Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Erfa's "Thyroid" Disaster, Paleo Diet and a White Fence



Hello! 
Once again I'm a deliquent blogger and I truly apologize for that. I have been dealing with thyroid issues caused by unknown changes to my dessicated thyroid medication called
"Thyroid" manufactured by the Canadian company Erfa and I am not the only one. There is a blog post by Janie Bowthorp on her website's blog
Stop The Thyroid Madness
about it from June and I am so thankful for her being our voice in this serious matter that has put those of us affected through the wringer.  Once again, I have been doing the bare minimum in my life as a result and it is so very frustrating. Couple that with an extremely tight budget as we get caught up from Todd being off for two months with sciatica means we have not done anything too exciting this summer. As well sitting on the wifi connection while on the computer still leaves me very drained physically so I have been avoiding it when I can.
Since this is the only dessicated thyroid available to us in Canada (they have about 3 other options in the US) it is nothing short of a disaster to my well being. Even though Erfa has admitted to moving their manufacturing facility to a different company and using a new machine to compress the tablets, they stand by the fact that they have not changed anything at all with their product. Back in 2009 Armour, another dessicated thyroid product was changed unknowingly to patients and people also saw a return of their hypothyroid symptoms. It is a crime that this can happen. It is wreaking havoc on my life and I pray for some sort of a miracle that they go back to whatever they were doing correct.
If you know of anyone who is taking Efa's "Thyroid" and has not being doing well since the start of this year then please direct them to Janie's blog so they can see what others have been experiencing.



And about a month ago we embarked on a new diet direction, the Paleo diet to see if it helped me feel better.  It has been wonderful and there are so many health benefits to it that I feel are helping us both and even my mom has given it a try. This diet takes more time and effort but is well worth it when your day is not plagued with the side effects of eating grains, even gluten free grains.
Today I whipped up some Paleo approved zuchinni pancakes from the "Nourishing Meals" cookbook for breakfast which are easy and delicious.






A couple of weekends ago, my honey started staining the fence and gate on the east side of the house white. 
He left the small recessed areas of the lattice for me to do.


And I managed to get them done on the inside of the gate first, which of course was dumb now that I think about it since no one sees this side very much.



And then this past weekend the weather was fence staining perfection with little humidity and clear blue skies. Because the fence is a couple of years old, a week ago Todd powerwashed and then sanded the entire fence and the we both spent two full days staining it a nice pure white on the outside.


Every one of our neighbours think it looks nice but one guy we have never seen before wanted to know why we were painting it white and said it looked just fine as a wood fence. I wanted to throw my stain roller at him as he walked away and my honey wanted to ask him why his shirt was so ugly but we just smiled and replied, ah well this is much cleaner looking.



My limelight hydrangeas have monstrous size blooms this year and I'm not sure what I did to deserve them but they are gorgeous!



We just love how pretty and fresh it looks. Earlier in the summer Todd  had to remove a large juniper and a sand cherry on this side of the house that had died  and we hope to level out the yard and and add fresh sod before the snow flies and perhaps transplant some plants from the back garden. 


But now the Benjamin Moore Weston flax house colour looks so faded and dingy so hopefully we can rectify that next year and paint it a nice warm grey along with repainting most of the windows that need it as well.
This side has nonworking gates that in the event that we need access to the yard with any equipment etc. then all we have to do is unscrew them to open them up.


This is the back of the yard at our neighbours driveway and we still need to get a second coat on it.



I picture some nice easy to maintain shrubs along this street side but that too will have to wait until next year but for now I am so pleased with our fence. Now if I could just convince him to one day install a cute shorter picket fence for the rest of the yard which I think will be absolutely perfect for our charming home.