I love Memorial Day Weekend

Fortunately we had beautiful weather this weekend and I spent the day yesterday with my sister. We stopped by the house she's in the process of buying and then went to the Cabbyshack for lunch on the deck. Of course everyone else had the same idea so we spent a good amount of time sitting in the sun, waiting for a table, waiting for our food, you get the idea. I didn't so much mind that at all, it's just that I ended up with a bit of a sunburn and the sun and I aren't that great of friends. Last night I had trouble falling asleep and then woke up around midnight dripping sweat and not feeling so great. I was debating on driving myself to the ER due to my history of severe dehydration and fainting episodes, but I decided to try to sleep it off instead.

Today I definitely feel better, but I'm paranoid because of all the medication I'm on. I'm afraid that it's the meds that are making me sick, not the sun, but I'm pretty sure it was the sun. I always get dehydrated after spending too much time in the sun. I'm just going to pump myself full of fluids and eat well today and hopefully be totally back to normal soon. I hate being on meds, it freaks me out!

Anyway, all complaining aside, I did have a really nice weekend and I'm glad it's already Tuesday, I love short weeks!

Sticking to my guns.

I've had a little bit of time to digest (eh hem) all this and I think I know what I need to do here. I have some horrible visions in my head of surgeries and ostomy bags and infertility and cancer just from stories people have told me in the past day and a half and it's more than enough to convince me that the gluten-free life is the life for me. There are just too many positives and not enough negatives not to do this for myself. I realize that there's a chance that it may not work, but there's also a chance that it will quite literally save my life. That's all I need to know. Let me show The Doc how much healthier I will be when I'm gluten-free.

My Mom has a hard time understanding why I want to do this despite the fact that I do not have Celiac. She hasn't read all the books I've read and heard all the stories I've heard of healthy, happy, gluten-free people. She just wants me to be able to live my life without the stress of having to watch everything I eat, and if the medication they give me will allow me to do that then why wouldn't I? Well Mom, you should read the literature that comes with the medication. When you're 28 years old and your doctor tells you that you need to be on a medication for the rest of your life that you absolutely cannot get pregnant when you're on it... well that makes something inside of me break and I just can't deal with that. I read these laundry lists of side effects and I'm thinking to myself I never even take tylenol, why on earth would I want to take these forever? Listen, I'm all about taking the meds to get this issue under control. I believe that's really important. But I am of the utmost faith that I can and will maintain it with my diet.

Mom's coming around though, I got to her house last night and found a gluten-free cake mix sitting on my designated gluten-free shelf in the pantry. She hadn't made the cake yet but the fact that she went out and found that mix and bought it was huge. I don't even care if she ever makes the cake, the fact that she bought it just shows that no matter what, she supports me and that's the most important thing. She even was looking up techniques I think, because when I was looking at the mix she was remarking on how expensive it was and that she learned that she can make a cake with her own GF flour mix and she'll do that instead next time. I love my Mom!! She bakes these incredible whoopie pies that are an old family recipe and she is trying to get to the point where she can market them and I said that someday we'll have to develop a gluten-free version. They really are the most delicious whoopie pies on earth.

Ok, well it's a beautiful day here in Boston and I am surely not going to waste it. Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone!!

Results

Where do I begin? I have Crohn's Disease. Full blown, advanced, ulcer filled Crohn's diseased. The good news is there is no evidence of damage anywhere in my digestive system other than the terminal ileum. That specific location however, is a mess. Isn't that lovely? I thought so. And so now what do we do? First up, medication. Not my ideal situation, but there's no question we have to take care of the inflammation first and foremost. He didn't even mention diet. So I asked, what about the diet? He says, well you really shouldn't have to change anything, basically saying just let the medication work its magic. He did say that if there are certain foods that bother me then I can certainly eliminate them. I told him about my research on gluten free and specific carb diets. He gave me the standard answer that I had a feeling he would give. There is no scientific evidence to support a gluten free diet. But he did say that it is certainly true that it is hard for us to digest gluten. He did more blood work, sent in my prescriptions, and told me to come back in three months.. or sooner if I feel worse or have issues with the medication. I am not keen on the side effects of these meds! Possible weight gain, acne, stomach aches (isn't that what I'm trying to avoid???)...

I am not exactly sure what to do next. Do I go ahead and go gluten-free anyway knowing that it will probably help? Or do I just try to eat generally healthier and not worry about it? He said that dealing with Crohn's disease is hard enough as it is, and trying such a strict diet is basically just setting yourself up for failure. Not to mention a ton more stress, which can aggravate the issue. I am at a loss at this moment. What the heck do I do now?? I'm leaning towards going ahead with the gluten-free diet anyway. There are just too many success stories not to. Maybe. I don't know. So confused. Gotta go watch this movie that's on and think about all this later.... Thanks so much to all of you for your support through all this, I have such wonderful friends!!!

