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Thursday, March 26, 2020

A post at last! Pandemic-induced

So anyone who knows me or has followed me on Facebook for a while knows that I am kind of big into natural/alternative medicine, home remedies for ailments, etc. I am definitely a believer in modern medicine and am so grateful for it, as well, and all the miracles it produces -- but I do believe many times simple answers and available remedies are not utilized by Western Medicine or the pharmaceutical companies simply because there is not enough money to be made on them. I also know that sometimes these alternative remedies can work just as well -- or better -- than what official Western Medicine has to offer.
Right now, in response to this global pandemic, Western medicine unfortunately has very little to offer us. Oxygen and a ventilator are our best bets (if any are available once we get that far), after the disease progresses to a certain point.
However, I do not believe that the only thing we have power to do against this virus is sit here and wait for it to pass, hoping it will not find us in our houses, or to just sit and wait for the government or CDC or FDA to create, proclaim and approve a cure, or to wait and not do anything for ourselves until our situation is so bad we need emergency medical care. I think there are treatments we could help ourselves and our loved ones with at home that could, in many cases, prevent the disease from getting that bad. While we are all bunkered up in our homes, I think it would be of great advantage to all of us to read and study about some of the wonderful natural antivirals and treatments out there, many of which have been studied and documented-- and to obtain them, as we can, for our medicine cabinets. I am not talking about Theraflu, painkillers, Nyquil, cough syrup, or any of the typical medicines you find at the drug store. Those treat the symptoms of a virus. Even administering oxygen and attaching a person to a respirator in the emergency room is still only treating only the symptoms of a virus. I am talking about substances that actually have the potential to kill the virus, or greatly inhibit it, so that it cannot so easily overpower us -- and I would like to share a couple of things that have helped me and that I think could possibly help others.
Recently I actually acquired something that I believe might have been Coronavirus (being in the Bay area and with my professions this is unfortunately not terribly unlikely). I had a sore throat for about a week, which turned into tightness in my lungs, and a very mild cough. This went on for about three days, and then all of the sudden one night around 2am I felt like I couldn’t get enough oxygen. My hands and knees were shaking, I was cold and shivering, and had a low fever of 99.3. It was genuinely frightening, and I am not supposed to be in a particularly at-risk age group. This was around Sunday or Monday of last week.
My mom had sent me some colloidal copper, (10ppm) some time ago, and had suggested that I use it in a nebulizer for any kind of lung infection. I hadn’t known about this until my mom told me, but copper kills viruses and bacteria on contact, including the coronavirus: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releas…/2015/…/151110102147.htm .
I also have successfully used a saline solution many times before to help treat cold and coughs with the nebulizer.
For those who don't know, a nebulizer is a medical device which turns liquid solutions into a vapor that you can inhale into your lungs. There are two basic types- a compressor (or jet) nebulizer, and a ultrasonic (or mesh) nebulizer. The compressor works by pushing air through the liquid to make vapor, and the ultrasonic nebulizer makes vapor by vibrating the liquid at a very high frequency. I have used both kinds and they both work well. I have been using nebulizers since I was 4 or 5 years old, originally for asthma treatments. More recently I have discovered the amazing benefits of nebulizing other substances for treating colds, flus, viral infections, and anything that affects the airways/lungs. The virtue of this kind of treatment is that you can apply the medical solution full-strength DIRECTLY to the lungs at the site of the infection, thus hitting the virus directly with the solution/medication - versus ingesting a medication and it taking quite a while for it to reach your lungs, while perhaps also getting diluted before it reaches your lungs or transformed/digested into a form which would no longer be viable as an anti-viral. Using the nebulizer along with gargles and a neti-pot in recent years has reduced my need for over-the-counter drugs when I have a cold or flu to literally almost zero.
So - when I was all of the sudden feeling like I couldn’t breathe last week, I made a saline solution of:
1 cup distilled or boiled and cooled water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
I put 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons of this mixture in the nebulizer and nebulized (inhaled the vapors) for about 20 minutes.
Salt and baking soda both have anti-viral/virus-inhibiting properties. Salt helps your body create hypochlorous acid to kill viruses, and baking soda has an alkalizing effect that is unfriendly to viruses as well (links to some research below). They both also have a soothing/drawing effect on the liquids in your lungs and help loosen phlegm.
If you make this solution, be sure to only add the baking soda to the water once it has been cooled, and do not heat the water once the baking soda has been added. Heating the baking soda causes a chemical reaction in the baking soda which will transform it into something else that is irritating (I know from experience).
