Merridee’s Mondays
Good morning. I wish I was at Merridee’s this morning but I’m six hundred miles away down in Orlando. It has been a wonderful week but today we fly home and I hate fly days.
Last year some time Rick Bristol from C.A.R.S. “Race for the Cure” emailed us to see about us playing a concert in conjunction with the C.A.R.S annual charity race. Even though it seemed like a long way off we confirmed the date. This past Wednesday we flew down for the concert on Thursday night. The show was held at Orlando Baptist, a place where we’ve got some history. Along with being gracious hosts, the Bristols also arranged for us to have friends walk us into the Disney parks on Friday and Saturday after the race so we planned ahead to stay the weekend.
We decided the kid’s first Disney experience should be at the Magic Kingdom, the happiest place on earth. On Friday it was also the wettest place on earth. It began raining before we left the house in the morning and got progressively harder as the day went on. We did our best to ride the inside attractions and stay dry but it was no use. By late afternoon we gave up. The kids did have fun in spite of the rain and Jennifer was a trooper. Sadie-Claire got to meet Mickey, Minnie, and three princesses. She loved it more than we could have imagined. On Saturday things dried out and we visited EPCOT center. Hutch had a blast collecting pins at each of the countries. We went back to Magic Kingdom to watch the big parade and Sadie-Claire fell asleep in my arms. She woke up right before we pulled out, so we parked the car and watched the fireworks from the parking lot.
Disney is wonderful and magical but it’s also expensive and crowded and crazy. Folks who have lived here for a while remember how quiet and safe and peaceful Orlando used to be. They joke that since the “Happiest Place on Earth” arrived things have become a lot more stressful. I felt bad for the families that had spent hundreds of dollars on park tickets and thousands of dollars on hotel rooms only to have it rain. I wonder if it’s worth it. But how much is it worth to watch your two-year-old hop into Tigger’s arms. You can’t put a price on that.
After all of this I’m most thankful for Jennifer. She’s the one who plans for all of the extra-curricular activities. Without her, Hutch and Sadie would have pretty boring lives. She’s the color in our family painting.
Shawn, I am right there with you. I absolutely love “One Silent Night”. All I know is that it was a bonus cd with one of FFH’s previous releases (unfortunately I am not certain as to which release). I too have been looking to purchase this song (either on cd or as a download), but have been unsucessful. This has become a yearly ritual for me it seem (trying to find this song, that is). I did notice though that even my local christian radio station didn’t play it this year, which was yet even more depressing. Hopefuly we can find this song, as I would love to hear it this year (even though Christmas is over).
Jeromy,
Just found my way across the new website. Love the look, layout, etc… Looking forward to reading more of your posts in the days and weeks ahead. I pray blessings on You and your family in 2010. Merry Christmas.
Colt
Hi! I have been a fan of your music for years! I have also been looking for one of your songs for years and can’t find it ANYWHERE! Can you please tell me where I can find “One Silent Night?” That is my absolute favorite Christmas song! I think the guys at the radio station get tired of me requesting it! I would love to have the song for myself. What CD is it on? Or where can I download it from? Thanks for your time. I look forward to hearing back from you. God bless you all, Shawn
Jeremy,
I was at the Hudson community Chapel show that you all did in November. It was fantastic, I was one of the guys in the front row that knew all the words to “You Found Me”.
I was online reading some new technology items when I came across this one. I was shocked and saddened when you told us at the concert that you had developed MS, so wehne I saw this story, I immediately thought of you and your family. BTW, I was particularly moved by your words in regard to this challenge as a “great gift from God”.
Please take a look at it a pursue it, if you think it may be something that might help.
HEALTH AND WELLBEING
Italian doctor may have found surprisingly simple cure for Multiple Sclerosis
By Loz Blain
00:38 November 26, 2009 PST
Left: diagram from a medical text showing how MS affects the myelin sheathing of nerves. Right: MS lesions under a microscope.
