Reflections at Forty

First, as I type, I immediately increase the font size so that I can see better.

My glasses now have an additional bit of “extra help” for reading, and I see an occasional strand of gray on my head.

I don’t feel old, not exactly. The fibromyalgia makes my body feel old and decrepit at times, but I am still me underneath it all. I’m full of wonder, I love to laugh, to play games, to learn, to read. Still the same as I was thirty years ago at ten – a child who liked climbing trees, fencing, going to the library and bringing home a stack of books.  

On my tenth birthday, I got my military ID card, a rite of passage for Army brats. With it, I could shop at the PX (Post Exchange) on my own. I remember the day I got it, running back to my house across a green field, so happy that when a car stopped to let me cross the road, I felt myself throwing happiness at the driver.

My twentieth birthday was more subdued. At twenty, my thyroid was no longer working right, and my dreams seemed to be slipping away from me. I was no longer strong enough to be feel invincible. I had thought of joining the (Israeli) Army, but I couldn’t stay awake and on my feet full days anymore. Thyroid medicine helped, but it couldn’t fix the underlying changes in my body.

I felt fears – fear that I wouldn’t marry, would never write a novel, would never have good friends. I became depressed, and my sister (best sister in the world!) took me in for a few days. She took me to a garden nursery to see beautiful flowers. She bought me some new clothes. And she took me to watch her daughter dance with all of the preschoolers and kindergarteners in the new amphitheater in the new city of Modiin, for the Israel’s Yovel –Jubilee.

On Yom Haatzmaut night, my mother and I watched the show in the amphitheater. It was a showing of only local talent, and it laughed about leaving Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and finally finding parking. There was joking about the chugim – the extra-curricular activities that are so plentiful here. There was so much hope for Modiin. My spirits rose.

Years pass. At thirty, I’d realized my dream of being a wife and mother.

And now, forty. I have a loving husband, three children, two cats who will never replace the dog who spent my twenties and most of my thirties with me, an extended family I love, and friends and a community I couldn’t have imagined, certainly twenty years ago, but probably not ten years ago either.

And Modiin – it has grown. Now on Yom Haatzmaut, we have top names at our celebration. We have fireworks three times that night. The amphitheater is full to capacity, and people mill around beyond its borders.  The small town I saw in 1998 is now a city; we too have parking problems, but we also have green grass, large parks, and plenty of chugim for our children.

I look back at how much has changed in the last twenty years. Yaakov and I spent my fortieth birthday with friends, watching my children play with Lego, talking about art and juggling and cats and life in general. We grilled meat, and enjoyed the fresh air and the incredible weather.

We came home and put our beautiful children to bed. I think forty is going to be ok.

My Very Long-Winded Political Post

I am all over the place politically, and I find myself running afoul of absolutely everyone... so I'm going to tell y'all how I feel and then get the popcorn and see what you think. This is a whole bunch of stuff, picked based on what popped up in my head. Note: this is my blog. If you want to respond or debate, I'm good with that. Anything that reads like a personal attack or one on groups of people (and yes, I understand that some of what I wrote will be read as an attack on groups of people, my blog, my rules) won't be allowed.

Healthcare

I think the ACA is a mess, and would advocate making Medicaid buy-in (for those over the threshold), at say 6% of taxable income... up to a cap that makes forces regular insurers to compete with Medicaid. (I'm not an actuary/accountant, so whatever percentage I throw out is for entertainment purposes only...) Then mandate that states meet a certain standard of care for Medicaid, (meaning that no insurer would be able to provide care below that standard, because people would leave)

Syria

I think America should worry less about the Syrian refugees and worry more about the Syrian war, and that Obama (and the UN) is (are) culpable for the deaths of 400,000 Syrians, by their inaction.
And I'm outraged that only when it comes to a handful of refugees being stuck in the airports, does anyone notice.

There is no way to rehome all of Syria's citizens. We have to re-establish order in Syria. I'm glad to see that Trump is looking for ways to help Syrians without moving them to the US. It's too bad no one took this Egyptian Billionaire seriously two years ago.

Muslim Immigration

I think that while most Muslims are not interested in being terrorists, the concept of holy war is so ingrained into their religion that it is terrifying to allow large groups of Muslims in, even if they don't have terrorist ties - and I know that's racist of me, but it's also pragmatic. I think that America needs to be watching what is said in the mosques, because in some of them, maybe only 1%, maybe only .5%, they're saying that American Christians are infidels who need to be converted or killed. Some of them are saying that if a girl is not a virgin when she gets married, she has dishonored her family and they have a right to kill her.
And Orthodox Judaism isn't perfect in this respect, but stoning to death isn't a thing in any Jewish enclave, as far as I know.

