14 Tools To Manage Fibro Fog

14 Tools To Manage Fibro Fog

Reduce The Stress Of Fibromyalgia

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There are more than fourteen tools available that not only help manage fibro fog, but can also help in reducing some of the stress of having fibromyalgia.

For those of us with Fibromyalgia, we are always in constant pain and for most of us with fibro, we also suffer from fibro fog. Whether you suffer from fibro fog or not, these tips will help you with fibromyalgia and will help even more if you have fibro fog.
With a smart phone, we can lighten up our load in a major way as we limp along in a life filled with lost memories, foggy brains and chronic pain.
My smart phone is an iPhone. All smart phones have these features built into the phone or have equivalent apps.

From experience, I am going to share with you the tools I use on my smart phone to help with fibro fog and fibromyalgia.

1. Camera: Having a camera in your pocket or purse is a great tool for memory. If you see something that you’re afraid you’ll forget, then take a picture of it. You can use the camera to take pictures of your pill bottles, instructions from the doctor or anything else that you’re afraid you might forget. When looking at the pictures they can be enlarged so it is easy to see the details.

You can reverse the camera for selfie’s. That also makes for a good mirror. If you want one less thing to carry around in your purse, then instead of taking a selfie use the camera to see how you look before going into an appointment or whenever you need a mirror.

I discovered one time, while scrolling through my pictures that it was like a photo album. Looking at the pictures I had taken for fun and for fibro reasons, I had memories I otherwise would have forgotten. It was fun to recall events that I had forgotten. Take pictures liberally and back them up from time to time on a hard drive or thumb drive.

2. Along with the camera to help you not forget things is the Notes App. You can open the app and type messages to yourself. You can use the Notes for a shopping list. If typing with those tiny keys is hard, or in my case frustrating, then use the dictation button. Just to the left of the Space button is a button with a microphone. Click it and it will record your voice and type your words in the Notes page.

3. Along with, or in place of the Notes App, you could use the Voice Memos app to speak instead of writing with those little buttons. It’s a built in digital recorder. Personally, I prefer to use the voice recorder in Notes. But that’s just me.

4. The Calendar App may become your new best friend. When I started to use it, the first five or six times it seemed clumsy, but after I got the hang of it, it became much easier to use. We are always going to visit doctors and we make many appointments. After you place your doctor’s appointment in the calendar, if you try to schedule another overlapping appointment, you will see the mistake and adjust your appointment time. With your smart phone you can see when your other appointments are, without getting up and going to the calendar on the wall. With the calender app you don’t need to worry about losing all those appointment reminder cards.

5. The Reminders App that comes standard on my iPhone will remind me of upcoming events. It ties into the Calendar App as well. If you press the little blue “i” after typing in your text reminder then you will go into the Details section of the Reminder. You can choose a day for the reminder and set an alarm and a time for that alarm. If it is something every day like taking your pills at a certain time, then you can repeat it every day, every week, etc. You can further edit it to a monthly or yearly reminder. There are other features like Priority and Notes if you have complicated instructions for taking your MEDs.

6. Voice Activation. Several of the things we have mentioned already and some yet to be mentioned can be voice activated by clicking on the Microphone button or by holding the button down at the bottom of your phone. I use it a lot to set alarms. It can be used to set Appointments, create Notes, create Reminders, play music, check the Weather, and you can ask for directions to wherever you want to go if you have a GPS map app on your phone.

7. Music. Being able to play music can be calming, entertaining and fun.

8. Game Apps can help you kill time during a long wait at the doctor’s office. If you use strategy games, it can count as physical therapy for your brain and fibro fog.

9. The Weather App is essential during winter of periods of bad weather. We all know how bad weather can affect our stiffness and pain flare ups.

10. The Calculator is a nice convenience. It can be voice activated. This is helpful for finding the best value when shopping or helping you with your MEDs.

11. Some smart phones allow you to adjust the text, making it larger or smaller.

12. Flashlight App I had to download the Flashlight app. It has been helpful in so many ways. If you’re having trouble at night finding the right key, use your flashing light. Need to jump start your batter at night? Use your flashlight.

