Celiac

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Letter to a not-so-good friend

August 14, 2010 in Celiac, Fibromyalgia, Myofascial Pain by Petra | 3 comments

Dear Fibromyalgia,

I know you like to hang out here, but you have overstayed your welcome.  You give me headaches, make me stiff and sore, and put my brain into a fog.  On the rare occasion that you step out for a day or two, I get so much done!  I think clearly, am able to communicate without forgetting normal words, and can even go up and down the stairs without feeling like an arthritic 80 year old lady.  It’s nice, and I want to feel like that every day.  So, please leave, and take your squatter friends Myofascial Pain and Celiac with you.  Actually, I don’t even mind if Celiac stays – he’s easily controlled by not feeding him gluten.  But you and Myo are not welcome anymore.

Sincerely,

Petra

I’m singing in the rain…

July 17, 2010 in Being a military wife, Celiac, Paige by Petra | 3 comments

Dates, gluten-free menus, TV shows, and new teeth…

Last night, Andrew and I went on a ‘real’ date that didn’t include grocery shopping, but an actual restaurant with cloth napkins and everything – plus a bad experience at Maggie Moo’s and browsing Barnes & Noble. We had a blast! I’m so glad he’s home from the field!!! I hate it when he’s away. Of course, once he gets through with school, he’ll be deployed 1/2 the time, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

We ate at the Bonefish Grill. We’ve known for a while that they have a gluten-free menu and were wanting to try it, but alas – we have six children and a military income, so eating at places like the Bonefish Grill isn’t usually on the menu (no pun intended). Anyway – our entrees were only so-so, we’d both order something different next time, but the side dishes and our saucy shrimp appetizer were completely fabulous!!!! I was so stoked to be able to order off the menu and not have to say “leave this off” and “please only steam everything” and “can you cook mine in a separate place”… I enjoyed rich, tasty sauces and did not get ill! Fabulous. Oh, and I enjoyed the first adult beverage that I’ve had in two years (since before I got pregnant with Paige). It was yummy.

Our 'saucy shrimp' appetizer - I didn't eat any chunks of feta or kalamata olives, but the shrimp was absolutely delicious!

 I’ve been watching ’24′ lately. We figured out how much we were spending on the redbox and it averaged to about 10 bucks a month. Well, netflix is 8.99 a month. So we decided netflix was the better option – we can watch all the instant stuff on our TV using the Wii, plus we can have one disc at a time out. So far, we’re thinking it was the right choice. Anyway, ’24′ is on the instant play list, and everyone goes on and on about it, so I thought I’d give it a try. Here’s my review so far (about 20 episodes into the 1st season)…

The acting? Not so wonderful. I mean, there are a few people on the show who can act, but some of the main characters are really bad actors, such as Jack’s wife (whose name eludes me at the moment). The story of the senator who is running for president annoys me. His wife is a complete jerk (for lack of a better, appropriate word). And everything involving them is way over-dramatized. There are many contrived and “yeah, like that would actually happen” moments throughout. But… the story kind of sucks you in, and I want to know what happens. It’s a neat concept and an interesting storyline. I’m thinking season 2 will be better, so I’m sticking with it for now. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Paige’s 3rd molar finally poked through, and the 4th is pushing hard against the gums. She’s sleeping better, after my new methods which were implemented this past week while Andrew was gone. I’ll go more into that later once I’m sure it’s working. For now, though, here’s an iphone photo of her I took this morning (excuse my unmade bed). I got this tank top at Target for $1.50 the other day – I love their clearances!!! And, as you can see, she’s still enjoying her new shoes (which are almost too small – not going to get many uses out of them before I need to get the next size – oh well).

Cutie patootie!

A little of this, a little of that… and some more of this…

July 6, 2010 in Animals, Celiac, Elimination Diet, Jacob, Paige, sleep problems by Petra | 3 comments

How was everyone’s long weekend? I think this was the most low key July 4th we’ve ever had! I got ‘glutened’, Andy sprained his ankle really bad, and we treated the house for fleas. Sound exciting? It was. Despite our maladies, we actually got a lot done this weekend! But we didn’t really celebrate like usual. Other than sitting on the porch watching our neighbors shoot off some fireworks. Which scared Paige and was too loud for Jacob, so I ended up sitting inside watching through the window with them. Do you like all the fragments? I’m such a stickler for grammar in certain areas, but apparently not when I blog. Eh.

