penguin

After buying my first bag of Pamela's at Whole Foods, I got the amazon .com deal as well. If your whole foods or other market sells it, you may want to try one first before committing to 6 packages, but I'm tellin' ya, you won't be disappointed

I definitely reccommend buying one package and trying it before committing to 6...I personally think the Pamela's bread tastes gross with a wierd texture

I get three types of pain: I get pain like you describe, the balloon feeling, and for me it's gas. I take phazyme when that happens and it works wonders.

The second type of pain is a burning in my stomach, which is usually because of too much acid and not enough food.

The third type of pain, the bain of my existance, is what I call the "crunching pain". For some reason (gluten-free or not) I periodically get pyloric spasms, and it feels like my stomach is trying to eat iself, it's the only way I can describe it. It's in the stomach itself and nobody has been able to tell me why I get it. I take phenergan and sleep for a few days when it happens.

Somebody is on the alamo celiac listserv

Thanks for posting that, you beat me to it!

right there with ya ashley!!! I feel like all i eat is the same stuff. I go to the health food store and get the same junk. And i buy the cookies and whatever but they taste like stirophome (sp?) not just that but dry styrophome(sp?) figured i would spell it diff twice maybe i'll sound it out LOL

my taste buds just aren't liking the cookies and breakfast bars and pasta that my body accepts.

I want to walk into a restaurant and order a big fat turkey and swiss sandwich on sourdough bread and eat to my heart's desire.

Haha, I felt the same way, here's an excerpt from my blog the day I was dx'ed:

Sheesh. I can have styrofoam and cardboard shaped in different ways. Here's what we bought as a start:

*brown rice crackers (styrofoam)

*Buckwheat waffles (cardboard)

*Honey rice puffins cereal (styrofoam)

*Rice spaghetti (cardboard)

*Fruity Booty puffy snack things (styrofoam)

*100% corn tortillas (cardboard)

It gets better...and yes, homemade is MUCH TASTIER than store bought. Actually, most of the stuff I bought turned out to be pretty tasty. Except for the brown rice crackers...those were nasty.

Ashley - What are the things you eat all the time and are sick of?

Wait, this says that Cookies n Dream is gluten free? It has wheat flour listed in the ingredients. The cookies part of the coookies n dream are wheat cookies.

Yeah, I had wondered about that one, too. But, since I've never bought non-dairy ice cream, I didn't know...

Hopefully it's a misprint!!!

YUP! Here's the ingredients for the cookies & dream:

Ingredients: Filtered water, organic brown rice (partially milled), expeller pressed high oleic safflower oil, tapioca starch, chocolate cookies (enriched wheat flour, brown rice syrup, expeller pressed canola oil, cocoa, vanilla, soy lecithin, chocolate flavor, baking soda, sea salt), tapioca starch, natural flavors, guar gum, sea salt, carrageenan.

DH and I determined (after many tries eating out) that I have about a 1 in 3 chance of getting sick from eating out. I eat at PF Chang's (only got sick once), outback (not the location that glutened me), and most american places that aren't a chain. My favorites that I can always count on not to make me sick:

Chick fil A - grilled chicken salad and/or waffle fries

Wendy's chili

Jamba Juice

The grocery store

oh no! I just bought rice dream "ice cream" last night! Is that not safe either? Should we boycott the brand b/c they tried to trick us by hiding the warning on the rice milk?

Here's their list: Open Original Shared Link

The following products do not contain gluten:

Rice Dream Non-Dairy Frozen Desserts and Novelties

The following varieties only (pints/quarts):

Vanilla

Strawberry

Cocoa Marble Fudge

Orange Vanilla Swirl

Vanilla Swiss Almond

Carob Almond

Neapolitan

Cookies n Dream

Thanks for that...even if there is some gluten left, covering it with a tarp or blanket or something should minimize exposure...

Thanks for posting this, I saw a reference to 'if you leave the island' is this in the United States?

From what I saw, it's an island off the coast of France...

Did you have your biopsy today? When will you get results?

G'nite Penguin.

Come back tomorrow and tell us whats up with the challenge....is it officially over today? Does this mean you've had your biopsy?? How did it go??

Didnt you lose weight the first time you went gluten-free.....I'm sure the weight will come off once you're back on the diet. Are you all glutened out now...did you at least have donuts at all during the challenge??

I have an announcement:

THE GLUTEN CHALLENGE IS OVER!!!!

Praise God! The tooth fairy! Santa Claus! The Pillsbury Doughboy!

Funny thing is that right now I'm so preoccupied with weight watchers that I'm barely noticing the gluten-free thing. DH had to remind me to read labels in the store, although everything I picked up is in my gluten-free rotation, I did double check labels, though. I like gluten-free food better, anyway

Yes, I ate donuts while I was on the challenge just because I could, I don't even like donuts. I ate tons of muffins though, and an entire pizza yesterday

The biopsy went fine, not quite sure what the dr said, as I was out of it and Adam wasn't paying that much attention. I guess he said that everything looked normal, except that my intestine was a little red, but he had no reason to suspect celiac damage. At any rate, he did biopsies (I think around 8, that's what he said in the appt) that I'll have results on by the end of the week and put me on the gluten-free diet. Boo. Now to get all of my family members tested

Yes, this is why I'm a little worried about them... haven't noticed any problems myself, & I eat a lot of them. I don't care for Lundberg ones, they are too dense for my rice cake moods... I used Mother's for a while until I realized they are just the expensive Quaker brand!

