gfp

i have drank it to, I have one like every other night to relax before bed. I have never ever had an reaction, even when i drank 4 one night. Im a lightweight lol. and i never had a single problem with them. I am also very sensiitve, so i think if it was not gluten free i would have gotten sick by now.

paula

I know I go on about this but the answers are all in this thread already.... you just have to put them together...

Firstly The fact you never got sick doesn't mean anything unless you really drank a statistically valid sample...

They also told me that Redbridge was made on equipment used to create other beers after it was washed.

Take the first batch high chance of CC and the last batch very low... I don't know what a production run is for them hence what is a statistically valid sample...

I believe Bard's Pale ale was made before companies started taking all of this legal stuff into consideration, so maybe that's why it's labeled gluten-free?

I spoke to Anhueser-Busch last year when Red Bridge first came out, before it hit the public market. For some reason our distributor got it in two weeks before the release date. Anyway, when I spoke to A-B they assured me that it was made on dedicated equipment and that's why production runs were limited, because there was only one factory where they could safely make it.

Perhaps its a victim of its own sucess?

They also told me that Redbridge was made on equipment used to create other beers after it was washed.

Either they bulit anoither dedcated facility (they failed to promote), they lied to one or the other of the posters OR they had so much success they couldn't meet production and hence they also use the non-dedicated lines...

Hence the simplest explanation for me is demand outstrpped production and they didn't make a dedicated seciond plant...

So you can drink stuff from the original plant probably and its still 100% gluten-free... the stuff they make in the other plants after (washing) you carry a risk dependent on where in the production run and how thoroughly they cleaned the lines that run...

Remember making beer is a mutliprocess step.. its fermented, treated then put in bottles all through pipes so any one of those processes might be a contamination risk... and even one set of pipes might be less cleaned....

Depending where you live you might get 100% from plant A or plant B....???

just be careful when you don't need the meds anymore. i was taking a small dosage of celexa to take off the edge pre-diagnosis, and just quit taking it when i the doctor told me i didn't need it anymore. i know better, but i didn't taper the dosages. instead, i stopped cold turkey. HUGE MISTAKE that culminated with me telling the bf that i needed a couple of months for my hormone levels to return to normal while simultaneously sobbing uncontrollably for no reason. not a fun time. so taper off--no cold turkey.

Thanks for saying that... I was going to post a similar warning..... and like many have said if you can actually find you can cure it by going gluten-free (or at least manage it much better) it might be better than using psychotropics....

I think its a mistake to assume that every bad mood or bad behavior is related to gluten--some probably are but just as many bad moods and bad days are due to something else!! Id beware of allowing Celiac Disease to define everything in your childs life---they have a lifetime of coping to due in a gluten filled world and they need to develop the skills necessary to find their way. Bad behavior is bad behavior no matter what the cause!!!

Sorry, your relatively new and I don't know you so well.... but I did want to say something here....

Are you actually celiac yourself? I ask because the mood swings with gluten are really really hard to control... even for adults...

The thing is I know when I get glutened I actually end up saying/doing things I know I shouldn't.... but its almost like your body just does them anyway and short circuits the part of the brain saying "ooh don't say that" .... its literally like I know I shouldn't and I try not to but my body and some other part of my brain just refuses to cooperate.

I know this is REALLY REALLY hard to appreciate if it doesn't happen to you.... so please don't take offense but in some ways its like dealing with someone with a split personality.... and "punishing" one personality for what the other one did is IMHO not productive when the person can't control which one...

I think it is possibly a case of lack of education. Things are moving in baby steps. Up until around 2-3 years you were lucky if you could find a place that offered gluten-free. I that the issue of cc etc means that the food is not safe, however the fact that its offered is at least one step foward.

Yeah I know, it just seems to have missed the walk before you can run phase?

I think a lot of the places I tried had just thought hey, if it gets some extra customers we'll do it but hadn't actually looked into the CC issues?

Some places it seemed to be like yeah we do vegetarian, atkins..... etc. etc. and and gluten free like its actually a choice or lifestyle...

So I sorta agree its taken to lightly in many places.... but then it just means you have to exersize a bit more control and education....

I did try for instance a pub, just below the steps the the Bridge (SE side) just before the rocks and the guy assured me they could do gluten free no problem and then asked if I wanted beer.... when the meal came something wasn't right (I forget now what) so I ended up it being one of the many many meals I ordered, paid for and didn't eat.