Those who are still stoning are in the minority, but they're also the loudest in their selective implementation of the religion. For them -- whether it's the Taliban or Daesh (also known as ISIS) -- the only way to gain power is to claim it from a very particular part of religion, and only in the areas they deem necessary. And to these groups, women are the lowest denominator, used to prove their masculinity and their claim to power -- to themselves and to the world.

Marriage Equality

I believe in marriage equality in the sense that I think that if two adults determine themselves to be a household unit, all laws should apply to them in the same ways, regardless of whether or not they are married, same-sex, opposite-sex, etc.
To the extent that if two siblings or platonic friends choose to operate a household together, they should be entitled to all the benefits afforded a "regular" family.

I think that marriage shouldn't be a legal institution at all; it's a religious institution which is a contract where the woman promises not to sleep around and the man promises to provide for her and any offspring, because once the woman has promised to be monogamous, the man believes that all offspring are his. (if you look at any religious texts on marriage, it's clear that this is the primary intent)

PCism

I'm annoyed by PC'ism that says that it's ok to call someone an asshat but not an idiot or a /racial slur/ because ableism and racism are horrible, but being nasty to people is just fine

I'm annoyed by people who think it's ok to tell someone to 'check their privilege' or that they're 'mansplaining' instead I'm of addressing the actual issue.
I'm annoyed by people who claim that something is cultural appropriation without questioning whether people from that culture actually care.
I'm annoyed that anything I say can be taken to be a 'microaggression' even if my intent is completely benign. And that that term can be used to shut me up.

Rape Culture

I believe that rape culture is a problem, but I don't believe it's possible to change all men (or dominants of any gender) by education alone.
I believe women (and men) should be taught to say no, yell no, and then break the nose. This has the twofold advantage of 1. preventing sexual assault at the time it is occurring, 2. providing other would-be attackers with concrete reasons to not to go down that path.

I serve my children alcohol at home so that they will understand how it affects them in a safe environment, and I will remind them that drinking (beyond a very small amount) in an uncontrolled environment is unsafe, not only because men can't be trusted just because they seem nice, but also because being sloppy drunk in public will probably be posted on social media and may prevent them getting a job down the line.

Legalization of Cannabis

I would like to see MJ decriminalized and regulated like alcohol currently is, and medical MJ given as easily as (if not more easily than) other pain medications with much worse side effects. I will also be educating my children that using it regularly while your brain is still growing can mess up your brain, and that if they feel they need a joint or a shot of alcohol to get themselves together regularly, they need to get help.

How I Didn't Go to Disney World (a story)

Told to me by Yisrael from Ofakim*:

Last summer, I wanted to go visit Disney World in Orlando, but all the flights from Israel to Miami were so expensive. I started looking at other options, flying into Newark, JFK, then finally I found amazingly cheap flights to St. Petersburg.

Now, I'd never heard of POCCNR airlines, but their flight was not only cheaper, but actually FASTER than anything else I could find. So I bought our tickets.

I learned English in school, and I was pretty good at it. I did 5 yechidot on my bagrut, but I tell you, the way those people in St. Petersburg speak, I couldn't understand ANYTHING. I mean, I watch a lot of US television, even series like CSI Miami and Dexter that happen in Florida, so I thought I could understand how they talk. Crazy!

I now understand why Donald Trump is so scared of foreigners invading the United States. Just look at this weird mosque!

I couldn't even read the signs there. So many foreigners that the signs aren't even in English. Even Waze could not help me figure out how to get on the I4 to go up to Orlando. There was no Mickey Mouse. It was tragic.

This year, I've got it figured out, though. We're going through Georgia. I wonder how far Tbilisi is from Atlanta.


*not his real name. or story. or whatever.

Sometimes it Takes 288₪ to Appreciate Someone

In my first year of high school, my spoken Hebrew far outstripped my written Hebrew since I'd spoken (albeit imperfect) Hebrew my whole life, but had relatively little formal education. Likewise, my knowledge was uneven in Judiac studies. I knew entire brachot (blessings) and tfillot (prayers) by heart, and had read through most of ברשאית (Genesis) myself, but again, I lacked formal education.

9th grade me did not
see the value of pristine books.

