Attitude Check

We have had a whirlwind two-and-a-half weeks.

Out trip to Disney World and getting to eat gluten-free went awesome.  Four days of theme parks were a blast.  We had no gluten exposures and the staff at every restaurant was nothing less than stellar.  I was able to stay allergen-free and keep my carbs and my grains to a minimum.  I even lost weight while on vacation. Disney isn’t an inexpensive place to eat, but we were quite happy to be able to eat out without having to pack the kitchen sink each morning.

There are website dedicated to allergen-free dining at Disney. Allergy-Free Mouse is where I did the bulk of my planning.  I picked which restaurants we wanted to eat at for each park, then planned the day’s rides, shows and activities so we would land at those locations at about the right time.  If you plan on dining at Disney for two meals a day, plan about $40 a day for each person eating adult meals, more or less.  The counter service restaurants are less expensive than those with a waiter, generally speaking.

I had planned on writing a long post about where we ate each day, what we had and review it all, and I will still try to pull that post together.  But today I want to write about the aftermath.  After our fun at Disney, we were set to attend a conference for It Works!  We had combined the vacation to see the mouse with the conference because, after all, who can go to Orlando without a pit stop at the happiest place on earth? The day the conference started, our daughter woke up with diarrhea and vomiting.  Then that afternoon, we were in a car accident.  It totaled our van, damaged both mine and Jeff’s knees, and left us limping with no transportation. Thankfully, the sick kids weren’t in the van with us, but were back at the hotel with their grandparents.  All while I was supposed to be attending the most important conference we have each year, with about 30 of my team members there and missing me.

 

Attitude

But before we talk about all of that fun, let’s talk about your attitude.  Or, rather, my attitude.

It doesn’t matter who you are, it doesn’t matter how smooth life is sailing (or not), you’re eventually going to have some REAL fun happen, and sometimes you can have several really fun things happen all in a string.  It could have been very, VERY easy for me to be sitting in a hotel room floor with a bum knee, swollen all up and in pain with black and blue shins, with a totaled van and no way to get home, sitting on the floor beside the bed of a kid who had it going at both ends and feel sorry for myself, disappointed, like the trip was ruined and I was stuck far away from home.  And I believe had I felt that way, no one would have blamed me.  Had I come home and griped about how awful the trip was, people would have nodded and sympathized.

Instead, I decided that I was going to show up, anyway, and try to have as good of an attitude as I could possibly muster.  I was late, I had to use a wheelchair, but I showed up.  No hair, no make-up, looking bad, but I showed up.  And I tried VERY hard to be an encouragement to those around me.

Because it isn’t all about me.  I had gone there with a purpose, and I wasn’t going to miss that with my team, wreck or not.  I wasn’t in the hospital and I had one good leg.  The truth is that I had no excuse to not show up.

I was blessed by going.  Did I hurt?  Oh heck yeah.  Did  I cry?  You bet. But I would have hurt and cried had I laid in the bed that day, too.  At least I was around people, distracted by an awesome conference, and had people encouraging me and praying for me.

Instead of feeling sorry for myself over being injured, I was happy the conference center had wheelchairs and I could go from the car, to the wheelchair and back without having to climb stairs.  Instead of being embarrassed about having to be pushed around,  I was thankful I had team members willing to help.  Instead of angry about the wreck and the inconvenience of having no car, I was thankful we had family to step in to get us there and back and help us pick up the rental car.

Despite the adversity, I was happy to be there, to be alive, and to get to meet many on my team for the first time.  Was it ideal?  Nope.  But I am so glad I didn’t allow the circumstances to steal my joy.

And in the end, going was the right decision.  The company doubled the leadership bonuses, and I have many people on my team who will be going for bonuses of $500, $20,000 and more.  If I can promote another rank by March 31st, I can earn a $100,000 bonus.  We shall see if I can get there.  I am praying hard and working towards that goal.  If you’re a hard worker, and you want to join a positive team who works together, I’d love for you to consider joining my team.

What happens in life doesn’t matter as much as how you respond.  With the right attitude, you can mentally recover from these types of setbacks.

How’s your attitude?

 

‘Fun’ With Norovirus

I had gone prepared for the classic flu and some other maladies with my normal array of supplements, herbs and homeopathics, but I wasn’t really fully prepared for a stomach virus.  And I wasn’t prepared for a car wreck (who is?), but I had brought a good amount of gelatin-containing food in case someone should get a body flu.