Gfp, you are onto something...

Sometimes I actually hate to be correct....!

Its just entertainment... people tune in for sensationalism.... I don't think Quenn O is bad... she's just dfoing her job which is entertainment.... and in some ways she does actually help.... but only when it fits the sensationalism and promotes her... but that is what entertainment is all about...

I always remember hearing a newspaper writeup for Jerry Springer doing a show at Cambridge univerity.... he started the show by asking what the heck intellengent people were doing watching his show.... then continued saying he doesn't care if it makes him money.. (at least its honest)...

The thing is there is some sensationalist thing in all of us to some extent.... its the slow down to see the traffic accident syndrome...

but it makes for good viewing figures and these people are just following their job....

I honestly think unless there is sensationalism its not going to be considered... and that means as you say someone willing to share (on national TV) some very personal stories....

I am not a celiac but my best friend here in Sydney is. I found a place that serves both gluten free and regular pizzas but I am worried that the gluten free bases may be prepared with the same utensils as the regular bases. When you go out, do you ever find that something marked as being gluten free on the menu turns out to contain gluten??

Do you think gluten intolerance is taken too lightly in Australia??

Thanks

Can I stick my oar in? I'm not Australian but I have been a celiac in Oz and I really agree with your last question....

I actually found the whole acceptance thing started off good and then I realised in many cases (not all) it just wasn't taken seriously... The problem was if you live somewhere you get to know the good and not so good.... lots of places seem ready to promise gluten-free but are really just scratching the suface..????

The utensils illustrates this.... its absolutely impossible to make gluten-free pizza bases in the same room or wearing the same clothes as normal ones... its not a point for discussion its impossible... flour flies in the air and one speck of it will contaminate...

So presuming the bases are made elsewhere you are still left with people dusting surfaces and utensils with non gluten-free flour... if they use a real pizza oven with the long "paddles" then if any pizza has touched them they are contaminated...

The only way to really be sure is to check out their prep area and utensils.... ideally they should have a seperate oven because it only takes one pizza to touch another or the spitting fat from one to jump onto another.

A Global Rust Initiative has begun but progress is slow according to its head, Rick Ward. After a 1954 wheat rust epidemic the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, known as CIMMY, that introduced rust-resistant high-yielding wheat which has ended hunger in much of the world. Researcher Norman Borlaug won the Nobel Prize for his work developing the wheat.

Forgetting we have a special dislike for wheat....

Erm, Jurassic Park.....anyone.

It doesn't take a Nobel Prize winner to realise that this devastating "natural phenomena" isn't natural...

If wheat (or its forrunners) were meant to be gorwing in that area they would have done so naturally and without having to modify it... and a million years of natural selection would have equiped it...

So altering and realtering wheat to make it grow where it shouldn't be growing just pushes the problem to the next big time... when more people die ...

For my whole life, before going strictly gluten-free, I had exactly the same type of insomnia as you're describing. I call my experience with it brain-buzzing insomnia. Because it feels almost like an internal vibration. If you haven't already, you might want to go completely strictly gluten-free; no cross contamination, no cosmetics, haircare, lotions or other personal care products with gluten. I'm extremely sensitive to cross contamination and even minute amounts of gluten. If I get even a little bit glutened, even if I don't have any other symptoms, I will always get insomnia. Everyone has different symptoms, so your insomnia may or not be related to gluten.

Other than that, I've found that The History Channel is a great channel to fall asleep to. I have found that the key to falling asleep with the TV on is finding something that you have a true interest in, but also nothing that is new information. For me, the best genre is Rome or Egypt. They rehash those two cultures ALL the time. I find it interesting, but I've seen and heard just about everything that the History Channel has about it. So I can turn it on and kind of listen but mostly zone out on it.

I made the mistake of watching a program on String Theory (physics) when I got glutened recently, which I didn't know much about, and it was so interesting that I was up until 4am.

It can't be something that you find irritatingly boring though. My husband is into political history and I'd rather get hit in the head with a rock than hear another thing about the history of political parties. ACK!!! I'm sure with all the years of my watching Roman history at 2am while he's trying to sleep, he feels the same about Rome and Egypt.

