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]

Thanks!

I'm debating whether or not a positive would be good news or not. At the very least gluten-free products are easy to come by.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

Harder to eat. While gluten free bread is better than it used to be, it's still pretty much what Terry Pratchett describes when he writes about Dwarf Bread.

A while ago we ran out of pasta (clearly in one of my more brain dead stages) and ate the gluten free stuff we keep in the cupboard for when our friend with coeliac disease stays with us. Even baked in a nice casserole thing, it was practically inedible.

The cookies and cakes can be really good, if a bit dry, though.

wild rice pasta

[metalana.livejournal.com]

I once made some wild rice pasta, which tasted fine when just fresh. As leftovers, it was disgusting - the stuff does not last. Perhaps the casseroling had a similar effect.

In any case, living a guaranteed-gluten-free life is a big challenge/annoyance, made only slightly easier by its current popularity.

Re: wild rice pasta

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

That sounds marvelous. I love wild rice.

I have some alternative flours in my freezer that I tried to make into things like flatbreads so I could still have wraps. But I'm having trouble getting the hang of this thing where you turn raw ingredients into actual edible food. (I think that people commonly call it "cooking".)

[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!)