Hi, Ohfor07,
I'm doing great now, thanks for asking! I saw a chiropractor I go to
now and then when I have an intractable health problem (he has gone
way beyond chiropractic) and he gave me a peptide which he gets from
a researcher in NY, specific to inflammation. (He wanted to give me one
specific to shingles/herpes, but he could not get it in time to help
me. I got it later, after the shingles had stopped being
symptomatic, "just in case.") He put
me on a cot which he puts his patients on, which has a magnetic coil,
as he calls it, and he tweaks the frequencies. He designed the device,
and has an engineer put it together. The device features
extra-low magnetics (low Gauss) in pulses. He told me he had
had 3 recent cases of shingles which he knocked out with usually 2
treatments (which consist of 15 or so minutes on the coil. One does
not feel anything.) I saw him a total of 3 times and by the 2nd time
I was about 90% better, and by the 3rd time, I felt like my old self
again. I hate like anything to take pharmaceutical drugs, but when I
stopped taking the Acyclovir my M.D. prescribed, the pain came back
with a vengeance--I was not done with the bottle yet (they said to
use it all up). Dr. Friedlander (chiropractor) advised me to cut it
back at least, not go off it cold-turkey as I did. I just wanted to
be done with taking meds. I did finish the bottle, as I did not want
to get anymore of that awful pain, which caused me to have to go
to bed for part of one afternoon. (I'm rarely ever sick, so this was
a really big deal for me, especially that it lasted me all of 5
weeks. I've heard it can last far longer, so am grateful at least that
it "only" lasted me 5 weeks!) So now I'm totally over it, thank
God, and all I have left is a few scars on my left hip, which will
probably go away if I can keep getting some sun there (not an easy
place to tan! but I do not scar badly), and the bad memories. I am
realizing that my M.D. may not be the best diagnostician in the world;
he did not examine me when I came in complaining of hip pain and
numbness in one area of the hip, and he dismissed my foot problem
(which is either arthritis or gout) and told me just to take Tylenol
for it. I had to call his nurse for a referral to a podiatrist, who
confirmed that it IS arthritis. That's HMO's for you! just herd 'em
in and herd 'em out, the faster, the better...Hate going to the doctor,
but sometimes you just have to, at least to find out what it is you
have. (BTW, the chiro has also treated pts who have Lyme disease,
lupus, fibromyalgia, and other intractable illnesses, successfully.
I feel grateful he is so close to me, only 1.25 hrs.' drive to the
Bay Area! People come to see him from across the country and all
up and down the state.)

Thank you, thank you, Squeaky! You and so many others have been so
helpful. Cherries happen to be my very favorite fruit (and they
are in season only a few short weeks). I will definitely be breaking
my fast with cherries!
Thanks again~