Oh, the getting ‘glutened’: I got careless, plain and simple. I know I have celiac and that I’m SUPER sensitive to the slightest hint of gluten and that I need to be careful all the time. We still have 5 people in the house that eat the stuff, so it’s around. And Paige has been eating gluten since she turned one. So on Saturday, I made her a sandwich for lunch and I washed my hands thoroughly afterwards. I usually avoid contact with things such as gluten-filled bread, but I figured “eh, I’ll just wash my hands”, and THEN Saturday night, Paige was up for about three hours in the middle of the night (fun stuff for me) and she was hungry, so I gave her some gluten-filled cereal to snack on. I thought I got her all cleaned off, but then when I was holding her she grabbed my mouth, I tasted cinnamon, and thought “I hope that doesn’t do any damage”… then Sunday morning I woke up with a migraine but went to church anyway. By the time we got home from church it was completely awful, I couldn’t see straight or tolerate anything louder than a whisper, and then my stomach started cramping up, I got nauseous, and proceeded to spend the next two days having um – ‘indigestion’ – problems. Ugh. Some medicine finally worked on my pounding head by Monday afternoon (thank God!), and my stomach finally feels better this morning.  All from a crumb that Paige put in my mouth. So – I’m cutting back on the amount of gluten that Paige eats since her hands are still near my face so often. I definitely won’t be feeding it to her, and if she does eat it, someone else can clean her off! That was the worst I’ve felt from gluten in a while. It was a bad one!

I pretty much did nothing on Sunday, other than going to church, but on Saturday and Monday I got ridiculous amounts of things done!! I had to force it on Monday, but I drugged up and pushed through. There was a time that getting ‘glutened’ would have put me on the couch for four days, not just half of a day! I definitely think my immune system is up and that taking dairy out of my system was that last key. I’m still figuring out a few things that I need to not eat more often than once every few days, but other than that my diet is going well, and I feel like the elimination diet worked (is working – there are still some foods I haven’t added back in yet).

In other news, we’ve been ripping out the carpet in the basement. And by ‘we’, I mean Andy and Justice. My job was to clean everything (and I do mean everything – cat urine was on my desk, on my leather CD case, on my scrapbook table – UGH!!!) and I moved all the furniture and things off the carpet in the office area.  They got the carpet off the stairs and out of the office, and now we only have Brittany’s room left. Andy said the carpet in the office area was SO nasty underneath and it wasn’t just from our cats. The people who lived here before us had a big dog that stayed down there and it was kind of stinky – now we know why!!! I didn’t see that carpet, as I was upstairs cleaning kids’ bedrooms and getting the floors and beds ready for vacuuming.

Both cats live outside now. Luna hasn’t ventured beyond the deck and under the deck. We go out and play with her and she is SO much more pleasant to be around now that she isn’t spazzing out and climbing in the ceiling and peeing everywhere (and her fleas are completely gone – yay!). Chili, who was our favorite inside cat, took off as soon as we let her outside and we haven’t seen her since (*sad face*).  We’re hoping she comes back!!! She was always by the window trying to get the birds and squirrels though – she is such a hunter, we could tell. So I’m sure she is having a blast exploring the woods behind our house. It’d be nice to see her and know she’s okay, though!

Sometimes 9:00 am until noon is the only *real* sleep I get. I’m so thankful that I can actually sleep then when I need to!! Paige’s bottom molars are RIGHT under the gums poking up; I’m sure they’ll be cutting through any day now. And I cannot wait! And Jacob is doing better about sleeping in his bed all night, but last night he did not do well – Paige actually slept better than Jacob last night. Instead of letting him sleep in a “bed” on our floor though, we made him go back to his bed and he cried, but then finally went back to sleep. Hopefully he’ll learn that it is actually okay to go right back to sleep in his bed if he wakes up to go to the bathroom or stirs out of his sleep for some reason. He has had more nights lately, though, where he doesn’t wake up at all – hopefully that’ll become the ‘norm’ before too long. :)

