Practical Change Coaching
  • Home
  • What you'll get
  • Let's go!
  • Survey
  • Podcast
  • About PCC
  • Blog
  • Contact

Glutino. Get a focus group together on that brand name.

8/31/2010

 
Who told the Glutino people that that was an appetizing sounding brand name? Gah.

I scoped out the GF section of the Giant Supermarket yesterday. Pretty good selection, I have to say. If I had to go undiagnosed for 25 years, the silver lining is that there are way more foods to choose from now than there were then.

I'm on a mission. For our family excursion this week, I needed to ID and acquire easily portable, non-refrigeratable GF food. I bought some tapioca bread and some me-specific peanut butter and jelly. The bread is not very good, but should be a sufficient delivery vehicle for said food staples. I also have some chips and fruit. And, the old fashioned amusement park where we are going says they have a GF menu. Vegan and GF? I'd be thrilled and stunned.

In the meantime...

8/29/2010

 
I'm learning tons of stuff. Like: Celiac is not an allergic response to gluten, it is an auto-immune disease. My immune system is not attacking gluten as a foreign harmful invader. My immune system in the presence of gluten is attacking the epithelial cells of my small intestine. Who knew?

Diagnosis, Part one

8/29/2010

 
So when I was twenty-one, I drove from Stillwater ot Oklahoma City to a mall to donate blood so that I could have a chance to win tickets to a Heart concert.  I had organized blood drives and donated in high school, so the donating blood was no big thing. Heart tickets WERE a big thing. [I had already had a torrid love affair with my high-school-best-friend-turned-freshman-college-roommate, but hadn't consciously figured out the whole lesbian thing yet.] I was surprised when the technician, after a finger stick, reported that I was anemic and wouldn't be allowed to donate. Shit. No blood, no chance to win the tickets.

On the drive back to Stillwater, I had some weird back pains on my left side. I was very uncomfortable and had no clue as to the problem. When I got back to my rented house near campus, I did what any normal college girl would do: I ordered pizza and drank beer with my [platonic] roommates. The pain worsened, and to shorten what I tend to make a very long story, by the end of the night I was diagnosed with a kidney stone and released from Stillwater General to go home and pee through a funnel.

By  the next day the stone still hadn't passed, so my mom came and got me with the intention of seeing her doctor the next day. The pain was so bad that she ended up driving me straight to the emergency room. To shortened this part of the story, these docs noted that besides the kidney stone, I was severely anemic and that maybe I had bone cancer, so they did a bone marrow biopsy. I will tell you that having a bone marrow biopsy will definitely take your mind off a kidney stone. Bottom line: No cancer. My anemia was chocked up to my being a menstruating college girl with a questionable diet. I was omnivorous at the time, but did not pay particular attention to eating balanced meals. We were all satisfied with that conclusion. The kidney stone was surgically removed (the operating room story is one for a different day), and since I was hooked up to all those IV's anyway, they gave me iron intravenously. Five days after I was admitted, I was released kidney stone free and with a replenished red blood cell count. I felt good and went about my business. No further follow-up for my anemia was ordered.

For 25 years I had recurring diagnoses of severe anemia. In fact, I NEVER had a normal red blood cell count after high school. The conclusion was always: "You are menstruating, so of course you lose a lot of blood. Take supplements. Eat more liver." Then when I became vegetarian, the tone turned more to: "What do you expect will happen if you choose to eliminate meat from your diet." I bought all of it. I'd take supplements for a while, and since my anemia didn't seem to be causing me any specific problems, I'd figure I was better, not stick with any follow-up visits to doctors to just check that, and by each regular check-up (which for me were typically 5 years apart), my iron levels would be low again. At least that's what I thought was happening.

Then in January, I started with a new primary care physician. That's where part 2 of the story will begin.

Day 3. When to stop counting?

8/29/2010

 
On the Keith Olberman show, he always used to end his show with some count: "542 days since the former president declared victory in Iraq. Good night and good luck." I wondered when he would stop counting. And the answer seems to be, he never stops counting somehting, he just changes what he counts.

I wonder how it will be with me and celiac. Will it be until I finally get that this is forever, and what's the point in counting that? Will it be when I come up with something else to count?

I only watch the end of Keith's show so that I can watch the opener to Rachel Maddow anyway. She's not a counter.

Day 2

8/28/2010

 
When I went running this morning, I thought of all sorts of things to blog about: My 8-month journey to my celiac diagnosis, sobriety, my relationship with chocolate and food in general... For now, I'll just note that today I am craving decadent snacks. Since we don't have any gluten-free decadence in our house, I settled for making rice and eating it with agave nectar and almond milk. Crazy, I know.
<<Previous

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    December 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    December 2020
    January 2019
    December 2018
    February 2018
    August 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    May 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    March 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010

    RSS Feed

Subscribe

* indicates required

Please select all the ways you would like to hear from Practical Change Coaching:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here.

Picture
© Practical Change Coaching. All Rights Reserved. Contact Us
  • Home
  • What you'll get
  • Let's go!
  • Survey
  • Podcast
  • About PCC
  • Blog
  • Contact