Tag Archives: writers

What a difference between NaNoEdMo and NaNoWriMo. There are so few participants, you can hear crickets over on the EdMo website. That and the site has been attacked by a spammer, which seems to be keeping people away. There’s no leadership and no one communicating to the group except for a few posts by the editing support staff. Still, I’m set on completing the challenge. I’ve even started some discussions in the Horror & Thriller and Colorado forums, where we have a total of 3 participants in each.

I love these contest challenges and wish I would have joined them years ago. Then again I’ve always enjoyed competing against myself, seeing how far I can advance passed a previous accomplishment. This has been a rough one to start though. Yesterday my health was crap, and I only got in 15 minutes of editing. Today was better though. I grabbed the paper copy of the manuscript and took the ‘start big’ advice that I read in the forum. Basically got through 40 pages in four hours, identifying major issues to fix first. Sure beats the 6 pages I got through Monday.

Warning: Fibroid Tumor Discussion

Here in the blog, I haven’t mentioned my health issues for quite some time because there came a point I felt they became me. Well, I’m breaking my rule today. Unfortunately, I started off NaNoEdMo with my fibroid tumors out of control. In fact, they’ve been a pain in my ass for the last 5 months. Yesterday, I got through 15 minutes of editing before I felt like another trip to the emergency room might be necessary. One gallon of water and a half gallon of orange juice later I felt I’d live through the night.

It’s mostly my fault I’ve gotten to this point though. Fibroid tumors are controllable via lowered levels of estrogen which includes a diet from hell, exercise, stress reduction, and progesterone cream. I’d had mine under control until the holiday season, when I’d let it all fall apart.

Here’s the real reason I decided to bring up the fibroids. I learned a week ago that fibroid tumors are seriously on the rise in women. One of the major contributors, plastic. Okay, I decided Monday to avoid foods and drinks stored in plastic. People, you have no idea how hard this is unless you take the challenge. Even organic health foods are packaged in plastic. ARGH!!

I’m so irritated by this vicious cycle we live in. In my case, increased hormones injected into animals and plastic containers that act to increase the body’s estrogen result in fibroid tumors that force me to seek medical treatment, including a $3000 trips to the emergency room. According to Western medicine, my only options: surgery to remove the fibroids which will likely grow back, loss of my uterus that will screw up my hormones worse and/or drugs that will make me sicker. The final price tag is equal to thousands and thousands of dollars, which really pisses me off.

On the other hand, if I exercise, eat the right diet, and avoid plastic and stress, I’m healthy and it costs a little more for glass containers and $70 for the occasional massage. For me it’s a no brainer to go with this option, and It’s been pretty successful as long as I don’t fall off the diet.

Now consider this. I watched a documentary recently where a low-income family said they couldn’t possibly eat a healthy diet because they can’t afford low-fat meat and fresh fruits and vegetables. Surprise, surprise, they were all over weight. This is the same thing a friend of mine told me after he lost his job. He gained 40 pounds. So think about it. Someone with a low income is less likely to heal via natural means which is actually less expensive. My head’s spinning so fast I may fall off my soap box.