More on chelation

Sometime later. I will come back to it, but this is my last entry for 2009. Tomorrow my lovely wife and I will fly away to sunny Mexico to enjoy a week in the sun. We might even get back alive unless some dolt decides to hide a bomb in a bottle of Mexican vanilla.

I'm trying to decide why I'm writing in a blog. I'm trying to decide whether it's vanity, a need to communicate, because I love to write (even though I don't do it) or some other, more twisted reason. If I figure it out, I might even write about it.

My wife and I saw the movie Avatar this week. It was a good special effects movie but I was a little confused. I wasn't sure whether I was watching Pocahontas, Dances with Wolves, or The Lion King.

Most everything is derivative, so I can't complain too much, but there were a couple of scenes that were such a ripoff of the aforementioned stories I was embarassed for James Cameron.

I read an editorial by a conservative writer who complained about the hypocrisy of the movie. On the one hand, you have the peaceful natives living in a state of harmony with nature and each other. This harmony is destroyed by the evil white, Western, acquisitive outsiders who will destroy anything that gets in their way to get what they want.

The hypocrisy, according to my understanding, is that it takes one of the evil white, Western acquisitive outsiders to fix the problem for the natives. The natives aren't smart enough to take care of it themselves. Thus the enlightened filmakers insult the very ones they attempt to admire and hold up as role models.

I'm a big fan of Western culture. Like any human enterprise it has its limitations, but I'll take it any day over some of my other choices. I found Avatar circling close to a shameless ripoff. However, let's examine the hypocrisy argument in the light of what I'll call the Headless Bomber. Headless because when you set off a fire in your lap, you're likely to lose your head. Won't help much in the next life with the 72 virgins and all. In fact, wouldn't that be cruel to send someone to Paradise with 72 nubile virgins all ready to go, and there you are. Looking down, all the Headless Bomber will see is his inability to execute. In both worlds.

Anyway, I digress. Mr Headless is to a large degree a product of Western culture. When I saw a news shot of his London apartment, it was clear he enjoyed a standard of living I'm unlikely to ever attain. Even though still a Muslim, he could easily move in the Western world. This, according to the terrorist experts I see on TV, makes Mr Headless a much more dangerous fellow than some bumpkin from the outback of Yemen or Somalia. Those types practically scream "terrorist", while Mr Headless smoothly works in and out of Western society with a cultured English accent and a London university degree. Mr Headless is what is known as an "insider", and as any security consultant will admit, the insider is the most dangerous adversary.

So how does the hypocrisy argument hold up in this light? Not well, I believe. Mr Cameron is entitled to be as liberal as he wants, and as Avatar shows, he wants to be very liberal. But I'll support his premise that the natives of Pandora could still be fun loving back to nature types, wise, intelligent and such, and still require the help of an outsider to defeat other outsiders. It would sure help us a lot more if we could acquire the help of some bumpkins from Yemen and Somalia.

Something different

But first - the fishing year is over. I was going to go tomorrow, since it is supposed to get in the high 20's, but no one can go with me. It's always a good idea to take someone along, mainly so they can tell the searchers where to start looking for your body, should that service be required. Frankly, your friend is unlikely to prevent you from drowning, but it makes my wife feel better when I take someone along.

Now on to the main topic. On the 1st we'll be headed to sunny Mexico for a week long vacation. We'll get to fly. What a treat.

I've loathed flying ever since 9/11. It was only God's providence we weren't on top of the World Trade Center that day, a story for some other time. So the reader may wonder why I loathe flying, suspecting quite rightly I may object to airport security measures. May I recommend an article in Slate today by Christopher Hitchens titled "Flying High". The subtitle is "Why are we so bad at detecting the guilty and so good at collective punishment of the innocent?" I'd link to it if I had it figured out, but it's worth the search.

While I suspect I disagree with Mr Hitchens on a wide variety of subjects, I always find his arguments well thought out and smartly written. Indulge me while I submit a brief quote from the article that nicely summarizes his argument:

"Why do we fail to detect or defeat the guilty, and why do we do so well at collective punishment of the innocent? The answer to the first question is: Because we can't—or won't. The answer to the second question is: Because we can."

Exactly. Our illustrious Secretary of Homeland Security declared after the most recent attack that the system worked after the attempted bombing. Well that helps so much. The only reason the plane didn't explode into pieces was due to the incompetence of the bomber or the bomb maker.

But it's nice to know that if the plane had exploded, the system would have worked. Agencies would have snapped to attention, department heads would have been notified, forms would have been completed, files created. The speed and efficiency of our bureaucracy springing into action thrills the heart.

I'll remember that this Friday when I'm shuffling through the airport trying to put my shoes back on at the same time I'm putting on my belt, picking up my change, finding my wallet, watch, cell phone, hat......

More about Tijuana

What if you wrote a blog that nobody read? You'd be - this blog. I imagine somewhere, someday, some advanced civilization stumbling across these words. They might consider the primitive state of the civilization, long gone, that would produce them. It would be evidence used to support a theory of civilizational decline. Thus I get my 15 minutes of fame. So, in the immortal words of Carl Spackler, "I got that going for me."