I totally got spoiled with Brittany – from the time she was 5 months old, she slept 12 or 13 hours every single night and the only time she ever woke up is if she was sick, which has been extremely rare. Justice slept through the night by 6 months old, and once he was in a big bed and could climb out, he’d sometimes come get in our bed in the middle of the night (and wouldn’t wake up when we carried him back to his own bed), and that ended when he was 3 years old. Jarvis had a similar story to Justice, as did Darby – only she came into our bed in the middle of the night until I was pregnant with Jacob – when she was 4 1/2. Jacob is 4 1/2 and he’s never really slept through the night on a regular basis. Ever. And Paige seems to be following in his footsteps. I’m old now – don’t they understand that? I need more sleep now than I did when I was 17 and Brittany was a baby!! Yeesh!! ;)

I have so much laundry to do. I kept it going ALL day yesterday and changed my last load around midnight. It’s going again and I’m *hoping* it’ll be done by tonight. Washing ALL the bed linens and all the throw blankets and the stuffed animals, plus the regular laundry from six people (Jarvis and Darby are still in Knoxville), will create large piles needing to be washed though. We do NOT want to have to keep treating for fleas, so are determined to do it right and get rid of them. We’ll spray again in a week to make sure we got any flea eggs that were lingering and didn’t get killed and then hopefully we’ll be done. We didn’t have a big infestation on the main and upstairs floors though, and the carpet where the cats ‘lived’ is mostly gone (and will be all gone as soon as we get all Britt’s furniture out of her room and rip that up – planning on doing that today). Am I talking about fleas again? Sorry.

Okay, I feel like this has been the most boring post in the world. I’m falling asleep writing it, so if you are still reading, I feel like I should say something witty for you – to reward you for getting this far, but honestly, I’ve got nothin’. Other than this nugget: The next time I go to Wal-mart, I am totally going to dress like a complete and utter freak. So I’ll fit in. I took Paige and Jacob there last night while the flea spraying was happening (had to get the little ones out) and while we were wandering the toy aisles, we saw some real winners. I mean, some people must not have mirrors in their houses. And I don’t mean the people who are just trying to be comfortable or who obviously don’t have a lot of money for clothes. I mean the people that are putting real effort into looking as insane as possible. But you’ve all been to Wal-mart. You know.

Oh, speaking of Paige and toys. I let Paige and Jacob each spend a couple dollars on toys (I’m so generous – I know ;) ), and Paige picked out a baby doll (and yes, SHE picked it out) and she hugged it all through the store, all the way home, while at home, and she went to sleep hugging it last night. She LOVES it. She has been hugging little stuffed animals and one of Darby’s dolls lately, but she needed a soft baby doll that she could sleep with, and now she has one. And she thinks she is it’s mommy. It’s the most adorable thing ever. SHE is the most adorable thing ever. Of course, I said that about all my babies. But seriously. She’s cute. I’ve got to videotape her dancing – she has a wide range of moves and she mixes it up during songs – so cute.

Apparently I’m chatty this afternoon. I’ll stop now.

Here’s two photos to make up for the rambling. It’s the only things I could find to take pictures of right now. :)

Um yeah, this is blurry. But Jacob wasn’t holding real still. And I didn’t feel like multiple tries? But he’s still a giant cutie. And yes, we are still in our pajamas. We’ll get dressed in a few minutes before getting back to work – gotta get the rest of that carpet ripped up!

And Luna. We brought her back into the woods a couple of times, thinking she’d enjoy it if she’d just venture over there, but she comes back to the deck every time. She likes being around us, apparently. lol

And now, I’m really stopping. Goodbye!

Process of elimination – Part I

June 15, 2010 in Celiac, Elimination Diet, Fibromyalgia, Health, Natural remedies, sleep problems by Petra | 10 comments

As most of my readers probably know, I have food sensitivities or intolerances, whatever you want to call them (not allergies – allergies are different). I know I cannot have gluten, due to the celiac (see my ‘health’ page for more info on that). I have figured out that chemical-laden foods bother me, and I know that corn and corn products make me ill. However, after ridding myself of those things, I continue to have symptoms. So, since I cannot afford to get an ALCAT test done, I am going to do an elimination diet, the particular one of which I have lost the link so I’ll link you up later when I feel like looking for it. 