Since the test they gave us for placement was multiple choice, my extremely poor spelling slipped through unnoticed. Since they were testing children from a number of different schools, general knowledge of prayers and rituals got me through the test with a relatively high score despite a weak background. In short, I was initially placed in a class where I was out of my depth. On further reflection, I realize that my barely passing grades probably meant I was exactly where I belonged for maximum learning potential, but a thirteen-year-old who fails a test isn't always the best judge of where they belong.

So there I was - I was in this class where the teacher was really strict, and (I felt) mean. She had a harsh manner to her,and she gave a test that I thought I did well on, and I FAILED! So I did the most logical thing I could think of and switched into another class where I managed to scrape by with minimal effort.

I remember only one thing this teacher taught me. On the first day of school, someone asked if we could write in our books, and she said "They belong to you. You won't have to pay for them if you write in them, but I don't like it. In the war, they destroyed our books. Keep your books clean. Please."

In high school, I did write in my books. I won't say the lesson got through that day... Fast forward to this year.

I bought absolutely huge, gigantic, gargantuan piles of books for my kids. And put a sticker with their name on the plastic outer cover of each. Even though these are workbooks, and my children will write in them, the idea of keeping them pristine remains. And then it turned out that a whole bunch of the books were the wrong ones. That is, the teacher prefers an older version and didn't bother to put that detail into the list. Or the teacher decided to use something entirely different and didn't notify us until after I'd bought everything and organized everything.

At any rate, today I took back 288₪ worth of pristine school books. And got my money back. 

Thank you for teaching me something valuable. And I'm not talking about the money.

Twenty Years

In June 1995, we donned caps and gowns. Girls wore burgundy, and boys wore navy. We marched to 'Pomp and Circumstance.' We listened to speeches and saw pictures of ourselves, four years younger. We received siddurim and empty diploma cases. We graduated. Our tassels, bearing the numbers 95, were moved to the other side.

We were the last class to graduate without having seen a website. We were the class who heard Rabbi Krug's birkat gomel at our Freshman retreat. We walked the hallways like students for years before us and years after us. We learned, we skipped classes, we made friends, we had fights. We were stressed, we were calm. 

We entered as children and left almost adults. 

And since then, twenty years have passed. Four of ours have passed on. Goodbye Erica, Jordan, Ari, and Kenny. We miss you. You are still a part of us. תנצב"ה

Many of us have made aliya to Israel. Others have scattered around the United States. Many have stayed in New Jersey. Some have experienced the oddity of taking their children to the school on Frisch Court - the one that is now an elementary school. Some will soon be introducing their own children to the (new and improved) halls of Frisch.

We've spent most of the past twenty years looking forward, building our lives, building businesses and careers, families and friendships.

Now and then, it's good to take a glance backwards. to remember the teachers, the friends, the four years that we experienced together. 

To all of you - the whole class of 1995 - thank you. Thank you for being my friends and for just being there. Thank you for being the catalysts for growth, and the people who made me reexamine myself. Thank you for just being on that ride with me. I hope you've all had an amazing twenty years. And I hope the next twenty hold even more adventures for all of us. 

The Simple Low Carb Plan - Are You With Me?

As many of you know, I had a little baby girl named Moriya Rosa about 10.5 months ago.

During my pregnancy, I gained 2kg, which means I had a net loss (considering baby was 3.3kg, and there are a bunch of other things that cause weight to increase in pregnancy).
Six weeks post-partum, I was around 8kg down from my pre-pregnancy weight.
I'm now just 2 kg down from my pre-pregnancy weight. (that is, I've gained 6kg in 10 months! :( )


My cholesterol is high, my blood sugar is high, you get the idea.

During the pregnancy, I was on a low-carb plan, and it worked, so I've decided to try it again now. (wish me luck).

Here's how it works:
Each day, you eat 3 meals + 2 snacks
A meal has up to 30 grams of carbohydrates, and a snack has up to 15. A meal or snack should also have some protein, fat, or at least some fiber.

30 grams of carbs:
1 cup of rice, pasta, quinoa, mashed potatoes, couscous, etc.
or
1 medium potato
or a slice of regular bread (2 slices light bread)

You don't need to eat that much carb in each meal/snack. For example, you can eat a salad with meat or fish in it and no carbs at all. That's fine. Or a snack can be a handful of nuts. But you shouldn't go more than 3-4 hours between meals.

