Saturday, August 27, 2005
Maltipoo
This is my sweet little dog, Pearlie. She's a Maltipoo (half poodle/half maltese). She's so attached to me that she always wants to be in the same room with me and follows me all over the house. My family tells me that she mopes around the house and waits by the front door when I'm gone. They might entice her to play sometimes, but she'll only play for a few moments and then run to the front window and look out. I don't know how that happened.
Thursday, August 25, 2005
More About Me
You wouldn't know it to look at me, but I have a disease. It's called Celiac Disease (CD) and basically is a gluten intolerance. Gluten is in wheat, rye, and barley, so I can't eat any product that contains or has come in contact with those grains.
CD is genetic and has been handed down to me probably through my mother's father's family. I have handed it down to both of my children. It is a very well-known and common disease in Europe, but for some reason American doctors think it is extremely rare...almost non-existent in North America. They are wrong. Current estimates are that 1 in 100 Americans have CD but most just don't know it yet. Sometimes Cd is evident during childhood, even infancy, but more often than not (at least in my experience) a CD sufferer doesn't realize that anything is wrong until they reach their late 40's and 50's. It commonly takes a CD patient 10 yrs. to get a diagnosis, after several misdiagnoses and useless treatments.
A person with CD cannot tolerate gluten because the gluten causes an autoimmune response that damagees the villi in the small intestine. With those damaged villi the body cannot absorb nutrients which causes a host of problems. CD is somewhat difficult to recognize (unless you know what you are looking for) because it's symptoms are so varied. And some people (like me) have virtually no recognizable symptoms. CD's most common symptoms are digestive problems like chronic diarrhea (most common), constipation, acid reflux, nausea, bloating, etc. But the symptoms can also range from damaged tooth enamel to seizures to intestinal cancer to bone pains to insomnia and on and on.
The only treatment for CD is a gluten free diet.
To read more about CD, go to http://www.celiac.com/st_main.html
CD is genetic and has been handed down to me probably through my mother's father's family. I have handed it down to both of my children. It is a very well-known and common disease in Europe, but for some reason American doctors think it is extremely rare...almost non-existent in North America. They are wrong. Current estimates are that 1 in 100 Americans have CD but most just don't know it yet. Sometimes Cd is evident during childhood, even infancy, but more often than not (at least in my experience) a CD sufferer doesn't realize that anything is wrong until they reach their late 40's and 50's. It commonly takes a CD patient 10 yrs. to get a diagnosis, after several misdiagnoses and useless treatments.
A person with CD cannot tolerate gluten because the gluten causes an autoimmune response that damagees the villi in the small intestine. With those damaged villi the body cannot absorb nutrients which causes a host of problems. CD is somewhat difficult to recognize (unless you know what you are looking for) because it's symptoms are so varied. And some people (like me) have virtually no recognizable symptoms. CD's most common symptoms are digestive problems like chronic diarrhea (most common), constipation, acid reflux, nausea, bloating, etc. But the symptoms can also range from damaged tooth enamel to seizures to intestinal cancer to bone pains to insomnia and on and on.
The only treatment for CD is a gluten free diet.
To read more about CD, go to http://www.celiac.com/st_main.html
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Blogging...It's All About Me
This blogging thing is really kind of egocentric, isn't it? We get on here and talk about ourselves, what I think, what I like, what I know, what I want, what I see...Oh well. Here's something about me.
I'm a painter of murals and here is my latest project...my back patio. Here is the before pic:
I got tired of looking at mud and dirt, so I did this:
I wanted a water feature with fish and stuff, but didn't want to fool with balancing the water, keeping the algae out, and keeping the fish alive. So, I painted a stream along the back edge of the patio and put a small fountain out there to provide the trickling water sounds. Here's a part of it:
I'm a painter of murals and here is my latest project...my back patio. Here is the before pic:
I got tired of looking at mud and dirt, so I did this:
I wanted a water feature with fish and stuff, but didn't want to fool with balancing the water, keeping the algae out, and keeping the fish alive. So, I painted a stream along the back edge of the patio and put a small fountain out there to provide the trickling water sounds. Here's a part of it:
New to Blogging
I'm new to this blogging stuff. Although I created a blog on www.celiac.com and have been posting there, it seems that each place is different so this is my test entry. If I never return to post again, that means that I'm lost in cyberworld and can't find my way back.
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