An Italian doctor has been getting dramatic results with a new type of treatment for Multiple Sclerosis, or MS, which affects up to 2.5 million people worldwide. In an initial study, Dr. Paolo Zamboni took 65 patients with relapsing-remitting MS, performed a simple operation to unblock restricted bloodflow out of the brain – and two years after the surgery, 73% of the patients had no symptoms. Dr. Zamboni’s thinking could turn the current understanding of MS on its head, and offer many sufferers a complete cure.
Multiple sclerosis, or MS, has long been regarded as a life sentence of debilitating nerve degeneration. More common in females, the disease affects an estimated 2.5 million people around the world, causing physical and mental disabilities that can gradually destroy a patient’s quality of life.
It’s generally accepted that there’s no cure for MS, only treatments that mitigate the symptoms – but a new way of looking at the disease has opened the door to a simple treatment that is causing radical improvements in a small sample of sufferers.
Italian Dr. Paolo Zamboni has put forward the idea that many types of MS are actually caused by a blockage of the pathways that remove excess iron from the brain – and by simply clearing out a couple of major veins to reopen the blood flow, the root cause of the disease can be eliminated.
Dr. Zamboni’s revelations came as part of a very personal mission – to cure his wife as she began a downward spiral after diagnosis. Reading everything he could on the subject, Dr. Zamboni found a number of century-old sources citing excess iron as a possible cause of MS. It happened to dovetail with some research he had been doing previously on how a buildup of iron can damage blood vessels in the legs – could it be that a buildup of iron was somehow damaging blood vessels in the brain?
He immediately took to the ultrasound machine to see if the idea had any merit – and made a staggering discovery. More than 90% of people with MS have some sort of malformation or blockage in the veins that drain blood from the brain. Including, as it turned out, his wife.
He formed a hypothesis on how this could lead to MS: iron builds up in the brain, blocking and damaging these crucial blood vessels. As the vessels rupture, they allow both the iron itself, and immune cells from the bloodstream, to cross the blood-brain barrier into the cerebro-spinal fluid. Once the immune cells have direct access to the immune system, they begin to attack the myelin sheathing of the cerebral nerves – Multiple Sclerosis develops.
He named the problem Chronic Cerebro-Spinal Venous Insufficiency, or CCSVI.
Zamboni immediately scheduled his wife for a simple operation to unblock the veins – a catheter was threaded up through blood vessels in the groin area, all the way up to the effected area, and then a small balloon was inflated to clear out the blockage. It’s a standard and relatively risk-free operation – and the results were immediate. In the three years since the surgery, Dr. Zamboni’s wife has not had an attack.
Widening out his study, Dr. Zamboni then tried the same operation on a group of 65 MS-sufferers, identifying blood drainage blockages in the brain and unblocking them – and more than 73% of the patients are completely free of the symptoms of MS, two years after the operation.
In some cases, a balloon is not enough to fully open the vein channel, which collapses either as soon as the balloon is removed, or sometime later. In these cases, a metal stent can easily be used, which remains in place holding the vein open permanently.
Dr. Zamboni’s lucky find is yet to be accepted by the medical community, which is traditionally slow to accept revolutionary ideas. Still, most agree that while further study needs to be undertaken before this is looked upon as a cure for MS, the results thus far have been very positive.
Naturally, support groups for MS sufferers are buzzing with the news that a simple operation could free patients from what they have always been told would be a lifelong affliction, and further studies are being undertaken by researchers around the world hoping to confirm the link between CCSVI and MS, and open the door for the treatment to become available for sufferers worldwide.
It’s certainly a very exciting find for MS sufferers, as it represents a possible complete cure, as opposed to an ongoing treatment of symptoms. We wish Dr. Zamboni and the various teams looking further into this issue the best of luck.
In God’s Loving Grasp
Rich
Harold,
These are kind words but we don’t often feel very balanced! Most of the time we complain that we are so out of whack.
I wanted to thank you for everything that you and your wife have done musically. I think that your ministry through praise and worship is powerful. Your love and passion comes through immensly in your songs. As a choir director and singer i appreciate your ability to balance your lives correctly. God, Family and THEN the church. but I’m sure i’m telling you nothing that you haven’t already heard before. thanks again for being one of the best Christian artists that i listen to.