I use meal replacement bars like Zone Perfect for some of my snacks. If I add a cup of milk, it's a meal.

Some possible meals:
cottage cheese with fruit cut into it.
salad with cottage cheese/feta cheese/bulgarian cheese/
salad with fish (tuna, sardines, or cooked fish)
salad with meat (chicken, steak strips, deli meat sliced thin.)

Things that are out:
Sandwiches - If you make them with two slices of light bread, you can have them, but it's just so much carb without flavor.
Pizza - one slice is a meal. Can you live with that? I can't.
Bread - I almost never eat it because it's too hard to stop.
Pasta as a main course - you'll be too hungry. Pasta has to become a side dish.
mashed potatoes/potato salad - Potatoes are practically sugar in your blood, and it's very very hard to stick to a single cup of it. If you want potatoes, eat baked potatoes. Somehow, it's easier to feel like you're eating a normal portion that way.


Things that you can eat unlimited amounts of:
Chicken
Beef
Eggs
Cottage Cheese, feta, bulgarian cheese, even yellow cheese
leafy greens
string beans
tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, celery, mushrooms
vinegar, oil (but go for olive or other healthy oils)
Butter, milk, cream,

Vegetables that you have to keep track of in your carb count:
potatoes (just count them as a starch)
sweet potatoes
carrots
corn
peas

Fruit:
1 fruit is ~ 15 grams of carbohydrates, so it counts as a snack

"One portion is two or more small fruit, for example two plums, two satsumas, two kiwi fruit, three apricots, six lychees, seven strawberries or 14 cherries."

(from the NHS website)

Bananas are high carb, so you should eat only half as a snack (or eat a whole one but make another snack that day carb-free)


So who's on the plan with me?

37- We'll Get to it Later

When I was in high school, one of my favorite teachers told us that it was so common that kids would ask questions which would be answered later on in the year that he assigned the phrase "We'll get to it later" a number - 37.

It stuck with me. When I taught a class, I used the same number for the same purpose.

In a few minutes, I will be 37. It will be later. All the things tat I've been waiting for... I guess now is the time.

Return to Leah Redux

I found someone who knows Leah, and sent her the siddur.
This lady gave it to Leah's father, who will hopefully give it back to her on Purim!

And so we finish a story that began over 25 years ago.

Visiting Shuk Machane Yehuda

Although I lived all over the USA, I spent most of my summers in Jerusalem where my oldest brother and sister lived. We used to go to the Machane Yehuda shuk, and I got really grossed out. The whole place smelled like dead fish, it was hot (I was always there in the summer), and they had way too many pieces of dead animals in full view (like chicken feet)... I also remember it being absurdly crowded (because we probably mostly went on Friday mornings), and I remember thinking that personal shopping carts were the pinnacle of nerdiness.

For the first time, I really let myself enjoy the shuk today. My work had a fun day, which was a tasting tour of the shuk, followed by lunch. I'm not going to go into the tastings because you'll all be really hungry.

We  heard about the history of the shuk, and tasted a number of incredible flavors, from French ice cream and Israeli-made artisanal cheeses to etrog juice and malawach.

I discovered -
1. Only parts of the shuk stink.
2. It's not hot in winter (we had PERFECT weather).
3. There are no longer chicken feet in plain view. I assume they still exist somewhere, but they're not hanging out there for everyone to see.
4. Wednesday morning is a better time to go than Friday morning.
5. I no longer care how nerdy I look, and I only wished I'd had a cart and the time to fill it with the super fresh-looking produce.

I can't wait to go shopping at the shuk again!

If you're interested in a tasting tour or general tours in Israel, I highly recommend our guide Joel Haber.

Where's the Cozy Carpet Corner?

Kinneret in her classroom

Her classroom looks stark. There are pictures on bulletin boards in the back and one side of the room. The windows don't open very wide, presumably to keep kids from climbing on them and falling out. There's no carpeted area or shelves of toys. The kids sit at tables, and not at desks. They store their books and notebooks in magazine boxes on a bookshelf, because the children don't have a desk to store their things inside.

I looked around the room, first trying to find the light switch, then trying to open the windows or turn on the air-conditioning. Her classroom isn't anything like what I remember from my first grade class at Woodland Hills Elementary School in Lawton, Oklahoma.

The assemblies are held in an outdoor amphitheater. We had ours in a giant auditorium. The dress code requires skirts for girls, kippot and tzitzit for boys. We were told that shorts had to reach the ends of our fingers when our hands were at our sides.