Basically, I can only eat certain foods for a while (probably between 2 weeks and a month, depending on how long it takes for my symptoms to disappear), then I’ll be able to add in one food at a time to see if it bothers me. Since intolerances, unlike most allergies, sometimes take a little while to show symptoms, I’ll be introducing each new food twice a day for about four days before I can move on to the next new food. I’ll keep a chart, and if it bothers me right away, I obviously need to never eat it, if it bothers me the 2nd day, then I can probably have it once every four days, and if it bothers me the 3rd or 4th day, then I can probably have it once every other day. It’s not as complicated as it sounds. lol. I’m actually excited to figure it all out. I’m going to keep a record of it all on the blog for those who are interested. If you aren’t, then you can just skip these posts. ;)

The symptoms I’ve been experiencing lately are these:

  • more frequent headaches. They had slowed down a LOT after getting rid of the gluten. However, a lot of people with celiac have other food intolerances as well. Getting the gluten out of my system was wonderful, but then my body became more sensitive to the ‘smaller’ (for lack of a better word) things that were bothering me. I got rid of the chemicals next, then the corn. Now that those are out of my system, whatever else is bothering me is amplified. So the headaches are back. Not like they were a couple of years ago, but enough to where  I’m ready to do something about them.
  • more brain fogs. These are usually due to the fibromyalgia, but fibromyalgia can be controlled by diet, and I notice that the fogs get worse when I have something in my diet that does not belong. If you’ve never had a brain fog, trust me, you don’t want one! Your head feels full of pressure and is sometimes accompanied by dizziness, you can’t concentrate on anything, you become irritable, it’s hard to focus or even get out complete sentences, it takes much effort to try to remember simple things, etc. Not fun.
  • my fibromyalgia pain and also my myofascial pain are worse than ever. I’ve had to take pain killers much more often lately, and I wait until it’s really bad before I start popping pills since me and chemicals don’t really get along.
  • arthritis-type pain, which accompanies the above – it’s not actually arthritis, it’s from the fibromyalgia, but it’s been super bad lately.
  • I’m tired all the time, and seriously lacking in energy.
  • I’m irritable (and it’s not just me being moody – I’m only irritable when my health is uncontrollably causing it).
  • My senses have all been heightened lately. Noises are louder, smells are stronger, the sun is brighter, etc.
  • I’m sure any digestion/stomach issues I’ll ever have now or in the future will never compare to what they were before I gave up gluten (!), but my stomach has been bothering me more lately in the form of (warning: tmi ahead) gas and constipation.  Woo hoo!
  • Trouble falling asleep, trouble staying asleep, trouble waking up once I finally do get into a deep sleep. This has always been an issue for me – my entire life, but it’s been worse again lately.

That’s all I can think of at the moment, and many of the things I mentioned are bothering me right now. Some of my issues I know are due to a lack of sleep, but I’m sure that there are foods that are still bothering me. I’m crossing my fingers it’s *not* dairy. I think that’ll be really hard to give up – as hard as giving up gluten.

Starting June 16th, I will only be eating the following foods that I stocked up on yesterday and today:

  • lamb
  • wild fish, not farm-raised (I bought several types)
  • a myriad of vegetables, but no white potatoes, tomatoes, and a couple others that I’ll have to consult my list again to see
  • some fruits, but no citrus fruits, and no bananas
  • sea salt
  • extra-virgin olive oil, sesame oil
  • sunflower seeds
  • a few spices

A couple of nuts are allowed on the diet, like almonds and, I think, pecans, but just the thought of consuming those makes me want to hurl, so yeah – I wont’ be eating them. Yuck. I SO wish I loved almonds, but alas, I do not.

I have never eaten lamb before, so I just bought one package of it, which is supposed to be about 4 servings. I’ll let you know how I like that.

Basically, my plan is to eat for breakfast – fruit, some fish, and my daily garlic, for lunch – a salad and a fruit smoothie (not my old recipe, which included yogurt and milk, but an all-fruit recipe) and probably a handful of sunflower seeds, then for dinner – fish or lamb with lots of veggies. I’ll snack on veggies, fruit, and seeds. I’m planning on feeling very hungry, especially at first! lol. Today, I ate lots of things I love and will miss, like gluten-free pancakes, Trader Joe’s bacon, Kettle barbecue chips, White Chocolate Wonderful peanut butter, and an extra glass of green tea. I figured I’d go out with a bang. ;) I think my morning green tea will be difficult, but the stuff I read about the diet gave a convincing argument that I needed to eliminate all that sort of stuff and start from scratch for this to really work. I don’t think green tea bothers me, so I’m sure I’ll be adding it back in as I believe the health benefits of green tea far outweigh anything negative from the caffeine.

Wish me luck, or rather, pray for me. I’ll need it! :)