Camille'sBigSister

I was going to say, can you imagine having bathroom duty in this community of celiacs.

I will be conveniently absent when that job is given out.

I simply MUST add this caveat: I'll clean my own, but I AIN'T GONNA CLEAN NOBODY ELSE'S!!!

Cissie

Oh dear God! I just read the spoon theory! How poignant, and true.

Susan, I'm so jealous! I adore raspberry and cream, so I'm coveting that garment! About my husband, he's still living in the 1940s! I haven't yet been able to drag him, in proverbial kicking and screaming mode, into the 21st century. Imagine, as a faux finish artist, trying to be stress-free while living in a house with LR and DR walls covered in 1970s paneling!!! He actually likes it. Poor old dear, he lives life with blinders on.

G'night all. Hugs all around.

Cissie

Susan, I think you're on the Decor and Design Committee. I was just asking to join. I'll discuss my husband later, as I'm in the middle of fixing dinner now.

Nikki, welcome to Rachelville! I have to give up my Aveda hair products, but I'm sure you can come up with a substitute. MUST have the hair done once a week!

Thanks to all for the heads up on the spoons. I'll check it out.

Cissie

To save our thread: I haven't had the big D in weeks, but have had a few floating stools.

Spoon theory??? Please explain.

Cissie

Morning everyone,

I'll be reading but not sure I will be adding... my head hurts so bad today... and no I didn't drink wine It started yesturday afternoon.... I hope I don't end up puking.... I haven't had a migrane since going gluten free... don't know what caused it.... I have Rx for this but it only helps if I catch it before it starts to hurt, when I first start noticing my tunnel vision.... I've had to go to the ER before to get help... didn't want to bum out Rachelville.... miamia you can definitely be our cook!! Love to all

Celia, did you have something to eat that had MSG in it? That crap always gives me a migraine! But, thanks to Rachel, I know how to check labels for hidden MSG. No preventive meds have ever worked for me, because I don't have any warning signs like the zigzag, pulsating rainbow or the blind spot. Funny thing is, I've had those signs WITHOUT getting a migraine.

I haven't had to go to the hospital in years, because I found something that works!!! It's a suppository called Cafergot. It works well for me, because I would vomit up anything taken by mouth. I also have Phenergan suppositories for the nausea, but you're supposed to use one about an hour before the cafergot, and I can't wait that long. As it is, the relief from the cafergot takes an hour!

Cafergot is very, very strong, so I cut off only a small piece of the suppository to take, and it works great!

I hope you feel better soon!

Cissie

Snow is a MUST in Rachelville! We'll always have snow at Christmas, of course, but may we please have at least three other good snows instead of just one? I'll volunteer to have the geese and the dingoes herd the cows and goats up and down the roads until they're clear of snow.

If I can leave the dogs in charge of the geese for a few hours, I want to help with decorating the powder rooms in our little houses. I'm a faux finish and decorative finish artist, and I have quite a collection of paint, but I know my limitations. Powder rooms are just my size! I'm also pretty good at small repairs around the house, so I'm happy to know there'll be a Lowes and a Home Depot at the other-side-of-the-mountain mall. We'll need a good fabric store too, to add to my collection. I'm insane when around fabric! I can't resist buying everything I fall in love with, much to my husband's chagrin. I can't help myself; it's a sickness. I'm leaving dear hubby in Georgia, by the way. Rachelville doesn't need an overly cautious, unimaginative pessimist, and besides, he'll be perfectly content hanging around here.

About our lake - What if we dam up our mountain stream to make a lake? I think we could do it so that the stream would keep flowing out the other side of the lake. Is there an engineer in our town?

Cissie

I like wild seas, like off the coast of Maine. "Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll!" George Gordon, Lord Byron? Maybe not.

