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PreservingThePast
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
1572 Posts |
 Posted - 04/15/2010 : 09:50:03
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I know many on this forum are already prepping for the future or at least considering starting this process in the immediate future.
And, while I can't imagine that any others on here have a body that is as strange as mine is in regards to medical issues, please consider these statements, JUST IN CASE.
If you had asked me a month ago, I would have told you that storing rice and dried beans, etc. for my future needs would be an easy, inexpensive and a doable goal for me and my family and I wouldn't be able to foresee any reason why it wouldn't be that way. NOW, that wouldn't be possible. It appears that my body can't tolerate these foods and many others any longer.
If you had asked me a month ago about the OTC meds and supplements I would need to have, I could have told you. Now, that too has changed.
So, all of you, please be prepared with a Plan B that could be implemented on a moment's notice if you or anyone in your family "discover" that a food or foods can no longer be tolerated by a person's body.
On a side note: I am feeling better than I have in a very long time!!! I don't have the headaches I was experiencing daily (ALL day long every day) nor do I have the "brain fog" that had taken up permanent residence in my brain. The pain from my fibromyalgia is greatly diminished and hopefully it will continue further into remission and I won't even feel a twinge from it. I do still have a few aches and pains but life is much more pleasant now to my body. However, the vision hasn't improved nor have the other neurological symptoms I have been experiencing that necessitated the tests to rule out MS as a possible cause--and those tests were inconclusive. BUT, I am not giving up hope yet for those areas to see improvement.
I am a slow learner and could have experienced this relief a few months ago had I not been so stubborn and set in my ways. But that is in the past and I am literally now "present" for each and every day. What a new experience it is to wake up without a headache and with a clear head and not have to stumble and stagger around trying to just get through the day! Not to mention the agonizing pain I was experiencing all day long and those pains would increase with the slightest change in our barometric pressure.
Who could have thought that the everyday foods I was eating were doing this to my body? I certainly couldn't. And, if anyone had told me that I could feel relief from pain in less than 48 hours and wake up on the fourth morning of the dietary change without a headache and without the "brain fog" I would never have believed it.
So, please be prepared to make a change in the foods you are prepping with should someone in your household have a similar experience. It is better to have that amount of food wasted by your family than to have the person with the "intolerant body" continue to experience the pain, "brain fog", etc.
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Nickelless
Administrator
USA
5580 Posts |
Posted - 04/15/2010 : 16:05:03
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Interesting post, PTP. Could you elaborate on what your body couldn't tolerate, specifically, and how you were preparing and serving the food? Were you pre-soaking the beans overnight to remove the gas-causing sugars? Had you been eating a lot more rice than before and just not acclimated to eating a lot of rice before? Tell us more.
I've got several hundred pounds of rice and beans, but I'm pre-soaking the beans for at least 12 hours before cooking them and making a HUGE variety of soups using a couple dozen quarts of spices, dehydrated fish/chicken and dehydrated veggies. So far no problems with my body tolerating the same thing each day as long as I pre-soak the beans for a long time.
And FWIW, check out this blog post of mine for ideas on how to get a lot of variety even from just rice and beans:
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quote:
We frequently eat the same type of bread when we make all kinds of different sandwiches–pastrami, peanut butter, ham salad, grilled cheese–so what’s unusual about the thought of making hundreds of different beans-and-rice dishes out of, well, beans and rice? What kind of beans do you want? Pintos? Light red? Great Northern? Lentils? Split peas? Garbanzos? Black beans? Do you want white rice, basmati, brown rice, parboiled rice, medium grain, long grain?
I remember being amazed as a kid when I heard a commercial that said I could have a Wendy’s hamburger 255 different ways. Did I want ketchup? Mustard? Pickle? Mayo? Mustard and pickle? Cheese only? Tomato, ketchup and mayo? Onion? Everything except ketchup? Plain? Only tomato? It’s the same hamburger. But I could eat a hamburger a day for 255 days and not have it made the same way twice. So why can’t we do the same thing with rice and beans?
