Still here

I haven't posted for ages because I have been having problems logging into the blogger but I seem to have fixed that problem

Anyway Since my last entry I have been keeping strictly to the gluten free diet and trying to eat healthy as well. I have taken up a fitness challenge at the local hospital and done a ten day detox. I have also discovered that I may be lactose intolerant.

From what I have bee reading it is fairly common for people with coeliac disease to also be lactose intolerant. I still suffer from a little acid indigestion and wind so I am really sticking to eating foods that are totally gluten free and not eating dairy if I can.

I have to say that I feel so much better. (As far as my stomach goes anyway).

I take my own food with me wherever I go now so that if they do not have a gluten free alternative I can just eat my own. In Australia if they refuse to let me eat my own food they can get into a lot of trouble because they do not provide a suitable substitute.

Well that is all I have time for now. I will be more regular again now that I can get back in!!!!

Things we shouldn't do!!!!

Well it has been an eventful little while for me.

I decided to risk my intestinal tract by dining out. Something that I try not to do to often as some people have not a clue what gluten is.

My hubby and I decided to go out to dinner and a movie, not a big deal you may think! We live in a small town so to do this we have to travel 75 kilometers. We went to a Mexican restaurant in Horsham which is our nearest large town and all was going well until.......................

We went into the restaurant, very nice and very busy, Our table was directly under the stairs so every time I stood up I hit my head on the underside of a step. When they finally came to take our order My hubby and I both just wanted to order and Entree as we had had a late lunch but we were informed that there was a minimum order for food on a Friday and Saturday night. So we ordered the Entree and I made sure that it was gluten free while our entree was being prepared we perused the menu some more and Kevin decided on a desert while I opted for a main course. I had no idea what I was ordering so I just asked that it be gluten free. Our entree came and we asked if the other food could be ready soon as we wanted to go to the movies and the waitress informed us that we should have told the waitress that took our entree order as we should have just had main so we could get out faster.

This probably doesn't sound to bad so far but by now my blood was boiling so when my main course came I just started eating. I was half way though main when I looked at what I was eating and started to get suspicious. I asked the waitress what I was eating and she told me that it was seafood in a bechamel sauce. Lots of flour in that. I lost my appetite in a big hurry after that. We finally got to see the movie but half way through I had to rush out and be sick


Needless to say I have been paying for it since. I definitely won't be risking Mexican at Moes again!!!!!!

So I am now back onto the plain old boring absolutely gluten free no pre prepared crap until I get my intestines back under control again!!!! Hopefully My next entry will be a little more positive

Kylie

Coeliac and MALToma

Someone posted a question to me earlier to ask if I knew that there was a link between Coeliac disease and MALT lymphoma.

I do know that there is a link between the two and that most people who have auto immune diseases are also more prone to MALT. Well I have coeliac as you all know and I also have Sjogrens syndrome and sarcoidosis. All three diseases are more prone to develop MALT lymphoma than healthy people so I guess that it was bound to happen for me. I did not find out until ten months after my diagnosis of Coeliac that I also had MALToma and it was only through the testing for this that I found out about my other diseases.

My main incentive for trying to stick to a coeliac diet is so that I do not increase my chances of gastric MALT or of gastric lymphoma. I have already increased the chances a great deal because the coeliac disease was left untreated for so long.

I have done really well this week as far as sticking to my diet goes. I am back to reading the labels on absolutely everything and if I am not sure then I just don't eat it. I do think that I will have to give up my hot chocolate in the mornings because the place that I get it does not have a gluten free one!!!! ( better for the waist)

My biggest piece of advise to anyone who is newly diagnosed with coeliac disease is to read the labels on everything and never take someone else's word that products are gluten free because they may not be. If you don't do it right from the start it is hard to get on track and in the end the only person who really suffers is you!!!

