queenofhearts
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With oral allergy syndrome you definitely DON'T get aching lungs and postnasal drip. What you may get is just a sore throat, fuzzy/yucky feeling in your mouth and on your tongue, or stinging, even, possibly swollen lips (I get all those with various foods).
Be careful with oral allergy syndrome. If you still eat those foods, you may end up with a serious allergy in the long run. I hope you don't give your son apples and carrots. Mind you, he could just be allergic to RAW apples and carrots, cooked might be just fine.
Also, even if Sarah has an oral allergy to wheat, whatever gets into her mouth and nose will eventually end up in her stomach and cause celiac disease symptoms as well.
That's a good point, my son's symptoms are all in his mouth & throat, not lungs at all. I wasn't paying close enough attention on that one! Yes, he's perfectly fine with cooked apples & carrots, & yes, sigh, he still eats them raw sometimes, though I've warned him it might escalate. He is 19 & no longer dependent on my food decisions... I actually think he has some possible Celiac symptoms but he refuses to be tested. Very frustrating.
What do you think of the dust mask concept?
Leah
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This sounds to me like you might have an oral allergy to wheat. Look up oral allergies online & you might see similar symptoms... my son has a mild oral allergy to apples & carrots. It's akin to hay fever, not as dangerous as Celiac or anaphylactic-type allergies, but still annoying.
Leah
If you still really want to make gluten-flour foods, you could try wearing a dust mask. My husband has asthma & wears one to do dusty work, & it really helps. Hardware stores carry them.
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I love baking but since going gluten-free I've been a little irritated by the way the authors all want you to have their flour blends on hand, instead of specifying measurements for the recipe you're making. I'm a bit of a cookbook slut, not content with one author or one blend, so I decided I needed to make up a master list of all the flour blends I used. I taped it to the inside of my cabinet door, so that when I'm using a recipe I don't have to flip back to the flour recipe before I make what I'm making. I have all different amounts so that I don't have so many leftover bits of flour to contend with. (From 1 cup to 12 for each recipe.)
If anybody would like a copy of this, pm me with your e-mail address & I'll send you one. It has blends from Bette Hagman, Carol Fenster, & Annalise Roberts. It makes using their cookbooks much simpler!
Leah
p.s. PLEASE REMEMBER TO INCLUDE YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS IN THE PM.
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Thanks for the suggestions. I'll give them a try.
Leah - I've never hear of baba ganouj before. What kind of store do you find it in - or do you make it yourself.
We have a great Middle Eastern grocery here in Raleigh, but you can definitely make it at home (I have & probably will again, since I'm a little nervous about the potential cc at my grocery.)
Here's a link to a recipe:
Open Original Shared Link
Hope you like it as much as I do! It's my first choice on any Middle Eastern menu. (Especially now that taboulli is verboten!)
Leah
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Oh, Vincent, that's such wonderful news. What a happy day!
Leah
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Grrr! I have yet to see a copy of this magazine although I sent off for a subscription shortly after my diagnosis (over 2 months now). I was already a little ticked off at them, now I'm not even sure I want the darn thing. What more could they teach me than you folks, anyway!?
Leah
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I made a peach pie with the above recipe for vinegar crust recently & it was devoured greedily by all! I must confess I too used butter, but in ADDITION to shortening! (I like a really rich crust, like the classic pate brise.) It was nice & flaky & crisp, a real hit. Thanks for the suggestion!
Leah
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There was another thread just recently about the abominable record of hospitals serving "gluten-free" food that was definitely not gluten-free. I would certainly not trust the staff to keep aware of the gluten-free thing, I'd ask detailed questions every single time. There are too many distractions & too little understanding of the gluten-free diet to depend on a bracelet or a single notification. In fact, if I needed hospitalization, I'd bring my own food & not touch a thing they gave me. With meds it's trickier, though, since you can't bring your own! You have to drill them on it & expect impatience, irritation, & dismissiveness on their part. No fun but that seems to be the reality of it.
Leah
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Hi & Welcome! This is the greatest place for information & moral support. You'll love it.
I was never a professional, but an extremely avid lifelong baker nonetheless, & I won't deny there were lots of tears when I first was told I was Celiac. But a few weeks in deep kitchen frenzy with Bette Hagman, Annalise Roberts, & Carol Fenster (their books, that is!) have given much comfort (& a few pounds!)
So far I have found that most cookies, cakes, pie-type pastries, biscuits, waffles, & so on-- basically anything you could previously make with a low-gluten cake flour-- are nearly as good as (or at times even better than) wheat versions. (Although often things don't keep as well.)
Breads are much more of a challenge. Many are quite tasty, but not at all what we're used to, baking wheat breads. And I'm not sure it would be possible to approximate puff pastry or phyllo with low gluten... probably just not enough structure to the dough.