Are they serious?

Hate jet-lag? Well why don't you just starve yourself?

Follow-Up Friday

Have you ever had a colonoscopy? Well I don't know if they do this for everyone, but when I woke up from the drug induced "nap" after the procedure, I was greeted with a printout of the results. Complete with photos. Of my colon. The inside of it. Ulcers and all. I'm assuming that this afternoon when I go visit The Doc he's going to make me relive the horror of looking at my own damaged insides so that he can show me exactly what's wrong with me. I hadn't actually thought about this until right now and I have to be honest, I'm having a hard time keeping my breakfast down. Remind me not to eat a late lunch.. my appointment is at 3:50.

Last night I threw myself an "I can't eat anything delicious anymore" pity party. I went to Jimmy's and got myself a BLT sub, side of fries and an orange soda. You might be thinking, that doesn't sound so bad, you totally could've done better for a last supper. I have to say I agree with that, but I'm broke, didn't have a dining partner, and was in a hurry to be home to watch Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy. Here's the kick in the stomach: while I was waiting for my food to be ready, I went next door to Tedeschi's and picked up a pint of Dove's Give In to Mint ice cream. Just one last pint I thought to myself.

Growing up, my mom would cook dinner for the family every night. And every night I would be the first to sit down, fill up my plate, and devour everything on it before anyone else even had a chance to sit down. Eventually, this became known as "The Hoover Maneuver". I'm not kidding. My own parents came up with this. The scars are deep. It hurts. Well last night I was back to my old tricks. I managed to take down that sub, fries and ice cream in record time. The pain that ensued was horrific. See here's the thing, sometimes I can pull something like that off and it hardly at all bothers me. And sometimes I do this and then I feel as though I will die at any moment from the intense pain. Last night was one of those nights.

Well finally we've arrived at follow-up day and I couldn't be happier. I seriously hope he doesn't want me to have any more tests done because I can't keep this up. Just let me go gluten-free and lactose-free and sign me up for a follow-up in another 3 months. You can even prescribe me some meds if you so choose. I'll even take them, I promise. For 3 months I'm at your mercy, whatever you tell me to do, I'll do it. Not like the last time when the other "what do you want me to tell you" GI told me to cut out lactose and eat healthier. Yeah obviously that didn't work.

I'll be back later with the results of my visit with The Doc! Happy Friday everyone! It's a long weekend!!!!!!!!!!!

I need to cook more

A while back I purchased Tosa Reno's Eat-Clean Diet Cookbook. It has a ton of healthy recipes in it and what I discovered recently is that it also has some gluten-free, vegan, and vegetarian recipes that are clearly marked. I haven't actually attempted to make any of these recipes, nor any of the recipes out of the other 5 or 10 cookbooks I own, but I would really like to one of these days! I'm lucky to have a health food store locally that stocks a ton of gluten-free products but unfortunately that lets me fall into the trap of eating a lot of packaged foods that are high in sugar and sodium. I'm a busy girl! I need to have things that are convenient! So my cookbooks collect dust and I come up with excuse after excuse to avoid cooking. I've also been avoiding working out a lot lately too. I had gotten down to just going to kickboxing on wednesdays and saturdays and now it's surprising if I show up even one day a week. What happened to me? I keep hoping that the gluten-free diet will wake me up out of this hazy life and I'll find my way back to my old vibrant self. Please tell me this is going to happen! Or am I really just this lazy? I seriously hope not. 26 hours left until my follow up with The Doc! I can't wait. Get out of work at 3, head over to Beth Israel, hope for some good news and then go home and take a nice long weekend off. I'll update here as soon as I get back to a computer tomorrow night!

Let them eat cake!

How delicious does this wedding cake look? Good enough for me to eat, because it's gluten-free! This cake was made by Vita Cohen of Celia Cakes. She runs this business out of her home and cakes are made fresh to order. In 2005 Vita's husband was diagnosed with Celiac and that's when she started experimenting with gluten-free baking. She now offers a variety of flavors of cakes and also cupcakes for special occasions and weddings. My birthday is next week and I was thinking of baking my own cake from a GF mix but then I stumbled across this website today. Maybe I'll order a cake or cupcakes instead! I imagine she's probably busy this time of year with graduations, weddings, etc. Plus I don't really have the money and was kinda curious to bake my own cake, but it's nice to know I have options! I know for sure where I'll be getting my wedding cake someday!