bartfull

I wouldn't say that I am overly tough. The point I was trying to make, without being judgmental in any way, was if you are feeling that poorly so often, you may need to take a look at your habits and diet and tighten it up a bit. You may still be in the healing process so that might account for some of it. I have been gluten-free 8 years this April and have everything down so it's second nature. I have learned what I can do and what I cannot do, as far as food. I do not get sick that often at all and have healed to the point where I include some hard exercise. That made me feel even better. I was literally dying from malnutrition at diagnosis and weighed 94 pounds. If I can heal this well and live a normal life and show up for work everyday,
most people should be able to do so too. It took a long while for that to happen, over 3 years, but I am stubborn and don't give up easily. I also come from the generation where you go to work unless you are really sick. Not that this mind set is 100% correct but many times, even when I am not feeling my best, I go to work anyway and generally get better as the day goes on. I have a sedentary job so that makes it easier. You know, I am in my 50's and if you take too many days off from work, you can lose your job. I really want to retire someday and that won't be possible without going to work now. That alone is my big incentive.

Could everyone take a deep breath and read Gemini's response above again? Gemini said, ". If I can heal this well and live a normal life and show up for work everyday,
most people should be able to do so too. It took a long while for that to happen, over 3 years, but I am stubborn and don't give up easily"

 

That doesn't sound judgemental to me. It sounds hopeful and helpful. THREE YEARS. Gemini said it took THREE YEARS to reach the point she could heal and show up for work every day. Telling newbies that they could do it too certainly sounds supportive to me! She also mentioned that the OP might well be getting soyed which is a big thing to consider. How many of us have advised people, especially at first, NOT to eat out? When we are new to this we often react to LOTS of different foods. I remember when I first started I was reacting to pesticides and had to go totally organic. There was no WAY I would take a chance at a restaurant.

 

And as the world's worst cook, I don't buy it that some people can't cook every meal at home. I cook only one or two days a week, bag up my meals and freeze them. They microwave just fine. I would MUCH rather live on my own lousy cooking than take a chance of getting so sick that I couldn't work.

 

I read EVERY label, EVERY time I buy something, and I NEVER eat or DRINK anything I didn't prepare myself. Now I have had to ban outside food from my shop and my home. I do this not only so I can come to work every day, but because I don't want to face the long-term consequences of frequent glutenings. I don't want to get DH, RA, lupus, lymphoma, leukemia, nor any of the other nasties we risk if we continually get glutened.

 

Reminding folks, especially those who are new to this, that they have to be very careful, but that with TIME (three years) they WILL get to the point that they can pull it off successfully is not only supportive, but darned good advice, IMO.

 

Thanks for listening.

Luv2teach, I'm sorry you are feeling this way but be assured, it is perfectly normal to go through a grieving stage. I think all of us did. Meltdowns at the grocery store, feeling left out when our friends go out to eat, and having a new baby must make it that much worse.

 

But the food doesn't have to be crappy. Most of what you used to eat is still available - meat, potatoes, vegetables, nuts, chips, and if you miss bread, Udi's whole grain or even better yet, Canyon Bakehouse Seven Grain San Juan bread is WONDERFUL. And for sweets, try Udi's double chocolate muffins. And of course most ice creams are gluten-free.

 

Maybe you could try your baby on a gluten-free diet. He won't miss bread at his age, and you can give him gluten-free chex instead of cheerios. I say this because celiac runs in families and you might find he does better on a gluten-free diet. The gluten-free diet is SO much healthier for a person anyway.

 

When I find myself getting down about it (which is VERY rare now), I remind myself that so many people have it so much worse. I don't need medications with their side effects, I don't need surgery, and if I stick to my diet I CAN live a normal life. I can do anything I used to do and do it harder and longer and better because I FEEL better than I used to.

 

That is WELL worth the slight inconvenience of a gluten-free diet.

 

It'll get better. I promise.

"Since you've substituted all your bread with cornbread, corn would be high on my list of things to stop. Bartfull says he reacts worse to corn than gluten. But aside from that you may also want to quit dairy."