13. Google Maps or other GPS mapping apps can be used to get you around town, or can guide you on your vacation. I prefer one such as Google Maps that is voice activated.

14. Compass App is self explanatory to some extent. But it also has the numbers at the bottom of the compass that tell when you are at any given moment in the form of longitude and latitude which can be used in emergencies to tell emergency personnel where you are at.

If you have an iPhone you can ask Siri, what she can do and you can get a Tips app to learn how to better use the phone. The more you use your smart phone the more helpful it begins to be. I downloaded the Kindle App so I can read books while I am in the waiting room in the doctor’s office. There are hundreds, if not thousands of free e-books on Amazon you can download or read from the cloud.

Other useful Apps are games, email app for your email program, Pinterest, Facebook, Browsers, Bank apps and whatever else makes sense for you. I almost forgot to mention medical apps that can record all medicines you’re taking and a list of medical problems you have, allergies and a host of other medical information. I am surprised by how many of these apps are free to download.

When I first became mobile after a couple of years of trial and error, I carried around a bag to put many things in that bag that I can now have in my smart phone which can be carried in my pocket. I also bought a protective covering that protects against scratches and damage incurred from dropping the phone.

Sometimes when I go on about how cool a smart phone can be for someone like me with chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia, I almost forget that it is a phone as well. I can talk or text with anyone around the world. The smart phone is great non medical technology for those with chronic illness like fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, chronic pain, or Lyme disease to mention a few.

Gone But Not Forgotten

Gone But Hopefully Not Forgotten

A Resurgent FibroChampion

blog_meme_gone_not_forgottenI have maintained a low profile for the last month and a half. I have been working on finishing my first novel. I first started writing my Blog, FibroChampionsBlog at CallahanWriter.com to promote the cause of fibro awareness. I then realized that, having fibromyalgia myself, for more than thirty years, one of the things we need besides a cure is validation and inspiration. I’ve been working on adding posts related to that way of thinking. I have a set of memes or graphics that I will be adding to my Blog shortly, which came from my rough draft of the novel I am working on. I think most fibro patients or fibro champions, as I like to call us, will appreciate them.
After writing off and on for a while, mostly for my Blog, I learned from my neuropsychologist that fibro fog affects the body much the same ways that brain damage or traumatic brain injuries affect the brain. Just because you may have brain damage or TMI doesn’t always mean the damage is permanent. Some or all of the memory portion can be reclaimed by physical therapy.
fibrochampionsblog_9Yes, physical therapy. I’m not talking about exercises that work the muscles and joints, but exercises to physically work your brain. I heard an ad on the TV or radio about seniors learning a foreign language to help them keep their memory sharp. I ask my doc about that and she said it is true. She went on to say that any language-art affects the brain the same way.
I asked about writing, would writing have the same effect as learning a foreign language? The answer was yes. She went on to say that any activity that works the brain actively, like reading, computer games that need strategy, writing, learning languages, puzzles, crosswords, sudoku etc., they all have the same effect. Unlike the muscles in our body that need time to rest and recover between workouts, the brain can and should be worked out every single day for best results.
I like reading and writing. In the past two years I have read about a hundred books. I have written a lot. Somehow, I got the idea to write a novel where the protagonist, the main character has fibromyalgia and has to deal with it through out the story. I wanted the story to have fibromyalgia as a conflict against the main character.
I have spent six months writing the book and completely thrown away one story line and finally found the characters I wanted and then threw out two plot lines until I finally settled on a plot that could go the distance.
You all know how fibro fog does more than affect the memory, I finally had what I wanted, I just needed to complete the rough draft. I had serious doubts I could finish it and so I finally put everything aside and forced myself to do nothing else but wallow in pain and work on completing the novel to the first draft level. I needed a story laid out from start to finish. I needed it as much for a sense of completion. Big projects can be difficult for us fibrochampions. Now that I have finally completed the rough draft, I have a sense of major accomplishment and I feel like I can take the story all the way to publication. That won’t be for a few months, but I feel like I can actually do it.
AND I can say that after about eighteen months of physical therapy for my brain I am remembering things a little better. I still have serious memory issues, but over the last couple of weeks I have noticed a small difference in my memory.
What I want to say to you all is that physical therapy for the brain works and most of us are disabled and have the time to work the brain every day via computer brain games, reading books, especially creatively written books. Writing is good. Languages are good. Eighteen months will pass where you try it or not. Two years, three years, five years, or ten years will pass by, whether you try or not. Everything that counts as physical therapy can be done in bed, on a couch or recliner. Good luck.