I'd been using Kroger, they claim theirs are gluten-free, but they've stopped carrying the plain ones. Those are the ones I like since I use them for "sandwiches" & breakfast "toast". I wonder anyway if theirs are made by Quaker...

Quaker reccommends that all celiacs avoid their products. How lame, Quaker, you aren't my friend!

You may want to try corn thins...I prefer them to rice cakes...they're made by Real Foods, and they're much less akward for "sandwiches"

Hi penguin

Hi Morgan

Drive by before I go back to bed: HIIII!!!

Back to gluten-free and onto WW tomorrow! YAY!!!

I'm gluten-free, but I'm so glad I don't have to give up marshmallows!

MMMMMMMM

My experience with farming is limited to seeing 4H demos at the fair, but... shouldn't most of the gluten be processed out of it when the grain is taken from the stalk? The gluten isn't in the stalk, right? I realize a lot of the dust will still be kicking around, but it's not as bad as frolicking in an about-to-be-harvested wheat field, right?

NSAIDS are things like asprin, motrin, advil, pepto-bismol, excedrin, and other antinflammatories.

If you look on the bottle, there's usually a warning about ulcers and abdominal bleeding

i have the prilosec, but im not taking it until i go to the doctor anyways, it says on the package dont take if you have unexplained weight loss, and thats the whole reason the dx wants a apointment with me on monday so i figure i should wait until he figures out the weight loss

as for breathing exerisis yes i know some but they hurt me to do, whenever i exhale deep it drives my stomic crazy

I'm sure your dr already answered this, but they put warnings like that on OTC meds so that so that people don't self-diagnose when they have something life threatening going on. Your dr. told you to take it, so you can disregard the bit about weight loss. Also, prilosec is used for gastritis as well as reflux and heartburn. The burning stomach you describe sounds a lot like gastritis, and it really does help.

It should be easy enough to do WW gluten-free, luckily things like Tinkyada pasta are about the same points as regular pasta, and I just gotta eat healthy, no biggie. Gotta get these 30 lbs. I gained on the effin' gluten challenge

Oh, I believe pop secret is gluten-free. It's made by general mills, so any gluten will be clearly labelled.

EGD's are really no big deal. At least it wasn't a colonoscopy!!! My dr. is far to attractive to be looking up my butt

How long are you supposed to keep the bandage over an IV site?

I read an article recently saying that the gluten-free market was set to boom (along with the rest of the food industry) within the next few years. The culinary school I'm enrolled in thought enough of the potential of the gluten-free lifestyle to accomodate me

I had my biopsy this morning, so I'm home resting and not driving or making any legal decisions

It went as well as could be expected, the last thing I remember is my doctor rubbing my arm and saying something along the lines of "are you ready?" and the first thing I remember upon waking is that I'd NEVER be able to remember what he said happened when he spoke. DH said that he said everything looked OK with the naked eye, but that my small intestines were a bit red and he took biopsies, and that I'll have the results by the end of the week. Cool. I'm fully expecting everything to come out normal, though.

In the meantime he's perscribed a gluten-free diet and to call in a week. I think, that's what the paper they gave me said. My doctor is very nice.

The worst part was the IV, and of course the 3 months leading up to it

gluten-free weight watchers starts tomorrow for me! Thanks for all the support over the last 3 months

I'm a BIG FAN of phazyme. Two of those and you'll be chock full of relief

Beware though - relief comes at both ends

<---- Fixed red hair!!!

*phew* Glad that's over!!

How does it look? I need a better pictue in natural light...

As far as I'm aware of there is no such thing as a "false positive"... and I'm not aware of any other conditions that would cause the same blood test results. I've heard both Chron's and Colitis being sited as possible other reasons, but you know, those two conditions often run in conjunction with celiac/gluten intolerance and will often improve on the gluten-free diet too (because the theory is they are actually just slightly different manifestations of gluten intolerance.) Where if the symptoms continue after going on the gluten-free diet the patient might need some meds to control symptoms. But first and foremost diet should be used to help heal the body.

With Chron's and Colitis, the white blood cell count is usually out of whack as well as having antibodies. Not to mention with those there is generally blood involved, and for celiacs that doesn't happen as much. In spite of all my symptoms, nobody has suggested chron's or colitis because my CBC didn't match up, and I didn't have the "right" kind of pain.

Here's their chart thing, A&W doesn't have any common allergens.

Open Original Shared Link

A couple of years ago, I decided to "re-learn" to skate so I could mess around with Walker at the rink and help him learn to skate. Before I decided I'd get a stick and try to play hockey with him, I was at the sporting goods shop and I asked the fella if I should get hockey skates or figure skates.

Him: If you want to fall on your face - get figure skates, if you want to fall on your a$$ get hockey skates.

Me: Hockey skates it is!

We had a parents vs. kids hockey game last March and I had a blast! Too bad I can only turn to the left, can't skate backwards and use the boards to stop or I'd go to the women's shinny at our rink. Now Ty's signed up for hockey too. I can hardly wait. He's so little the equipment will outweigh him. Evaluations start Sept. 6th.

Too true!!!

When I took lessons as a kid, I had constant bruises on my knees and hips from falling on turns, jumps, etc. I only got far enough along to do a single axle though

One of the first things I learned in skating was the hockey stop, so that we could spray the boys with ice

Much more fun than a boring and slow t-stop...and you get some awesome ice off of those sharp figure skates

That's so awesome about Ty!!!

Does this mean that if it comes back non-positive that you will still have doubts?

Nope.