Okay, we need rich farmland by the ocean, with mountains at our back to provide fresh spring water. Rachel will be President of Rachelville, and who did we elect Mayor? I'll accept the position of Minister of Defense in Control of Geese, if you'll give me time off for shopping excursions. The shopping mall will be on the other side of a mountain, through which we'll dig a tunnel for the use of our shopping trucks. We'll each have a little house, with fireplaces in each; and we'll keep booze in our houses if we so choose. Manner of dress will be as individual as we are. If anyone suggests nudity, I'll undress to buck nekkid, and so scare the h*** out of everyone that the subject will die, although in the future Grandmothers will whisper that horror story to their shuddering grandchildren as they huddle around their fireplaces.

It's way past my bedtime. I get up at 6:00 AM, and I need my sleep. Pleasant dreams to all!

Cissie

Getting back to the Amish/Mennonite thing--there's also the Bruderhof (the brotherhood)--a group similar to Mennonites located close to Pittsburgh. They also dress very conservatively, and they seem to place high value on education and the Arts. Many of them take violin lessons (and probably other instruments), and I see them come to Symphony Concerts when we play in their area. The children are always extremely well-behaved, and the older children behave very kindly and responsibly toward the younger children.

I used to have this sort of fantasy about taking my family and staying with one of these groups for a summer to help them with their work in exchange for room and board. I like their work ethic and would love to teach my children about what hard work and self-sufficiency is really like!

Problem #1: We are Jewish, and they may dislike that.

Problem #2: The Amish would certainly not want me visiting them, at least with my violin, as singing hymns is the only music allowed (playing musical instruments is not, it's considered fancy).

Problem #3: Gluten...unless there is a celiac family we could stay with!

But just imagine the life lessons one could learn...

I very much doubt if the Amish would dislike your being Jewish, but I guess you're right about the violin. I belong to a different protestant church, not Amish or Mennonite, and I've worn a Star of David on a chain around my neck, next to my cross, for several years.

I had the same fantasy, except I wanted to go alone. Sometimes "life is too much with us," and I wanted to escape from the stress into a simpler life for a while. Don't give up your dream. Contact the Bruderhof; apparently they would appreciate your music, and might be willing to accomodate your gluten-free lifestyle. You'd be sure to find clean meat, veggies, and fruit there.

Cissie

My dad once threw a knife salesman off our front porch...not nearly as exciting as throwing a rock star off the front porch, but it was all we had, lol.

Oh, Donna, you poor deprived girl, I'm so sorry! If only you had lived in Memphis! We had a gracious plenty, enough to go around for sure!

Cissie

ROFLMAO

Yeah...we defintaley cant have glutenous thoughts invading our nice gluten free, corn free , msg free, sulfite free, casein free cult farm!!

Too much civilization and you never know what could happen. We'll have to keep our cows on leashes or they might wander over to the mall where some teenager may decide it would be great fun to tip them!! Or even worse....feed them gluteney foods!!

Those damn teenagers! How dare they!! Maybe we could add some geese to our farm to patrol the boundaries. They're so fierce and mean that our cows would be afraid to wander past them!

Cissie

Ulysses, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson....great poem and totally appropriate!

Ulysses! Of course!!! (slapping forehead) Thanks a million, Susan!

Cissie

P.S. Haven't been able to reach my cousin yet.

Good morning you crazy crazy gals!!

As far as Rachel's meds, what if it is the thing that works? I think when we are so sick for so long and we've been doing everything in our power to get better, going to doctor after doctor for help, taking all kinds of pills, and capsules, and powders, eating all different kinds of foods, doing weird and crazy healing rituals (coffee enemas, liver flushes, just to name a few) it might be just easier to give up. But NO, Rachel does not accept that as an option. I admire her for fighting and for trying again and again and again.

Julie: AMEN AND AMEN!!!!! I was trying to come up with a way to express my thoughts, but, girl, you said it beautifully!!! A line from a poem keeps floating around in my brain, but I can't for the life of me remember the title of the poem. The line describes Rachel and all the rest of you courageous, never-give-up folks: "...to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield!" Ring a bell with anyone?