Fibromyalgia Word Search Puzzle

Fibromyalgia Word Search Puzzle

fibro_word_search!

1. CHRONIC PAIN, 2. FIBROMYALGIA, 3. HEADACHES, 4. SENSITIVITY, 5. IBS, 6. VISION PROBLEMS, 7. ZANAFLEX, 8. TENDER POINTS, 9. MUSCLE SPASMS, 11. FIBRO FOG, 12 CONFUSION, 13. LORTAB, 14. DEPRESSION, 15. ANXIETY, 16. LYRICA, 17. FATIGUE, 18. C 19. INSOMNIA, 20. DOCTOR , 21. HIP PAIN, 22. CLUMSINESS, 23. STIFFNESS, 24. JOINT, 25. CRAMP.

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A Day In The Life Of Fibromylagia: A New Daily Column

A Day In The Life Of Fibromyalgia: A New Daily Column

Since this blog became primarily a fibro blog I have had lots of support and a lot of likes and comments to my posts on fibromyalgia. The trouble with having fibro, among other things, is that when you have fibromyalgia you can have a period of feeling relatively good followed by a period of feeling crappier than usual. Your efforts reflect these ebbs and flows. I still plan on doing the articles that I have done in the past, but I am going to add a daily post on my adventures of the day with fibromyalgia. I’ve had fibro for thirty-one years and it has been officially diagnosed for almost twelve years.

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Because of that, I am wise enough to know that my daily efforts won’t be seven days a week, week in and week out. But that will be my goal. I will talk about how my day went, how my pain is and other symptoms. It will give you a good glimpse into the life of a fibro champion who is male.

This post will cover one small thing. I went with my Mother-in-law to a yoga for senior’s class and it’s Saturday and I am still paying for it. I have been tremendously sore and my message tool broke a week ago. I’ve managed to get by, barely with the use of heating pads, soaks in hot water in my tub. I’m just now feeling good enough to blog. My next blog will be about Yoga, as I have more plans about it. Stay Tuned.

Three Ways To Live Life To The Fullest With Fibromyalgia

Three Ways To Live Life To The Fullest With Fibromyalgia

With a title like that, I hope you’ll keep reading. This is no joke, we can live life to its fullest even with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, chronic pain or any other life altering pain related disease. I have had fibro for thirty-two years and counting. I have just started to feel like I can live my life to its fullest potential. I still have bad days, bad weeks and bad months. I have pain every single day of my life. The pain vacillates, but it’s always there. The headaches, joint pain, muscle pain, flu like malaise, the works. I have a majority of the fibro symptoms listed in this article of fibromyalgia symptoms. but now that I’ve learned a few things, I can see a dim light at the end of the tunnel during flare ups and bad days or weeks or months.

I know the flare ups will pass and leave me with traditional pain and anguish caused by fibromyalgia. Keep in mind, back when life was normal for you, you had bad days, you didn’t feel normal, sick days, days where you were in an inexplicable funk. That type of life is the same with fibro. Good days are typically painful to various degrees. Flare ups are the bad days or the funky days.

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The three ways to live life to the fullest with fibromyalgia are:

Accept Your New Reality And Limitations

Manage Expectations

Find New Ways To Feel Fulfilled

I have fibromyalgia, I’m not some professional writing about this debilitating disease, I write from personal experience. I plan on writing about all three of this topic, hopefully in the next three days. Although it’s fibro permitting, so stay tuned for the next two articles.

