Rusla

Rusla--You do know that most of your readers here suffer from brain fog, don't you?

Patti--I sure do but I cleared mine long enough to write that. I have my moments.

Tiffany,

I think you should love sharing food sparingly. What if they love your food and run off with it? Then you would hate them for eating all your food. This love hate thing is a love/hate relationship and can lead to positive feelings about negative things that could cause positive results in a negative manner.

I have never had long thick lashes unless I stick them on. The boys in the family have nice lashes but not me the diagnosed Celiac.

Here be a list.

Earths Oven on 33 Ave SW in Marda Loop is good bread and pizza crusts.

Terra Cotto not to far from there in the old Currie Barracks farmers market has wonderful lasagne etc all gluten-free because they are Celiacs.

Amaranth is good in the NW and there is a Planet Organic going to be finished this month in the NW not far from Market Mall on Shaganappi Trail. They have a store in the SW on Elbow drive also.

Community Natural foods 10 ave and 14 st SW and across from the Chinook LRT station is the oldest but very pricey and not a lot of stuff with not the friendliest staff.

Safeway in Market Mall still has Tinkyada pasta, Kinnickinnick cookies and few other things.

Bowness Health Foods in the NW in Bowness on Bowness Road ( not far from Market Mall) is cheap and carries the different flours and freshly ground peanut butter. Bea, Dee and Tabitha are helpful and knowlegable and will suggest other places that are good if they don't have it.

The Lakeview Bakery in Lakeview SW for me is in unimpressive and not so good.

Safeway in Montgomery not far from Bowness Health Foods, Market Mall and Amaranth carries a not bad selection of Kinnickinnick Breads in the freezer but that is about it.

That is pretty well it, rather slim pickins here.

I love my son, grandkids and DIL.

I love my family for supporting me in celiac disease and accepting that I have this.

I love my cats and missed them when I was away.

I love that they sleep with me and kiss me, they make me feel so good.

I love that as much as this disease is a pain that it is also a blessing in disquise.

I love travelling and seeing new things and cultures.

I love nature and all that is in it.

I love that I am eating healthier now than in my whole life. I wish I would have found this out 30 years ago.

I love going for walks and communing with nature.

I love all the fresh fruits and vegetables.

I love it when a doctor listens and doesn't treat me like an imbecile.

I love tht I found out that "bling bling" is not slang for lower private parts.

I love art, photography, music, reading and other beautiful cultural things.

I love not being glutened, having pain and having the big "D".

I love that I have found this board, the support here and that none of us ever have to feel alone in our disease.

You would think the butt would be easy to find, considering their heads are up it

I think that is why they can't find it. When they have their heads up it all they see is crap.

In my family my son, myself and his two children are a mosquitos buffet. In Jamaica, I was the only one of 18 people who not only was bit but sustained bites on from my feet, covering my legs and arms. I had a base tan before I went and others were more pale than I but I was pretty well the most bit person in the resort. That has been the way it is for me since childhood. I am so allergic to them and welt up badly. I am also allergic to fleas, wasps and other flying biting creatures. I do not have long eyelashes by the way. I am allergic to Skin so Soft and I do my own spray of Citronella, Catnip and Aloe vera which works on our mosquitoes and the Caribbean ones seem to be immune to standard repellents. My repellent worked except on the one day I forgot to use it, when I sustained all the bites.

I might as well get in on a good thing.

I hate that the medical profession can't find their butts with both hands and their arrogance prevents them from listening and diagnosing things like celiac disease and other medical issues. Thus causing so many people to suffer.

I hate that I had to leave 31C temperatures to come back to freezing temperatures.

I hate having to use my inhalers here when in the Caribbean, I don't need them.

I hate that I was accidently glutened during the wedding in the Caribbean at the hotel, when they tried so hard to make sure I would be fine.

I love that even in poor country like Jamaica they knew how important it was for me to be informed of what they used in their food preparation.

I hate that the girls I was in Jamaica with were shoppers not explorers like myself and that they found it necessary to steal the tips I left for the maid.

I hate that in Jamaica the mosquites thought I was a buffet.

I love the Jerk Chicken and Fish in Jamaica and all their fresh fruit and ethnic cuisine.

I hate winter and snow.

I hate working and not being able to live in the Caribbean.

I hate seeing Pizza Hut, KFC, and Macdonalds spoiling the beauty of Jamaica.

I love mountains and ocean and swimming in the ocean.

I love the pretty salt water fish in the ocean and dolphins.

I hate coming back home and getting a bladder infection.

I love the people of the Caribbean and I hated coming back.

I hate that our country is so blind and backwards in so many ways.

I hate that I, like JudyinPhilly, have no idea what and indie-emo-idiot is and that a couple of years ago I thought "Bling Bling" was slang for ones lower private parts.

I love that I am old enough to know the difference, yet never to old to learn new things and have fun.

I can attest to the pain not being worth it. I was on holidays and everyone was having the red snapper in mushroom sauce or all the Jamaican chocolate rum cake or other pastries. I opted for their delicious gluten/diary-free coconut and mango ice cream. I think I got the better deal and no pain. The one time I got accidently gluten with a minute bit and I was very sick.

The Kinnickinnik rice/tapioca cheese bread is good. I discovered the secret was to take it out of the fridge and pop it in the toaster oven for a few minutes and it becomes soft.

I like the Celi Mix pancake mix, the Kinnickinnik bagels and rice/tapioca cheese bread.

I think about the drugs that say they will cure psoriasis etc. But the side effects are heart attack etc. I think I have enough poison drugs in my system with my inhalers which I need. I do not need a pill that allows me to eat something to find out in the end it my destroy an important organ in my body or something else. I am just as happy being gluten-free than taking something which they may find out in 5 years gives you a heart attack, kidney diseased or brain tumor.

