WHAT ABOUT CAB DRIVERS IN NYC

It was the winter of 1967 and the beginning of my costume jewelry business. I was meeting the editor of Mademoiselle magazine who was very interested in my costume jewelry line. But first I had to  make a stop at a boutique in Great Neck to deliver an order and pick up cash. When I arrived in the city I found a great parking spot in front of the stores on Lexington Ave.  I put money in the meter and all I had to do was walk a block to her office. Wearing a thin coat seemed appropriate as the weather was sunny and not too cool.

The editor was a young attractive woman who liked my creations. She handed me a bone bracelet and asked me to find the beads that matched to create some jewelry pieces for her. If she liked them she promised to give me a free editorial in her magazine.

Overwhelmed with joy, I left her office to head for home. Our sleep in maid was watching our young boys and we planned a Christmas vacation in Florida the following day. Arriving at my parking spot I noticed my car was missing. Running into the nearby store, I asked if they noticed anything wrong. They told me I was parked in an illegal parking spot. "How can that be", I cried. I inserted the coins into the meter. There were no signs" The store keeper said there was a sign all the way down at the end of the block. "Who would know that" I cried." I live in a suburb and did not know about the rules on that street."

The weather was getting cooler as the sun went in. I was dressed in my short mini skirt, high white boots, a Fall hair piece which was in style in those days and a thin coat. I ran to a  nearby telephone booth and told my husband about my car being towed. He was a president of a public company at that time and in the middle of a meeting.  " Don't worry, I will come and get you. Meet me on the south west corner of Lexington Ave." He said

Walking up the street, I approached a few people asking them where the South West corner was. They all looked at me as if I was crazy and nodded that they did not know. After an hour of looking for him, I was starting to feel chilled because the weather was getting very bad with rain and sleet. My hair was soaking wet with the alcohol  from my Fall  running down into my face and burning my eyes.

Thinking I was fortunate to make that stop earlier at the boutique shop picking up some cash, I decided to hail a cab. It was dark at 6:30 in the evening and many cabs were occupied with passengers.

Whenever I saw a cab with their lights on I jumped in, only to have them ask me to get out as they were heading home. After the 10th cab, I pleaded with a cab driver to please take me to the pound were all the towed vehicles were. Every minute the weather was getting nastier and I found myself shivering. "Please, I beg you, I have children home waiting for me. I am tired, hungry and cold. Please do not make me get out"  I cried.  Okay lady, take it easy. I will take you to the pound. I was on my way home, but I will take you." His accent sounded like a foreigner from India, or from a Muslim country.

The snow was coming down heavier, and I could not stop shivering. Riding  up town, the cab driver stopped his cab and said he had to get out of the cab for a minute. He  told me to wait there and not get out. When he left, fear came over me. I was horrified over what might come next. "He is getting his friends to rape me", I thought. "GET OUT OF THE CAR, I kept saying to myself, GET OUT, GET OUT. But I was cold, tired, scared, afraid to move. "What was taking him so long. Where did he go?" I wondered

Fifteen minutes later he came back to the cab alone (thank God) with a hot cup of coffee for me.

GOD BLESS HIM!

CONCLUSION: KNEE PAIN AND HOW I AVOIDED SURGERY

For almost 20 years I had been pain free until I started playing tennis again. My knee was hurting like years past. Noticing everyone on the courts wearing knee supports, wrist bands, etc. I figured it was okay for me to purchase a knee support too to help relieve the pressure. But my last day of tennis I had to practically crawl to my car. Walking was impossible.

Living in a different state I went to another orthopedic doctor. I was advised to get arthroscopic knee surgery. Remembering the ordeal prior, I went to my new internist and asked him to prescribe Doxycycline. After his refusal, I researched on Google, typing "knee pain and Doxycycline" Boom, pages and pages of information about the promising effects of the drug. I printed the 20 pages and brought them into my doctor’s office. After he read them, I got a call from his office that my prescription of Doxycycline is waiting for me at the drug store.

Knowing we must be our own advocate, we should always ask questions and acquire information about our health issues. Our doctors are more educated than we are. We rely on them to take good care of us and continue to do research on their patients illnesses. But they are human like the rest of us. They error, and make poor decisions as well. Surprisingly though, they hardly have the time to do research as often as they should.

