Protective Gear and Tools of the Trade for Home and Beyond to Reduce Exposures

Tools of the trade are so very important. Anyone who is 'in the trades' will recognize that. People who have good tools in their homes and garages and yards will recognize that. Many have elaborate vacuum cleaners, I know people who have collections of vaccuums from their purchasing better or different over the years. Yesterday there was a hunt on for a voltmeter at a house I was at, the professionals there to fix something spent all kinds of time in their not well organized truck figuring out they'd left it behind somewhere. Without the tool they then realized they could continue on and perhaps find the problem, which they did. But that somewhat inspired me to create this post about tools of the trade for protecting your wellness as much as possible, increasingly important today. 

Readers of this topic may or may not know that I had a second career as an occupational therapist, from my mid 30s to when I left insurance-based medicine to go into an integrative medicine clinic that was to open in early 2008, I was about to turn 48. I'd enjoyed an incredible reversal of symptoms in my forties, for a second time; this had occurred in my early thirties as well.  I was seeing the trend of if I applied myself enough to things I learned and thought and/or felt were of value, I'd get better. If I'd get too busy and stressed time-wise, I'd end up tipping to less good health again. Always with a mind that wanted to learn and connect dots, I was fortunate, and destined to provide Lumigrate and the services and information (and product ideas) I bring to YOUsers of Lumigrate today. 

By 2005, in my mid 40s, I'd literally been pushed by situations and requests for my employment across the state of Colorado to where I'd not wanted to move in terms of people and things I enjoyed being around and 'doing'.  And I went through yet another horrific situation of mis-management in a medical facility that was harming patients, doing the right thing about that for the patients and for the business too, but exposing the bad management naturally had them getting rid of the thorn causing them problems by not just letting the situations go on and possibly injure or kill another resident. I'd let it go the first weekend this situation was set up and by Monday I had one less patient and due to a situation with the wheelchair the nurse had prevented me from working on Friday when the orders from the doctor were obtained in early afternoon; prioritizing going out for the 'happy hour' the management team members enjoyed (not all but most were involved).  

Embezzlement was allegedly found in the ensuing investigation, managers and administrator fired, the building sold off to someone else with a new facelift on the signage showing the community 'we're under new leadership now'. And so it goes, I just talked with someone who was with loved one living in that facility, and I hope that every person with a loved one being taken care of by The System is proactive and gets others involved if there are problems with the care they are receiving, and I hope that all people have adequate or better care.

I learned a lot from being in skilled nursing facilities and part of the income-generating therapy team -- even though they're making money off of us, they don't provide the tools we need to do the work! Same thing my family members who were teachers encountered, or friends once I was older. So I had bought the clutch-adjustable power screwdriver / drill that I needed to do my work on wheelchairs because it was going to help me get closer to making the percentage of billable versus overall hours worked, and I'd maybe keep the job a while longer. In one facility there was a massive closet from floor to ceiling, which was fifteen feet high, an old TB porch was our office and gym space, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. I was granted lower productivity by the manager who saw the mess I inherited there, to clean it up and organize so I could find the tools of the trade in there to work with patients.

Then the overall managers/ owners had an issue with my having 'fibromyalgia' on my insurance paperwork and renegged on giving me insurance, offering me $2/hour more to continue paying for my own. The problem was that was COBRA and wasn't going to be available much longer, and I didn't think the State's 'uninsurable people' insurance would be very good and it was expensive if you were making as much money as I was as an OT ($25-50/hour).

Naturally, they started finding reason to justify to those who oversee labor in the US, if called into question, getting rid of me, and looked to the productivity which was only verbally given to me by the manager. I had to hire a lawyer, which ended up being a very good thing as he was called upon twice more and I was, he knew, a good candidate for making money from so he immediately responded. She's still working for them, in a high capacity in the company now. Did she got to bat for me? No manager ever did, they're loyal like dogs to who feeds them, which is the company.

So out the door went my new and barely used clutch adjustable screw driver and the rest of the tools of the trade I would tote with me in order to do really good occupational therapy with the patients I was serving. And soon they'd go into another SNF with me, to be used by one of the most productive, capable OTs I've ever seen, and even he was calling me after I'd been fired there, same basic situation except the administration of the nursing home got it what I was doing to organize the overall patient care and therapy caseload and prioritize who we'd work on first on much needed positioning issues the State had popped them on already. The manager was incapable of seeing anything but the corporate administration and mandates. It went with me on a 48 hour trip to two other facilities that took me to far southern Colorado and then out to the eastern state line up north of Colorado Springs.