Nancy

LOL.... exactly what I do but.....

On the original question....

But I do have trouble getting to sleep...and its really frustrating. I'm homeschooled, so I can sleep in later, which is good when I have those nights when I only sleep 2 hrs.

I don't even start to get tired until about 12:30 am.! I try to read a book from 11:45-12:??. but once i close my eyes to go to sleep,,BAM, i'm wide awake again! its so frustrating. My mom had me take benadryl a couple nights in a row, just because I was like a zombie for 2 weeks, only getting about 3-4 hrs a night. But usually once I'm asleep, I'm definiteley asleep. For about the last two nights I fell asleep at about 1 am (which is REALLY good for me), & I slept for about 11 hrs! I did grow an inch in about a week! lol, & I know that can make you tired. But the problem for me is, trying to get to sleep!!

This is so classic... indeed perfectly normal but you are doing everything to make your condition worse.... keep reading and let me explain.

All other problems aside its natural to think that if we don't get enough sleep we should sleep longer to catch up.... its what our bodies try and make us do.... its everyones 1st reaction.

I want you to read this and REALLY think.... what if they key to falling asleep is what time we got up...not when we went to bed the night before. This is what most sleep studies have found... I had a friend with a girlfriend who was bad enough to be admitted into the national sleep disorder clinic.... and they told her basically you have to FORCE yourself up at the same time EVERYDAY...

They will refuse to treat anyone that won't do this.... and the place is incredibly hard to get into... you need a VERY persistant GP... it is massively overbooked.

Anyway... the point is we all do this the wrong way by nature... its counter-intuitive.

Some rules.... you cannot catch up on sleep (except in a limited way the next day).... the idea of going a week and then catching up at the weekend doesn't work.... BUT what it does do is disrupt your bodies rhythm of sleep/waking....

This type of sleep problem is very common ion shift workers who change shifts frequently.... I have some experience from working offshore where you are on 24x7 call but its also a huge safety issue on rigs etc. which is why people get 3-4 week rotations because if you changer peoples schedule everyweek they never adapt (some people just find it easier than others)...

The 2nd point is your homeschooling.... this is again something to look into deeply (not the homeschooling but WHERE/WHEN)

Again it seems if we associate our bedroom with working/study we will tend to find it harder to sleep.... my father refuses a TV in his bedroom for this reason... (I don't)... but anyway.. if you have no sleep probs then fine but if you do have sleep problems then working in your bedroom is probably a bad idea.

I am no big fan of going to schools (I hated/detested/lack words to describe how much I hated school and wish I had been home schooled so don't think I'm anti-home school..I most certainly am not)...

However even people who work from home can have problems detatching the work side and the home side ....

We were never really designed as humans to have this lifestyle and have long thinking periods but we adapt... (very well) however it also means when we are thinking hard about things we can find those things hard to let go of at night.

The day is obviously never long enough.... we always have 1-2 things we didn't get round to.... and its no big deal unless you can't forget them until the morning....

Writing them down often helps.... that way your mind relaxes knowing the list will be there in the morning but also disassociating those thoughts pertaining to work is better... home workers often find this part difficult....(I do)...

So I'd say have a think.... does what I say make sense.... because you are going to need some commitment... the absolute first thing is to force yourself up at the same time EVERY morning... and it sucks.... for 2-3 days... luckily you can partially rearrange things around this (beinh home schooled) but you can't really just lay about. you need to be active .. do your study and think and establish that pattern.... YOU WILL GET WORSE BEFORE BETTER ... it takes a few days to reprogram, it shouldn't be more than a week to really start benefiting but remember if you break it you start back at square one and have to go through the hardest part AGAIN....

Benefits of this method are its free and non addictive.... and unless you are REALLY REALLY badly insomniac after a few months you can start giving yourself more leeway... and if you start having problems a small correction usually works... its not like you are stuck for life.... like gluten-free....

For me I can allow myself late nights and stuff every so often but then I need to be a bit stricter 1-2 nights.. and I'm fine...

Is your name... Clark Kent? That'd explain it!

Nope ... and its not like I don't damage myself.... I just don't bruise....

It might sound ideal.... honestly its not.... think of being an asymptomatic celiac...

Its highly subjective I know but I also seem to have a high pain threshold... I can literally break stuff and find its sore but not excrutiating... and when you put this together its actually pretty inconvenient... I mean swelling and pain are for a reason.

