Friday, April 20, 2007

Update

Thank you, friends, for your concern and prayers while I've been ill.   My health problems seem to be caused partly by a postpartum hormonal shift and partly by gluten intolerance.   I'm still not feeling 100%, but I have been sleeping better in the past week which certainly makes life more pleasant.

I've always felt sorry for people with weird dietary restrictions, but now I'm in the club.  Someone asked me via email if I have celiac-sprue.  I will probably never know the answer to that, because I don't intend to get a biopsy of my short intestine to find out.   A lab report confirmed that I am intolerant to gluten which means that I have antibodies in my body against gluten.  The only solution is an immediate and permanent gluten-free diet so that the antibodies don't start attacking and damaging my body (if they haven't already).    This is not as easy as just not eating wheat.  Unfortunately gluten is in many foods and under many disguises so that I will have to become a conscientious label checker.

Thankfully, the meals I typically cook for my family are easily converted to gluten-free.   My sister-in-law has already been down the gf path and has already answered many questions.

Yesterday, my kids asked why some cereal that I bought was called "Mighty Good Hot Cereal."  "To try and make people feel better about it being gluten free," I replied.  Actually, along with my eggs in the morning, I have replaced my usual oatmeal with  brown rice with raisins, cinnamon and applesauce.  It's a lot better than the "Mighty Good" cereal!

In other news, Evan got past the first audition for the piano competition.  One night this next week, he is scheduled to play on stage before judges and an audience.  He says that he is not nervous, but we will see when the time comes.   Please pray that he handles the pressure well.  Thanks!

I opened a free account with Dropshots.com to upload some videos.  You can find the link to watch them in my sidebar, if you like.  One of them is of Logan jamming to the music of Evan's piano practice which you can hear in the background.  Of course, you can also hear our dying dishwasher which we didn't think to turn off. 

2 comments:

Nan said...

I hope you get feeling better soon. I have a couple of friends who are intolerant to gluten also. Actually I just found a blog the other day devoted to gluten free recipes. It looks like it's still in its early stages (not chock full of recipes) but it looks good so far.

I linked it in the sidebar of my recipe blog: http://recipeczar.blogspot.com

Meliss said...

Hi Nan! Thanks for the link. I'll go look at it soon.