The first day at Dr Calzada's clinic in Tijuana went thus:

Get a blood test at the lab in the same building - $130 cash.

Go upstairs to the waiting room and wait for a while. I think it was at least an hour.

Met with Dr Calzada. He took a blood sample from Bob's finger, then put it under a microscope. We could see the magnified sample on a monitor.

Little side trip on Dr Calzada. Very nice man. Friendly, expressive, gracious. He exudes confidence without seeming arrogant.

OK, back to the blood test. Rather than a bunch of individually spaced blood cells, Bob's were clumped together. Dr Calzada said clumping indicated poor blood oxygenation. There weren't very many individual blood cells like you usually see in pictures.

Smaller black fuzzy looking things, lots of them, indicated yeast. Dr Calzada asked Bob to stick out his tongue. It was white. My lovely and gracious wife has maintained for years that Bob probably suffered from a yeast infection. She's usually right.

Larger irregularly shaped bodies on the slide were plaque. Several of the plaques, if that's a word, contained white spots. Dr Calzada stated they were uric acid crystals. They were more regularly shaped than the plaques, so the crystalline designation seemed plausible.

The blood tests weren't back, but Dr Calzada said his review of the blood sample suggested improper liver function. The lab tests weren't back, so he wasn't prepared to make a real diagnosis.

From there he went to the chelation room. More about that next time.

Last thought. I was tying some Mahagony Duns with goose biot bodies. I like biots because they make a nice thin body, are a little shiny, and the wrapped biot suggests segmentation. The only problem I've had is that trout can chew them up pretty good. So I've started appying a thin film of super glue to the biot body. It makes it even shinier and a lot tougher.

Christmas Day

Time out from the Tijuana experience. Looking back at my two whole posts, it seems like they're longer than I expected, and it felt like I skipped over a lot of details.

This has been a relaxing Christmas. Both our parents came over for Christmas breakfast. It's nice to have your parents around.

After they left, we hung out. Watched a couple of movies, ate some popcorn, talked to the kids and grandchildren, played games on the Wii, just did a little of nothing.

Saw "Heny Poole is Here". Really enjoyed it. For me it did a good job of showing the battle between faith and skepticism. I have plenty of faith, but I'm a skeptic by nature, so I'm skeptical of easy answers to difficult questions. I thought this show did a good job of balancing the two.

Tomorrow I think I'll hang out some more. I'm discovering the virtues of hanging out.

By the way. My youngest son disparaged It's a Wonderful Life on his blog, because it's all bad news until the very end, when the show is rescued by a happy ending.

Au contraire, mi amigo, It's a Wonderful Life also shows the balance between faith and skepticism. It's great because Jimmy Stewart has to evaluate his faith in God and man in the light of what would happen in his absence. The angel Clarence is the voice of God reminding Stewart that He is there in difficult circumstances, even though frequently inscrutable and requiring significant faith. So in my view, even though the external circumstances in the movie are increasingly desperate, Clarence is continually urging Stewart to view his circumstances through the eyes of faith, which is hopeful, uplifting and optimistic.

Christmas Vacation is still the funniest Christmas movie ever from start to finish. I think it beats A Christmas Story, which is still a great movie. You'll shoot your eye out kid.

Tijuana logistics

Was planning to go fishing over the Christmas weekend, but the weather is supposed to be below zero for the next few nights, so probably not. I did run into a nice looking pattern that could replace/augment a Prince Nymph, so maybe I'll tie some up rather than go fish.

Having decided to go to Tijuana, and having never been there, we (myself and the wife) looked on the web to see if we could find out some details about how to plan a trip and what to expect when we got to Tijuana. I didn't have much luck, possibly because I don't frequent chat rooms, forums and the like. I couldn't find a lot of information about Dr Calzada on the web.

We did find out that we could stay at the Best Western Americana in San Ysidro, right off I-5, exit 2 for around $90/night. This included transportation between the BW and the clinic. We didn't know a lot more than that.

Lessons learned from a week in the area.

1. Stay in Tijuana. The Lucerna hotel is a block and a half away from the clinic. It's way nicer than the BW, and we were told you can get a patient rate by referring to the clinic. The regular rate for the cheap rooms is less than the BW. We went there and inspected a room, and it was nice and clean. Check it out at Trip Advisor or Yahoo. There's another hotel right next door to the clinic that's supposed to be OK, clean, probably on a par with the BW, only cheaper.

2. Stay in Tijuana. Once you're done at the end of the day, you have to go back across the border. It took us at least 1.5 hours every time, and it didn't seem particularly backed up. Which is better? Walking a block and a half at most after a full day of treatment, or sitting in traffic for an hour or more, exiting the vehicle, going through the border with your passport, explaining what you're doing to the border guard, putting all your junk on the X ray machine, then trying to find your van on the other side?

We made the trip every day, and it can be tough on the patients.

3. Pay in cash. You have to at the clinic, but you're sure to get prescriptions costing several hundred to a thousand dollars or more. You fill those at the pharmacia downstairs, and you get a 30% discount if paying with cash. 20% with a credit card.

