January has come and gone, February isn't that long.

Winter has finally made it to WI. Frankly, it need not stay any longer. Since it's really cold here [14F - feels like 1F], a friend and I decided to whimp out and go walk indoors at the mall. We usually walk on an old railroad track that's been converted to a walking trail. I gotta tell ya - it's pretty boring making laps in the mall. Even though it's pitch dark out on the trail - it's not half as boring. Maybe I should walk with my eyes closed if we go there again. At least I got to hang out with friend. Another good thing...I picked up Bob Marley calendar for a friend of mine in observance of Bob's birthday on Feb 6th. He would've been 62. "Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right."

I'm still battling tendentious in my heel. I'm icing as I type. It comes and goes. Walking...of course makes it worse. Icing it makes it better

Nothing much exciting going on in the Al n Peg household.

How 'bout the rest of y'all ~ fall out for Roll Call!

For those of you just tuning in, Roll Call is chance to introduce yourself, check-in and let everyone know how you're doing, what you're up to, to touch base...something, anything, just let us know you're still around

NT's Roll Call Time Tunnel

Happy February! It is cold here, and we have a fresh dusting of snow on the ground.

Last month I posted about how well ds was doing after we removed the last traces of corn (i.e. citric acid and xanthan gum) from his diet. He had been having wet nights regularly, but they were stretching out to 9 dry nights in a row. Well, they're back! I'm thinking it could have something to do with the unusual amount of baking I did last month. I used more starch flours than normal and I realized that even though I was grinding my own rice flour, it was unwashed bulk bin rice (can anyone recommend a good way to dry it so it can be ground?). Then, in total frustration, one day I let him have soy milk AND tofu! He had been off soy for months. Now, even though it seems crazy to reintroduce something when we're still scratching our heads about the wet nights, I've decided to let him have soy every 4th day and see how it goes. He is soooo excited about it! It will make the "everything else free" so much easier if it works out!

I'm grateful that I'm still feeling good!

Hi everyone,

I am checking in for February. My oldest son turns 18 this month--that's hard to believe.

I am hoping that this month we determine why my daughter is feeling so sick (she has been GF for 3 years). It is really hard sending her off to school knowing she is too nauseous to eat anything. She eventually feels better later in the morning and now has permission to go to the health room to eat a snack if she needs to. I doubt she will do that but at least knowing she is not stuck waiting to eat is a relief for me and for her.

We are expecting about an inch of snow/freezing rain mix tonight which will probably mean we get to sleep in tomorrow morning. I would love to have one big snow storm and then I would be ready for spring.

--Judy

Hi, all! Winter has arrived here as well, in TN! We've got snow on the ground outside. Last week I found a more or less local source for GF flours! Yay!
I'm doing very well staying GF. My only downfall is eating out. I had a really bad reaction yesterday, and I know it had to have been from the Mexican restaurant the night before, or my carry-out lunch from the buffet. Or both!
I always stick with salad and veggies from the buffet, but yesterday I snuck in some sausages, which could very well have had wheat filler in them. And of course, there is always the possibility of cross-contamination. When will I learn! Oddly enough, the one eat out meal I can count on, so far, is the side salad and an order of fries at McDonalds. Not very healthy I know!
Al, when I read your post about icing, I've got to confess that what leaped to my mind was a picture of you icing a cake, not you sitting there icing your heel!
Hugs

LOL I prefer to use an offset spatula when icing my heel



Getting glutened like that is not helping you. Staying GF is something you need to take very seriously. Continued exposure sets up for further health problems (possibly other auto-immune diseases and a higher risk for cancer). Please take a look at this post from a person on Delphi.

Please - be careful out there, OK?

Busy, busy, busy these days... Hardly time to read, next to no time to reply.

All is well... just lots of projects.

Hopefully I will get more time to read tomorrow, what's been going on with everyone. So, I will look forward to reading it with my Friday morning coffee. It will be a real treat!

Here's a bit of fun for anyone interested. The first time I tried, I did 61 seconds, the second time was my best at 42. My third try wasn't as good but almost... but the interesting thing was that the third time, I began building an ability to kind of 'track' 3 numbers ahead. I'm sure I would've done better with a fourth try but ran out of comp. time.

The brain is just cool!

http://flash.abunawaf.com/2005/12/game33.swf

Hi everybody! I don't get over here very often but I have not forgotten you. Hope you have not forgotten me.

Not much snow in AR. We had about 1/4inch last week and schools closed. I stayed home cause the roads were iced in the morning. (yes, it was pink icing done with a straight spatula )

Al, that is a scarey post from Delphi. I think everyone with CD/GS should read it and learn from it. I sure hope this person will be able to heal.

Anne

This thread pretty much describes what I've been up to, in the intestinal department:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...ad.php?t=12044

Other than that, not much else to report. The herbs for the bacterial dysbiosis seem to be working well. I also want to start making my own kefir, but I gotta get those funny little blobs they call "grains". The kefir and yogurt seem to be doing fine with me, as long as it's in moderation.

Oh, and I'm officially ready to be done with winter. It was nice for about 6 weeks, but I'm ready for warm, sunny days after work!

Claire

Thanks for clearing up the fact that you are finding that you ARE improving with the treatment. Sorry for the misunderstanding!

I will absolutely be following along with your details raptly. Although we've been able to add many things back into the children's diets after a number of years of avoidance (corn, rice, lily, nightshades, some refined sugar - albeit very limited), I am truly stumped by dh's continued gastro. issues.

I'm considering doing an oregano tea cleanse and then 5-strain-dopholousing him for a week.

What's interesting to me is that he is the only one who would not do SCD. He was in Toronto at the time and only home on weekends when we did it. So, (as a good husband/father) he would do SCD, of course on the weekends. But not being so good to himself, had to have his rice pasta during the week. And he's the one person in the family who looked like a 'classic' celiac (for his whole life, right from infancy with such horrid case of anemia that my mil said his blood was yellow). So I'm figuring he's still got lots of damage to heal.

He is the only one in the family with gas issues now... granted, they are much less than what they were... but I think it could be better.

I'm also considering sending him in for allergy testing as Judy did with her son because dh runs high e's also.

We are currently in the process of dropping all corn from our diet now even though the children and I seem to do okay with it. We will probably bring it back in for corn season in the fall as a test, and then drop it again for a year.

It would be wonderful to be able to speed up that process. I think we're going to miss our 'popcorn night' every Monday when we watch 'Dr. Who'. I've got a few weeks to figure out a replacement though as we've still got a couple of bags of organic popcorn that we're going to finish off.

While dh's gastro. health continues to puzzle me, I am happy to say (knock on wood) that ds1 (our canary in the coalmine) is doing fabulously! (And the post Christmas time is usually very challenging for him because he gets contaminated somewhere along the line and it takes a good 6 weeks for him to come back - so his 'comeback time' is improving or he's not getting contaminated as easily as he grows - or something.)

As always, late to the party.

Con is recovering slowly. His bowels slowed down and if he isn't hydrated, his pain becomes unbearable. He has been trying to go to school and I keep having to come pick him up cause he can't take the pain and the exhaustion. (he got so skinny from being sick. Well, skinny for him. lol ) We see the doc next week and will ask if he has any suggestions. Con ended up in the ER from the pain last week (and a teeny infection in one of his insicions) and the surgeon showed up at midnight to check on him. They had 3 emergency appendectomies and he took the time between preps to come in for Con. I was impressed with his concern.

So thats how we found out his motility is way slow.

Con and I are toying with the idea of getting with his gastro for a gluten challange this summer. He is at the age where he wants to know for sure and certain. I don't blame him.