 

SHE, Cavernio, I'm a SHE.   I really should change my screen name to "Bart's Mom" or something. Bart was my dog. When he misbehaved I used to call him Bartless as in "Bart the hopeless". When he was a good boy, I would call him Bartful as in "Bart the wonderful". And when I signed up here my brainfog not only led me to use a confusing screen name, but I even spelled it wrong!

 

Anyway, I know not everyone has trouble with corn, but a lot of us do, and it was by substituting regular bread with cornbread that I lost my "honeymoon period". I went from feeling better than I'd ever felt in my life to feeling crummy again and developing a host of other intolerances. I STILL haven't gotten back to feeling as good as I did those first few weeks, but I'm a lot better now than I was a few months in. As a matter of fact, I'm considering going back to nothing but meat and cheese and broccoli and cauliflower for a while to see if I can get my energy back.

 

Either that or I need to save some money to get tested for thydroid.  
 

Living normally while first battling celiac is like learning to ride a bicycle. You fall off a lot, steer into obsticles, and sometimes feel like you'll never "get it". Then one day you go for a long smooth ride and realize that you finally DID get it, and from then on, life is better than ever.

Recovering from celiac is like having the DA say that new DNA evidence proves you were innocent all along and will now be released after spending years imprisoned for a crime you did not committ.

I'd be more worried about bedbugs. There is an epidemic of them in this country. If you google "bedbug motel", there are a couple of websites that will tell you which motels have had bedbugs reported in them.

Frumpy, if you could stick with him while he was drinking you must have thought your marriage was worth it. And now that he has stopped drinking and has shown a committment to stopping, things will get better. AND, celiac disease probably has contributed to any "personality traits" that may have been making things hard. If you've read much here you probably already know that mood swings, foggy thinking, anxiety, and yes, anger issues are all a part of the symptoms.

Honey, I know what I am talking about. I used to be quite a heavy drinker. It was taking over my life at one time. I was angry at the world and VERY hard to get along with. I went from being depressed to being angry to being silly happy in rotation, several times every day.

I stopped drinking with the help of God, then I found out I have celiac. Since I have been gluten-free my whole personality has changed. I no longer get depressed, and my temper is under control now. Of course I still have times when I get angry, but it is always for good reasons, and I don't "act out" my anger. In other words, I'm no different from anyone else. I can honestly say that people LIKE being around me now.

Your husband will go through a period of gluten withdrawal. He will get headaches and become even more foggy headed for a couple of weeks. But if he could get through the alcohol withdrawal he can get through this. When he starts feeling better his energy level will increase, his anger will diminish, he will feel younger and stronger and more alive than he has in years.

As for the kids, you can keep his condiments and gluten-free bread and the like in a locked box in the fridge. Cereals should be easy. Chex are gluten-free. And meats, potatoes,vegetables, rice, even most ice creams are all gluten-free. So you have to brush your teeth after eating and before you kiss him. You should be doing that anyway, right?

Of course I don't know either of you and no one knows what goes on inside a marriage except the two people involved, but I would ask you to take a deep breath, and give it some time before you make any decisions. You might just find that this seemingly terrible thing is the best thing that ever happened.

For most of my childhood and well into adulthood, I thought my Mom was a hypochondriac. She too thought she had whatever someone she knew was diagnosed with. Every day it seemed she had a different complaint. Headache one day, backache the next. Sick stomach the following day, dizzy the next.

I STILL haven't forgiven myself for thinking she was making it all up. When I found out she had had celiac all her life, and that when she went gluten-free she became a new person, I felt terrible. It was only after I had lost her that I got celiac, and now I feel even guiltier. When I get to Heaven, the very first thing I am going to do is apologize to Mom.

You do realize that even the slightest bit of cross-contamination can cause damage? There are some of us who don't even get digestive symptoms, but if we eat something that was stirred with the wrong spoon, or something that was made in the same room where someone just made a cake (where the flour dust will remain in the air for hours), we will have damage to our small intestines. That damage makes is hard or even impossible to absorb nutrients from the food we eat. This will of course lead to weight loss, so the daughter's suspicion that her Mom is getting cross-contaminated is not unreasonable.