What do you take for your fibromyalgia? I have it, too, and I get pretty good relief from 800 mg. of naproxen and a 1000 mg. flaxseed oil capsule every night at bedtime.
How much of the way you feel do you think was related to rice and beans?
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--Latest article: Stocking up on spices to keep food preps lively
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Edited by - Nickelless on 04/15/2010 16:23:55 |
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PreservingThePast
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
1572 Posts |
 Posted - 04/18/2010 : 16:20:12
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Nickelless...thanks for your interest.
I'll try to be brief but probably won't be able to do so as this is really a compound situation that I was enduring and it appears an even more compound solution. As I mentioned, a friend asked permission to give me a diet that could benefit my painful conditions. I agreed. This was last year. BUT, I was very reluctant to start the diet with a myriad of excuses, the main one being that I couldn't afford to eat that way. Other friends in the past had also counseled me to do virtually the same thing. Again, I dug in my heals and just wouldn't make the changes for, again, many of the same reasons.
Well, the Monday just before Easter I had another unbearably horrible day here at home. My balance was atrocious to the point of my walking gait needing to be very uneven and almost spastic-like to be able to walk without falling. The unending headache, sinus pain and pressure, pressure in my joints to the point that they felt they would literally explode, fibromyalgia pain so inflamed that just the lightest of touch would cause me more agony. To anyone wondering about all of this, if you've never walked in the shoes of fibromyalgia you can NOT even begin to understand how disabling it can be for even everyday activities--especially sleep.
That night as I lay down to hope for some sleep and rest for my painful body, I received a phone call from a friend that has a similar disorder and she has benefited mightily from dietary changes. I told her it was so strange that she had called as I had just been thinking of her because just prior to her call I had remembered back to nine years earlier when I had food/preservative allergies so bad that I had gone into anaphylactic shock a few times and now carry an Epi-Pen with me at all times. Well, this time God nudged my brain a bit more and I remembered that a woman that had offered to help me with info about avoiding MSG in all its various names in our foods of today had told me that she was in such bad shape she was practically paralyzed and the medical profession thought she had MS. But, through her change in eating she was perfectly OK and did not have MS. So, as I lay there remembering all that I knew that I had to give my body one last effort on my part to make certain I had done everything I could to see if this could possibly be what was causing my MS-type symptoms--not even to mention all the pain my body was under night and day. Then my friend called me and I told her what I was considering doing. Of course, she was all for it since her painful condition was so much better when she ate properly. She also reminded me of needing to keep a food diary of anything/everything going into your mouth and the time and any sort of reaction and the time. Reactions good or bad. I complained to her about that as I had felt like I was literally bound before when I had to do that with the allergy diet. (And, NO, the allergy tests did not indicate I was allergic to any of the foods that seem to be the culprits of my pain, sinus problems, etc.)
So, the next morning I get up and decide today is the day. I'll make this last effort and can report to the doctor good or bad, the results. I truly felt that I was in this for a good long haul before I might notice any beneficial results, if any at all. I still cheated that morning and had about a third of a can of regular Coke when I took my morning 3 Advil, 1 Zyrtec and used two squirts of prescription nasal spray for allergies. I have been doing this routine for a long time and normally I would suffer so much that I would have to use some OTC stuff later in the day to get through. Nighttime was no Advil (although in recent years the doctor had me on 800 mg. twice daily of ibuprophen) but was a prescription muscle relaxant and more allergy medicine.
That day I began internet searching for the web site that the woman from nine years ago had told me about. It was something like No MSG. I also thought while I am making the change away from MSG I might as well do the inflammation diet that the friend sent me last year. Well, I could not find the site I remembered her telling me about with the Google search of No MSG but did find a couple of helpful sites that even had a discussion board connected to one and reading the info helped me refresh my brain as to what names MSG could legally be in our food as all sorts of names, etc.