Immediately after nebulizing the saline solution for 20 minutes, I then put 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons of 10ppm colloidal copper in the nebulizer and nebulized that another 20 minutes.
Within 20-30 minutes of this treatment I started to be able to breathe again, felt like I was getting enough oxygen again and I went to sleep. I have been doing this treatment twice a day (morning and night) since, and my lungs and energy are gradually improving, and I have not had any more shortness of breath episodes..
I would advise everyone to get a nebulizer and colloidal copper (10ppm colloidal silver might work too – though this recent study showed significant growth inhibition for bacteria but not viruses in colloidal silver https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/acm.2011.0681) , and make a salt/baking soda solution to keep in the cabinet in advance of catching this thing, because when it hits (if this is what I had), it hits hard and all of the sudden, and suddenly you feel like there is no time.
If you cannot obtain a medical nebulizer in time, you could also use a diffuser, vaporizer, mister, or cool mist humidifier, or anything that creates a fine vapor without heating the solution (heating the liquid to create vapor removes most of the minerals). Just put your face/mouth directly in the stream of vapor of whatever device you have. You might have to put a larger amount of solution in a device that is not a medical nebulizer (because most of them won’t work with just a teaspoon or two of liquid in them), and just turn it off after you are done nebulizing for 15-20 minutes and turn it on again for your next treatment.
If someone is very sick, nebulizing more often would be appropriate/necessary. 20 minutes of nebulizing every hour (ten minutes each solution), or 10 minutes of nebulizing every 15-20 minutes (5 minutes each) are possibilities, but can be varied as needed. When my daughter had a very bad croup last year the only thing that helped to keep that terrible cough down was nebulizing saline /baking soda solution every hour for 20 minutes.
Also, I have a friend in L.A. that I sent a nebulizer to a while ago. He told me he had been feeling something in his lungs for a few days. He only had H2O2 (3% hydrogen peroxide) on hand so I told him he could try nebulizing some of that (The CDC itself states that 3% Hydrogen Peroxide kills the Covid-19 virus: https://www.epa.gov/…/list-n-disinfectants-use-against-sars… ). He did that for 10 minutes 3 times over the next 2 days and it went away (make sure you do not get anything stronger than 3% or you could injure yourself). I have used hydrogen peroxide before numerous times as well and it does really help clear up my lungs, however I personally don’t like it because it makes me lose my voice, BUT I would definitely do it vs. not getting enough air and having a virus take over my lungs! I might also try it in alternating with other solutions in the nebulizer. Hydrogen peroxide also fizzes and converts partly to oxygen in your lungs so I believe it could help deliver oxygen directly into your lung tissues. It is harsher than copper though, as it’s a fairly strong acid, and I don’t think you would want to use it for extended periods of time because it might start to burn your lungs over time. So I recommend getting copper. Actually I’d recommend having both - in case you find one is working better for you than the other!
Also, if you were to use copper on a baby, child, or someone else very sensitive or weak, I would probably try mixing the copper and saline mixture together in equal parts, as the copper has a tendency to be a little irritating at the beginning of nebulizing and makes me cough a bit until my lungs adjust. For a baby or sensitive person this might be too much, and the saline solution helps to buffer it.
Also, do not use an enclosed mask (especially on a baby or someone who cannot communicate) with the saline solution. Hold it an inch or so away from the face or the salt condensates/crystallizes on the skin around the mouth and is also very irritating.
My mom helped care for my brother Andy when he was in the hospital with a collapsed lung and a very bad MRSA (antibiotic-resistant staph) infection. She had him nebulizing all sorts of antimicrobial natural remedies including copper- and I doubt if he would be alive today without all those alternative treatments, in addition to the emergency care and surgery he received at the hospital.
So, let's take advantage of ALL we have available to us -- every herb and mineral and good thing God has given us on this earth - and throw EVERYTHING we’ve got at this virus, because that’s what it’s going to take. The hospitals will not be enough.
Below are links to some research showing these substances kill or inhibit viruses and/or reduce virus load in a sick person:
HYDROGEN PEROXIDE (CDC itself says 3% H2O2 kills coronavirus):
https://www.consumerreports.org/…/common-household-product…/
Also here is a link to a wonderful website called Earth Clinic, which I consult often, and I just posted my nebulizing info there as well: earthclinic.com
It has many other suggested anti-virals as well which I haven’t tried but many people vouch for and which have been studied - including things like olive leaf, L-lysine, etc. and lots more info about inhaling hydrogen peroxide for various ailments, etc.
Please let me know if you have any positive results with any of these!

