THE BUTTERFLY GLAND

Clipart credit: http://www.designedtoat.com/butterfly.shtml

It continues to snow. I'm warm and cozy in the Kitchenette, maintaining the 25 hour 'avoidance' routine I follow after most of my weekly NAET appointment with Chulan. I have frequent posts about NAET because this wellness approach 'works' for me, and Chulan's style and practice with her healing art compliments my own. As you read this, and any other post we leave here, it is always YOUR decisions that matter and your journey of discovery that makes the difference. NAET is hard work, the subtle and powerful energetic clearing that takes place during the forty-five minute treatment often take place at a very deep level ... and I'm pooped when we finally make the thirty minute drive home. Seattle is not really a town 'prepared' for a foot of snow, so conscious and easy driving is the key, and it takes longer to get where you're going. It's 11 am as I write this and four and a half hours away from my avoidance of COLD. "Can you stay warm for 25 hours?" Chulan asked before pulling off my wooly socks to push in the needles (acupuncture). "Sure," I said, and we both knew I'd have to work on that ...

Multiple Chemical Sensitivities affects whole body systems; ie. the organs, muscles, glands and everything in between. Genetically, my heritage includes a thyroid gland that seems to have been fighting or fleeing before I could walk. If that doesn't make sense to you I'll completely understand and will expand before I close. Anyway ... for the past few weeks I have known that my thyroid gland was once again in a very weakened state. Along with the adrenal glands that sit above the kidneys in my lower back, and the lymph gland freeway all through my old bod, the ENDOCRINE FAMILIA has been totally over-worked and stressed out. Chemical exposures ... jet fuel, dry sheets, wood smoke and trees off-gassing collect in me, especially in the glands. The winter COLD is another thing clogging up the efficient flow of the be-go-joy me. This week I'm continue to listen and attend to THE BUTTERFLY GLAND... the thyroid.

I wasn't sure how to post this story, so I surfed most of the morning looking for a way to tell it. I found a website and blog for patient advocate and thyroid educator, Mary Shomon. Shomon has written a very informative interview with a doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The interview shared a different view of thyroid disease. I have no personal experience with Mary Shomon, nor the doctor. Like so much of the information on the internet, there was something worth considering and then there was this: A link to Oprah Winfrey's life with thyroid disease.

A few minutes ago Pete asked, "Where are you going with this? There are a lot of issues here." "Yeh, I know." He is right, MCS is a complex maze of symptoms and the folk who live with these symptoms are as blissfully complex as the symptoms. This story began when I began listening to the small BUTTERFLY GLAND that lives in the base of my throat, just above my collarbone. The same location where, in the language of energy points throughout Earth's cultures, the third chakra swirls. I have lived too many decades with that third chakra and home of the BUTTERFLY GLAND under-wraps, masked, and shut-down. Until MCS became a regular companion, I have lived much of my life in the duck and cover mode. The discussion that you can read on Mary Shomon's site debates, affirms, challenges, and shouts the validity of "swallowing the voice" as a factor in thyroid disease.

Here's where I would like this story to go. Before I was born I had heard the stories about my Tutu(grandmother) dying on the surgeon's table when he tried to remove a goiter. Even as a very small child that story spooked me. Except for those stories which my mother shared, no one else in the family ever talked about thyroid, and yet nearly every link in that side of my family has thyroid disease or has had the thyroid removed. NO ONE TALKS ABOUT IT. When I was told, in 2003, I had 'abnormal cell tissues' in my thyroid and surgery was the best option ... I said, "NO." I found an option that fit me, though my decision angered/frightened friends and family. I chose to begin life with raw and living foods. It helped a lot, and I got stronger. The other choice I made has more to do with listening to all of me ... the whole me. That's when I began to pay THE BUTTERFLY her due. Ever notice how quietly a butterfly moves? Gentle, gliding, and yet like her cousins the bees when the butterfly glides she is carrying some powerful pollens from here to there. It's the same with THE BUTTERFLY GLAND: when she is functioning at full capacity the hormones and connections she orchestras make all systems flow in harmony.

With the on-set of over-exposures and the stress of months of life on the run, THE BUTTERFLY has lost much of her glitter. I know the extra weight I carry now and the symptoms that range from a hot flash that lasts the night to a fluttering heart beat and zero energy flow are my thyroid telegraphing me her story. Chulan's diagnostics and my ability to voice what happens with me are the way I know to support a tiny gland that means the world to me. Additional tests, medications, supplements may be useful to THE BUTTERFLY and me, and those who live with MCS know finding other practititoners and facilities where I can get these services is another story.

I'm resting and restoring the life force I need to keep this story going. Blogging exercises the voice and connects me with solutions. I'm not sure but bet butterflies rest. If you live with thyroid disease and have a story or comment to share let THE BUTTERFLY sing ...thanks, Mokihana