Poetry Friday ~ Slow & Work

Hello, everyone! Welcome.

 

I can’t believe it’s been nine weeks since my uterine cancer diagnosis and surgery ordeal. It’s almost like a distant memory, except I am dealing with some residual issues after the surgery/infection. Due to the infection introduced during my surgery I had to take two powerful antibiotics, one of them twice a day and the other three times a day. Taking antibiotics several times a day for so long has consequences. Of course, I had no choice, it was either take the antibiotics or die from septicemia (blood poisoning caused by bacteria).

I wanted to talk about this because many people don’t know that every time we take antibiotics we destroy many of the good bacteria in our bodies along with the bad ones, sometimes leaving ourselves vulnerable to other worse germs. Taking antibiotics several times a day for a month left me with very little good bacteria in my gut and that’s a big problem. Good bacteria are like little soldiers that fight off the bad bacteria and other bad things like fungi and keep them out of our bodies.

Both my primary physician (western medicine) and holistic doctor (natural medicine) agree that a lot of diseases stem from the gut because of all the bad bacteria that enter our system through our mouths. Replenishing the flora from my gut became a priority. Oil pulling is a great way to get rid of bad bacteria in your mouth before it enters your system, so I began doing that too.

If you haven’t tried oil pulling you should. One of the issues I had to face after a month of antibiotics was that my tongue turned white (Candida). I immediately began oil pulling with coconut oil every morning and my tongue is now rosy and normal again. Oil pulling is a great oral health routine.

Before eating or drinking anything, before brushing my teeth I put a heaping teaspoon of coconut oil in my mouth. I actually put it between the inside of my cheek and gum until it melts (it melts quickly) and then I swish it around in my mouth for about 15-30 minutes. I go about doing what I normally do, while swishing the oil in my mouth. Afterward, I go to my backyard and spit it out in a corner of the yard. Don’t spit it out in your sink because you’ll clog it after a while (it is oil). Then I floss and brush my teeth. Be sure to use 100% pure, organic, cold-pressed coconut oil.

There are so many benefits to oil pulling, especially with coconut oil. Oil pulling kills harmful bacteria in your mouth, gets rid of bad breath, reduces inflammation, and improves gum health. I also noticed after about a week that my teeth looked whiter and I had no morning breath.

So, if you’ve been sick and had to take antibiotics be sure to take probiotics afterward to help replenish the flora in your gut. Also, try oil pulling with coconut oil every morning before brushing your teeth. Doing these things have helped me significantly during my recovery, so I wanted to share it with you.

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Lovely to see you

Risen from the bed of fear

Making an effort

As you crawled toward wellness

Your pain taught us all to pray

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Slow and Work are this week’s prompt words chosen by Colleen Chesebro ~ The Fairy Whisperer.

*The catch is that we can only use the synonyms to these words in our poems.

Colleen hosts a challenge that anyone could participate in called, Colleen’s Weekly Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge every Tuesday, and you have until Sunday to create a post featuring your Haiku, Tanka, Haibun, Etheree or Cinquain poem. She is an author and poet, and also does book reviews and so much more on her blog. Be sure to check it out.

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Thank you for the visit!