Also, you can buy nebulizers online pretty inexpensively right now, on Amazon, Ebay, and other retailers (especially medical retailers).

Ultrasonic nebulizer:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Portable-Ultrasonic-Mini-Nebulizer-Inhaler-Machine-Children-Adult-Kids-Handheld/164038922892?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20180105095853%26meid%3D6b713874891d49e3a7a6bf52c2dfc1ca%26pid%3D100903%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D20%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D164038922892%26itm%3D164038922892%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2510209&_trksid=p2510209.c100903.m5276

Here are some compressor models:

https://www.thecpapshop.com/respironics-innospire-essence-nebulizer-system?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&adpos=&scid=scplp1099966&sc_intid=1099966&gclid=Cj0KCQjwpfHzBRCiARIsAHHzyZp2g_cjDxEWLeDiIRerJNxG8C8a3GuAXAsPPbJZ_4Lw0PABT7A7q_kaAkoIEALw_wcB

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Portable-Compact-Compressor-Atomizer-with-Filter-Mask

https://www.ebay.com/itm/DeVilbiss-Traveler-Portable-Nebulizer

Here is a non-electric (hand-pump) model:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-DeVilbiss-Model-45-Hand-Held-Aerosol-Nebulizer


May our world and all of us be blessed with health and healing - in our bodies, our lands, and our hearts!

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Back Online

SO...

It has been a looooong time since I posted on my blog. A very long time.

Life got... intense.

And I had a baby.

Now I'm a single mom (something I would not have imagined for myself before!).

And life is beautiful. And difficult, and sweet.

I'm waking up to a new me, a new view, a new sense of myself and the world around me.

I'm remembering myself, coming back to myself, and finding myself anew, by both gathering my past together, and reaching out toward my future at the same time.

This is me. I am Jackie.

And now I have a little Rose. She is so precious.

This is her:

And this is us: 



(Thank you to Tibor Szabo for the pictures.)

We are struggling to make our way in San Francisco, the city I love! I hope we can stay here for a while, if not forever, provided I can start devoting my time to my music again.  Ever since I got out of school I've kind of just been scrambling to find a way to live, a place to live, then looking for a better place to live, finding work, recruiting students, teaching more, teaching more, and more...

But I think it's time for something new!  And I definitely have something (a little someone!) new, and I want more... 

We will get there, we will.   This is just the beginning. 

So, I'm back. And it's time to start playing again. And singing again. Writing again, posting again. 

Here we are, Friends!  Here we come, World ! 