A long time ago now I broke my ankle... (being stupid) .. it went with a loud crack... (really loud)... I went to a A&E the next day and got dismissed with it would hurt more/be more swollen if I'd broken it....

2 weeks later its still not getting better and I'm hobbling on it... so I go back and get sent away again no-xray....

2 weeks later (again) I go in and by chance an orthopedic surgeon is working A&E.... he prods about for 30 secs says Ive broken 3 bones and probably torn 2 ligaments but will send me for x-rays to make sure.

Sure enough Ive broken 3 bones ... and he say's torn the ligaments but its already started knotting together so I should have been in plaster for 6 weeks at this piont but its too late.... other than rebreaking my ankle ..

At this point in my life I literally couldn't afford the time off work....

So now I have a odd shaped ankle, the ligaments cross in the wrong place... if I wear skiboots or rollerblades I have to cut out a hole ...

So true story coninued.... a friend rings me up at work cos he hurt his ankle playing football... he doesn't speak French and needs me to help him... I get over to his appt and take a look.. its all purple ... I mean I take one look and think WOW... my ankle didn't even go black... it was just slightly puffy this must be really serious... its blue running right up his leg....

I get him to a hospital and they x-ray him and ... he's sprained it!

I swear if it was me I have problems trying to even get them to x-ray it....

Back when I was 17-21 my GP also trained with me.... he saw my arm get snapped one day in a competition (full contact knockdown) (both ligaments across the elbow) so he always beleived me.... but other than him (who I lost when I went to uni)

Once again I now have a left arm that is permanently twisted as the ligaments healed at different lengths...

Honestly, I'd love to know why..... and its nowhere as convenient or fun as it sounds...Ive got chips of bone all over my body (at least I now know why I broke them so easily) but I mainly just don't even bother going to a doctor when I break something because of the whole explaining I don't bruise thing .. and yes you can be sure you broke it when you have a loose chip of bone floating about!

I broke my foot before xmas... (dropped a big drill on it (a green one)) and it stuck in ... I had to pull the screwdriver attachment out with a pair of pliers it was stuck in so deep and bits of bone came out with it but I just got to the point where I really can't be bothered with doctors telling me it would show more swelling/bruising and hurt more....

Honestly, I understand why he did it. But, as Jestgar mentioned, that he did this sneakily, when he knew you would disapprove, shows a lack of respect. I would go so far as to say that exactly what he did (draining the pasta in a shared collander) isn't the issue at all, it's the fact that he did it against your wishes without telling you.

There *IS* value in blind tests. Even for something like this. But ONLY if EVERYONE involved agrees that it is permissible.

This is not a case of "better to ask forgiveness than permission".

tarnalberry.... That was my thought.....

This one is REALLY tricky.....

I'm going to give my take but that doesn't mean I'm condoning it and anyone who knows what my mom did when I visited will know I mean that.

The fundamental problem here is that sometimes those closest to us actually think they are protecting us from ourseleves.

I think we all know someone who just doesn't beleive us and most often that person is someone we have known and trusted for a long time. This is what can make it the most painful and hurtful....

However in many cases I think that person just has no idea... and perhaps in many cases we were actually economical with the truth before diagnosis.... by this I mean we tend to understate the symptoms becauser they are icky symptoms... if we can get away without saying then we rarely say "Oh I got caught out at the mall and pooped myself before I could find a bathroom"....

Lets face it we just want to deal with it and get over it....

The problem is also exasperated I think by the fact we get more sensitive or at least more specific once we are gluten free.

The fact is we did have normal bowel movements.... inbetween because its not constant.... and we try our best to mask the symptoms and even ourselves we start regarding them as "normal"....

Some family and friends just live in the past.... I know some peple say there is a grieving process going gluten-free... and perhaps this is what they miss. We let go of those old things like real pasta and bread... and we are the ones who FEEL better but we are better in ways that are not so easy to share....

Fundamentally I think a lot of people who care for us actually feel we are just making life miserable for ourselves.

They are convinced we have gone over the top (how bad can a little bit be.. you used to eat pizza and eash it down with beer) so how can a shared collander possibly hurt you.... and if it does it must be so tiny compared with you used to eat beer and poizza and be OK.....