Accept Your New Reality And Limitations

When you have a chronic pain illnesses like fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, chronic pain, or any other illness that creates chronic pain, you know that there are limitations. You can no longer do what you used to do. You wear out far more easily than you used to. It hurts to do common things that you’ve regularly done in the past. It hurts to do anything, it hurts to do nothing. Even breathing can hurt sometimes.

This is your new reality. You need to accept your new reality. That does not mean you give up and give into your illness. Accepting that fact that things are different than they used to be and always will be, doesn’t mean you’re giving in to the illness. If you accept the fact that life is what it currently is, it’s easier to move on with your new life and a way to live.

I’ve heard people say “fibro doesn’t have me, I have it” or “fibromyalgia isn’t going to determine my life, or change my life.” That can be seen as a good fighters mantra but it’s not complete reality. Fibro does change your life and it does determine some of what you can or cannot do. I’m not a professional health care provider or a psychiatrist. I’m a man who has had fibromyalgia for thirty-two year and counting. I speak from experience.

If you accept your limitations then you can learn to work around them. If you don’t accept your limitations, then you’re going to work hard and hurt more and feel more anguish on top of the debilitating, bone crushing pain of a chronic pain illness.

Accepting your new reality doesn’t mean you’re giving into it, it means you understand the need to work around it.

We all hope and pray for a cure or a superior way to manage the symptoms of chronic pain. But until then, this is our life. Let’s get on with living it the best way possible.

Here are some thoughts or ideas on how to accept your new reality. For some reason, a great many deal with an issue of guilt. They feel guilty being in pain all the time. They feel guilty because they can’t do what they used to do. There are many other reasons to feel guilty, but there are no good reasons to feel guilty. Let go of any guilt that you may feel.

“Did you ask to have this illness?” No.

“Had you deliberately done anything to cause this illness?” No.

“Do you want this illness?” No.

“Do you enjoy being in pain all the time?” No.

Then don’t feel guilty. Let go of any guilt.

If you accept the fact that you have fibromyalgia or any other chronic pain disease, then you can treat it the way you should. With respect. Respect the fact that you may need a nap or two or three during the day. Your body has a pain sickness and needs rest. You also aren’t going to get better any time soon so you need to accept the fact that you need to pace yourself.

Troy Wagstaff

P.S.
Look for Parts 2 and 3 within the next few days…

Living Day By Day With Fibromyalgia And Other Chronic Illnesses

Living Day By Day With Fibromyalgia And Other Chronic Illnesses

Living day by day with a chronic illness like chronic pain, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia and many other chronic invisible illnesses require a different mindset or an adjusted mind set. Your day to day life is affected in every single aspect or nearly every single aspect.

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Gone are the days of waking up early after a good night’s rest, getting ready for work, spending eight or nine hours at work, coming home to spend time with the family, work in your garden or other hobbies. Gone are the days of waking up early and making breakfast for the family, cleaning the house, maybe go to work, making dinner for the family, spend time with the kids and hobbies.

Snake Plant, also known as a "Mother in-Laws' Tongue" plant is one of my favorite house plants. This one is mature enough to have seeds forming.

Snake Plant, also known as a “Mother in-Laws’ Tongue” plant is one of my favorite house plants. This one is mature enough to have seeds forming.

Whatever your past life was before coming down with a chronic, invisible, pain filled disease, your life is different now. Are you disabled? Even if you’re not completely disabled your life is different.

I have had fibromyalgia for thirty-one years. The last twelve or thirteen years have been disabled. After getting diagnosed and properly medicated, I have spent a great deal of time trying how to have a productive life in spite of my illness. I have struggled to reinvent myself in spite of pain around the clock.

My wife has had colon cancer and about five years after that breast cancer, twice a cancer victim, twice a cancer survivor. I think it was when she was having chemo for breast cancer, we met this older lady during a chemo session. She was dressed up nicely, a great looking wig, makeup and a great attitude. She had been fighting cancer on and off for, I think, about ten years and was on a downward spiral when we met her. We talked about a lot of things, the only thing I remember about that conversation was that she was really sick and could do very little day by day due to her advanced cancer and chemo sickness. She loved to garden and didn’t want to give it up, but she just couldn’t work her garden any longer. She then realized she could replace that urge to garden with house plants. She could take care of several house plants. It fulfilled something that cancer tried to take from her.