It's so different. At first I was apprehensive. Then I remembered my own first day of first grade.

I don't remember the morning. I only remember what happened at lunch time. We all lined up to go to the bathroom to wash our hands. I took a paper towel, wiped my hands, and recited the bracha (blessing).

Then I didn't talk. I'd been taught that you don't talk between washing and eating bread.

I didn't talk when I came out of the bathroom, or when I walked down the hall to the cafeteria to buy my milk with my special milk token.  I didn't say a word even when people talked to me, while I walked back to my classroom, waited for permission to get my lunchbox, and took out my lunch. It was a complete ordeal. It seemed to last for hours. Everyone kept asking me questions and looking at me as if I were doing something wrong by not answering. When I finally made the 'hamotzi' and bit into my sandwich, I felt like I'd been to battle. I was the only religious Jew in my school. There were two other children who I knew were Jewish because they attended our services on-post. I don't think anyone else even knew that. They certainly didn't wash or make brachot. I don't remember what I did about bensching (grace after meals). I'm guessing I gave it up as a lost cause. Until I entered a religious school in 8th grade, I never washed for lunch at school. Not once after my first day in first grade.

My daughter is sent out to wash, and then comes back to the table to make the bracha with her classmates. She bensches with her classmates, loud and clear. Each morning, she davens in school. She will never need a note explaining why she cannot participate in the class activity of eating green eggs and ham, nor will she have to go to school with matza and hard-boiled eggs and be stared at by children eating ham and cheese sandwiches.


In this school, she will never be unwilling to share food with her classmates because she knows she can never eat anything of theirs in exchange. She will not be excluded from school activities because they happen on Friday night or Saturday. She will never be made fun of for being  a Jew.

So I think I'm ok with there not being  a cozy rug corner in her classroom.

Return to Leah

Back in the late eighties, my brother worked at Six Flags Great Adventure for two summers. Since he was the only one around there who wore a 'beanie' (a kippa), when one of the workers found a 'Jewish book,' they gave it to my brother.

The 'Jewish book' was a siddur rinat yisrael (prayer book) with the name  (Leah) לאה imprinted on the front. Since we're talking about the eighties, polling the NY metropolitan area to find which Leah had lost a siddur wasn't really feasible. Instead, he gave it to his sister, Leah.

Over the years, I've kept the siddur, davened (prayed) from it. It was really special to me - I've felt connected to that unknown Leah who lost her siddur.

Recently, I've realized that it probably is possible to find the girl (woman) who lost that siddur, so I'm going to post a picture of the inscription, and ask that everyone please send every friend whose Hebrew name is Leah to this blog post.

I really want to return the siddur to its rightful owner.

thanks for helping!

Leah (triLcat) Goodman

Shabbat - 7 Years Ago and Now

Seven years ago today, I was preparing for my Shabbat Kalla, which was a little bit of a disappointment.

http://trilcat.blogspot.co.il/2006/03/wishing-i-could-write.html

(It's ok, the wedding was not!)

In that time, a lot has changed.
I have a husband who I am no longer just infatuated with, but actually know and love - with all his quirks (And he has almost as many as I do).
I have an amazing stepson and two children of my own.
I have a new sister (adopted) who is just a year younger than I am.

I have 11 new nieces and nephews (including the one who was born the next day).

This past Shabbat, I got my dream Shabbat - my whole family was together. Every single person from my side of the family got together at Yad Binyamin. While it wasn't a 5-star experience*, the place was calm and peaceful, and the kids got to play with their cousins for a whole Shabbat in a place with no cars. My kids got to run around freely for the first time pretty much ever. They kept going in and out of each other's rooms, playing with different cousins (fighting with different cousins). We sang together, read Haggadah together. Ephraim, Abby, Asher, and Elazar sang ma nishtana (the four questions), and they did really well, even if there was a little confusion.

My dream of having children who could play with Rachel's children has come true. Kinneret and Nomi are friends, and Ephraim & Yirmi are getting there (they have wildly different personalities, but both are so cute and wonderful that I know they'll be friends soon). Ephraim is currently in love with his cousin Ayala - he seems to think she was meant to be his big sister, and she thinks the same. :) As for cousins their age, Ephraim goes to gan with one of his honorary cousins this year, and will (probably) be in gan with another next year. His cousin Nomi Elisheva is 2 weeks older than he is. Kinneret has a cousin Shira (on my side) who is a year older than she is, and a cousin Shira (on Yaakov's side) who is just a day older than she is.

