spelunking daily news

[the_siobhan]

Saw the specialist this morning. Don't know what the hell I was thinking, booking an appointment on a Saturday morning. Getting out of bed this morning was brutal.

While I was there I ended up dropping $200 on four blood tests. Apparently celiac disease (or whatever it's called) can be detected by looking for antibodies in the blood, but OHIP doesn't cover it.

All the Americans on my f-list can point and laugh at me now.

Apparently I have developed Barrett's Esophagus. Annoying because I'll have to get scoped regularily to keep an eye on it, but otherwise not a big deal. I look upon it as a fair trade for all those pap smears I don't have to get any more.

An interesting tidbit of info came up over the holidays, when I was explaining the whole stomach pain/acid reflux thing to my sister my mother piped up and said, "Oh I've had acid reflux since I was pregnant with you. I just take (X drug) for it and I'm fine." Something I hadn't known before. So whatever this is, it's probably hereditary.

I am currently on day 6 of no grains whatsoever. I haven't had a single peep from my stomach. Another useful piece of data.

Comments

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Well that's not encouraging.

I used to circle with a celiac. Somebody brought in cookies made of pea flour so he could eat them and they were the nastiest things I have ever tasted. (Our coven had two lactose-intolerants, a vegetarian, a vegan, a celiac and a peanut allergy. Feasts were challenging.)

[billyname99.livejournal.com]

I am SO glad I'm only allergic to shellfish!

[inulro.livejournal.com]

I am a vegetarian & allergic to eggplant (or intolerant, anyhoo it makes me vomit for hours), but as I otherwise can and will eat anything, I still have a wider diet than most people I know.

YMMV

[inulro.livejournal.com]

You gotta remember I'm biased - all of the foods I actually like contain gluten in vast quantities. Having watched a close friend get diagnosed with celiac and then develop dairy intolerance through the stress of Family Drama, I live in the fear of it happening to me.

I can't imagine anything being made with pea flour being edible, but you can make some really good pancake-type things with chick pea (gram) flour. Purchased wherever you get your Indian food supplies (the shop in Manchester used to comment that I was the only white person who ever bought the stuff). In TO you can probably get it anywhere, though.

Re: YMMV

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Probably in Kensington Market. If not there is a big Indian district in the east end of town.

Your the second person to mention chickpea flour, which I hadn't even known existed. (I just discovered potato flour. Be still my Irish heart!)