No we didn't.... we used to eat beer and pizza and be ill but cover it up.... and 1 crumb or a whole pizza makes no difference to the immune system...

Don't get me wrong this its terrible BUT I do think hubby was trying to help.... its not particualrly respectful... I'm guessing he wasn't the one doing the laundry.

... but perhaps the key to this is actually trying to explain that back in those pre-diagnosis days you were not OK, you just put on a brave face and coped.... and that discussing the symptoms was embarassing so you were economical with them.... but one thing is certain you certainly were not OK.

secondly you need to explain its an autoimmune reaction and the amount of gluten is irrelevant....and that the mechanism is that your body just has to detect gluten to start a chain reaction... one which can take time to get into full swing....

I'm really sorry you have to go through this.... but I think you really have to get these things across... and the best (quickest) way might be to eat some humble pie and say your sorry you never went into how bad it was and everytime you had cramps, D etc. because it was both embarassing and useless since you had no idea why...

I don't think you should have to do this ... I just think its perhaps the quickest way to make him realise....

The whole idea that wheat is a killer is somewhat bizarre.... until you happen to be affected because its such a culturally integrated food. We are told again and again in childhood its good for us... so people find it really hard to accept...

Just as an example.... we are bombarded by "milk is good you you" signs and ads.... but erm... no its not... indeed any pro-milk stuff is already well dispelled and plenty of evidence its not... (I still eat cheese, I just don't think its good for me).... but the point is even with all this evidence, even with obesitiy becoming Americas biggest cure people in general acyually still view milk as a healthy food....

The papers are available to everyone yet warm milk and cookies is still viewed as a comfort food and something good to give kids...The majority of the people who want to give kids milk don't do so because they are nasty... moistly quite the opposite, they think its good for them... but its easier to follow the advertsising and publicty paid for by lobby groups than dusty academic papers...

free sign here :

Open Original Shared Link

Sounds yummy... and with the recent posts of a few moms with young kids who are fussy ideal for something to make with the kids...

Mix, dump, bake, devour!

Mmm... sounds like you could even scoop it right out of the mixing bowl....

As I remember the unleavened bread part is only a fairly modern part... (Orthodox Chrisitans I think use leavened normal bread) and I don't think anywhere it matters since its meaning is symbolic* so you can always just take a small cut square or circle (using the baking cutters) of plain rice bread...

* I don't want to argue about this and I doubt Karen does.... Karen and her priest are happy to accept its symbolic so it's between them and up to use to provide possible ways to do it IMHO...

Personally, I think it is negligent of Oprah to be all over the autism issue without bringing up the gluten connection at all......

LOL... no offense.... but Oprah will do what makes for viewing figures....fits neatly into a show.... etc. and has the right components to make her look good...

So the problem really is her Dr's probably have no idea about celiac disease.... (above and beyond what our MD's do)....

We can probably see 101 reasons it actually would make a good show.... and all the different avenues she could explore whereas her advisors and script writers just see a dull disease....

Basically and I know this sounds tough.... a few avenues she'd love to cover would be

"My husband had moods and beat up on me when he was glutened"

"I lost my job/baby/marriage due to celiac"

"My employer discriminated against me because of my disease"

Not poor (mainly) white (often) middle class Americans ... or perhaps I'm just cynical...

More chance of getting on Jerry Springer by saying you'll get glutened and start pulling the hair out of the MD they bring on to say brain fog is all in your head....

However its definately worth a go.... I just think y'all have more chance if yoos rights yoos emails like this!

Sure! Post it! It will help me with my "experiments"!!!! LOL!

Steve, I will try not to burn the kitchen down with my baking!

p.s. Couldn't resist!

Karen

LOL ...Ok found it

....hope you weren't offended when I said they don't need to be gourmet

My eldest is baking a lemon cake today. Of course, Steele can't have any.

If he's in the same kitchen he is having some... its pretty much impossible to bake from scratch and him not breath it in....if he's in the same room....

BUT.....

At 5, its totally unfair & logic doesn't matter. He wants cake! And I can't give it to him.

Yes you can there are 101 great gluten free recipee's out there.... including lemon cake.....

My wallet hurts!

I can get that.... specific gluten free stuff can be pretty expensive and yep kids are kids and of course it makes no sense to him now....