It went with my belongings over the Rockies when I was moved to Western Colorado's Grand Valley on the first weekend of 2004, and in and out of the last SNF I worked in. The ending of that work 'path' for me was, perhaps, divinely timed because the new allegedly independent medical building just up the road was now open and the PT clinic was wanting to also have OT and hadn't found the right one yet. I was the right one.  "I hire the best and you're the best, I want you" were the words used.  It was a mess, he didn't tell me nor the other OT that there was another OT -- she was a hand therapist.

She just couldn't get the surgical care post op patients referred to her from the area's main doctor as he was affixed for whatever reasons to sending patients to the OT clinic associated with the hospital he was working for. And so that lead me to pick up that ball after she dropped it, and have to purchase a lot of hand therapy tools of the trade and employ a competent hand therapy-trained occupational therapy assistant. I knew it was stressful and hard work for him to be in a clinic like that all day, no windows and fluorescent lights, a bunch of EMFs and not a 'fit' for us being more progressive than what the management wanted. This all lead me to see how I needed to 'go on' and take the risks of doing what you now see as Lumigrate and my advisement about education for those who wish and need the 1:1 or 1:group information I offer 'in person' (or by phone, etc.).  

About a year after starting that OT outpatient 'gig', I had my first visit with a doctor who I'd sought out through the new compounding pharmacy, who had been started by a man who had worked across an intersection from me for two years in Colorado Springs and who migrated here about the same time as there was no compounding pharmacy in the area at that time.  He referred me to this first doctor, who I liked and was a specialist, and then I asked him for help connecting me to a primary care doctor.

Notice the Lumigrate YOU model -- I recognized much from my personal health care and how I navigated it which I have developed since to be part of my teaching at Lumigrate or in my consultations with people wishing help with what to study next in their professional or personal development relative to health and well-being.  Providers and consumers, I work with both as an information concierge, an education coach, a 'tutor'. 

Today, in 2015, I think we're on the cusp in the United States of really needing to get into reality about what is in our environment at all times, and working to reduce exposures. GEAR UP. Get your tools of the trade. And if one of your occupations (how you occuy time = occupation) is cleaning the house, start thinking about the exposures you get from that. Driving a car is an occupation, and many in the group I'm diligently occupying myself with to contribute and learn in order to bring information to Lumigrate are talking about their vehicles being contaminated with 'the stuff that is making us all unwell'.

Depending upon the humidity, heat, and proximity to where these environmental toxins originated from, with time being a factor for things to have developed from there, things differ in terms of what you're being exposed to, and how much. But the concepts have fundamentals and that is what this topic is going to be about. Ultimately, having adjoining properties getting on the same page with what to do is important, and then communities and beyond... it goes out in a ripple effect. 

When I was returning to Colorado State University full time once accepted into the 1994-1996 Occupational Therapy program, I took cadaver anatomy over the summer, which meant twice as long class periods for half as many days. We were provided gloves and masks that were charcoal only, which the instructor made clear was just for taking the noxious odor down, it didn't stop the chemicals that were in the embalming fluids from getting into us.  I explained my health issues. I didn't realize that had he acknowledged there was a need and there was a proper mask from 3M to remove the toxins, he'd have had to provide it. So, my health had a setback starting at that time. Massive headaches unlike my usual headaches, I had until I got to Denver and purchased the very expensive mask I needed.  Problem solved for NEW exposure but what had that done to me that would have to clear out and was it reversible?

Additionally, I let the university scare me into being quaranteened off campus due to no immunity to mumps if there was one person anywhere in the system to have mumps.  I was in a program that you couldn't just drop out for a semester, you'd have to drop back a full year. I had quit my good job with the University to do this, and was living off of student loan funds. So, figuring my health had gotten SO GOOD, a little vaccine wouldn't do me harm. Oh, how I appreciate the information today on the Internet and how easily we can access it.  I've done my best to cover fairly and differently the vaccine facet of wellness for our YOUsers. Please find that information if you're interested. 

Also additionally, let's not forget the way they try to flunk out the people who won't put up with being tortured learning a bunch of hard information they'll never use. Add into it I had the brain problems resulting in learning difficulties, and a history of anxiety that was crippling related to testing back from my first attempt at college when I was a young woman, having totally resolved that but it still being something I was working 'around and with', and it's no surprise to me that my health started to get worse again.  

