Jayson's Journal
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August 12, 2008
Ways to Help Raise Awareness
Just some random thought here...but we are a growing community on this site. There is so little awareness and research for Celiac Disease because there's no money in it for the drug companies. What if we all put our heads together and came up with some ideas for raising awareness and who knows, maybe even money for research!
People have started with a lot less people to go on and make HUGE differences in raising money for medical causes. Any ideas? -
August 08, 2008
Free GF Dining Card
Just got this from my Dietician! Check it out! Go to this site and you can get a free laminated card to take with you when you go out to eat. It is a challenge, the more they get out there, they will donate so much toward Celiac Research! Help raise support everyone! It costs like 0.70 if you get it online or you can just send them a SASE and get it free!
Jayson
http://www.triumphdining.com/freediningcard.aspx -
August 03, 2008
You Know You are a Celiac If...
I found this some time ago. Not sure exactly where it came from, but it's funny...AND true :-)
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YOU KNOW YOU HAVE CELIAC DISEASE:
if you dont remember what crackers are supposed to taste like.
if you bring "special" beer to the party, and don't share.
if you actually have nightmares about reading labels.
if you compare all of your food to "normal-people-food."
if you call all your relatives when you get sick. It MUST be becase something you ate has been cross-contaminated.
if you cry when you discover a new way to make gluten-free bread. And call all your relatives.
if you know that Xantham Gum is not for chewing.
if you don't lick stamps.
if your mother is afraid to do the cooking
if you know that spelt is a distant cousin of wheat, but buckwheat is not related to wheat at all.
if the construction workers working on the house next door to you can EASILY substitute your bread for one of their bricks.
if your grandmother INSISTS that you don't have celiac, you're just "always sick"
if you actually KNOW what an anti-TTG and an IGA blood test are.
if people have invited you to "The Olive Garden" on April first.
if you sold your house to buy groceries
if you can find "hidden gluten" in food labels in the blink of an eye,
if your family couldn't find them if they had a magnifying glass, dictionary, and Ph.D.
if you've actually suggested cardboard for dinner.
if you wept the first time you tried to make gluten free sugar cookies
if you accept that fact that cardboard probably taste better than gluten free sugar cookies anyway.
if you have ever made a list of everything you would eat if a magical genie could cure you.
if you keep this list with you at all times just incase you should come across a magical genie.
if you get a medical exemption out of cooking class because they are baking bread.
if at Christmas, visions of guar gum dance in your head.
if you've had to give a doctor a crash course in Celiac 101.
if you weep at picnics, parties, receptions and fast food joints.
if you've "brown bagged it" to an elegant dinner engagement.
if a 7 Course Meal is a 1 Course Meal for you. Lettuce.
if you've installed floor-to-ceiling bookcases in your bathroom.
if you've ever driven more than 40 miles to buy flour or a cookie.
if it takes you 4 hours to grocery shop and your eyesight is
ruined.
if you hyperventilate when passing by the bakery counter.
if you've ever deliberately rammed your cart into a Shredded Wheat
display in a fit of rage.
if you've ever had to take out a loan to pay the grocery bill.
if you'd gladly pay any price for a pretzel that doesn't taste like
sawdust, or bread that doesn't taste like an old shoe.
if the centerpiece on your dining room table is a bread machine with memorial candles.
if one of your primary goals in life is to create "Fake Oreo
Cookies".
if you've disinherited loved ones for putting their knife in your
mayo.
if your family thinks you're crazy for not tasting their new chocolate chip cookie recipe, because surely a little nibble couldn't hurt right?
if your financial portfolio consists of stock in two major toilet paper companies.
if you can spell transglutaminase and dermatitis herpetiformis.
if having solid poop is the highlight of your day.
if you have actually considered using a gluten-free bagel for a hockey puck
if you've mastered saying "I actually enjoy MY food" without your face twitching
if you know all about xanthan gum and its uses.
if you have ever dreamt about Wonder Bread.
if you hide the gluten-free cookies when guests come over, so they dont eat them.
if you know exactly when Post added barley flavoring back to the Fruity Pebbles and you're ticked.
if you talk about your disease (not the unpleasant parts) so much to your friends and acquaintances that your husband tells you you need to get another hobby
if you take a list of safe drinks to the bar with you. And actually consult it before you order a drink.
if you see someone buying rice flour in the bulk section and you just have to ask them if they are gluten intolerant too!
if it drives you crazy when someone says they completely understand your diet, they did Atkins.
if people roll their eyes at you when you say "no thank you" to someone's gluten filled dessert
if you've refused things as "simple" as gum or sucking candies because you don't know if they're safe.
if you talk about endoscopy's and colonoscopy's like these are normal everyday occurences that everyone gets nearly every year.
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July 22, 2008
Celiac Disease In the News
I found a very good video on Youtube where CNN actually did a story on Celiac Disease! The url is http://youtube.com/watch?v=3Qjxg18YmLQ. I always like seeing things that bring our condition out to the world, so that they don't just think that we are crazy (I had plenty of even dr.s telling me that before the diagnosis!)
Anyway, Check it out! -
July 20, 2008
Slow but sure!
I went to visit my Dad and Step-mom today and it was a great time. Soon, it was time to eat and Bonnie decided that it would be great to go out and get something. She came home with some chili that she had PERSONALLY verified was GF by talking to the manager...she then went as far as to make the lady at the counter change her gloves before dishing it out just in case there were crumbs!
It might not seem like a big deal for her to go all out like that, but it is. I've been diagnosed for over two years, and this is the FIRST time she has ever really thought about it and taken care of it. Normally, she tries to give me something with gluten, then feels bad as I sit there not eating anything haha! So, as the movie "What About Bob" taught us...baby steps! :-)
Anyone have any family "training" success stories?