If we are not feeling better within a reasonable time, it is most important to find a support group and learn from them about the medications they take and the doctors who have treated them satisfactory.
Thankful my doctor took the time to review the information I gave him, I wondered why he was unaware of the wonders of Doxicycline before. For his patients sake and mine, I was glad I made him discover another use of Doxycycline.

The research pointed out that even patients with Fibromyalgia benefited from Doxicycline. Whenever I hear a patient who is suffering from it, I tell them my story and suggest they speak to their doctor in prescribing it for them. Either they do not say anything because they believe their doctor is trying to help them. Others speak about it with their doctors only to have the doctors refuse to prescribe it even if their illness has not improved. I feel helpless watching them suffer and continue to stick to Dr. God's methods.

Wondering why doctors do not prescribe this wonderful drug, perhaps there is a drug shortage from what I am reading in the paper. I also called my Walgreens drug store last week asking if they have 100 milligrams of Doxycycline in stock. Their answer is "their supply is diminishing."
It is scary out there. I think they are trying to save many drugs for life and death situations because it is getting scarce. They are afraid of a pandemic and they do not publicize too much about it.

As for playing tennis again, I made a deal with my knee. I said "knee, if I am good to you and not give you pressure by playung tennis, will you be good to me" It's been a good deal and I am sticking to it.

My knee pain has gone for the past five years. If it ever comes back, I know what I have to do.

Stay well everyone!

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SURGERY

PART 2 - KNEE PAIN AND HOW I AVOIDED SURGERY

While waiting for another opinion to have knee surgery, I read about Lime Disease being ramped not only where we lived in New City, New York, but all over the world. The paper mentioned symptoms most of which I had. It also listed Lime support groups in every neighborhood.

My husband and I went to one which devastated us. The room was filled with about thirty people. Some consisted of very young teenagers and adults. They all claimed they had knee pain at the beginning of their disease. Most of them had unsuccessful arthroscopic knee surgeries.

Everyone in the room were in poor health. Most needed intravenous every day because the oral antibiotics were not effective. Unfortunately they waited too long for proper treatment. Each person spoke one at a time in orderly manner telling their story. Most said they could not get out of bed each day. They all had mood swings, poor concentration and felt ill. It appeared a spirochete from a tick or a bite from a mosquito  invaded their nervous system. The teenagers could not attend school and the adults could not go to work or function normally.

My husband and I looked at each other with complete fear that this was going to happen to me. It was too unbelievable as I was always very healthy up to that point. When it was my turn I spoke about my symptoms which were similar to theirs but definitely not as serious. I said, "Tiredness came often with spells which I could not describe. I found it difficult to concentrate on my business, but still tried pushing myself. I  just assumed the symptoms would go away."

When I told them about my planned operation they all gasped at the same time. "DON'T YOU DARE" they said with anger. "The operation will do nothing. You need to be on Doxycycline at once before it is too late. It is an anti-inflammatory as well as an antibiotic. It will never kill the spirochete, but It will put it to sleep for decades stopping them from further damage in the body.. If it should ever wake up and you are feeling pain with similar symptoms, retake Doxycycline."  They all tried other antibiotics of which none worked as well as Doxycyline. "But you must take Acidophilus with the antibiotic to avoid yeast infection", they said

They laid out a map of what I had to do. They all recommended the same doctor who will treat my symptoms rather than a blood test. There were only a couple of those doctors in the country and the one they suggested was not too far away from home.  They told me most doctors would not treat me unless my blood test shows positive. But their doctors said if my blood was positive I would be helpless and too late to cure me.

The spirochete could have been in my body for years. Perhaps as young as an infant, a mosquito bite could have bit me not knowing how severe it would be later on.  Some times we get aches and pains, never attributing it to a spirochete invading our bodies. We think it might be arthritis  How many times have we been bitten by a mosquito which developed into a rash? Who ever knew about ticks until it was broad casted everywhere in the 80’s?

This toxin, bug eats into your tissues. It can attack your knee, joints, lungs, heart, nervous system, kidneys, and heart, whatever it can find. It starts attacking usually when there is stress to the body. Usually the first place it hits is in the knees.

