Just over 2 Months GF- Airplane Noodles & Aloe Juice

Let me start by saying I did my math and thought I was GF for 3 months when I first wrote this post. Then I realized... no, it just feels like 3 months. My 3 month GF anniversary is Jan 10. So this is a retrospective of the last couple weeks, which begins right as I reached my 2 month mark.

A couple weeks ago, I finally got in with a nutritionist who knew about all the issues that can come with Celiac Disease. Thank goodness! I realized I had lost 9 lb since going gluten free, which was very unintentional. She said she could tell through some analysis that I have been losing muscle, which indicates malnutrition. It was surprisingly emotional to hear her acknowledge that I'm having trouble getting enough nutrients on a daily basis. She told me to try to get 80-90g protein a day (40g more than the recommended daily allowance)! Also, she agreed I should not only cut out dairy but also soy, at least until I start feeling better for a couple months. So where do I get the protein? Oh yeah, I also think I'm allergic to eggs... love it. Oh, and coffee and black tea have been too acidic for me lately, so I'm off caffeine. When it rains it pours.

I'm just eating lots of meat and nuts for the time being. I noticed a difference immediately, which is worth the dietary sacrifice though. My mantra for all these additional restrictions has been "It's only temporary". Man, it's gonna seem like a breeze if I can ever start having these foods and ONLY cut out gluten. Ironic.

Last week, we took our first plane trip to go to Florida for a quick vacation. We knew we were going to a condo with a kitchen, and that there were plenty of good grocery stores nearby, but the plane trip was another story. We didn't check a bag, so I couldn't bring any significant amount of food in liquid form. Going there, we made chicken salad and rice cakes with peanut butter and some fruit. Pretty good. We had almost nothing to do in Florida except cook lots of good food for me, so it was almost like rehab. I felt so much better by the time I came back. The one thing we forgot is what to pack for our plane ride home. I packed a bunch of gluten free crackers and sliced apples and a Thai Kitchen dry noodle soup. Just add hot water. So on our layover, I asked for a cup of hot water at Starbucks, and decided to wait until we were on the plane to assemble the dehydrated noodles, sauce etc all in the plastic bowl it came in.

I finally put it together just before take-off, and fortunately it didn't leak or slide anywhere. It sat and "cooked" in the hot water in Avi's footspace, which would have worked, except the water had cooled just enough to NOT cook the noodles fully. The best part? I forgot to take the packet of oil out of the container before filling it with water (it was hiding under the noodles). Oops! It was a bit raw, but I ate it anyway out of hunger. Note to self: add hot water to noodles IMMEDIATELY!

I went to a more local support group for Celiac the other night, and got lots of great advice about places to eat nearby. I ended up winning a big basket from a gluten free store, which is owned by one of the members who attends. He had hand-picked lots of yummy soup mixes, pasta, and baking mix. It was really nice to meet people who are still working on making their gluten-free life stable.

Today, I finally followed through on a suggestion from my nutritionist to get protein powder and make shakes with almond milk, frozen fruit and the powder. The lady at Hi Health talked me into also buying Aloe Vera juice, which she says is like putting aloe on a sunburn, except on the inside. She said she thought it would be a good first step to help everything heal. It's worth a try!

Weeks 7 & 8

I made it through Thanksgiving, although not as well as I had hoped. The hostess was amazing and did everything in her power to cook lots of foods I could eat. She cooks mostly from scratch, so the issue was more cross-contamination than actual ingredients. But since there was flour floating around from other dishes, I think a bit probably got into my food anyway. I wasn't ill that day at dinner, which was my biggest fear, so that was a big plus. But I was still sorta sick that night, and I realized over the next few days that I must have been exposed just enough to cause damage inside. Every time I ate, I'd feel discomfort and stomach pain. Oh, the gluten monster. It's been over a week and I'm still not healed from it. It's a good exercise in positive reframing and acceptance.

If you've ever played Apples to Apples, you'll appreciate that I played with our family the day after Thanksgiving and I picked the green adjective card "Overwhelming". When everyone handed in a card they thought met that definition, lo and behold, someone had handed in "Wheat". Clearly, they had me pegged. It was very funny, in that dark sorta sad kind of way. Hopefully that same card won't be true by next Thanksgiving.

Otherwise, I'm just trying to make it through my commitments till things lighten up with school over winter break. With the discomfort I've been experiencing since Thanksgiving, I've been eating way too little. I've tried supplementing with nutrition shakes like Ensure, but I don't think that's nearly enough. So I'm in the process of scheduling a nutritionist and plan to change primary care doctors-- No one at health services knows anything about Celiac... I actually came in for my follow-up visit and the triage nurse wrote that I was there for "lab results". Not exactly, honey. The doctor forgot I was there because she had asked me to do so after I got the final diagnosis from my GI, and she let the student doctor see me, who tried to explain to me that there's no pill he can prescribe to "cure" it. Uh, thanks for the novel information, man. I had no idea.

I'm thinking of trying some digestive enzymes or probiotics to help speed up the healing and help aid digestion. I've read about a ton of possible ones to try, but I'll have to sift through them to find one to try first. I'm actually wondering if the new legalization of medical marijuana might be an option for me if this keeps up for very long...