The tools I had gotten for learning for me were proper glasses with yoked prisms and bifocal to enlarge so my brain could hold onto things easier, a drafting table to stand at to study and to color the notes I'd take in class. I'd record every lecture on a Pressman and then play it back that day and color with colored pencils over my notes and fill in the few places I'd miss in class with details spoken. Today I'd likely catch less than half of it in class. I can see the deterioration of the cognition, so then you have to have more tools to compensate. If you have the cognition to utilize the tools, naturally. Many people buy lift recliners for their loved ones or selves and don't have the cognition to safely operate it. Same with scooters and other motorized mobility devices.  There's a lot of information I can direct people to and help them learn, just about tools. 

Today the top tool I'm showcasing and 'amped about' is ozone generators. There's a topic in this forums about ozone (the forum is the one on Environmental Wellness / Illness). So far I've helped direct enough people to the information that I'm aware of a few who have purchased the device and they've used me to advise directly; even with reinforcement they're making mistakes. So I urge you to research about your tools of the trade you're going to use and figure out what you need to do to retain the critical information. Write it down, make notes, post notes.  I've even shown one person how to do that and they then didn't follow through with the process. Because their brain was very impaired from as ALWAYS, a variety of factors. 

When I had the health relapse when in OT school (which presented as MS symptoms and that whole mainstream medicine money making MRI and lumbar puncture with neurologist shrugging shoulders at the end taught me a lot, I was helped by what the acupuncturist had shared on the first visit about wheat .... diet.... I need to look more into THAT, which I did, with good results) I was recovered  (yes, I say recovered as I had been healthier than EVER from age 30 and up to when this occurred) from a massive crash of my health five year earlier.  

Then, in my late 20s, I woke up one day and simply could not get out of bed until mid morning, on a work day. I couldn't shower and dress without lying back down in bed after the shower. It wasn't until later I realized I'd had earrings from Black Hills gold (a motorcycle trip took us to the Black Hills of South Dakota) causing problems with my earlopes' pierced area, which had never been particularly reactive. Other cheap earrings were then reacting. Was this related? Of course we know today it was, but circa 1990, no experience, my providers with no experience, and only going to mainstream, insurance-based providers, I was having to learn a WHOLE lot from then until now.  

I spent years incorrectly seeing this as the tipping point from wellness to illness; I was never 'well', I know that the symptoms I had at six months indicate that, and possibly at birth. Figuring out what your own health history is and what the causes are is somewhat helpful to truly understanding why you have the wellness/illness level you have and what to do about it for YOU. Individualized medicine is the new buzz word, but Lumigrate's cornerstone of the YOU! Model was created in 2007. 

That day in my late 20s, I got in my car and drove to the office, it was mid morning, walked / dragged as if in thick air or mud, into the building on a beautiful sunny warm morning and got half way up the stairs before I had to stop and rest. That was NOT at all like me. Thankfully, I made a full recovery, I ended up finding out that I had very bad learning disabilities and getting some vision therapy, a silver lining of the collapse then, which allowed me to return to college and get good enough grades to get into the very competitive occupational therapy programs back in those days. 

Thankfully, the primary care doctor I had at the time knew what I had, he told me that there was an outbreak of it in Fort Collins and nobody knew why, and he didn't know what to do about it but he knew the one ENT clinic that had all Indian doctors was in the loop with National Jewish Hospital in Denver and knew what to do about it.  And this is how I know, and the only time I ever heard, that it was an 'outbreak' similar to what occurred in Lake Tahoe in 1985, a few years earlier.  I have since connected with a man who was in that outbreak and has written books and been quite the center 'star' of that outbreak and the mold movement. Tools of the trade then for me was the great outdoors to walk in, little by little further and longer time, then harder with incline. In fall, I got over my cheapness about money spending on myself and got a membership at the closest gym to my house at the time.

I used their tools -- pool at first, then equipment for upper and lower body aerobic exercise and the weight machines. And dumbells. Ultimately you can make it very simple and inexpensive and most people can DIY at home too. Today I'd be looking into what EMFs are like there, what they do for their indoor air quality for particulates also. Lighting and what type as that affects the brain. Then you just have to do your best deciding what to do from there.

I was seeking out a gym for one of my clients to go to so I went to the closest one to her house and the owner flat out said to me "if you're not here to bring me money right now I don't want to talk to you". When I got that drift I said "we can both stop wasting our time now, I can see we don't need to continue talking" and he went very jerk to me after that.  

