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Just a quick post the gluten free diet is going well, apart from everything that is special gluten free foods is always so small why?
Went to the doctors to change my pescription on tuesday and found out i have another condition Barretts Esophagus which means I might have to take a tablet everyday for the rest of my life and/or change the diet again! More information is here
So after getting used (almost to one thing) something else pops its head up! More blogs before Christmas hopefully!

2 weeks in.....

I have said it before and I will say it again I am really rubbish at updating these this. I have every intention of doing it but then get distracted and start something else and before you know it it’s a week from the last update!

Anyway… Is anyone reading this? If you post some comments and if not hello to me! So I have been on the gluten free diet for almost 2 weeks now and its not as difficult as I thought it would be, the only thing I am really missing at the moment is some descent white bread but the gluten free stuff is not that bad, well apart from the high fibre stuff which always seems to crumble as soon as you open the pack.

The prescription stuff is starting to come through but I think I might have to change it as I have boxes and boxes of the mix stuff and so much pasta I might have to start palming it off on people to get rid of it!

I did some baking over the weekend started with some bread using the Juvela white mix and it’s the best result I have had so far, it looked and felt like normal bread and taste really nice the only thing I have to get now is a descent bread knife so I don’t end having door steps for lunch.

I also made my first mistake, I really miss being able to pop out and pick up a sausage roll for lunch, I know there are not healthy but as a once a week treat they are nice, warm and filling and I can not have them anymore, so I thought I would try my own. So using the Juvela mix again I followed the recipe for some short crust pastry and was going to make some gluten free sausage rolls. I minced the meet in my new Magic Bullet blender (more on that later) and though I would add some garlic, spices and herbs for some extra flavour. The pasty looks find it was all mixed together and they even looked like home made sausage rolls. Shoved them in the oven 25 minutes later some lovely hot sausage rolls lovely!

I eat the first one and they are really nice the meet is a bit dry but not bad for the first effort I thought, wasn’t until a few hours later I realised I have not checked the ingredients in the mixed spice powder I used. Dam! 5 ingredient down “wheat starch” of bugger it after a week of being so careful not to eat anything with gluten I go and make something myself which has it in doh!!! So in the bin go my nice fresh sausage rolls arrrrrhhhhhhh!!!!! I will try again at the weekend learning some lessons, the sausage meet was a bit to thick and do not use this without reading the label first.

So apart from that one mistake I think I doing quite well, do I feel better? Well not sure really people tell me I look better and I probably do have more energy, although that does not really help when the alarm goes off at 5:30AM so I can go to the gym before work. That’s something else I have started again and as I write this my arms ache from Monday and my legs will ache tomorrow from this mornings workout, but at least I am going again. Hopefully it might start to show more now that I am eating better and my body can start to absorb the stuff I am putting into my mouth.

One of the first things I decided to do when I was diagnosed was to get myself a blender so I could start having smoothes and fruit shacks as drinks. So I had seen the magic bullet blender advertised on the TV shopping channels and knew someone at work that had one and so decided I would have one of them for a Christmas present (did I mention I know have 99% of my presents and they are wrapped, how sad am I!), so my brother said he would get it for me and I could have it early. It cool and it works, apart from being a bit nosier than I thought its really useful. I can blitz together a summer fruit, banana, yogurt and milk smootie in about a minute and it means I am getting more fruit now than I ever had before. More soon when I can think or things to write in the mean time have a look at the below for some great Coeliac sites (or celiac’s and they say in America).

Gluten Free Girl – An excellent blog (puts this to shame) from a woman in America who has Coeliac’s read the early posts as well very interesting.

US discussion board – One of the best I have found mainly and American board but they will happily answer any questions you have and loads of tips.

Coeliac UK – The UK charity for Coeliac’s and the publisher of “The List” of safe foods.

Gluten-Free by the Bay – Another excellent recipe blog for Gluten Free food.

Gluten Free Living – News and recipes

The results

I am so crap at doing these I think I will start doing it but then something else comes along and I never finish what I am writing so what better place to write a new entry than at work! It looks like you doing some work when in fact I’m not, result!

