This is a quick post. Basically, just a hello and a good bye! For the next twelve days I’ll be traveling up and around California – hitting up the Yosemite, the American Fork River (hello river rafting), Napa Valley, the Redwood Forest and Humboldt County, San Francisco (hello old home!), Big Sur, and lastly, San Louis Obispo.

Will we survive 12 days straight together?

During this time I’ll be turning eighteen (August 9th), so be sure to send me some happy birthday vibes! Most likely, I won’t be posting again until I return from the road and before I depart for the skies (aka Seattle). I hope everyone has a beautiful start to their August!

Well, last Thursday I received a few answers in regards to my poor health. If you follow me on Twitter, then you most likely already know that I somehow or another managed to develop salmonella poisoning. Yes, SALMONELLA POISONING! The thing you typically get from eating raw eggs and meat? The thing that SIX HUNDRED US citizens die annually from? The thing that usually departs your body in 4 to 7 days, if it hasn’t crippled you to a hospital bed?

A few thoughts for everyone:

• I’ve been a solid vegan for 2 years.
• I don’t have a spleen and I suffer from an immune deficiency disorder, as well as four other blood disorders. This leaves my body very undefended in terms of illness.
• My doctor estimates that I’ve had this salmonella poisoning for SEVERAL MONTHS now. My body didn’t have the tools to fight it off alone, so it’s just been… sitting in me. It’s incredible that I’m not dead, really.

No wonder I’ve been feeling horrid lately!

To top this all off, I also learned that I have a severe intolerance to chocolate. CHOCOLATE! My ultimate favorite food. There is nothing more brilliant then a tiny piece of 80% dark chocolate after several hours of rigorous, yet blissful writing. I grew up on chocolate milk, every day, sometimes 3 times a day. Chocolate. I’m intolerant to chocolate. Really? REALLY, BODY?!

Yes, I’m intolerant to chocolate, as well as about a hundred other foods. I now have another new medical term to add to my list! Intestinal Permeability. Basically, my gut is ridiculously and tragically sensitive. I’m practically intolerant to everything, really. It’s very likely I did this to myself, that this yet another lovely after effect of Anorexia. I’m trying to not think about this. I’m just going to push forward, eat what feels best for my tummy, and hope that I eventually regain my body’s trust again.

My name is Heather Ezell and I’ve been chocolate free for 3 days. Please comfort me during this tragic time.

I’m still waiting to hear back from other tests, the more important tests, actually. Blood work. Yes, we now are worried something new is occurring with my blood. I’m praying everything will turn out normal (normal for me, that is), but I won’t get any answers until late August…

Until then, I’m enjoying my life and not fretting over silly things like food sensitivities and salmonella poisoning (which I’m now on intensive medication for). Both have been caught and now I can only move on. While I could morn my new dietary restrictions and last six months of sickening health, it simply DOES NOT matter and there is no point in obsessing over it.

What matters?

Spending time with my family and friends, the fact that my body has managed to put up with all of this turmoil, writing to my heart’s desire, being in the moment, traveling and learning from new sights, and honestly, being optimistic. I know personally that life is too fragile and short to let the small things break you down.

Enjoy your week, friends! Take a moment and dedicate it to something extraordinarily simple and special in your life, perhaps something you’re taking for granted. Cheers for good health!

Ironically enough, my health issues flared up the day after I returned home and in result I’ve been taking it easy. I’m not exactly certain what’s going on with my body, but I’m crossing my fingers that this is just a random rough few days. I won’t be able to get my blood work tested until August 21st, so lets hope things don’t get worse. Meanwhile, I’m happily continuing through my A FEAR OF TEARS revision.

I have an insanely busy month ahead filled with traveling (a long road trip up the coast of California followed by a week in Seattle) and writing. Combined with my recent decrease in health, I’m thinking blogging may become a bit more random. I also turn 18 on the 9th of August while in Eureka, CA. So, that will be… neat.

Basically, expect random, quick, and photo heavy entries until September, if anything. I hope everyone enjoys the remainder of their summer!