Incredibly, he didn't want to talk about his wife who trains people learning what this gal needed to work with her (for free as they're learning it and not having to pay me for that information nor is she to be a guinnea pig), so they could then do that with anyone in the area that had this extremely common fatiguing 'stuff'. So maybe flush out the motives of the people who have the business. I even told him my history of what building it was that we had the successfully growing chronic fatigue / illness program in back in 2007. It's not like I don't come with a track record.  So if you're a person who knows gym owners or trainers and think they could benefit from connecting with me, tell them about the About tab at Lumigrate and how to get ahold of me. Connect us, perhaps it will benefit you and others in the ripple effect that can come from having good intervention out there in the providers serving people.

Mold is actually "Mold"; Fungus is Now "Fungus", "Cyanobacteria", and so on.

Mold is a topic that was made hot in 2015 in the spring with a lot of made-popular already people seeming to have an organized script for April, May and June being when each focused on it. Oz, Sommers, and Bullet-Proof Coffee guy who is less well known but was the one who somehow put out Moldy, the movie (documentary). I kept learning about this mainstream information coming out and watching what overall the mainstream was making available to the masses. AND I continued mostly studying with a group of people lead by Steve Beddingfield. And today as I create this topic at Lumigrate I am continuing to work more directly with Steve behind the scenes via phone conversations in order to get on the same page of what is needed from the people now 'awake and aware' about what his research has found, and my recommendation was we needed to be discussing more what to 'do' with our activities of daily living and instrumental (more difficult) ADLs, to use medical terminology a little. 

You'll find information I've provided at Lumigrate about mold (and many other things). So look around the forums. And be sure to understand well why mold is today "mold", as I have said in the heading. That will come from studying the information I provide for all to hopefully put-in from the blog tab, look for the Mother's Day blog titled about what I want everyone to know about emerging research. I added comment on Father's Day to reinforce that 'others' includes men and fathers and this applies to their and our beloved dogs, cats and everything, really. It is the most important thing to be learning ASAP and becoming proficient at, in my opinion. 

I have bumped to top of the lists in forums, the topics that are the most currenly 'best to read' in my opinion. There are many forums.  They're clearly titled. The categories are different than many people are used to, and that is because Lumigrate is here for the shift from the old way of thinking to the new way, so I had to figure a blended way of having things so people's brains would see the information categorized.  

Back when my health collapsed in my late 20s, the ENT office bungled things at first with the initial MD I saw, but I persisted and the second doctor at that practice recommended to me by my PC doctor (who also said WHY he was referring me there, they were the only ones getting the goods from National Jewish in Denver) did right by me, recommending a low dose of a brain changing chemical in a patented medication I purchased with low copay to me and my insurance paying the rest of the prescription cost, and activity/exercise but only up to the point of getting fatigued, not past. That tip worked for me, and I incorporated it into my occupational therapy outpatient practice in 2007 when I thankfully had patients learn about me from the various people around town who had heard "the OT in the (such and such) building has fibromyalgia I hear, maybe she can help you."  

I recently learned of the passing of that first patient who came my way, my first new patient of calendar year 2007 and technically before my doctor had seen me for post op approval to return to work -- held up by his long vacation schedule at Christmas and New Years, and my surgery after care bungled by the frenzy of last of the year rush of surgeries of people wanting to get things done on that year's deductible, or having the time off to recover as was my case on both counts. I could only take the time off when surgeons who sent hand therapy patients our way for post-surgical care were not doing surgery.  Like the cobbler's child who has no shoes, the provider with an outpatient practice only big enough for one OTR and one COTA can't get the best health care, ironically. I look back and marvel at the timing and how everything happened. The bungling of the post surgical medication on the part of nursing and the doctor not catching it the first day was instrumental to my 'getting the message' about having to be part of getting information and help to people 'out there'. YOU, YOUsers of Lumigrate.com today, see the end result of that. 

That first patient, who I stayed in contact with until about 2011, felt as I did: she was 'sent by a force/source' because it was what allowed what I was trying to do to come to fruition. I'd from the start in 2005 been asked by a rheumatologist to provide therapy for his patients referred to him for 'fibromyalgia'. "No clinic in town does what they need, this is what they need" -- and he drew out a graphic which I took with me. The management over me in the therapy clinic didn't want to treat the chronically ill due to the way they were difficult and lessened productivities, would cry and etc.  She took my suggestion to go to my collaborator on the top floor, neuro-type psychologist Chris Young, and he was so excited about her progress with the three of us helping her (I also paired her with the right PT for her needs) that he wanted to collaborate on an education group for people with fibromyalgia and etcetera. I would then bring the ideas from the rheumy two years prior to a meeting with Dr Young in early 2007 and that is where The You Model was born, as we were brainstorming what to do in this free group class we were going to facilitate and launch, which occurred, ironically, on solstice that summer. 

