Weekend birthdays are so festive. Everyone wants to meet out at your favorite restaurant and buy you something sweet or spiked with tequila. Thursday birthdays are fun, too, mostly because of their proximity to Friday. Wednesday birthdays have the whole “hump day” thing going for them. A Tuesday birthday? Well, it’s not really your year. But a MONday birthday… oh boy.
With a Monday birthday, you might have to flex some creative muscle in order to make it special. So here’s how I celebrated my Monday birthday this morning. As everyone else got dressed for work and hit the road, I lowered myself into a steamy bath doused with essential oils of rosemary, orange, and geranium. This wasn’t just any old hot bath, this was the first proper bath I’ve taken in over a year!
After I was diagnosed with fluoroderma, I made every effort to avoid fluoride exposure, including limiting myself to short showers in tepid water. Even the idea of soaking in a hot tub made my face break out. But two weeks ago, we moved into a temporary residence as we wait to close on our new house. Hallelujah, it’s fluoride-free!
When I called our new water company to ask if they add fluoride, they told me they don’t because their customers want as few chemicals as possible. Smart neighborhood. This happens to be a very wealthy area of South Florida (Celine Dion used to own a house down the street). I wonder what the correlation is between socioeconomic status and fluoridation. In the county where I grew up in Pennsylvania, only the wealthier towns are without fluoride. One town even voted to stop adding fluoride once the system was already in place.
I’m looking forward to visiting my family up north over the holidays, but I’m not looking forward to venturing back into fluoride land. My dear parents are trying to find non-fluoridated restaurants, but even that can be a tricky feat. We are going to dinner on Friday with my aunt and uncle who live in New Jersey. As I’ve been researching fluoridation in New Jersey, I came across some interesting information.
The journal Social Work in Public Health published an article last month that examines the question of why public water fluoridation has been unsuccessful at improving oral health in several parts of the United States. They used New Jersey as a case study. Meanwhile, New Jersey Assemblyman Herb Conoway is trying to mandate public fluoridation for all NJ residents. Does anyone else see the irony here? The madness makes my head spin.
It’s barely Monday afternoon, and already I could use another hot bath.
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It's all about money. It is a way for companies to sell off toxic waste and make a good profit. So they keep up the appearance of working. It's sick. And the nusery water is even worse. Lets give our babies even more floride so they have pretty teeth. Not a good idea folks.
Wow, I hadn't hear of Nursery water before. Just googled it. That is horrible! They advertise that it's lower levels of fluoride so it's optimal for babies. It's crazy how these things are accepted as fact. Very few people (if any) have any concrete reason to believe that fluoride contributes to healthy teeth, and yet it is widely accepted as true. I'm afraid you're right, Rosy. Large amounts of money are involved at this point so it's harder to change things.
Happy Belated Birthday! Thanks for all the info!
Thanks, Erin! So sweet of you to comment! I never realized this before I started blogging, but it's funny how the littlest comment from a stranger really can make your day
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