Blog Post Belated Columbus Day 2019

Columbus Day - indigenous people's day, also the day that falls around my birthday each year.

Raw Food Journey

Here is a list of eventful times relating to my raw food journey:
​-  Purposeful transition, as an adult, 2004 after being diagnosed with pre-cancerous cells, resulting from an untreated past diagnosis.
-  2004 homeless and moved into a domestic violence shelter with my 2 toddlers.
-  Started receiving Medicaid insurance after being uninsured for years including during pregnancy two times.  I was able to get my teeth cleaned and repaired, a PAP and other health care at free or low cost clinics including Outside in and at naturopathic student clinics and with a practitioner Dr. Wendy, which took me over 1 year to pay my bill for 1 visit in which I was told that her services would be too expensive and time consuming; and that I should receive conventional care AKA surgery, which my insurance paid for.
-  In 3rd or 4th grade, Mr. Ross told us that liver helped to detox the body and that toxins can be stored in cow liver - that got me out of eating liver ever again, after telling my mother.
-  In 2nd grade on, I was concerned about being fat, having fat thighs and a flat chest.  I had started puberty very early at age 6 and think back on what xenoestrogens that I was exposed to including, hair moisturizer designed for black hair.
-  In 2004 I was living in the transitional housing program apartments formerly known as, Turning Point.  I had developed walking pneumonia and kicked myself for cancelling my acupuncture appointment.  I rescheduled and drove myself to the clinic and received acupuncture and a paper bag full of herbs, in which I stayed up all night boiling down as instructed and drinking as prescribed.  The herbs worked and previous to this I had read Dr. DC Jarvis' book on Fold Medicine - I was hooked on "alternative health".
-  As a teen I had hoped to go to conventional medical school, then join the Peace Corps so that I can end up in a place where people lived in grass huts, did not speak English, and have them teach me how the native plants are used as medicine.
-   I was not raw but had incorporated a lot of whole foods and super foods to my diet, buying food with food stamps at Wild Oats grocery store and Fred Meyer.
-  College bound (again).
-  Sunrise Place, moved in 2005, on my son's birthday
-  Cambridge Court, moved in 2006, on my son's birthday
-  ...life began to change even more, yet eating out of food boxes and working a low paying job while attending college paid for by student loans.  The children and I shared bananas, slices of smoked salmon and cans of sardines.  It was too expensive for everyone to get there own serving, but I wanted them to be strong and healthy and I wanted to live well into their adulthood.
-   To be continued...