Nuts do not cause kidney stones. My brother who is allergic to nuts never eats them got kidney stones and he was told it was because he does not drink enough water. He never drinks water. I who have had kidney problems but no stones eat nuts all the time but I also drink 2-3 liters of water a day.

Tofu is a great source of protein along with seeds and nuts are good for that and zinc which is necessary. Because of B-12 problems in the past I use a sublingual B-12 which I get from the health food store. I eat copious amounts of vegetables and fruit and while everyone at work is sick, I have not been.

The only time I get sick is when being glutened. I find just the opposite, everyone at work has been sick many times over and I have not got the flu at all. Howevr, I do keep getting a reoccuring eye infection and everytime I go to the doctor it disappears. However if it is not gone this time when I see him then he can see it, he figures it could be shingles which Celiacs seem to be more susceptible than other people.

I don't care what they call it, we have it, we can't get rid of it so it is a disease.

I get angry because there is no need to put wheat in french fries, hash browns, chocolate or a number of other items. I walk into the store I buy rice noodles and fruit and vegetables and leave. I had better choices of food in Jamaica than I do here...go figure.

I am a person who likes to get away from the touristy things and get into the cultural. Unfortunately the friend I was with only wanted to shop. I think next time I will get my sister to go with me as we like to get into the nitty gritty.

I was heartbroken going from high 90's farenheit to freezing and snow. I was meant to live in the Caribbean.

It depends on how badly glutened I got. If it is minimal it can take a day or three if it is severe, then it takes much longer.

The Hershey's mini bars are not gluten-free. M&M's are good as they are gluten-free also. I am personally heartbroken over Lindt and Terry's not being gluten-free.

Canadian bacon and Back Bacon are the same thing. Find out which companies have back bacon and contact them or it should be on the label. In Canada there is one brand that does not have gluten in it but I can't remember the name.

I just got back from the beautiful Island of Jamaica. I was accidentally glutened exactly twice and that was during the wedding. That was because during the meal the chicken and the beef were brought out with these funky looking sticks in them as an ornamet and they were pasta sticks twisted and cooked in that position. I was not too sure about the sauce that came with it either. My other glutening was with Air Canada on the way there but problem was solved on the way back.

We all stayed at the Starfish Trelawny outside of Falmouth Jamaica. It is a gorgeous hotel with three pools the rooms are nothing special but then I did not stay in my room much. There is a beautiful beach with an island that has an walkway through the ocean on a sandbar that is only ankle deep. I was impressed with the food each day the buffet was different and if you asked them what was in a sauce or of if the food contained any flour or wheat if they didn't know they would run off and get the answer for you.

I stayed away from all the desserts and just ate the wonderful fresh fruit. I did partake in their ice cream because it has no gluten or wheat in it and no dairy...the coconut ice cream and mango icecream is the best. The ice cream was made from goats milk.

Each night they had different and fun performances and one night is beach party night. That is the night you get to have conch salad, Jerk chicken, pork and swordfish. The jerk chicken and swordfish is aboslutely to die for and next to the resort is the bamboo village where you can buy assorted trinkets, shirts, and marvelous hand made walking sticks and canes. I was at my baggage limit or I would have brought back some walking sticks. Always bargin with them if they tell you $30. you say $5. they will come down and you may get it for $10 or $8. Also if you start walking away they will come after you and really drop their prices. You have to bargin no matter where ever you go, if you don't then they think you are a big chicken. They believe it shows fortitude to be able to bargin well.

The John's Hall tour is a waste of money, at least all of us that did that tour that day thought so. The cool runnings," "Dunns River Falls," "Appleton," tours are all worth while. If you wish to travel to other places you will have to hire a taxi make sure it has red and white license plates and set the price with them before you leave and don't pay till they get you back to the hotel and go up to see Rose Hall which has a great story behind it and you may want to travel to some other places. I will tell you, a week is not enough time to see everything in Jamaica but it was not that difficult staying gluten-free there

In Jamaica it is "yeah Mon" whether you are female or male and it means "yes", Irie Mon means "good" or "wonderful" and you will hear "no problem" a lot too. Those are the three main sayings in Jamaica. Out side of being eaten alive by mosquitos I would definitely go back.

You may be unnerved by their driving at first because they drive fast and close together on very narrow rough roads. But no worries, they are some of the best drivers I have seen. It is a trip worth taking.

Remember everyone Deborah has been working on the "Celiac Freedom Cruise" for April of 2008. Got to www.celiacfreedomcruise.com

We have decided that a week of touring the eastern Caribbean with no label reading will give us a week of no accidental glutenings. She set this up on her own time and her nor anyone else involved are making money on this. All it will be is your plane and cruise fare.

I usually have not good things to say about Air Canada but I have to give them an A this time on my trip to Jamaica. On the way over I was booked for a gluten-free meal. However for some reason the purser took it off the list. They gave me an omelet which should have not had gluten in it, I ate a minute amount and was in the bathroom in 5 minutes. They found many fresh fruit salads and made up for it by giving them to me throughout the flight. I also had my gluten-free cookies along. On the way back they corrected the probem and I had a lovely meal consiting of chicken, rice, vegetables ,fresh fruit salad, salad and puffed rice cakes.

For me it is above and feels like someone has set fire to my insides along with the feeling of being stabbed with a dull knife and someone twisting it. Now for dairy mine is in the abdomin below the navel.

Pretty well all of aveda products contain some form of wheat. All of their hair products do.