Part of my front room garden. I have two other house plants stands in the front room with great west facing light

Part of my front room garden. I have two other house plants stands in the front room with great west facing light

I grew up working in a large vegetable garden and an extra large flower garden. I also developed an interest in house plant when I was ten or eleven years old. I could buy a nice little house plant for .49 cents back then. Once we bought our first house I started my own vegetable and flower gardens. After two upgrade houses we built our own house and I landscaped the whole lot including planting grass, trees and perfectly designed gardens.

I also had a few house plants around the house as my wife would allow. The plants and pots had to match her decorating scheme.

After I heard the “gardening to the house plant’s story” with the brave cancer lady, I realized I could do the same. Since then my inside garden has grown substantially. It is not a daily activity but it’s fun to look at and It gives me an opportunity to water them, pick off the dead leaves, occasionally transplant a plant getting too big for a pot. It almost completely satisfies by gardening inclination. It gives me a doable activity a few times a week.

House plants are not my new life, but it is a doable fun hobby. It satisfies a need I have. Another thing I have recently started doing about a year and a half ago was reading books. History books and novels. I’m not talking casual activities, but reading at the rate of one or two books a week.

What do you do to fill the void in your life with chronic pain illnesses?

Eight Anger Relationships With Fibromyalgia

Eight Anger Relationships With Fibromyalgia

One thing I’ve noticed in the almost thirty-two years of having fibromyalgia is that there are a lot of anger issues associated with the illness. I’ve noticed it in my own life, and in the lives of hundreds of people I have been in contact with that have fibromyalgia themselves.

What are the ways fibromyalgia and anger are connected?

8_anger_relationships

1. Anger toward those who doubt or deny the validity of fibromyalgia.

2. Anger toward all those health care professionals who didn’t diagnose fibromyalgia, who should have known better.

3. Anger at fibromyalgia itself, for the pain and the limitations it causes.

4. Anger at people you thought were your friends, but have since disappeared because of fibromyalgia.

5. Anger at the medical establishment for not taking seriously the plight of fibromyalgia.

6. Anger at the needless suffering of pain from fibromyalgia.

7. Angry toward ourselves for having fibromyalgia.

8. Angry at God or the Universe for letting have fibromyalgia.

As to what the relationship is between fibromyalgia and anger seems to be caused by fibromyalgia. Anger is an emotion and many emotions cause stress and stress aggravate fibromyalgia.

My question is to those of you who suffer from fibromyalgia. Are you angry in relation to it? If so what are you angry about?

I’d like to add it to my list. I plan and writing a Part 2 of this, for my own benefit and maybe it can help someone else with fibro. I think some or a lot of this anger can be dealt with by forgiveness. But that is easier said than done when you get right down to it.

18 Pain Words With Psychological Meaning

18 Pain Words With Psychological Meaning

I’ve made several posts, well at least two or three that have lists of pain type of symptoms to fibromyalgia. The way this list is different is that theses word have emotion or psychological meaning to them for the sake of diagnosing.

Sharp

Aching

chronic_pain_wordsDull

Tingling

Hot-burning

Tight

Numb

Stabbing

Pounding

Throbbing

Sickening

Cramping

Exhausting

Gnawing

Shooting

Heavy

Tender

Splitting

Look again at the list of description pain words. Doesn’t all pain become exhausting? What about the words heavy, dull and gnawing? Isn’t there a degree of overlap? What about throbbing, aching and pounding? There is a difference in these words but not much. I went to a pain clinic and had to fill out a form where you had to check which descriptive words applied to your pain.

I complained to my PA and he said that those word has a psychological component used to evaluate both the type of pain and the psychological state of mind related to the pain patient. He wouldn’t elaborate any further.