The wonders of "zantac"

For those who are wondering, zantac is a great drug they have in Australia which neutralises stomach acid. Great for when I eat the wrong thing. It does not, however, stop the dreaded runny bum that I get with it!!! Sorry about that

I have been living on Zantac for the last week. I have been suffering from the worst gastric reflux and acid indigestion that I have had for a long time. No where near as bad as pre diagnosis though. I haven't worked out if it is the food or just being fat that is causing the problem. I am 5'4" and I weigh 84 kilograms. I don't know what that is is pounds sorry. It is a never ending battle to fight the flab because ALL of the pre prepared gluten free food is high in fat or super charged with carbs, or so I've found anyway. I should not be so slack and just eat fruit and vegies and meat and stay away from the pre prepared foods. I have one excuse that I cling to and that is that I work five or six 12 hr shifts a week as a cook so the last thing I want to do when I get home is cook!!!!

When I find the secret to wellbeing and the easiest way to lose the flab I promise to tell everyone and not charge them a cent!!!!!

I am going to pay off an excersize bike and home gym. I know that I have the willpower to work out because I used to have a gym membership that I used every day before I started this job. Hopefully this will allow me to get a little slimmer!!!! Don't think it will help with the eating of the evil gluten though. I think it is time to go I am starting to sound stupid!!!

An update on the digestive system of me!!

Well as I said in my first post I have coeliac disease.

I have done well, not fantastic, but well at keeping the gluten out of my diet but it proves to be difficult when I go out for a meal. People just do not understand what they have to do to serve me a gluten free meal. I understand this and don't stress to much about it but I find it frustrating that I cannot really go out for a nice meal in the country area where I live because I may end up very sick. I do make the most of it when I am in Melbourne though. I go to one of the gluten free bakery's down there an have a little bit of a pig out.

Anyway what started that train of thought was the last night I thought I would get a Steak sandwich for tea. I do this once in a while. I give my hubby some of my G-free bread and he gets it for me. Last night though I think that they may have definitely cross contaminated my food because today my belly is not a happy chappy. Let me tell you that on one of my only days off in two and a half weeks of hard slog at work the last thing I wanted was to have to spend the day close to a toilet!!! I suppose that it could have been worse though!!

I went out not long ago to a cafe that advertised gluten free sandwiches and cakes and ordered a G-free sandwich. When I got it, it was made out of rye bread with oats on top. I was not amused. They have improved though!!! For those of you who do not know rye and oats are not G-free.

I must have slipped a couple of times in the last week and eaten the wrong things. I just never feel well if I am eating wrong. I sometimes forget to read the labels on food and get caught out that way. Well I am back to home made bread, stirfrys and rice noodles this week to see if I can get things under control again.

Hi folks

Hi everyone, Some of you reading this will have already read about me on my other diary, "What's MALToma?" Well I also have another condition called celiac disease. It does not allow me to process gluten and if I do eat it I become sick. Gluten is found in a lot of foods. It is a protein that is in a lot of cereals. As you can imagine it can make for a very boring diet if you are not into experimentation with food!!!

I was diagnosed one year ago this month. I had suffered years of chronic gastric reflux and acid indigestion (about 10 years). I got a bad dose of gastro and after two weeks when I still had not gotten over it I went to my local doctor and asked them to find out what was wrong. They were not to interested so I also asked them to test me for celiac disease. They did the test which checks for an enzyme in your blood and it came back positive. The doctor was rather surprised by this but I almost felt relieved. The only absolute test for coeliac is to have a gastroscopy. I was booked in for one and the biopsies that they took from my small intestine confirmed the initial diagnosis.

Since then I have been on a bit of a hit and miss with my diet. I was not really sure of what I should be eating and what I shouldn't. I finally joined the celiac society of Victoria and they sent me out a heap of information and recipes.

I am really starting to get the hang of this diet now but sometimes I forget to read the labels on things before I eat them and I sure have to pay for it for the next couple of days.

Anyway that is a little about my coeliac and I will update this as I navigate my way through the mine field of food additives!!!!