I'm still learning gluten-free baking myself, so I have some hope that I will get closer to my dream-bread with time. I'd love to compare notes with you as you experiment!
Leah
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Hospital food is just a nightmare. It never ceases to shock me how completely ignorant of nutrition the staff is. Even things you'd think were no-brainers. My MIL was in for heart surgery & was served Swedish Meatballs. Nice low-fat meal, huh? I wouldn't trust them one bit for gluten-free restrictions. If I have to go I'll definitely bring my own sustenance. I've always maintained that the very best get well gift for anyone in hospital is REAL FOOD.
Leah
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Wow, you have one smart OB-GYN! Not even all GI specialists are clued in to Celiac! I think menstrual complications are fairly common & the response to the diet certainly sounds like gluten intolerance of some kind. It won't take so much will power once you realise all you can eat without being sick. Once you start healing there are a lot of great substitutes for the wheaty foods you love. And you'll feel so much better, you won't ever want to cheat.
Eat well & be well!
Leah
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If I were you I'd clearly specify no soy sauce, as it turns up in all sorts of foods in all sorts of restaurants, & nobody thinks of it as having wheat in it. Of course you could say it qualifies as a seasoning, but why take the chance? Also, broth bases are used in all sorts of foods, & some contain gluten, so you might mention that too.
Leah
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Have you tried baba ganouj? (Eggplant & sesame with olive oil, garlic, &c.) It has a very luscious silky texture.
Leah
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Hi and welcome! Anxiety, exhaustion & rashes are fairly common issues with gluten intolerance, so you are probably on the right track. As for the food, you are the perfect candidate for online shopping. There are lots of things in the Celiac.com store, amazon .com has a discount grocery service with many gluten-free foods, & you can also shop online directly with most of the major gluten-free manufacturers. Of course this works best for nonperishables so you can order in bulk. It might be worth investing in a freezer so you can store more of the perishables.
Eat well & be well!
Leah
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Thanks for the tip! I want to try those crackers. I've been missing the crumbly rich kind since most gluten-free ones are pretty much the opposite!
Leah
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I think this is a valid point. When I leave the house, I am all cleaned up, makeup on, etc. They don't even see me the days I can hardly get out of bed, and certainly no one follows me into the bathroom!! People never knew I was even ill. I have gained quite a bit of weight back, so they're happy to see me looking better. But no one except the ones I live with really understand. In fact, we can assume since this pic was taken last spring that I felt like complete garbage then. That was taken at Outback. Everyone else was there for a snack, I ate a whole meal. When I got home, the first thing I did was make myself more to eat.
I can really relate to this-- I rarely talked about my symptoms because 1. some of them were really gross & 2. I just didn't want to be a complainer. So I pretty much suffered in silence. When I was diagnosed & went gluten-free my family was somewhat mystified & some thought it was an awful pain of a diet for somebody who didn't seem all that sick. Not that they were completely unsupportive, but I think they thought I was making mountains out of molehills. Well, only I know how bad I felt, only I know I will feel better from eating properly, so I just have to stand my ground & do what I know is right. After all, Celiac is a pretty poorly-understood syndrome, & even doctors don't get it, so it's not surprising that your average relative would be a bit baffled.
Leah
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I've never made bread in the microwave before, but I'm always up for a new recipe! I'm not quite clear on the procedure-- is this a flatbread type of thing, where you would make several breads with the one recipe, or do you cook all the batter at once?
Leah
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There are loads of great recipes on this site-- check the site index-- & I'd recommend you quickly get hold of a copy of Bette Hagman's The Gluten Free Gourmet Cooks Fast & Healthy. Lots of help for someone who's not all that into cooking... but I predict you'll get more into it as you go. Plenty of folks on this site were non-cooks before they went gluten-free & had to learn-- it can be fun & the food you make yourself is always yummier & less boring than the same old stuff from the limited gluten-free selections most places.
Hang in there! It will get easier.
Leah
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Hang in there, Lynne, I hope all goes well, but if not... I can just see a wheelchair, bedecked with flowers & ribbons, like a royal chariot...
Leah
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Oh, I'm loving this thread! So many notes posted since I was here yesterday.... how do I catch up?!
I'll ramble....
Fairhaven sounds much like Evergreen college. My oldest son (turning 32!) got his Master's in Teaching there a year ago. My younger son and daughter also graduated from Evergreen. Great school - love that they don't do much testing, and grade you on understanding, papers, participation, projects, seminars instead. How does he like it, Leah?