About that jigger of Jack - A while back the subject of alcohol dazes came up, and I said that I wouldn't want to give up having my Jack Daniels on Friday and Saturday nights. Someone answered that Jack was gluten free.

Susan, and I can't remember who else asked - Yep, it was Jerry Lee Lewis! My baby sister and her best friend went rock and roll crazy, and were sort of hanging around the fringes of their idols. (Those nutty kids even cut a record of one of their duets. It was hilarious! To say they couldn't carry a tune in a bucket is like saying Mt. Everest is a hill.) Somehow they met Jerry Lee Lewis, and baby sister decided to fix him up with a blind date with our other sister, without telling her of course. (Other sister was a dignified stewardess with a charter airline.)

Anyway, daddy was sitting at the dining room table, drinking coffee and reading the paper. When the doorbell rang, he glanced out the DR window and spied JLL on the front porch. As he jumped up and dashed toward the front door, mother asked, "T., where are you going?" That's when daddy, who had never said an unkind word about anyone in his life, uttered the words that have gone down in our family history: "I'm goin' to throw a piece of white trash off my porch!!!" And so he did.

There's another family story about JLL, involving an aunt who worked for him years later as caretaker for his mother, but I won't bore you with that one. I STILL love his music!!!

Rachel - I have a problem with the sun too. It started a long time ago with a sunburn, and to this day I can't get in the sun, without tons of sunscreen and a very wide-brimmed hat. I hope you get well real soon, so you can write that book!

I'll be everlastingly grateful for what I've learned on this string about managing this yucky disease! I admire all of you for keeping on keeping on, for sharing your knowledge, AND for laughing!

Celia's joke:

Cissie

Put me in, coach! (arm waving wildly) I can milk a cow!!! Willing to try a goat! Where will our farm be?

Patti and Susan, I live in Lilburn.

Patti, go to msgmyth.com. I got that from Rachel.

Susan, damn right! Nothing sexier than a man in a kilt! Oh, and my dentist is in Decatur. Social Circle is a charming town. Until we found this one, I wanted to buy a house there.

rinne, buckwheat is in the rhubarb family? Well, alrighty then.

Donna, those are my kind of colors!!! Help stamp out beige and white!

Who mentioned dating the 60s and 70s psycho? Was he from the south? Daddy once threw a certain pianist (JLL) off our front porch. That was in the late 50s, I think; or maybe early 60s.

Rachel, no matter what we call your string - book, cult, slumber party, soap opera - it's always gonna be OMG!!! As in OMG, they're all crazy.

Vincent, brilliant!!! missomgophobia

I'm signing off for the day. Going to have a little supper, then a jigger of Jack, watch a little tv, and toddle off to bed. Have a lovely evening, everyone!

Cissie

Gosh, Susan, I'm glad you aren't offended! I live outside Atlanta, near Stone Mountain. Only one of my six children still lives in Georgia, in Coweta County. She belongs to an Elvis fan club, and makes the pilgrimage to Graceland every August. I saw Elvis in a concert in Atlanta many years ago. My parents lived in Whitehaven, not very far from Graceland; and my two sisters live just over the state line in Southhaven, MS.

My daddy was born in Shelbyville, TN, which is just south of Nashville. A bunch of Germans served their time in the army during the Revolutionary War, and after the war they crossed the mountains with their families and settled in that area. We still go to the cemetary outside Shelbyville once a year for what, in Tennessee, is called Decoration Day.

I'll have my cousin email me a picture of himself, and I'll pm it to you. He used to live in Vermont or New Hampshire (can't remember which), and that's when he started rock climbing, as well as cross-country skiing. He has a red beard, and would look gorgeous in a kilt of our Forsyth Clan plaid! Can't persuade him to do it though.

Julie, maybe you're right about a match and a romance! That would really turn our stream-of-consciousness string into a soap opera. I'll work on it!

