My Favorite Things
 

Things that have helped me along the way ... 

• Grounding pillow case (from Ultimate Longevity- I am not getting any compensation for sharing this story):  Have you ever had one of those "Hard Stop" moments in life?  Sunday, February 27th, 2022 was a "Hard Stop" day for me.  I must have missed the signs from The Big Guy telling me to slow down and appreciate what I have.  On this Sunday, my husband and I started out on a bike ride.  It was a nice, sunny, cool morning and we decided to stay close to home so we rode our bikes on the street instead of driving to a bike path (which was our norm - I am afraid of riding on the street and losing control of my bike in front of a car).  Well, we were literally 5 minutes from home and needed to cross the street (a road divided by trees and grass with small paved paths to cross).  The cross path was littered with pine needles, leaves, and sand.  I was nervous but told myself I would not wipe out - and I didn't - PHEW!  Next came the raised curb with the indent that allowed pedestrians to walk up to the sidewalk.  I know - bikes are NOT supposed to be on a sidewalk.  We thought that maybe the sidewalk would be less scary to ride on since it was a very short distance to a large, gated neighborhood where we decided was safer to ride bikes than the main street.  I saw that indent and the raised curb and told myself not to hit the curb .... You know what happened next - I hit the curb, fell to the ground with my bike, hitting said curb with my proximal forearm (near the elbow).    As a result of this fall, I broke my elbow in 4 places and needed surgery to place it back together with a plate and 6 screws.  This kept me out of work for 2 months and I was terrified I'd lost my career.  Because of the swelling, I had to wait a week for surgery, to allow the swelling to subside.  My mother came to help out since I also broke my pelvis and had difficulty walking & bathing.  During Christmas of 2020, my husband gifted me a grounding pad for our bed;  It came with a pillow case.  My mother thought it was wonderful and gifted us another pillow case so we'd both have one.  In my research on grounding/earthing and the benefits of using grounding pads I read that it helps with inflammation and arthritic pain.  The second night after my fall, I thought to myself that I'd like to do an experiment to see just how well these things work.  My mother took a picture of my arm (on night 2 after falling) before I went to bed.  I was sleeping on the recliner couch because of the pain in my shoulder and arm when lying on the bed.  We then wrapped my forearm and elbow in the grounding pillowcase and secured it with a velcro strap.  I couldn't move much  when sleeping because of pain so I knew the pillowcase would stay put.  The next morning when I woke up, we carefully unwrapped my arm and my mother gasped, saying how much better my arm looked.  She took a picture right then and there so I could see for myself what a difference this pad made.  I will let the pictures tell you how well the grounding pillowcase worked.  To this day, if my wrist or elbow start bothering me, I wrap it in my pillowcase when I go to bed,  and in the morning, I feel much better. In the pictures below I typed "pillow instead of "pillowcase".  I wrapped the pillowcase around my arm - not a pillow.