Nancy
Olympia
He wasn't crazy about it at first, but in Spring quarter he took a photojournalism course that he really loved. I've never seen him so excited about school. He's an incredibly smart kid but has always had a sort of contempt for school, largely, I suspect, because he hates to be told what to do! Evergreen seems a good choice for him since it is so self-directed. It does worry me a little that he will eventually have to face the real world-- I hope he can find a career that plays to his strengths.
What are your kids' interests (aside from teaching, that is)?
Leah
p.s. Fog is a problem for me too, still with me I'm afraid, though not as constantly. It's weird, I'm pretty sure I've had this all my life too, but it suddenly became much worse when I was 42. I knew something was going very wrong, but nobody else seemed to believe me because I was still more or less functional. I'm a freelance illustrator so as long as I could paint & make my deadlines nobody knew the difference. If I got floored by a migraine or something I just worked more the next day to make up for it. And thank God the bathroom was always handy on those D days!
I think my husband thought I was just getting lazy when I would need a rest during the day or had to crash at 9 pm, but I knew there was something physical going on. I often had chills, ached all over, had the fog, & so on. My kids used to make fun of me because I was constantly trying new vitamins, &c. I just KNEW something was amiss! When I was finally diagnosed, I was so grateful! Everything finally made sense!
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Don't freak out-- be glad that there may be a solution to your problem! It sounds a lot like Celiac, & remember that blood tests are not a sure thing. Even people with negative blood tests can have positive biopsies, & even folks with negatives on everything can still respond well to a gluten-free diet! Get your testing done before going gluten-free, for accuracy, but especially with your family history, don't let a doctor talk you out of trying the diet-- diagnosis or no, it can be a lifesaver.
Welcome to the board,
Leah
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Hang in there Ashley, I know it's tough, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. As your body becomes healthier, your mind will too.
We're pulling for you!
Leah
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I do cook, but i think for now i am sticking to fluids for a while... everytime i eat solids ( they are gluten free ) i am getting sicking ... ive been eating gluten for 2years since i started gettin the pain, so my small intestine is probably really messed up, and right now as im typing i am not doing very well... i had these energy bars today they are gluten free i mentioned them above also i had an unsure nutrient drink and i think that those or one of them have made me very sick, i have tryed to vomit but nothing GRAVOL is keeping me from doing it, i have extremely painful bloating, i get this pain in my rib cage like someone is trying to jump out its sharp and last for a couple of miuntes, and i cant deal with the pain so i hold my breath to the point where im almost about to pass out... im not holding m breath to do that but i just completely forget whats going on, i went into work at 2 oclock and i knew i wasnt gonna be able to work i lasted 2 hours before i ended up leaving, im feeling a little better now, because im laying down and relaxed instead of sitting and having the phone ring, im so lucky i dont do any work that im lifting thigns anymore its nice to have a nice office job where i can sit in my office all day and not have to deal with anyone.... and the pain i dont want to take any tylonel 3 anymore because i dont think thats helping and im not sure how bad this gluten intolerance is so im getting to the point where im scared to eat things that arent labeled gluten free but i am not even hungry right now.... and from what ive read it takes a while to get all the gluten out of your body if you end up eating it... im so new to this that the things im buying i look over the ingridients and i know the basics of gluten free Wheat barley oat rye and all the drivatives .... but i have a feeling im still ingesting things with gluten... what can i do for a couple of weeks as far as eating i would like to have small amounts of solids but lots of fluids like soups , but everything in the store has gluten in it and as far as making soup i can do it but i dont want a difficult recipe because i am not in the right frame of mind to be able to comprehend anything difficult and i do not want to go back to the hospital even though i know thats what im supposed to do....
LEt me know i would really appreciate it...
Alex
Potato soup is very soothing to me, & quite easy: Saute some chopped up potatoes (& onions if you can tolerate them) in butter (or oil if dairy bothers you) for a few minutes, then add broth to cover generously & simmer until potatoes are soft. You can run them through the blender for a super-smooth soup, or simply eat it as is. You can add milk if you can tolerate it. I love to add herbs & greens, chopped, to the finished soup, but that may be too much for you at the moment.
Hope you feel better soon.
Leah
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Welcome! This is a great place to come when you are first finding out about Celiac. There's more information here than I've found ANYWHERE else, not to mention moral support! We've all had our share of knuckleheaded docs, so you'll get lots of sympathy here & some good coping mechanisms & stategies/tactics.
When you're ready to go gluten free, be sure to check out Nini's Newbie Kit.
It's on her website: Open Original Shared Link
Leah
Ignorant Server Of The Day
in Gluten-Free Restaurants
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Oh, my, what a beautiful tale... it actually brought a tear to my eye! I think I'd just camp out there if I were you... I do love sushi... now if I could only have the beloved barbecued eel once more...
Leah