Sunday, December 21, 2014

Dvorak Quintet

Here's a recording of the first movement of Dvorak's Piano Quintet in A Major, which I recording with my chamber music group for a class I took during my first semester at SFCM.   I may post the other movements as well.  I did a little audio engineering on this recording to bring the sound forward a bit, because it sounded kind of muffled before.


Monday, November 24, 2014

The Grind

Life is tough, you know?  You work and work and work and somehow the work is never finished, which I guess is a good thing, because if we didn't have anything to work for, how interesting would life be?  But sometimes it does get a little tiring.

It has been a long time since I have posted.  My life lately has been a bit monotonous. Not boring, but not necessarily a lot to post about.  Teaching, biking around San Francisco, teaching, eating, taking the bus, teaching some more.

I did have a recording session, however, a couple of weeks ago.   Now I need to make the editing list for the audio files so that the recording engineer and I can splice them together to create a finished product.  It's a religious song that one of my local church leaders has been encouraging me to produce, and I finally scheduled the recording session and did it.   So I will be posting that within a few weeks.  It still is very much in the raw stage right now though.

I'm applying for a teaching position at a university near here.  We will see how that turns out.

In the meantime...just sitting tight, waiting until the time is right...to try something new.  . . . . . .




San Francisco

From my last trip to Montana..... Just a little view from my airplane window.


Wednesday, July 16, 2014

A new life

          So my new life has begun....and new music!   I have moved in with a family I know from church who is renting me a spare room in their apartment.  The room is very small, but the rent is very cheap for San Francisco, and I am so happy to have a window that lets sunlight in (much better than the dark little dorm rooms where I have spent three whole years of my life!).   I got myself a loft bed to help save some space:


I have started teaching quite a bit (I have about 20 students now), and practicing piano again!  I  have a couple of projects I am planning...and hopefully in a few months I will have some new music to post. 

I also started taking some classes in audio engineering and music production at San Francisco State University.  Tonight I had a test and a big recording session for our group project in my Intro to Recording Class.   I am excited about learning more about all of that. 

Tomorrow I teach a lesson at 8:45am, so I am going to go and get a little sleep.

Sorry such quick update after such a long break... I will post again soon.  Bye for now.... 

Monday, May 12, 2014

Almost over...

Friday I finished my last day of classes at the conservatory.   I almost can't believe it.  I feel like all of the sudden space has opened up before me... and I am about to walk into a meadow full of blooming flowers.  I am so happy to be done!   Aaaaaaaaaaaa!

Wednesday I have my very last performance as a student at the conservatory... my "Exit Evaluation", which I have to do for the voice faculty.  I only have to sing one song for them, of my choosing.

And then what?!   I have been collecting a few students, and I will continue to gather some more so that maybe I can manage to eek out a living here in this big city.  I think that I may have found a place to live...so soon I will move out of this dormitory (it's hard to believe that I will have spent almost three years of my life here!!!).

And now...sleep....


Friday, May 2, 2014

Recital Done!!!

Wheeewwww!     Tonight I gave my final Graduate Vocal Recital at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.   It went pretty well, overall.   That is the last major hurdle I have to overcome before I graduate.  I have a few more things to do, an exit voice evaluation, a musical theater masterclass, an acting final...and then I will be done.   It has been quite the haul!  And I have learned so much.

I had a major technical break-through in my singing yesterday.  It was at my dress rehearsal.  My teacher, Jane, started out the rehearsal upset with me because she said I wasn't doing anything we had worked on and I had reverted to my old way of singing.  She said she thought maybe she should just leave and not listen to my dress rehearsal, unless I want to try to change and make it better.  "Of course I do,"  I said.  She sat there listening for a while more and said, "I think I may have just had some inspiration...   I think maybe that you think of singing like playing the piano, that you feel like you need to do something physical to make a pitch, that you need to 'strike' a note to make it sound.  But the voice isn't like that.  It's a not a physical action, really, you can't 'play' your voice like you would a piano.  It's just there. You can't do anything do it."   I nodded and thought about it for a minute.  I thought to myself, Okay. So I maybe I am thinking of my voice too much like an instrument.  But really, I can't touch it, I can't strike a note in it. I can't do anything to it.  I don't have an instrument when I sing.  I don't have an instrument... I have no instrument.   I have no voice.