Well, the MSG sites advocate eating rice, wheat foods, etc. as long as there isn't any MSG or preservatives, etc. But, I was going to do the inflammation diet too which said no grains at all along with other NO-NOs. Thinking I knew better since the allergy elimination diet I was forced to endure back in 2001 had rice as one of the primary foods that was safe to eat. That's why I said I could still eat it. I cooked some up on the third day, AFTER experiencing noticeable relief in less than 48 hours from the fibro pain and from sinus pain/congestion, etc.
Cooked the rice and while eating it my nose began to run and I got a slight cough. Strange. Within 30 minutes of eating it my ankles literally felt as if they would explode. I checked and the barometric pressure was changing. OK. That's normal for me to experience the pain then. No biggie. However, I kept the rest of the rice for the day before Easter as we had a picnic to go on and I needed easy food to transport on a couple hours drive each way plus to have enough food along for me for an all day into night journey.
Backing up from picnic Saturday to Friday as that was the start of the Fourth Day--Good Friday and I woke for the first time in years without a headache and without "brain fog". I didn't know what to think except that it felt so good but I kept waiting for the boom to be lowered on me and the pain to return. It didn't. I woke up early on Saturday for the picnic and the same--No headache, No "brain fog" and no real pain in my body. We were outdoors in a park with lots and lots and lots of pollen. Normally I would have had to seek relief in OTC sinus/pain medication and would still have been miserable. I also walked and stood a lot that day and could not believe how well I was feeling. When we ate and I finally got to the cold rice and took a bite it literally tasted horrible, it tasted like soap. Didn't think anymore of it except I didn't eat the rice. That evening after we got home, I remembered about another friend that is severely allergic to Cilantro and if it is in food and he isn't aware of it, the food tastes like soap to him and that warns him of the danger to not eat the food. So, OK, my body must have told me not to eat the rice. Well, since the third day of this dietary change when I did eat the rice and my joints felt as if they would explode about 30 minutes after eating the rice, I have not had that sensation in my joints at all. We have had thunderstorms come through the area and I have had no extra pain. It is great.
Now, after about a week - ten days of being on this diet and knowing already the relief I had found in such a quick time, I found a few more web sites to explore regarding MSG, etc. One belongs to a D.V.M. and I will put a link for one of his pages.
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He has a lot of pages and I found one that said he also had fibromyalgia and other health issues and he had received relief in less than a week and all gone in one month. IF I had read that prior to my own relief I would NOT have believed it at all. No way, no how could something so simple produce such dramatic results.
He writes about a G.A.R.D. diet and he doesn't mention the rice to avoid but maybe I haven't delved far enough in all his writings, but all the other grains basically avoid along with the dairy (I had already figured this one out for myself a few years ago when taking my violin lessons, but was stubborn and still liked my occasional ice cream and my glass of cold milk occasionally with a cookie or two) and soy and the legumes/dried beans, etc.
After reading more of his explanations about food and what it can do to various parts of our bodies, I am beginning to understand more and more. I also find it strange that we are told to eat these foods as they are beneficial to our bodies; YET, if you are on thyroid medication you are told to NOT consume within four hours either side of your medication (so at least 8 total hours, 1/3 of your day) any dairy products, any other products high in calcium, any soy products, and there are others as these will cause your body to NOT be able to process and absorb the medication properly.
After reading more and more I am remembering many things from my childhood forward. My dad suffered terribly from headaches and migraines. He loved peanuts and ate some often, sometimes a few every day. Our family always ate bread products and other wheat products like spaghetti, macaroni, etc. We ate a lot of foods that had beans in them of all kinds. He also had horrible sinus problems. Many in my family have horrible sinus problems.
Being able to be outdoors and have the one allergy pill in the morning work and not have to take other medications throughout the day or not be feeling horrible from the pain and pressure in the sinus area/head area is awesome. Not having the horrible tenderness over all my body from the fibromyalgia is great and I hope for more relief yet with this disease. I had a check-up with my doctor on Friday and he did his best to find a tender spot from my fibromyalgia and from my constant sinusitis that I have suffered from almost all my life. The sinus area was completely pain free. The fibromyalgia had only slight tenderness on the sides of my hips. He agrees with the changes I made and will have me back in a few months to do blood work to see if my thyroid medication can possibly be lowered as many times that happens.