For the norovirus, I used a very potent, soil-based probiotic and tripled the dosage, along with probiotic foods and drinks aplenty.  Norovirus is beyond horrid, and you can re-infect yourself as you do not develop immunity to it, so I strongly suspected that probiotics might help combat the severity and duration of the illness by out-competing it.  Activated charcoal and digestive clay and some homeopathics for nausea were on the stand-by.  I figured if I completely couldn’t stop the vomiting and diarrhea, the least I could do would be to make everyone more comfortable and try to get it over with as fast as possible without spreading it, right?

We also hit hard on the rehydration solution, called the doctor at home and they told us what to look for to know to go to the ER.  Thankfully, we never reached the point where we had to consider it.  Norovirus is NO JOKE and you shouldn’t hesitate to seek medical care swiftly and without second-guessing yourself, if you are showing signs of dehydration or worse.  Do not rely on what we used, please seek medical advice if you are facing Norovirus because I am not a doctor.  I’m just telling you what worked for us, it might not work for you.

We kept peppermint Essential Oil on hand to sniff to relieve nausea, and had plenty of ginger-containing items to eat when needed. I was advised that after a vomiting jag, waiting a few hours before trying to sip anything was a good starting point for us to consider.  For the kids, that worked to stop further vomiting episodes.  After four hours (longer if they were asleep), they could tolerate a small (one teaspoon) sip of a probiotic drink every 15 minutes for one hour, then every 10 minutes for an hour, then as they felt able to have it to rehydrate. This, of course, only works if they aren’t dehydrated when the vomiting jag starts, and if the vomiting stops and they can catch a break.  If they’re vomiting with no breaks or already dehydrated, this is clearly something that shouldn’t be considered, call your doctor immediately.  When we realized we were facing a virus, we made sure everyone was well-hydrated to give us some added insurance, and my daughter normally keeps herself well-hydrated so she didn’t start the virus on the edge of dehydration. Even so, waiting for a few hours was kinda scary because grandmas the world around (and on Facebook) are pushing you to do something RIGHT NOW or haul them to the ER.  But once I figured out how long they needed to ‘reset,’ the vomiting stopped unless they snuck something.

For myself, the four hour mark didn’t work.  I really needed eight hours and a slower re-introduction of fluids to keep the vomiting at bay.  I believe this is what kept us out of the hospital, because had we continued to push fluids after an hour or so from the last vomiting episode out of fear of dehydration, we would have pushed ourselves further down the vomiting and dehydration cycle that leads to the ER and more germ exposures.  Not to mention the misery of having to do anything but lay very still when you’re so sick.

We then broke out the Lysol III.  Being away from home and in a small hotel room with only one toilet, we didn’t really have good options (major understatement), and it is the one thing I knew of on the market that says on the label it can kill norovirus.  Remember, I said above you can reinfect yourself.  And others, of course.  After every bout of diarrhea, we would close the toilet lid and flush, then spray down the underside of the lid, the seat on both sides and the rim, following the label directions, to try to prevent re-infection.  After every vomiting episode, we would throw out the trash bag and spray down the entire trash can. And, of course, lots of hand washing with warm water and generous amounts of soap, as well as keeping the sick-o isolated to their own bed and not allowing them to touch anything that could possibly infect someone else, like the remote control or light switches.

Our biggest fear was both adults being struck with the virus before we could get home, so we made the decision to leave as soon as we could after the conference was over and everyone was stable.  We finally rode home with both kids in the back seat of a rental car, wearing diapers with trash cans between their knees.  We had to make frequent stops for fresh air and bathroom breaks and dealt with two vomiting episodes while on the road, but we finally did get home.  I hope I never have to repeat another trip like that in my life.

I was hit with the virus about 24 hours after we got home, and Jeff went down a few days later.  I believe we are all finally on the mend.  The kids wound up missing two weeks of school between the trip and the horrid virus.  They went back to school today.

I woke up Friday morning, feeling better, with a fire in my belly.  The fire to help more people reach their goals, be happier and live a debt-free life.  I’ve been back to work on my cell phone and laptop as I have been able, while finishing my recovery.

 

Knee Damage

So what about my knee?  Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get to a doctor yet due to dealing with the virus.  That is top priority tomorrow. My knee is painful, very crunchy and something feels injured.  Jeff’s knee is crunchy and just odd.  I’m taking in lots of joint-related supports, like bone broth, gelatin, and a joint and pain relief supplement that It Works offers, while we wait.  I will update the blog once we know more.

 

Moral of the story? I will never make another family trip again without a nicely stocked, portable supply of all of the items needed to combat the classic flu AND the stomach flu.  And I will do my best to continue to keep a good attitude and learn to be content in ALL things.