However .... just going off me as a kid.... I was really a picky eater (never really liked chocolate ever) but I'd always eat stuff I baked together with my mom....

If you make gluten-free goodies from scratch then they do take some time BUT they are nowhere near as expensive as buying them pre-made.... Yes it will take some time but maybe you could turn that into some quality time between you where you make him special treats he can lick the bowl ...

Just wanted to say THANKS for your responses. I guess there aren't any easy answers. It is nice to know others share my frustration. At least I'm not alone. Thank you Celiac Girls for the snack suggestions and gfp you are right about it boiling down to not being able to protect kids all the time. Sometimes I forget that I can't.

The fact your here asking questions and thinking about the issues is one heck of a good start!

But I think you can drive yourself mad ... its easy enough for me to do that to myself.....the whole delay thing and repercussions ... I'd swear you start then looking in the most improbably places... I went through different toothpastes (must be that) and who knows what and still kept getting little hickups...

You just can't wrap em up in cotton wool and keep em home safe like every mom wants.... if they are going to school from time to time they will probably touch someone with flour on them or something... and you'll just cope with it.... but just them like getting a cold or measles or anything else; you can't prevent everything....

As they get older then you can increasingly help them to help themselves... do everything you can of course but don't start blaming yourself or feeling like a bad mom when the odd mistakes happen.

Overall I think if you share a kitchen he will get contaminated.... but his attitude is not unusual at all, indeed it used to be mine.

Hash browns and fries ... its one of those things where cross contamination is really easy....

One thing I can say from my own experience as someone who started off like your hubby is I wish I had taken it seriously from day 1.

If I could bottle my experience and give it away I'd love to.... but celiac disease is one of those experiential things IMHO.....

Lots of people go gluten-free, see some improvement and think that's it.... then we keep getting sick but we are generally better than before and mostly we feel like we're doing something....

What I eventually discovered is that there is gluten free and gluten free..... and my first "attempts" at gluten-free were really quite poor even though I thought I was doing it correctly.... Once I actually did take it really seriously I then found I had symptoms clear up I hadn't realised I had....basically they hads come on so slowly over years and half of it I just thought was getting older....

The most amazing thing for me is that I get really down and depressed when I get glutened and I spent years feeling depressed ...

Does celiac cause lactose intolerance? Or does dairy just aggravate (some? all?) people's systems while they heal?

Pretty hard to say really...perhaps a bit of both...

I don't have GI symptoms in general (from dairy, ever, or gluten, except for the few episodes that caused me to go to a gastroenterologist in the first place) and I haven't been told that I'm lactose intolerant either.

By definition you like every other adult mammal are lactose intolerant... the real questions are how much? and is it preventing you healing? (IMHO)

I personally didn't BUT it took me forever to get better.... the general experience here seems to be its not going to hurt (worst case) and best case it can help speed your recovery....I now wish I had but....

I don't have GI symptoms in general (from dairy, ever, or gluten, except for the few episodes that caused me to go to a gastroenterologist in the first place) and I haven't been told that I'm lactose intolerant either.

Well from a non intolerance POV that's a heck of a lot of milk... to start off with and milk simply isn't good for you or anyone (except babies and baby animals)....

I certainly can't lecture you.... I do react a bit to cheese (mainly only after an accidental glutening) but I still eat it... is it good for me... nope but I love cheese.. I do however try and consume it in limited quantities.

Well, richard, you have the perfect doctor experience most miss out on. Your doctor must be amazing. I learned about the new enzyme pills for celiacs here at celiac.com. BTW, you don't have to try so hard to let me know I annoy you. I get it. I will assume all my posts rub you the wrong way. No need to continue to make snarky replies. As I said, I get it.

Erm, yeah I keep getting them pitched down the right hand side of my screen..?

HawkFire.... I think the problem really is that of human nature....and different ideas.

I know lots of really nice Americans but many of them disagree strongly with taxing people at all, let alone spending that money on public health (or education) because they feel perhaps that person should have had parents who had enough money to give them an education to get a job with a healthscare scheme that allows them to see the best MD's.

And America still has some of the best MD's in the world ... they are just based on affordability.

But its all wrapped up in so much other stuff and basically in the end what people will vote for...

This is absolutely true (forgive me for not mentioning the surgeons name but ...)