I can continue to hope that my vision problem of intermittent double vision can improve more and that all of the neurological symptoms I am still experiencing will go away as I continue to avoid the MSG as well as be on the inflammation diet that is relieving my pain levels.
Not everyone is as sensitive to foods/chemicals/odors as I am but from things I have read, this can build up in almost everyone eventually to cause all sorts of health problems.
With these changes going on in my body, I feel as if I had been the proverbial canary in the coal mine and I was gasping for my last breath of air as all of these foods caused damage to my body.
The D.V.M. guy that I listed the web site for earlier says that when you eliminate the glutamates and aspartates that occur naturally in some foods that cause these problems sometimes they can eventually be added back in occasionally. I've always known that I was terribly allergic to the Nutra-sweet stuff made from aspartamine.
Through my recent continued web searches I believe that I did eventually stumble upon the site that I think the woman from 2001 had told me about. It didn't come up in a Google search when I did No MSG but did come up when I did NO MSG, so I guess it was case sensitive.
It truly is staggering and scary when you read what can be in our foods or what normal everyday foods can cause horrific reactions in many individuals.
Yes, I knew how to cook dried beans. I also was eating fresher (not dried) beans like limas a lot as well and I now know these were contributing to my health issues, too.
As far as it being a lot more expensive to eat this way. Perhaps it truly isn't. When I factor in the meds that I no longer need to take and the costs of the foods that I am no longer eating, it may be a little bit more expensive. But, if my health continues to improve it will be so well worth it in the long run. I am also finding that I am not eating as much food as I thought I would be doing. I seem to be fuller sooner and more content with what I have eaten. On the few occasions that I have had a horrible craving for chocolate I have had a tiny amount of raw honey from a local source. Perhaps I can eventually find a dark chocolate somewhere that does not contain any source of MSG to have as an occasional treat. I am eating very small portions of most lean, fresh meats--nothing with preservatives, MSG, etc. Eating vegetables and fruit. I have found one brand of canned pineapple that seem to tolerate well that only lists pineapple and pineapple juice. I have found a few different frozen fruits, store brand, that don't list anything except the fruit--nothing in the way of preservative. Instead of needing to eat a large amount I am finding, for example, that I am satisfied with 6 - 10 dark sweet cherries and am getting many servings from one small bag this way. Eating them while still frozen seems to satisfy a craving for a more decadent dessert. I have hard boiled eggs too. So, as you can see, all of these foods would be an impossibility for me to probably obtain during a scenario of TSHTF or however you abbreviate it. But, for now at least I am detoxing my body and feeling so much better. And, if something does happen one day when we are limited in the foods we can obtain, then I might have to switch back to the rice and beans but don't relish the thought at all as it is sheer Heaven to not suffer constantly from pain throughout my body.
Good Luck, Nickelless, if you decide to try any of these changes to see if they bring you relief and if you have more questions, shoot me a PM.
As all of you know, I am NOT a doctor, I don't even play one on TV, BUT, I know the relief my body has experienced from these dietary changes and it is approved by my doctor. So, if any of you should desire making these changes, please consult with your doctor first before you do anything radical and if you have spare time, read about MSG and other sites about what these grains and other foods can do to our body and what happens in our body and what many of these foods can be used for in industry. When I read that glues can be made from these foods and many are strong enough to hold together auto body parts, I was totally grossed out to think what was happening inside my body and no wonder I was suffering such pain and agony. |
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caridad
Penny Pincher Member
USA
227 Posts |
Posted - 04/20/2010 : 23:40:26
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| WOW MSG! that's the 2nd tie this eek i have seen that. do NOT eat mahatma saffron yellow rice. it has msg. i discovered this AFTER eating a serving and buying 5 more packs! |
ARE YOU READY? ARE YOU SELF SUFFICIENT? ARE YOU GREEN???? |
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thogey
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
1617 Posts |
Posted - 04/21/2010 : 00:08:34
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Hey PTP,
These things are frustrating. I'll share a similar story.
