welcome to the organic green doctor blog

i am a family physician who was diagnosed with
early mild cognitive impairment(mci) amnestic type on december 21, 2010
this is a precursor to alzheimers disease
because of this diagnosis i have opted to stop practicing medicine
this blog will be about my journey with this disease
please feel free to follow me along this path
i will continue blogging on organic gardening, green living,
solar power, rainwater collection, and healthy living
i will blog on these plus other things noted to be interesting

Friday, July 19, 2013

i think that..., rice it is

I THINK THAT...
if you think that there is a problem
well maybe there is a problem

its called subjective cognitive decline
it may be the first clinical indicator of
alzheimers disease
ie
its the first sign of alzheimers disease

its the self reported perception of memory or
cognitive problems

at the alzheimers association international conference
in boston this week this was one of the topics discussed
with special interest to clinicians

if you can find ways to identify people early real early
get aggressive with treatment early maybe you can make
a difference in whether the disease progresses at all or
maybe make it less severe

right now you have aricept (donepezil) and namenda that can
be used initially or later on in the case of namenda
then
get aggressive with treatment of the blood pressure cholesterol
diabetes obesity sleep disturbances depression anxiety
and improve exercise diet and mental activity

this early subjective cognitive decline combined with new
testing with blood test and amyvid pet scan allows for an
early diagnosis to be made
then
new treatments can be started early on these patients

also these patients can be used for some of the research studies
on new drugs that will probably work better if started early on
the disease

there are a lot of social and psychological factors to consider
of course in this early detection

the study im in the alzheimers disease neuroimaging initiative
has started a study of patients who have subjective cognitive
decline and are following them with the same tests that im having
done in the mild cognitive group

im glad to see this research on subjective cognitive decline
because if i didnt have some changes on my neuropsych exam
and spinal fluid protens i probably would be in that group

here is a link to a nbc story on alzheimers disease with
maria shriver and dr nancy snyderman
this video talks about why early detection to this patient is
important
click here to watch the video

RICE IT IS
im anxiously awaiting day break today
as yesterday at about 700 am i was in the hot tub
enjoying the morning coolness and a moment of quiet
and relaxation before my day took off

i had my iphone in its otter box protector setting on a ledge
in a window by the hot tub
that otter box has been a life saver for the iphone as i get
a lot of dust compost mulch grass clipping feathers fertilizer
and a lot of other foreign materials on it on a regular basis
it really seems to help a lot in protecting it
money well spent
i hope

as i was getting out of the tub i was talking to my wife
and i guess not paying attention
oops
there the phone went into the hot tub water

i quickly hopped out of the tub
remembering from kim komando to dunk it in rice
i quickly removed the otter box so far so good
some moisture was on the outside
i quickly wiped it off
as i removed the otter box i noticed the cover to the
charger hole was not closed
not good i thought

i tried to turn it off and it wouldnt turn off
not good i thought

but into the rice i plunged it
later in the morning i heard it ring
not good i thought

its been quiet since then

now my timer is on and has two hours left

i am anxiously awaiting the results of the rice immersion

if its dead its back to the pos phone i had before
the verizon stratisphere until november

i sure love my iphone

lesson learned

the organicgreen doctor

Thursday, July 18, 2013

graying greying greening

GRAYING GREYING GREENING
is it gray or grey
i never can remember which is correct
do i gray or grey as i get older
is it greying or graying in america
well in america its graying
but
in england its greying
but
either way is acceptable

i do have readers from england south africa new zealand
and australia so i think they would be pleased with the use of
grey

im glad to know that so now it can just write whichever i want
and its ok

gray water is the water sometimes soapy that is tap water thats
used in bathing or in the washing machine
here at the country n grey water see its ok to switch the spelling
also includes the water used to wash dishes and the water used
to rinse the dishes

so here the gray water is shower or bath water washing machine
water and the dish waters

now our washing machine water line goes underground to a
a catch basin that eventually waters a couple of our oak
trees
you can tell the one has had extra water since i planted it
as a little scrawny 1 gallon monterey oak and the same time
i planted a 10 gallon 10 ft tall monterey oak
the little one thats been getting the grey water is much bigger
that the 1010 oak tree

at aggie land agrilife thats the new name for ag extention office
research looked at whether it was safe to use gray water
for irrigation
i hope so since weve been doing it now for 12 years
its kept several of our trees and shrubs alive during the drought
time

they did their studies in the greenhouse for now but the next phase
will be eventually be on a landscape outside

this study is important as using grey water in our landscapes can
decrease our use of our shrinking water sources
50% of the average household water consumption is from use
in the landscape

using grey water in the landscape could save 10-25% of our water
consumption for landscaping

in this study the only washing component that made a difference was
the use of gray water and bleach which caused some yellowing of the
leaves on certain plants but not all

bleach is not a problem here at the country n since we dont use it
in our grey water at all