Since this woman patient (who was about 70) was compliant, didn't cry or complain -- even when she should have when the PT end of the clinic bungled one day and put her with the absolute last PT she ever should have been seen by when her usual one called off from work the day of appointment, scrambling the management and office staff to put patients with any PT with extra time rather than lose revenue and productivity that day, naturally ..... (sigh). My teachers, professional and patients, providers and consumers, dogs, cats, and now the trees and boxes, rocks and things in the environment otherwise... all so important.

The clinic management relaxed when they saw they didn't lose money on her overall, we all made money off this first fibro patient, and that lead to their allowing more patients with this type of condition who were coming our way. The need was growing at a time word then got around about what we were doing. And 100% of those who had me as the helper teaching them to be YOU! and helping them find the right PT and in some cases psychologist and ideally nutritionist (though that never happened, she was new and overwhelmed and needed to learn more than she had learned in college, as we had to refer inside the building not out, had improvement. Even if they didn't have any decent advise coming from doctors or nutritionists or psychologists.  Many who did well were going to the area naturopath or chiropractors who taught about nutrition; they were invited to come speak at our weekly forum. The attendees loved it. My building not so much, they were mainstream and didn't really like those outside the box, truth-telling providers coming into the picture. 

But my method was starting to be developed then, as well as the format for education in the 'live fibro forum' which lead to my seeing the need for a health information website to house the information I wanted people to have 'at one place' and at their fingertips.  Now, I'm asked by people and provide information guidance not medical advise, and so it would be a matter of the consumer or provider learning of the information they're wanting to utilize, and asking me for help if they needed and wanted. The About tab is where I update how to get ahold of me should this apply to you. Tools for the trade there: A white board or easle and paper with markers OR a chalk board OR smart board, printer to print flyers on and computer to make the flyer.  

Tools of the trade for the work with patients with fatigue from 'this stuff', the complex environmental conditions, I still own and store in hopes of finding a provider who will want to help the people I'd send their way.  Light dumbells, a mit for putting the dumbells in for hands too weak due to whatever (often stroke/CVA) to hold anything. Some exercise sheets that are in handout form but today are also on the Internet, though some of the best things from OT-land in the good old days are NOT on the Internet. I got a trove from my mentor, Petie the OTR who you have on Lumigrate as one of the experts who livened up our forums with her interesting and wise topics provided in the formative years of Lumigrate. Mostly it's having the experience and knowledge of what to do WITH the tools, naturally. 

I hope my weaving this information in this topic helps motivate people to seeing how rapidly one can go from having symptoms they don't recognize as harbingers for disaster. Back when my health collapsed in my late 20s, I had been using a respirator / mask for fumes from finishing furniture, but I had not worn gloves, as the only ones I knew of then were latex and they 'melted' with the petroleum-based chemicals I was working with in co-creating incredible furniture my husband and I built.  He was very talented at it. I understood lungs better than skin at that point, in terms of the body and wellness or losing it from environmental factors. Getting a glassy and classy, unique finish to the wood was my specialty end of the 'deal', and so my hands were sometimes in contact with the stuff enough time to wet/dry sandpaper on 10 or more coats of a mix I had discovered, later basically made by the finishing companies -- polyurethane mixing with Danish oil/stain.

Naturally, there were other factors, and I suggest people seek out learning 'load theory' at Lumigrate.  A new building we worked in for our jobs which was outgassing so much that a bookcase moved about a year after we moved in revealed a 'mark' like eggshell color on a white background exactly in the shape of the bookcase. I was there 24 hours one day/night, often working  70 hour weeks and daily it was deadlines that were impossible, further depleting my adrenals. My mother had died, my father's health had gone wiggy almost immediately, and my husband's daughter and the complexities of being a blended family of me and them, not always the most 'regenerative'.  

Thus the 'integrative health' model has been something I gravitated to, as I fully understand the spirit, mind, and body are one whole package, and holistic is the way to go in my opinion. Functional medicine is looking for the underlying contributors and being proactive at that level of things, treating symptoms only as needed. So tools are a big part of functional medicine, and any kind of protective equipment.