3 years ago, just before Thanksgiving, I woke up and my face was swollen shut. I couldn't see out my eyes without pulling them open with my fingers, hives over every square inch of my body. My lips were so swollen they were busting open and cracking.
The reaction kinda ran its course. But for six months, in the morning, the hives would come. It was miserable. They would come and go.
I went on a potato diet and added things back in to try to figure out what was causing it. This was a very scary and uncomfortable period, because I'm invincible, you know.
Anyway, time marched on, lots of benedryl, lots of misery. Months went by, with hives daily.
Finally I decided, "Well this is my life, this is how it's going to be"
I prayed to Almighty God. I thanked him for what I have and let hom know I have accepted this deal as part of my existence, so be it.
This affliction dissappeared! I don't know why or if it will return.
I don't even know if my post is helpful to you but it's what happened to me.
Every morning, if I wake without hives, itchy, painful, awful hives I thank God.
I eat that way I always have. Not too good not too bad. I don't think it was any one thing in particular that caused the misery. But as soon as I stopped worrying ,it went away. |
Come to the new and improved realcent: http://realcent.org
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PreservingThePast
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
1572 Posts |
Posted - 04/21/2010 : 09:43:50
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Thogey, thanks for your response.
Hives can be not just scary, they can be life threatening and if they continue you do need to see your doctor--immediately. I went into the anaphylactic shock a few times and it was so frightening. I had wondered when I was suffering from the hives so severely if I would wake up if this were to happen while I was sleeping. I found out the hard way, that yes, I did wake up and it was horrific. Had to take more Benedryl and sit up praying. I also learned through another bad experience that natural adrenaline will work almost as well as the adrenaline administered through an Epi-pen when I was having a violent attack of them and my body was covered with hives and the eyes and mouth were swollen as you experienced. My husband had to take our son to his parents house and I was so bad off I was afraid to be alone. It was a stormy rainy night and when we returned home I slipped on our porch steps and somehow ended up on the ground facing backwards from the direction I had been going up the steps and I was face down. Apparently I had bounced off some support posts too. I couldn't get up off the ground. My husband could barely get me up but I refused to allow him to call an ambulance. I don't do well with hospitals. He finally got me up and got me into the bathroom to get cleaned up and then he allowed me to know that I had split my knee open and was bleeding. Well, between the fall and then the fear of the cut and the fear of the hospital that he was wanting me to go to, my natural adrenaline kicked in and the facial swelling abated to a safe level and the hives backed off some. Funny, how these memories linger with you!
Hives only have a life span of 24 hours. Each one will die off within 24 hours. Of course, if you are still exposed to whatever you are allergic to you will have new ones pop up in their place. I would literally have a few that would grow and meld together and I sometimes would have one that completely covered my stomach area, most of an arm or leg. On more than one occasion, I had female deputies give me a double take in a public place as I am sure I looked like a was a victim of abuse, but it was my own abuse to my body by eating foods that I was allergic to and didn't know it at the time. Mine turned out to be mainly preservatives that I was allergic to but MSG played a part in this.
Now, the really strange part. I was told to take Benedryl for these which is normal. We had always kept Benedryl dye-free caplets in the house for our son's seasonal allergies and this is what I used. Turns out that the gelatin capsule this medicine is in is probably MSG as MSG can be hidden under the name gelatin. I always wondered why when I would take the Benedryl at night to try to get some relief that the hives would be worse in an hour or so, NOT better. Now I know.
How does the expression go?: Live and learn!
All that I went through back in 2001 should have alerted me to change what I have been eating since my vision problems began almost 6 years ago. But, like I have said I am stubborn and sometimes a very slow learner. Sometimes it takes God more than just gently nudging me about something. Sometimes, I think He must have to use a 2 x 4 to get my attention.
I have literally been praying day and night for my vision problems to be corrected. Especially for the last three plus years and then even more in the last year or so when I began developing the neurological symptoms that seem like the symptoms of MS. I know we are to have patience and our timing isn't necessarily His, but I had literally reached the end of my very frayed rope on the Monday before Easter and that is when I began remembering and began putting two and two together and finally getting the correct answer.