So, I moved. The transfer in itself was simple (thanks to the help of Hannah), but Wordpress made the whole experience rather ridiculous. I’m not really sure what went wrong, as Hannah has been the one working behind the scenes, but it caused me to lose all of my old entries and comments. In result, we’ve spent the last week manually reposting whatever old entries we could find through old files. (The many comments are lost forever. *sobs*) Sounds fun, right? XD

While I would’ve loved to spend a full day getting everything back up and looking pretty, I couldn’t. I had relatives in town over the weekend, a book launch party for Teresa Burrell, an overnight stay in Long Beach, and now I’m been battling yet another flu. In result, everything has been rather messy.

Anyway, the point of this muttering blog is to say I’m not going anywhere. I’m just trying to get my head back on straight and get organized. I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to find all of June’s entries, but it’s not looking promising. Also, I pray the annoying white text doesn’t bug everyone as much as it bugs me. That’s another kink we’re trying to straighten out.

Alright. Back to falling in and out of sleep in attempt to regain some health!

I feel massive guilt towards my poor roommate, who has put up with my consistent coughing day and night for far too long. But then she is lucky, it could have been much worse. While over the counter medications made me loopy and irritable, they didn’t do much for the hacking. At some point over the weekend, I began searching for homemade coughing remedies.

A few did absolutely nothing. Some soothed my throat as I was sleeping. But only one actually calmed my coughing down. I’m considering it an ultimate secret recipe! One that you should treasure for ever and always… Because seriously, this concoction made this last week of ultimate hell so much easier.

It doesn’t taste too good. I’ll warn you there. And you may have to take a few deep breaths while you drink it, but it so worth it. I promise. Try and use organic ingredients, because I’m a firm believer that it does make a difference.

Heather’s Oh-So Secret Cough Remedy:
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper.
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger.
1 tablespoon honey.
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar.
2 tablespoon filtered water.

Drink up and expect relief!

My finger accident was much more serious then I realized. I woke up the morning after my last blog, to the bandage soaked through and my sheets stained with fresh blood. Thanks to my several different blood disorders, the cut couldn’t form platelets fast enough and therefore the blood kept flowing. It took about two… three days to finally get the small gash to stop bleeding and by then, I was anemic and weak. I hadn”t felt that weak and sick since I was 13, before my spleen was removed.

It was frightening, to say the least. At one point, I was sure my parents needed to call for a helicopter to transport me back to CHOC. I was ready to resign my healthy, vibrant life for one with an IV attached to me at all times once more. Now that I’m okay and dancing through my days again, I decided that once I’m back in Orange County, I’m seeing my hematologist and getting retested FOR EVERYTHING. I’m taking my giant horse pills of medicine, so this should NOT have happened.

On a happier note, a lovely Canadian slept on my couch for a few days this week. Dalia is a good friend of mine that I know thanks to a certain vampire series (*cough*Twilight*cough*). Anyway, I didn’t realize how much I LOVE Berkeley and San Francisco until I got to show it off to her. I was so proud and enthused to share my city with her. Plus, she’s vegan, too. So we ate up all the wonderful Bay Area cruelty free food. No animals were harmed in our epic journeys!

I’ll probably write more on our experiences later, but for now, I’ll leave you with a video. It’s pretty much self explanatory. But, um, do be warned that the language I use would make it rated R in theaters. I was rather frazzled and cold, so the F bomb was exploded a few good times.

Oh, and this was filmed on March 3rd of 2009. Like I said, I was kind of loopy – from lack of blood AND defeating hell’s fury! I swear, I’m not usually THIS annoying.

Sorry, friends, I’ll have to cancel all manicures for the time being. I’ll let you know when my freaking FINGERNAIL grows back. Ignore the fact that it’s my middle finger. The middle finger just happens to be the longest finger, so therefore it was all the more likely to take the place of the cucumber I was chopping. I shall never look at a vegetable the same way again.

That is all.