Evie, I also bought some quinoa, but was ready to toss it out before even trying it. What I've learned about it on this string had me scared. Maybe I'll take a chance, and try it by rinsing it well and following the millet method.

Rachel, what I know about raw milk is that, many years ago, one of my aunts drank it, and came down with "undulant fever," whatever the heck that is. I was just a kid, but I do remember that she ran a low fever for months, and was tired all the time. That's ancient history, and I'll bet there's no problem with that today.

I'm supposed to be working on some sample boards to show my daughter-in-law for one of her bathrooms, but here I sit, trying to stay caught up with the best and funniest string ever! That reminds me, Patti, what color(s) are you painting your walls?

Cissie

Can it be true? I'm actually caught up on this string? I'll try to be brief.

evia: Congratulations to you and your husband on your 60th! Good show!

Water: I used to drink Crystal Springs, until it began to taste of metal. Switched to Aquafina, but will now start buying Poland Springs. I use bottled water in cooking as well. I'll contact Jim the Water Man, and thanks, Andrea, for that tip.

Celia: I refreshed and got your new avatar. You're beautiful! I'm going to have my son-in-law perform Lord-knows-what on his computer to get the right sized picture of me; then I'll tackle the avatar thingy.

Robbin: Where to find gluten-free oats? I miss my porridge!

Rachel: Have you tried Cream of Buckwheat? I bought a box at my health food store, but haven't tried it yet. It says wheat and gluten free on the box. Does anyone know anything about buckwheat?

Also, Rachel, thanks to you I now know the hidden names of MSG!!! You can't believe what a help that has been, because I react violently to the stuff! Thank you!!!

Let's see, is that all? No, there's something else . . . . Oh, yeah.

Susan: You are NOT freaky, unless I am too! I hate heat and I adore rain!!! I get sooo depressed every summer here in the south; and every year I swear that my next summer will be spent in England, Scotland, or Wales. Want to go with me?

Another thing, Susan; I have an unmarried cousin who's a rock climber. He's sort of a free-thinking, leftover hippy, except he cleans up after himself, and he's very organized. He's never been married, but recently told me he hasn't given up on having a wife and family. I love him dearly! He's only about 2 1/2 years older than my eldest son, which makes him about 55-56. He owns a house in Oak Ridge, TN, where it's often foggy, and rains and snows more often than it does here! Forgive me; I've never tried my hand at match-making, and guess I shouldn't now. But I will combine my prayers with Robbin's.

About Rosemary's Baby, wasn't it Mia Farrow who played Rosemary?

Guess I'll see how many pages I've missed while typing this!

Cissie

Celia, I'm a bit confused. Do you have a new avatar that I'm not seeing? The one I see is the one where you're holding the baby, but that's the one I've always seen.

Cissie

How wonderful to be able to speak Greek! And being able to type it on your computer is awesome!!!

Donna, I googled Medical Terms/Ampulla of Vater, clicked on the first reference, and found out that Vater is a man's name. He may or may not have been the first to describe "the anatomy of the ampullary termination of the bile and pancreatic ducts." It seems that a couple of better descriptions are hepatopancreatic ampulla, and biliaropancreatic ampulla. Say what???

I think I'll take a nap. Typing those words has worn me plumb out.

Cissie

DONNA, hold on a minute! My brain is fuzzy today, so my long-term memory isn't functioning well.

Aqua is Latin for water, not vater. Now I'm wondering if vater may be Greek, which I never studied. I'm going to do some research online. I know that Wasser (The W is pronounced V.) is German for water, and Vater (V pronounced F) is German for father. You probably don't care by now, but I'm curious.

Cissie

Bright red blood means one thing; dark red blood means another. The shooting pains could be muscle spasms, or they could be a signal that something is very wrong!

CALL YOUR DOCTOR!!!

Cissie

Donna, I think Ampulla of Vater is just Latin for Ampule of Water. Do you suppose you could find out more about it if you used the English words?