Perhaps, it was meant that I endure all of my health problems for this period of time so that I could become a more compassionate, caring person than I had been and so that I could reach out to others to try to offer them assistance. Then, perhaps they would reach out to offer help to others with this information about healthy eating and what eating offending foods can do to some people.
I believe that MSG may be playing more of a part in my health issues and I think I still have a ways to go to get it completely out of my body. Sometimes it can be hidden in foods that we are not even aware of, like it being sprayed on our fruits and vegetables, etc. So it is sort of like playing detective.
I really think the majority of my quick pain relief came about by eliminating all grains, legumes, dairy (except my butter, BUT that's another story! AND, I think it will be gone too), and lots of other offending foods.
What has amazed me so much is that I am not as hungry as I thought I would be now that I am eating smaller, healthier meals. Losing some weight will be a nice reward for me, too.
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This list really opened my eyes. No wonder I would be sick in the bathroom shortly after eating a meal out at a restaurant or even some foods I was eating at home. My doctor and GI specialist said it's normal for fibromyalgia patients to have IBS.
Then, just the other night I came upon this page of the Dogtor J's site and was totally blown away. It truly does make a lot of sense, especially when you consider the time line effect that he writes about.
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I'm not a doctor, nor even any sort of medically trained person, but I do have intelligence, except when it comes to my own body!AND, I have always considered myself a fairly observant person.
I had long made the comment to anyone that would listen that things started going downhill with health issues and more ADD/ADHD kids when we began getting so many convenience foods, in particular a name brand of powdered drink mix when they began making it in the convenient sugar-free variety. I remember this time so well from birthday parties during my childhood years. I couldn't drink the stuff as it made me sick.
I volunteered at the small school my son attended from his K-5 grade through part of seventh grade (through October, 1999). This I did all day, every school day. I did a variety of things to help the school which included tutoring children with problems in reading, math, sequencing, etc. I also was an aide in a teacher's classroom, but never my son's room. I also went on many, many field trips with the school.
I could see immediate adverse behavioral changes following mid-morning snack time and you would understand if you had seen the items the parents packed for their children. NOW, I understand more completely why some of these children were struggling so to learn. My eyes have been opened to one young lady in particular that I never could reach her as she literally seemed in a fog and she always had such dark circles under and around her eyes and her nose was always stuffed up. When I awoke this recent Good Friday without the headache and without the "brain fog" my memories began returning and a few days later I was remembering back to my trying to help her and I thought, I bet she had food allergies and/or food intolerance and no wonder she couldn't learn. With "brain fog" trying to think is so difficult and that is for an adult that has learned to do math, learned to read, etc; I can't even imagine what it is like for a child suffering from this. I wish I had known then, what I know now! I could have reached out and helped these children so much more. And, that 11 - 16 or more years ago and our foods have become worse since then, so I feel so sorry for the children that have these food allergies/intolerences that are struggling to learn in today's world.
And, I'm including myself as a target when I throw these stones. I literally had no clue as to food allergies, or the adverse reactions that could be caused by MSG or preservatives. I'm trying to slowly educate my son and his wife and I want to get my husband on board too as I KNOW his health can be greatly improved if he would just change the way he eats, as well. My son and his wife too could benefit greatly, but I don't want to come across as a meddling mother-in-law or even a meddling mom so I send a link with a little information in an email and then send a different one a few days later. I hope their eyes will be opened too.
So, for any of you out there that are suffering from a variety of health issues, talk with your doctor about beginning a new way of eating healthier (could they possibly object?) and explore these various web sites plus more that are out there and perhaps your eyes will be opened, you will begin feeling better, and then you, too, can reach out to help a friend or family member.
Friendships formed through this great place have been so important to me and hopefully in my talking about this subject I can begin to repay the kindness that has been shown to me.
Just think, if we all feel better, we can really put a dent in searching those coins!!!
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