All of the sudden, then, everything started working much better.  My high notes all of the sudden floated out like they had never done before. Things were easier, clearer.  I was trying to not manipulate anything, and just trust.   I sang a few phrases and Jane said, "That's it! That's it.  That's beautiful.  What were you thinking?"   I said, "I was thinking over and over, I don't have a voice."  She laughed a little and said, "Alright.  Keep thinking that."

Sooo.  I asked the recording department to make a video and audio recording of the recital, so when I get the recording I will probably have a couple of things to post for you. :-)

I also had a musical theater performance last weekend, of a musical called "Bernarda Alba".   It's pretty dark (especially for a musical!), but I had fun and I had some pretty solos in it.   I should see if there's a recording in the school library of it yet, because they are supposed to have made a recording of that, as well.

After my recital tonight, a group of my friends went out with me for an after recital party.  It was really nice.   Our Stake President (the area authority of my church), paid for our food.  It was a very nice celebration.

Here is a picture of my friend Laura and me (as well as some pie a la mode, bruschetta and hot apple cider):

Yaaay!


Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Behind...

I have not been writing on my blog like I would like to.

Life and music have been keeping me very occupied....

Last week I was feeling a little down, a little afraid. And then I thought about all the millions of things I have to be grateful for, how good my life really is.  I realized that something could happen to me tomorrow that would leave me longing for this day I have today, where I have my health, my family, my friends, my music...  Everything is okay.   So many people are dealing with problems that are so much more dire than what I have before me right now. 

Can you believe I will be graduating in two months? 

I was freaking out when I found out my student loan payments are going to be like, $1446 per month when I finally get out of school.  But then I saw that they have a different payment plan you can request if you have a low income...   I don't plan to have a low income when I graduate, it's just that making a lucrative living as a musician is not generally what one can expect... 

I love performing though.  When I was onstage for the opera earlier this month, it made me feel like everything is right in my life.  Like I am on the right path, like everything is as it should be.  I am a performer, and I am performing, and this makes me happy. 

Here's another little video, this one from my dress rehearsal before the performance.  My mom was videoing on her i-phone. 



You know what I would love to have?  An apartment of my own.  I am so tired of sharing the bathrooms, sharing the kitchen, sharing the living space at the dorms.  I've spent almost three years in these little dark rooms now... If I can find a way to make an income here in San Francisco, I will try to get my own place.  We will see. 

I sang a duet with my friend Stephanie Dietz at church a couple of weeks ago, and the Stake President (a San Francisco area leader for my church) heard it, and offered to pay to have a recording produced of it.  I am excited about that.  I talked to my friend Nahuel and we are going to start setting up the project.  It's just one song, but it could be the start of more, who knows!  I actually should call Nahuel tonight to talk to him about our plans. 

Other than that...  My recital preview (like a jury for the faculty to see if I will be ready to give my recital) is in less than a week, and I don't have all of my music learned yet (aaa!).  I'm been focusing on so many other things...   I am planning to do Bach's Cantata No. 51 on my recital but I haven't learned the last two songs yet and the last one is very difficult both to memorize and to sing... so I have a lot of work to do.  I should have been working on that all day today but I got distracted by making videos and doing laundry and catching up on a few Z's.  I feel like I am behind on everything, but I think (hopefully) I will make it through these next couple of months. 

Maybe I will go get my laundry out of the dryer and then head over to the school and work for a while.  

Until later....   

Monday, March 24, 2014

Serse Video

Here is an aria from my performance in Handel's Serse with the SFCM Baroque Ensemble on March 9th.  I wish the video was a little closer up... but at least the sound is good.  I'll try to post some more later!