A friend of mine is a world class CV surgeon.... I mean really top class she (that already narrows it down) gets offered teaching posts at most of the worlds TOP CV units...

She accepted one in France (where I met her) but basically looked at what they were offering her and laughed... it wasn't even enough to pay for her professional insurance (literally) let alone live on.

She then found out she didn't need professional insurance... something she thought very bizarre... because the teaching hospital take out their own and cover her and in anycase its less than 1/100th of what she would be paying for the same insurance in the US... (I guess CV surgery is always dangerous)....

Anyway.. for one reason or another she accepted the position (obviously or I wouldn't have met her) and we had some interesting conversations... one thing she remarked on was the level of equipment in the US was much better/newer etc. I'll take her word on it but then she wasn't treating the same patients. The fact is that in France you can be an illegal immigrant and still get the best available medical treatment regardless at the tax payers expense. The funny thing is that although she really appreciated the universal healthcare no-expense-spared when she went back to America she still wouldn't want to pay an extra cent in tax to have the same available. Least it seems funny to me...

I doubt she ever had to put up with the US public health system ever in her life... outside of working at medschool... but she probably never experienced being told "nope you can't have that drug its too expensive..."

The wonderful thing though about being human is you can change your mind.... even though she says not I still think she did see benefits ... I myself used to have a similar attitude... unless you experience being on the receiving end it can be hard to see how someone disadvantaged can perceive things differently. Likewise if you end up with an excellent MD who can afford to not run pointless tests just to get a kickback...

When I was growing up my father was (struggling) running his own business. His costs included the UK system where an employer must pay a percentage of pay into the healthcare and retirement system.... and this he felt was crippling his profitability and ability to compete with say a similar business in the US.

If I asked why hobo's lived on the street and didn't have a house I'd be told because they didn't work hard enough at school. (etc.)

Later when I was doing charity work for a housing association I got to meet a lot of homeless people... and sure some were ju7st lazy (perhaps) others had medical issues and others just had plain bad luck....

I remember specifically one guy and I was totting up some numbers for him to apply for a grant to get into subsidised accomadation... I VERY rarely meet anyone does mental arithmetic faster than I do... and this guy did.... I adnmit I was a bit taken aback... this unshaven smelly guy USED to be head of accounting for a big company... lost his wife to cancer and went downhill with a string of bad luck...

My father however continued finding me a misguided do-gooder until he had heart problems....

By this time he had worked himself literally to deaths door.... but had made enough money to see the top consultants at Manchester which was and still is a world class cardiac unit.... on top of that he was incredibly lucky our/his GP was very interested in the then evolving field of heart surgery ....

The bottom line though as he was told by his consultant was.....

"We have already spent the budget for the specific operation you need this year... your chance of being around next year is slim to non... basically pay or die...."

The somewhat ironic part was my father did find the money, the surgeon and consultant also gracefully accepted reduced fees... but its still incredibly expensive to have a bypass and have 2x everything ... so when he came around they told him the good news...

When they actually opened him up it turned out he didn't need the type A operation afterall but a type B and that type B still had some budget allocated....

He still had a lot of stuff to do... he'd sold his house for the operation.... for one thing!

For my Dad... this was finally the point at which he changed his opinion on public healthcare.... he could have gone the other way and blamed the heart problems on the stress and extra work paying for other peoples healthcare had forced on him...

I guess what I'm trying to say is we all have out experiences in life.... and we all have "cultural" experience forced on us too...

As a young kid I accepted my fathers opinions....I also lived through the "great Americanisation" project of Thatcher in the UK and like many people at the time thought it was a great thing... hey we would all be living in houses with white picket fences like in The Wonder Years... but its only really through personal experience that we begin to change these...

The funny thing, my friend the surgeon went back to the US and invented a "product" .. She's no longer working as a surgeon personally saving lives on a daily basis... but working for a medical products company developing and selling a product.

However that product itself is saving peoples lives on a daily basis....

Is one right and the other wrong ... I don't know .....

but the same thing can be said about the drug companies and FDA and govt bodies

Why prevent a 25c course of antibiotics curing ulcers? Well I gues sthe drug companies have to make money and some people will die and others live miserable lives because for the drug companies there is more profit in a drug like ranitidine than tetracycline. At the same time there is more money in making any drug people take daily and never cures them....but the same drug companies do make products that do save lives... they just prefer to only make ones which make more money.