After the meeting I took a blood test which thank God was negative. My doctor refused to prescribe the antibiotic because by blood was fine. Therefore I went to the support group's doctor who treats the symptoms rather than the blood test. After completing a long questioner and an examination, he prescribed 100 milligrams of Doxycycline for 30 days.

When the 30 days were up, I was not feeling better. So the doctor prescribed another 30 days of the drug. After I got the new prescription, I hesitated taking the pills. I waited almost a  week  as I was dubious about taking too much medication.

When the week was up, I was pain free. The full bottle of antibiotics were not used. My original orthopedic doctor told me I was foolish not to have the operation. He said it was like having a marble in my knee whereby the pain would come and go. Eventually if I did not have the operation, my knee would get worse and I would be a cripple in less than 10 years. Luckily I was happy with my decision. I heard so many stories of people who did not have Lyme disease having the surgery.  Unfortunately they still suffered with their knees and eventually had to go for knee replacement. There are cases as well that arthroscopic knee surgery was successful in some patients.

For about fifteen years I was pain free.  I will never know if I ever did have Lyme Disease.  However, the treatment for it helped me. I was well again, playing  tennis and walking three miles every day.  For a few years I stopped playing tennis when I moved to Florida.  But when I started playing again, guess what happened?

Read what my doctor discovered and how my knee pain left me for good.
Next week

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HOW TO TAKE A SIMPLE TEST TO FIND OUT WHAT YOU'RE ALLERGIC TO

In my last issue I explained how the foods we eat affect our mind and bodies. It is extremely difficult for me and many others to start eliminating some of our foods, the ones we love so much. Many ignore their ill symptoms after they ate, others listen to their bodies and look for answers as to what they had that made them feel ill. They start thinking about what to eliminate from their diets

As promised I will pass on a simple test I learned from Dr Michael Schacter. After paying him hundreds of dollars testing my son for food allergies, he told me to go across the street to his health food store and buy his book Food, Mind and Mood. It was in his book that I learned how to test for foods that cause weakness to your body and your immune system that cause allergies. Too bad he did not tell me about it before I paid him all that money.

Here goes: Sit at the table with your partner and place your hand on the table. Have him place his hand over yours tightly. You try to get out of his grip as he tries to resist your strength. The idea is to know your strength before the next step. The book says afterwards to fast for a few days. We would probably be dead by then. So I suggest you fast for 24 hours. Then take a piece of food, one which you suspect you might be allergic to. Place it under your tongue. You do not have to eat it, as the food under your tongue goes into your blood stream anyway. Now place your hand on the table, having your partner place his hand over yours. Try to resist him. If you are weaker than the first time, that food is probably your culprit. If not try again the following week with another food, like bread, cheese, etc. Jut one food at a time
 
Years after my teenage son's asthma was arrested, I started to have lower back pain all the time. Heating pads became my best friend. Refusing to take drugs, I was bed ridden for days, unable to raise my pillow or get out of bed to turn off the TV. We had to purchase an electric queen size bed and a remote control TV which at that time was unpopular. When my lower back recovered, I was able to carry on with my household duties until the next attack.

One day, I accompanied my husband to see one of his clients to sign a contract. He owned a famous store on Canal street. The client told me he was heavy into drugs until he had hepatitis . His health guru friends nursed him back to health months before most hepatitis patients recovered. He became a health nut and drug free.

When he saw me in pain, he advised me to quit eating all the foods I was accustomed to. When he mentioned root, and foods I never heard of, I said 'forget it" Thus, he said, " just eliminate one food and I promise you will feel better. You see, the atmosphere stinks, the water we drink is not good, especially the foods we eat. So naturally our bodies are breaking down because we cannot resist all the toxins getting into us"

"What did I have to loose?" I said to myself. I could still eat many of my favorite foods, so I just eliminated meat. After three months the pain in my lower back went away. My friends said it would have gone away anyway, so I cheated. After having meat two nights in a row, I felt a light tinge in my lower back. It was not bad, just a warning. That was over twenty five years ago, and I never had a back ache again. Oh, yes, I can now have steak, or hamburgers but only once a month. Some times I will cheat and have it twice. My back is very forgiving. I will never push it though. My philosophy is, If I am good to my back, my back will be good to me.We made a deal and we are sticking to it