Squeaky clean.

(actually posted 1/29/09)
Last Friday was another set of three month scans. Along with routine blood work but also extra blood work to see if my childhood immunizations were wiped clean from the chemo. I am OK with getting needles, but the nurse that was inserting the needle and catheter in my arm was having a lot of trouble. Like, a lot.

She was wiggling around in the bend of my arm for about 7 minutes and i thought i was going to lose it. "Is it always this difficult to find a vein in your arm?" No, considering i am practically transparent and my veins resemble a google map. They moved locations and tried in my hand, also a no go. Then went into my wrist..."i see a juicy one!". I cringe just thinking about it. I don't want to hear the words "needle" "juicy" "blood" "plump" etc. when i'm being poked in the vein. My hands turned to an icy-sweat from all of the poking and horrific vocabulary. A heads up, getting a needle in the wrist is not ideal. There is not a lot of fat stored there and a needle/catheter on your joint doesn't make all that much sense to me...

But! Finally, it was in. Wrist and all, i just wanted out of that chair.

I was in for a CT Scan (for my lungs) and also a full bone scan. I arrived in nuclear medicine for my contrast injection. Even though the catheter was already in and all that was to be done was to inject the opening with the dye, everything felt so sharp in there. The bio hazard symbol on the syringe disposal unit was taunting me. No matter where i looked, that orange and black logo was waving a sharp-tipped "hello" at me. When she injected the contrast into my wrist i almost immediately felt the cool liquid running through my shoulder blade and back. It's a wild feeling to realize all that is going on inside of our bodies and how quickly it all moves.

While we are sitting there, watching TV on the couch, sleeping, etc. There is a mechanic-like process pulsing inside of our bodies. Constantly. I find it amazing that the most important things that we do (pump blood, process food, fight infections, and so on) are done without any real legwork on our end. I feel like at certain times of the day it should be required that we use our hands to squish our stomachs around to help ourselves digest. Some kind of effort on our part to help out.

But we don't have to, yet the majority of us continue to take that for granted and treat our bodies like garbage. I'm guilty, too. A lot of this thinking confirmed my desire to make a change and give my body a break. Let it know that i am here to help, too.

We spend so much time taking care of the outside of our bodies by shaving, getting our nails & hair did, washing ourselves, etc. It's so important to put that much care into the inside, too.

A good friend of mine (she doubles as a roomie) & I had been talking about doing a detox diet for a few weeks now. It's called The Master Cleanse, and by mentioning it to a few friends and family - it seems like a lot of people have heard of this before or know of someone that' done it.

***EDIT***
(sometime in October)
I started this post about a month ago and just never finished it. It has been sitting in "Drafts" for a while now. Was going to delete it but thought, hell - i'll just post it. So, we ended up doing the Master Cleanse and i am so glad that i did it. It is a fast - no food (even gum/mints), medications, etc. for a minimum of 10 days. Only the lemonade concoction, spring water, and senna tea. The drink consists of fresh squeezed lemons, spring water, organic grade B maple syrup and cayenne pepper. Although it may sound revolting, i actually liked the taste of it. Also, as a "treat" you can have a few cups of mint tea! It sounds minimal but really, it excited us. Funny how sometimes it takes an absolute clean slate to really appreciate things. I can go on and on about the entire process & routine but i've exhausted this topic by talking about it quite a lot. So I'll just recommend The Master Cleanse book by Stanley Burroughs.

It turned out to be a test on so many levels. The first two days were the worst, Shannon and I were so irritable and wanted nothing more than to murder Mike (roomie/friend #2) each time we smelled his dinner being cooked. So much that he had to eat in the bedroom so as not to be mauled by us.

***EDIT***
1/29/09
The drafts folder and i have been having an ongoing war. I, again, left this one hanging after attempting to finish it off. So much that we've entered a new year. Overall, the Master Cleanse was a memorable experience, I've never had so much mental clarity. It is amazing how much extra time you have when you don't have food to factor into your day. So much of our social events revolve around food. So to have a break was both refreshing and confusing. Some days i literally did not know what to do with myself. If anyone is thinking about trying it out, i say go for it. But go into it knowing that it is not easy and people will think you are psychotic. Know that you will be tested by yourself, peers, family and that god damn taunting refrigerator.

I've given this blog a new, inverted face. I'm going to try and make it a point to keep steady at releasing things via this cluster of binary goodness.

two
thousand
...nine?

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