For the most part, I have learned this past week that our food supply is tainted. Not just the all too frequent recalls of infested meat, but in general, the food we eat is filled with crap. Crap our bodies don't need, and can not handle.
In addition to spring cleaning, organizing, and yard work ( I worked like Wonder Woman this week), I researched Celiac Disease. Ava has been diagnosed with it, and I needed to know all about it. I have also had to read every label of everything I fed or made her. Crap. Our food is filled with crap. Maltodexrin, for example, I had to look this up, as she can't have Malt. Maltodexrin is a starch, sometimes a wheat starch. Did we need another added starch? Do we even NEED starch of anyform? Grains, yes, from time to time, but our food is pumped with starch, modified food starch, corn starch, modified corn starch, and this isn't even the half of it.
So, doing what any good OCD mom would do, I purged the pantry, and spent an insane amount of money replacing my products with products that are gluten free, and organic. With products that have no more than three ingredients, and that are as close to natural as I can get them. We have all gone gluten free here, as I see gluten linked to many many health complications. Many. So many it made me crazy.
My week has also made me second guess Brian's diag of Fibromyalgia again. See, his dad has Celiac Disease, and 97 % of the people that get it carry the gene, as it's genetic. I don't have any digestive or autoimmune issues, so I blame this on Brian. If that is so, he carries the gene. He had the antibidy test done in 2004, but this test, if one hasn't had much gluten, can be a false negative. Celiac Disease is autoimmune. It can lead to extreme joint pain, fatigue, IBS, lactose intolerance, anemia, thyroid issues, high CK levels ( liver issues), ALL the things Brian has. I am convinced he has this and not Fibro. I asked him to give me a month of gluten free diet to see if he feels better. Ava is doing OK, Brian? Not so much. He can't have a beer, or even hard liqour. Not that the man drinks a lot, but on a hot summer day like today, after working hard, he likes a chilled beer. I hope he survives his month, and I hope I am right about all this. Celiac has a cure, just don't eat anything with Gluten in it and you feel ok. Fibro? Nothing has made him feel better.
Ava and I are off to Syracuse on Tuesday to see the pediatric specialist. Thank god. I have a zillion questions. She seems hypoglycemic as well, which goes with this, and doesn't sleep through the night, another symptom, but don't ask me why? Kids with celiac have night terrors. She wakes up SCREAMING. Every night. And I am tired.
2 comments:
Hi Dana,
I stumbled across your blog from a google alert. Sorry to hear about the Celiac diagnosis, but it is wonderful to have an answer isn't it?
Sometimes I think a restricted diet is a gift to realize what we are actually eating and fix it!
I am not an expert on gluten-free (we eat mostly gluten-free, but not as a strict diet), but I know that there are some brands of beer which are gluten-free. If you search gluten-free beer you may come up with some options to help you through the initial phase.
I also had "fibromyalgia," it went away with a dairy-free diet, but did take some time. Good luck!
Hey Dana it's Sandi! Didn't know Ava had gluten issues. I remember the suspicion over the hypoglysimia. Hope you get a good diatitian. Thanks god for Peter's Cornucopia! :)
I hope Brian finds relief with the modified diet. After a week of hard labor in the yard i ached so badly i thought of him and the fibromyalgia pain and ugh! I think i began to understnad. So really. I hope the dietary change helps him.
Sorry we missed each other at the break, sounds like yard work was high on both of our to do lists!
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