4. If you fly into San Diego, have the Lucerna (if you're staying there) send a van to pick you up. It costs $70 for one or ten, each way. Renting a car cost $180 for the week, and you can't and don't want to take it across the border. There are probably other cabs or shuttles that can do it, but we know about the one at the Lucerna.

5. If you go to the main shopping district (Revolution Ave), take a cab and negotiate the fare in advance. IN ADVANCE. It should cost $5 each way, but if you don't negotiate it IN ADVANCE, who knows what you might have to pay. We didn't have a problem, but heard of others who have.

6. If you want vanilla, get it at a grocery store. Molina is supposed to be the best brand. Others can contain coumadin. If you want your blood thinned while you eat your snickerdoodle, buy it off the street.

As a side note, we asked the pharmacist for directions to the local grocery store. We heard it was about 3 blocks from the clinic. The pharmacist pretty much insisted he pick it up for us, which was nice. It cost $4 for a liter, so we're pretty sure there was no surcharge on his part.

7. If you go to Revolution Ave, go to Hand Art first,or at least before you buy much. They've been there since 1955, and they're great. Some of the merchants have a BBB type org, and the folks at Hand Art will give you a map showing who's in the org. It doesn't really matter who's not shown. You're on your own with them. You might get silver, then again, probably not, unless you go to the stores shown on the map.

I'm pretty well sick of writing, so I'll leave it there for now. If I think of more recommendations, I'll pick it up later. Until then, just say no to bait.

The journey begins

First, a brief report - 38 and overcast. Midges could be out, but if not, a rubberlegs with a tungsten bead head pheasant tail trailer always works for me. I'll fish dries first, but it never breaks my heart to nymph.

OK, back to it.

I thought I'd describe our experience at an alternative health clinic in Tijuana. I expect this to take multiple posts, so if you don't see what you want, check back.

I decided to describe our experience because I had some problems finding decent information on the web about this type of medicine. Perhaps describing our experience might help others if they want to pursue this approach.

Our young adult son has been feeling very ill for some years now. He's put on weight, has circles under his eyes that make him look like Uncle Fester from the Addams Family, has skin so dry it cracks, frequently throws up, has severe stomach pains and has "intestinal problems". We've seen it firsthand. It's tough to see someone this young hurt this bad. We felt he wasn't going to get better unless we could figure out a treatment regime.

He's been hospitalized for pancreatitis and has had his gall bladder removed. His physicians have told him he as a fatty liver. Sort of like remarking on the weather - "you have a fatty liver". One would normally expect that type of remark to be followed with some remedial recommendation, but one would be wrong in this case.

So, after a series of these experiences, we heard about a naturopath in Rexburg, ID, Destin Thayne. My wife knows someone whose grade school age daughter had stomach problems, severe enough that she had to stay home from school an entire year.

After going to doctors all over the region, including Children's Primary in Salt Lake, they decided to take her to Destin Thayne. Quick relief, back in school, problem mostly solved at this time.

Since all we care about is results, and mostly since we couldn't figure out where else to go, we decided to take our son so see this guy.

We went to his office and Destin had our son sit down in front of a computer screen with what looked like a mouse with metal strips where you'd put your fingers. After some small talk that had nothing to do with our son's health history, we told us he would run some tests.

The theory behind the tests is that small electrical impulses go through the electrodes and run through nerve endings that correspond to Chinese medicine. Oh the thoughts that ran through my mind. Wouldn't a slightly different placement of the hand on the electrodes skew the test? What about his whole Chinese thing anyway? If the Chinese had it figured out so well, how come Western medicine made such an impact on reducing disease in the 19th century? I'll just stop there.

Ignoring these and other inconveniently skeptical questions, Destin proceeded to ask questions and offer diagnoses. "Has anyone told you you have problems with your liver?" "Do you have joint pains?" "You don't sleep well at night, and when you do sleep, you don't sleep deeply, do you." "You have a toothache, on the bottom". Not a question, a statement. Our son, let's call him Bob, had just lost a filling and his tooth was indeed hurting. That particular diagnosis seemed to impress Bob the most, since his skepticism exceeded my own and nothing had been said about his teeth.

Skipping to the end. I asked Thayne how he got into this line of work. He said that he'd intended to go to medical school after graduating from BYU. He had lupus and claimed that a Dr Calzada in Tijuana had "cured" him of lupus. He further suggested we take Bob there, saying that Dr Calzada could do more in 5 days than he could do in 18 months.

Hmmm. So did that mean he had no answers for Bob and wanted to shuffle responsibility off to someone else who also couldn't help him? Did this "Dr Calzada" really have any answers? Did Thayne get some sort of referral fee for sending him to Tijuana? Tijuana? C'mon.

Thayne seemed like a nice, sincere young man. He claimed to receive no benefit for this referral, but said he said he really thought Dr Calzada could help.

We tried to research Dr Calzada on the web and frankly couldn't find much. At this point we decided to take a leap of faith and go see this guy. From our perspective, Bob hadn't received much help from traditional Western medicine. We couldn't see Bob living a long life, let alone a healthy life without some drastic improvement. So we decided to go.

In the next post, I'll address some of the logistics.