The more money they make the more tax they pay and the more can be spent on public health.... well theoretically!

Personally I doubt it ever works out that way.... but some people probably see it that way and I doubt anything you or I say will change their minds....

Even if the fries were gluten-free (I did not believe there were before the news came out, and see no reason to believe they are now) , the x-contimation factor at those places is about as high as you can get, so I would blame the fries AND the taco salad.

Next time, try and pack a snack

VydorScope..... I really agree... but its like you said on the other thread.... people want to believe they are gluten-free....

Its obviously a tiny amount of gluten and I would worry more about CC..... but saying they are gluten-free isn't really helpful or accurate for people being able to determine their own risks ....

Indeed it actually detracts IMHO from the big issue that CC is a very high risk.... because the way our minds work as humans is we like to label stuff... so attaching a gluten-free label to it tends to make us overlook the real dangers or at least trivialise them....

It really does not seem to matter how many ppl react, nor the postive test results for gluten in the ingredients for the fries... the die hard mcd's fans (many even on this forum) refuse to stop calling the fries gluten-free so ppl like you reap the consequences. I am sorry you had to find out the hard way.

As I posted on dally099's other thread..... even the published product sheet from McDo's actually says in black and white that they contain detectable "proteins from wheat" ...

Of course the paper starts with a negative test and only passignly mentions the positive more accurate one... but people will read into that what they want to read into it....

Or as my sig translates "man will willingly believe what he wants to believe"

I would say its completely normal... but then I'm not really in a position to judge....normal perhaps

However as a kid I hated any meat with fat or anything chewy in it.... so my mom would cut meat up smaller etc. then I started thinking of slices of onion as like fat she was disguising and even celery....

I'd hardly eat any vegetables except potatoes and peas... and I'm sure my mom was as worried as you....

Equally I didn't say a word until 2 1/2 then went straight into talking sentences... My mom was REALLY worried about this and her mom kept telling her to relax... and I quickly deveped a vocuabulary after this just through reading..... of course I was left with lots of words I didn't know how to pronounce... a few I still have problems with...

Kids are just fussy eaters... why else would they hate exactly the same thing doesn't come in alphabet shapes or starts etc. so I don't see anything to worry about specifically... Its obvious your a great and attentive parent.... you obviously went through a lot but IMHO your're doing just fine Kids don't come witrh a one manual covers all and your obviously watching and learning and developing...

Isn't being a parent/child just that...?

Of course keep an eye on him and keep up the good work.... I'm not saying not to.... but its a stepwise learning thing... my grandma had 6 kids and I was my moms first.... My mom panicked and my gran had seen it all before and everytihng turned out fine.... so by the time my mom had my bro... she was much more prepared for him not fitting the manual...

Karen, if its yours and your priests opinion it doesn't matter then I'd say just make a very simple flatbread of just rice flour and water... its only a taste so its not like you need something gourmet.....just something you can bake into a decent roundish shape...

You could also just use plain cornmeal as well.... like making a tortilla though obviously it will be yellowish....but the same method making a corn tortilla should work pretty much the same with rice flour....

I'd just stick the oven on and mix up varying degrees of rice flour and water on a non stick sheet and see which mix works best

p.s. wish my moms priest had said the same to her!

I am Starting this journey and was wondering if there are some good books out there?

There seem to be a lot. But which have you found the most helpful?

Thanks

Jyn

Ive skipped through a few.... but what I'd say is its like everything else.... don't take everything to be "gospel" even if its the gluten-free bible ... knowledge about celiac disease get better and labelling gets better etc.

When I was at uni I was taught that textbooks are on the whole useless for actually understanding any scientific subject because by the time they are published they are already out of date... the guy who told us this actually had written quite a few textbooks himself so ...

I think lots of them give you a good a background... but that if you really want to keep up on it (and unless you are VERY VERY lucky your MD or gastro is unlikely to do this) then you need to get a good base understanding and read the actual medical pages and journals yourself.... obviously you can't run before you can walk.... so I'm certainly not saying this should be your first stop .... all I'm saying is lots of good books exist and ALL of them have errors, ommisions and are out of date.

So long as you bear that in mind then I'm sure many people have favorites... and many of these will really help you get a basic grasp.