Easy Gluten Free Living

Posts Tagged ‘Celiac Sprue’

I got an email from a newsletter reader over the weekend.  I thought it might be of interest to other readers of my blog.  So here’s her question and my answer:

Hi Mary,

 

I just found your website and am pretty excited! I have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia and have been reading and hearing a lot of things about gluten possibly exacerbating the symptoms of fibromyalgia. 

 

My question is that I love, Love, LOVE crackers – saltine crackers – plain, with cheese, spiced up with oil and spices, just to sit and snack on them makes me happy.  I looked for a gluten free saltine cracker recipe (to make crackers from scratch) on your website and just wondered if you have one or know where I could find one?

 

Thank you so much!           

I thought I should let you all know why I have been  missing in action this week.

After 22 years of a gluten free diet and never having any follow-ups, my daughter thought that I should have a check up. 

I’ve been having some indigestion type discomfort for the past several months.  My daughter is a Cardiovascular Technologist in the cath lab of one of the major hospitals in Pittsburgh, so naturally we went down the road of ruling out heart disease.  I had a walking stress test which was fine, in fact the cardiologist told me that my “heart was as healthy as a horse”.  Thank you, I think. 

So next off to the Gastroenterologist.  She read my diagnosis from 22 years ago, asked me my age and said, “I want you to have an Endoscopy and a Colonoscopy.  Yeah

So this week I’ve been preparing for my tests that I had done yesterday.  Monday night was my last real meal.  Tuesday was a day of all liquids.  That was fun, especially being at work. 

Tuesday evening at 6:30 pm I got to start my magic elixer.  It wasn’t a glass of fine wine, but it didn’t taste as bad as everyone kept telling me it would.  I’ll spare you the details of what happened over the next 3 hours, but bright and early Wednesday morning I was off to the hospital for my tests.

The testing went smoothly and a lot faster than I anticipated.  I got most of the results back right away.  Everything was normal and the doctor said that there was some rippling typical of celiac disease but not abnormal.  In fact if he wouldn’t have known I had Celiac Disease he would not have attributed the rippling to that.   So my vigilance of a gluten free diet has been successful. 

Proof positive that if you are careful, watch your diet and stay on a gluten free diet.  You can stay healthy, even without follow up medical attention.

Oh and the diagnosis for my digestive discomfort?  Acid Reflux.  So I take an acid controller twice a day.  Well at least I know I’m still healthy.

By now it is Thanksgiving 1987 and I am down to 100 pounds and beginning to feel so weak that I Read the rest of this entry »

The year was 1987, I was a happily married 28 year old mother of 2 children, a son 9 and a daughter 8.  I had just become my daughter’s Girl Scout co-leader and we were off on our first camping trip to Girl Scout Camp, Henry Kaufmann, in the beautiful Laurel Mountains of Western Pennsylvania.

It was to be a 3 night 4 day trip, Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to Easy Gluten Free Living, a website for Celiacs, by a celiac.  In case you stumbled upon this website by accident, let me explain to you what a celiac is.

A celiac is a person with an intollerance to gluten, protein found in just about every grain except, corn, rice and depending on who you listen to some gluten-free oats, (those processed only in a plant that does not process glutenous grains).  The reason I say depending on who you listen to follows.  I pulled this right off of the Celiac Sprue Association’s website:

“Inconclusive information exists concerning the inclusion of oats in the gluten-free diet.  Some clinical studies indicate that uncontaminated oats may be tolerated by some people with CD.  Other studies indicate that some people with CD have an immune response to oats (avenin).  Currently, there is no way to identify which people with CD may tolerate oats.  Therefore caution is advised when considering the use of uncontaminated oats in a gluten-free diet.”*

When I was diagnosed 22 years ago, I was told no wheat, barley, rye, or oats, period.  So I have basically stuck to that instruction, until recently.  However, I haven’t injested enough oats as of yet to make a decision for myself.  I’ll let you know here if I find that I am having a reaction to the “Gluten-Free Oats”.

This website will be a place for information about Celiac Disease and how to keep you or your loved one happy and healthy on a gluten free diet.

I named this site Easy Gluten Free Living because once you get over the shock and denial of being intollerant, (or as most people say “allergic”) to gluten you will find that it really isn’t that bad, just a bit inconvienient.

I hope that you will find this website informative, helpful and inspiring.  In the days and weeks to come I will be giving you meal/menu ideas to help with mealtime.

Come back often and please feel free to comment or ask questions.

Mary Blackburn

Living Gluten Free