The bad thing is, weight loss is only one of the consequences of cross-contamination. There are a host of very nasty diseases that can come from continual low level exposure. Cancers, lupus, thyroid problems, and even dementia itself.

Cross-contamination is extremely serious and the extra precautions taken to avoid it are well worth it. If you learn how to do it in this setting you will be ahead of the game because I am sure you will have other celiac patients in the future.

Mom made all of her condiments from scratch even before she was diagnosed with celiac. My Dad had asthma and was allergic to all of the artificial coloring, flavoring, and preservatives in foods. Mom was a fabulous cook and all of my friends used to complain that THEIR Moms couldn't cook like mine.

Got corn starch back. Seem to have gotten nightshades back. Although I haven't tested ASPERIN yet, I seem to do OK with the salicylates in most fruits and veggies now. I can eat chocolate again too.   There are a bunch of things I haven't tested yet.

How did I do it? By sticking to nothing but whole foods for a year. Then I added back one thing at a time, and only trying a new food once a month. And I really think that the fact that I went totally organic for the first six or eight months really helped.

I just LOVE happy endings!! When I was a kid we had a cat that disappeared for several weeks. She came back well fed and smelling of perfume! She was a gorgeous white angora, and I think some lady decided to keep her as an indoor cat. She must have escaped eventually, and she came home.

Then there was my cat, Don't Jump. She was a half grown kitten who belonged to the neighbor. She used to spend most of her time with me, and the neighbor wanted to give her and her sisters away, but my husband wouldn't let me have a cat. Well, one day she disappeared. The little boy next door said she "fell in the pond and ran off". I was heartbroken. It was about three or four weeks later that I heard a cat at my window one morning. I KNEW it was her. My husband said, "No, that's Bass Bait" (her identical sister), but I KNEW it was her. I ran outside and scooped her up and noticed Bass Bait was in the yard. I brought her in the house and told my husband, "She's MY cat now! I'm sorry, but I'm not giving her up."

He relented, and eventually he came to love her almost as much as I did.

I don't like to eat grocery store beef because of all the hormones and antibiotics. I LOVE bison though. Well, I just wanted to share my great fortune with you folks. I was talking to a customer whom I hadn't seen in a while. She said she was going to bring me some pork pie because she knows how much I love it.

I had to tell her about my celiac disease and how truly sorry I am that I ca no longer eat her pork pie. It was one of my favorite foods of all time. Anyway, I mentioned that I eat bison when I can afford it, and chicken most days because it is cheap.

She called me yesterday and said she was bringing me a present from an anonymous donor. I THINK she must have mentioned me and my celiac to someone at her church or something. Anyway, long story short, this anonymous person sent me a five pound bison roast, about eight pounds of ground bison, and five packages of bison hot dogs. All organic, all locally grown and "harvested". That is WELL over a hundred dollars worth of meat! Probably over two hundred.

I can't believe how good people are to me! There is barely enough room in my freezer for all of this, and between that and what I already had in there, I won't need to buy meat for two or three months. And because there is so much more nutrition in bison than in chicken, I know I'm going to start feeling better than I do now. (My energy level has been pretty low lately.)

Just when faith in mankind is at its lowest ebb (Connecticut), somebody does something to make me believe in humanity again. Merry Christmas!

Protecting your health is NEVER unreasonable. Do whatever you have to do, and if others don't understand that is their problem.

I'm telling you, the shock collar won't work. Even if you are there, if the dog decides to eat your cat, you won't be able to stop him. I'd hate for you to witness that. You'd never get over it.

If you and your boyfriend insist that the dog is moving in too, you will need to keep them in seperate rooms at all times. I hate to sound like doom and gloom, but I strongly, VERY STRONGLY, suggest you don't do it. I think you need to decide which is more important to you. If he can't give up the dog, would you be willing to find a different home for the cat? Or if not, HE needs to decide whether keeping his dog is more important than moving in with you.

I'm sorry if it seems I am coming on too strong, but I GUARANTEE that the dog WILL eat the cat, even if he has a shock collar. I speak from experience here.