My older nieces and nephews helped with the kids, reminding me of when they were little and I helped their parents take care of them. I watched them grow up, and now they're having the same experience with my children.

To top it all off, we were staying in the moshav where I attended camp when I was 14. Kinneret and I found my old dorm and walked through some of the places where I walked 20 years ago.

All my life, I've been blessed with a fantastic family. In the past 7 years, I've built my own new family, and few things give me as much pleasure as spending time with my whole gigantic family all together!



*If you're looking for a place for a family Shabbat, Yad Binyamin is nice, but I'd recommend calling in advance to verify that they intend to serve more than 1 piece of chicken or 1 slice of roast beef per person. The rooms are not fancy - rustic might describe it, but they're set up well for a family of 4 - 2 rooms with 2 beds.

But Can He Walk on Water?

For about ten years, I've been suffering from fibromyalgia.
It sucks.

There are real miracles, though...

I've been in pain pretty much constantly, tired, lacking energy.

The psychological aspect is somehow worse - People see me as the type of person who's lazy, sleeps, sluggish. That's actually not who I am. I'm a bubble of energy. I used to get up at 6:30 when I only had to be at the bus stop at 8 because I liked hanging out at the bus stop with my friends.

My favorite place was the pool. I was always trying to improve my stroke, do more flips, always in motion. I'd walk anywhere with friends. I remember the hardest part of Shabbat morning being that I wanted to DO SOMETHING, GO SOMEWHERE. I once walked three miles along nasty highways when I was in highschool, just so I could hang out with a friend on Shabbat.

Saturday nights, I'd watch Saturday Night Live, go to sleep at 1:00am, and wake up raring to go by 8:30. Sleeping in meant sleeping all the way until 9am. I couldn't understand how people could sleep away their days.

That's who I was. And then my thyroid died. Sixteen years ago, I suddenly went from the person who was dying to get out, move, do something to the person who just wanted to sleep through life.

I trusted my doctors. I didn't really know any better. I read an article online about myxedema coma and got so scared that I didn't want to know any more.

I've been gaining weight, the pain's been getting worse, and I've had less and less energy.

I started really doing research about what is helping people who have fibromyalgia, brought information about new experimental treatments to my doctor, but he wasn't eager to run a lab experiment on me.

Finally, I found a doctor who is willing to try experimental treatments. I'm feeling better.

Here are the changes:
First, and I suspect this is most important, he added t3 to my thyroid regimen. Basically, the thyroid produces t4, and the t4 is changed into t3 in the blood. T3 is one of the things that fuels the body, so it's pretty crucial. Standard treatment is to provide t4 and assume that the body will turn it into t3 (Synthroid, eltroxin, euthyrox - all t4, not t3). Almost immediately, I started feeling more alert when awake, and I'm fairly certain that's the action of the t3.

Second, pretty much everyone has a vitamin D deficiency. I did know I had it, but this doctor decided to increase my vitamin D doses by quite a lot (I'm taking 4000 iu now, compared to 400 that my regular doctor prescribed)

Third, even though my ferritin was within normal limits, he said it was on the low side, so I started taking an iron supplement (this is one supplement where not all are created equal, I had to shop around a bit to find one that didn't give me really serious digestive issues).

Fourth, I am no longer taking any painkillers, but I am taking hydrocortisone daily (20mg), which is supposed to boost my adrenal system. (Not sure I believe in that)

Fifth, and this is what he claims the 'treatment' is, he gives me guaifenesin, which, according to a theory laid out by Dr. St. Amand, removes excess phosphates from the body.

I looked up this article which thoroughly debunks that theory. There are, however, two other theories as to why guafenesin works - one is that it helps clear the airways during sleep to promote better quality sleep. The other is that guaifenesin is actually known to be a muscle relaxant and to improve pain relief.

Here's the thing - After 4 months, I can live my life without the etopan and tramadol that I was taking daily to keep the pain bearable. Can I say with certainty that guaifenesin is helping? nope. Can I say that I'm doing better? YES! Very much.

It might just be because of the t3. A few years ago, Stanford University conducted an experiment to see if doses of t3 helped with symptoms of fibromyalgia. I can't find the results anywhere.

At any rate, I can't swear that any one part of this is working. But I am better. So I'm not seeing the splitting of the Red Sea, water coming from rocks (though you can find that on 443...). I'm not sure why it's working, but I am better. I am better.