we also are careful what detergents soaps conditioners etc
we use

all the plants in the study were native plants and included shrubs
flowering plants and some succulents

so heres our gray use here at the country n
i guess you have to really believe this is important to do it
as it takes some effort
thank you my wife she for your persistence in all this

so if you come to visit us and you take a shower youll find
a color coordinating bucket 2 or 5 gallon in the shower
which will fill up as you shower and on yes youll notice the
water flow of the shower is reduced
sorry about that one

that water will be carried outside and left in a spot where i
will later decide where to use it
i dont use it in the veggie garden unless i know it just tap water
which at the country n is rainwater

right now i leave the bucket there for a few days as those damn
grasshoppers for some good reason try to swim in the water
but dont make it
then i pour it in the landscape

after washing dishes in the sink as my wife she didnt want a dish
washer since she had one already-me
the water is scooped out and placed in a five gallon bucket and
placed outside to provide a swimming pool for the hoppers
also i figured they would decompose or compost down to
some nutrients for the soil

usually ill use the rinse water in the veggie garden or inside plants
since its mostly just rainwater

then the washing machine gray water goes to the oak trees as
mentioned before

so when you get your water bill this month and its high from
all the landscape watering think about using your grey water
in the landscape
unless you use bleach then dont use it
we do fine without the bleach
the sun bleaches our clothes as they hang on our outside
clothes line

i expect i if we lived in town my yard would have no grass or
very little grass and i would be doing all this there
including rainwater collection and we would have a low
water bill
which means a low sewage bill also
and yes we would have a hidden clothes line somewhere

so think about using gray water or grey water in your landscape
and be green while your doing it

the organicgreen doctor

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

nothing

NOTHING

this morning i sat to write this blog and i looked at my
weekly planner that i usually do every weekend to plan
what ill do my blog on that week
sometimes i will change the topic on a whelm based on some
facebook posting that catches my eye or a twitter twit or a
newspaper report or sometimes just something some one says

but today
its all about nothing
as this weekend i was totally wiped out by the gis
i mean down for the count
like when i was totally stoned by the drugs vicodin and valium
when i first ruptured my disk
of course i didnt really remember those days but
i sure remember this weekend whenever i was awake
cause when i was awake i had to be really awake or i would
be in trouble as i made my dashes to the bathroom

because of this 3 day wipe out from the gis i didnt do the planner
so i havent really caught up with everything yet
so here i am looking at a blank planner
nothing
so its about nothing today
like seinfelds show its all about nothing

this time has made me think about a lot this week

race
we still have a long way to go in america
we havent came a long way baby

politics
we need immigration reform
womens health care and child heath care improvements
(the south has a hiv problem thats maybe worst than the rest of
the world     now thats sad real sad and its tied to womens
health care)
we have an educational debt problem in the us and a college
system thats gotten out of control
we are ruining a generation of kids with this debt
and they cant get jobs with their degrees
weve lost ourselves in two wars that may be one of the big reasons
besides wall street corruption that we are in such debt
dont blame bush or obama
we should blame ourselves
we vote the decision makers in office

alzheimers
we are on the cusp of treatments and cures
im on the cusp of these treatments and cures
im early enough if i do have alzheimers diesease that these treatments
may work on me but if it takes longer there is really not much i can
do to slow things down significantly
it just doesnt make sense that they are doing all these studies on people
who are more advanced since it appears that nothing will really work
when the stages get more advanced
think cancer in the later stages
treatment needs to be started in the middle age years
please start more studies in that age group
i know that thats starting to happen since new tests can identify
people at risk and people probably who have asymptomatic
disease
please speed things up ok

football
we need football all year round
maybe the pros could play from february until august
and the colleges from august to february

the country n
weve lived here now for 12 years
and have loved every day weve lived here
it fits our life style and i think it says who we are
green laid back couple who doesnt really care about a lot of
the other things people think are important
we are quite satisfied with our organic garden organic xeriscape
rainwater harvesting solar power native landscape with all its
native birds insects yes even grasshoppers
since they are part of the cycle of life
we love it all

but

this recent 3 day episode of the gis coupled with the 2 months of
the sciatica pain has made at least me realize that the day will come
when we wont be able to live here even though we love it here
there is a  lot of maintenance on the property

the rainwater system has to be maintained on a regular basis to
keep it working properly
filters changed ultraviolet lights changed the system flushed and
sterilized on a regular basis
gutters kept cleaned out
lines drained
sock filters changed frequently as the water goes into the storage tanks
water moved around to keep the water levels even
of course none of this is written down anywhere at least not yet
but i plan to cause no one will ever find all the valves and  tricks to
maintaining this system

but
its really all worth living her for now














then i realize that my wife she
shes a special person
especially these last 2 months
i guess im going to owe her one huh
thanks

nothing all about nothing

the organicgreen doctor