So where was I? Arh yes the letter was sitting there when I got home from work, thinking it was just an appointment letter I opened it to read that the biopsy results show I have Coeliacs (which is what people keep telling it could be), bugger was the first thought, here’s me thinking it was just a virus but nope its something that’s going to change the way I live my life for ever. Those that do not know anything about Coeliacs and that’s a lot of people as when ever I tell people the normal response it “What’s that?”.

Well in short it’s a disease that is classed as an autoimmune disease which basically means that the body see’s gluten as a foreign body and the immune system attacks it. In doing this the body damages the (normally) small intestines. This then leads to the nutrients in food not being processed and absorbed correctly. More information click here (takes you to Wikipedia). The only was to live with Coeliacs is to remove gluten from your diet, the disease can not be cured (yet) and once you have it, you have it for life.

I had read a lot about coeliacs and what it would mean but being told you have it was still a shock, its like what the hell caused that, what does it mean to me and more importantly why the hell have I suddenly got this. Most of these questions I will probably never be sure but later that evening I just had to realise that I have it and I have to live with it and because of the internet there is a wealth of information and discussion groups out there, which I have spent a lot of time reading.

Will post more soon honest, starting to get some free sample packs through of gluten free food and have my bread making experience to share!

More tests......

The results from the doctors blood test all came back normal except for some liver function results which were very high but the test for Coeliacs was clear. A friend of my mums suggested it could be Coeliacs, I searched the internet and the symptoms all sounded right, I called the doctors and was ensured that coeliacs had been tested for and showed a negative result.

The liver ultrasound all showed normal which was good, then it was time for the first camera test an lower endoscopy (yes that’s a camera up the bum!) which was no way as bad as I thought it would be. The worst part of this was the 24 hour I could not eat before the exam (the information had great delight in telling me I could suck and boiled sweet, oh thank for that then!) and the two lots of laxative that needed to be taken to help clear the body out. I was given a sedative wheeled into the room rolled onto my side and away we went. The consultant said I was more than welcome to watch on the TV screen but thought better of it. On part I will always remember was the Consultant asking the Nurse if she could “See the light” and she was happy to report she could through the skin at the top of my stomach. That is just not right!

After the procedure I was wheeled back into the private room and provided with a nice big plate of sandwiches (not would you get that on the NHS!), the consultant came in about 30 minutes later to tell me all was clear no signs of any of the really nasty stuff that could have been effecting me.

So off I went home non the wiser as to what the problems were, but also relived he had not found anything really bad.

I waited a week for the next lot of tests and this was the worse one and upper endoscopy, if you have ever had one you will no what they are like if not I hope you don’t have to have one. Though out the whole procedure I felt like I wanted to be sick because of the gagging reflex you body does when something that should not be put that far down your throat (I have more respect for sword eaters now!). Again the consultant came back and said everything looks surprisingly good but I would have to wait for the biopsy results to come back.

So more waiting, still off work (six weeks in total) so off back to the doctors more bloods where done, this time they showed the liver functions had returned to normal and the Doctor thought I could have been a virus that effected the liver which caused the weight loss and diarrhoea. Excellent I thought I was feeling a lot better in myself but still getting the rumbling tummy after eating and the feeling that not all was right but the doctor said it’s a virus so a virus it must have been.

That was until I got the letter two days after seeing the doctors…..

So I have coeliacs

So I had the letter Thursday of last week from my consultant saying I have
coeliacs disease, bugger was the first thought.

I started having bad diarrhoea about 3 to 31/2 months ago, I put up with it
for about 5 weeks but when it started to really get me down and was effecting my
work I went to the doctors to see what was wrong I knew it was more than a bug.

On the first visit we had a long chat about what could be causing it, blood
tests were ordered, which would be the first of many, I was asked to provide
stool samples and wait for the results, in the mean time I was signed off work
for 2 weeks and also referred to a consultant. I had lost over a stone and half
in a months which had to be the most worrying thing. I then had to wait for the
results.

Luckily work provide private medical insurance so the wait to see the
consultant was very short, the blood test came back negative for coeliacs and
most over things the only abnormal result was the liver functions. I got to see
the consultant two weeks after visiting the doctors (better than the few months
that would on the NHS), on the first visit at the posh private hospital I talked
to the consultant, answered more questions gave more blood and was booked in for
a Ultrasound scan of the liver, a endoscopy and gastroscopy. In the mean time I
was told to continue eating as normal and take over the counter diarrhoea
tablets.

More to come..