I made this pain in case it helps you in some way communicate your pain to a health care professional. I don’t know if it will mean much but it’s worth considering. Those of us with chronic pain and fibromyalgia can use all the help we can get.

Keep in mind this is posted for your consideration. I am not a health care professional and do not assume any liability. I am passing this on to you for your consideration.

47 Names of Various Pains

47 Names of Various Pains

In honor of Chronic Pain Awareness Month, here are forty-seven terms that identify various types of pain. Wether you have fibromyalgia with fibro fog that makes it hard to think of words, or whether you have other types of chronic pain where the pain so debilitating you can hardly think, here are some terms that you can use to describe when seeking medical attention. I wish I had this list when I first started seeking medical attention eleven years ago.

Ache (Aching)

Acute

Aggravating

Agony (Agonizing)

Battered

Burning

Cramp

Crick

Crumbling

Crushing

Damaging

chronic pain terms

Distress

Dull

Excruciating

Gnawing

Heavy

Hurt

Intense

Malady

Mashing

Mentally Agonizing

Numb (Numbness)

Pulse (ing)

Pulverizing

Piercing

Raging

Scared

Sensation

Searing

Severe

Sharp

Shooting

Sickening

Sore (Soreness)

Squashing

Spasm (Violent spasms)

Splitting

Stabbing

Suffering

Tender

Throb

Tight

Tingling

Tormenting

Torture

Twinge

Vexation

5 Ways How The Bible Helps Us Cope With Chronic Pain and Fibromyalgia

5 Ways How The Bible Helps Us Cope With Chronic Pain, Fibromyalgia And Other Chronic Invisible Illnesses

I am introducing a new thread on the Fibro Champions Blog that takes various verses from the scriptures and applies them to those of us who suffer trials and tribulations due to Anxiety, Chronic Fatigue, Chronic Pain, Depression, Fibromyalgia, Lupus, Lyme Disease, MS, POTS and any other chronic invisible illnesses. Really these little devotionals could apply to anyone who has been victimized. These are Biblical verses that provide teaching, hope, validation and faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the foundation upon which all Christianity stands. His teachings can heal and help bear our burden better than any other medical solution, herbal solution or self help solution. But I advocate using the teachings of Jesus in cooperation with the proper use of the miracles of medical science.

1. Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you. Isaiah 46:4 (NIV) This verse is referring to Jesus Christ. It tells us that he will sustain us, will carry us and rescue us in the various times of our needs. Who needs the Savior more than the sinner or those who suffer from health trials, especially those of a chronic illnesses? He made us and he knows us better than we know ourselves. Who better to turn to than our Creator? To sustain us means To support, hold, bear up, bear the weight, bear a burden, and to endure without giving way or yielding. To keep a person from giving way to, as under trial or affliction.

2. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:3-5 (KJV) This verse in Isaiah was a prophecy of what would happen to Jesus Christ when he came to earth to atone for our sins. He did atone for us but he did much more. He bore our griefs, carried our sorrows and through his suffering he can be healed of the consequences of our sins and we can be healed from our infirmities.

3. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. 1 Corinthians 10:13 (KJV) This popular verse means that we will not be tempted by sin or tried by tribulation more than what we are able to bear. The creator of us all, knows the limits of each and everyone of us. He knows us better than we know ourselves. The temptations or tribulations that we are called upon to bear may seem like we are being pushed beyond our personal breaking point. But we are not. We must trust God and have faith and hold on tight. With his help, we will make it.

5_ways_the_bible_helps_us_cope_with

4. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, a whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:2-4 (NIV) To me, this passage of scripture tells me to have joy in my trials of chronic pain, fibro fog and all the other extreme symptoms of fibromyalgia, which is my chronic illness. This also says that the trials and tribulations we go through are designed four our personal growth wether it be in this life or the next.

5. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. James 1:5 (KJV) This small little verse brings great joy to me in my personal afflictions. It tells me that I can approach God in prayer for anything and my prayers will be heard and answered. But as we know from other verses, the answer to prayers are based on the infinite and eternal wisdom of God.

                    Troy Wagstaff ©

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