Rachel, what your obgyn saw on your ultrasound is bizarre!!! Could you feel your intestines jumping around, or did they feel like they always do - rotten? When you go back to your GI doctor, could you insist that he do an ultrasound before you'll consider another colonoscopy? Or maybe the dancing guts performance was just a one-time occurrence, preceding the diarrhea, which you said was rare for you. Lord, but I wish I could come up with something that might help you!!! My prayers are with you though.

Christine, I'm with Andrea, wondering what kind of heavy metal exposure you had. Do you mind telling us?

Cissie

I've been following this string almost from the beginning. I didn't check it after about 2:30 PM yesterday, so when I checked in this afternoon it had gone from page 101 to page 112!!! I'm so dizzy!

I'm crashing this slumber party! It's the absolute BEST!!! You all are so smart and witty and caring and loving! Hugs and kisses to all!

About babies, sure you can have babies when you're in your forties. Go for it! After my first three, my mother was embarassed to death when I would turn up preggers again. Nice people just don't DO it that often!!! Poor daddy.

About alcohol, unless something dreadful happens to my body because of it, I intend to have my Jack Daniels every Friday and Saturday night. I'm a loyal Tennessean!

Rachel, I pray all goes well at the doctor's today. I'll check this string in the morning.

Cissie

These are some great cooking tips--can't wait to try a bunch of them!

We cook our own food all the time, and never even ate out much before gluten issues. But lately I've seen ads for chef-cooked meals delivered to your home, and some of the services do gluten-free cooking. If I remember correctly, it sounded pretty reasonable ($7/meal), though I don't know if there were any hidden charges or how good the food is, how trustworthy, etc.

Has anyone tried one of these services? Might they be a solution for the creative binge times (I do that all the time, too, and find myself asking the kids, "Are you hungry again? I just fed you yesterday!" They think I'm kidding. . . .)

Carol

I thought I was answering you, Carol, but that post disappeared into the ether. Apparently I still have a few kinks (in my brain ) to work out, when I'm trying to reply to more than one post on a string.

What I was trying to say was that I found a company, PurFoods, online. They deliver gluten-free meals, and will list all ingredients in a meal if you click on one you're interested in. They're at www.glutenfreemeals.com.

This would be a great help to me when I visit my sisters or my children, so no one would have to fret over what to feed me. I could order meals and have them delivered to wherever I'm going.

Cissie

You should look into finding yourself a personal chef, who will come into your kitchen and in one day fix up to a week's worth of meals for you. You get the menu and instructions for serving, plus food cooked to your own specifications.

How does one find a personal chef? I love the idea!!!

Cissie

Good morning, girls!

I don't know if my story will be of any help, but it might give someone an idea for further investigation.

I'm 73, and have been on HRT for a number of years. I take Estradiol, which my gyn orders for me from a compound pharmacy. A couple of years ago I was concerned because my energy level was going downhill, so I started taking a product called PhytoEstrogen by Solaray, thinking I could wean myself from Estradiol. The PhytoEstrogen is made from non-genetically modified soy, and also contains isoflavones, mexiyam, black cohosh, and dong quai. "Natural" is always better, right? Sometimes I do the dumbest things!

A month or so later my breasts got so sore and tender I couldn't stand to wear a bra. (I'm a skinny, scrawny little old woman, and my version of putting on a bra is this: Fasten on padded bra, then pull breasts up from waistline and stuff them into said bra. ) One day, while going through this procedure, I discovered a huge lump in my right breast. Long story short, I went to a surgeon who aspirated it, and it was nothing but a cyst.

I put two and two together, quit taking the PhytoEstrogen, and the whole problem went away. I've never admitted to a doctor what I had been taking! Miss Innocent, that's me!

I'm a total beginner on the gluten-free diet, so I don't have enough experience to find a connection between it and swollen, sore breasts. I do hope my info can point someone in the right direction.

Cissie

Hi, Patti! Thanks for the info. It sounds simple enough to do. I'll try it when I have time.

Cissie