for me. It works for me because I'm a musician as well as a healer. When I'm at the piano, or organ, or choir, I'm "in a prayerful place" or a healing place to channel peace and revelation through the music. I don't mean peace as in passive or zenlike, but peace that is transformative and always changing. Let the dreams roll!