Dietitian visit

So, this past Wednesday (May 23) I went back down to Vancouver General Hospital for some nutritional counseling with a dietitian. I was told when we scheduled my appointment that it would be an HOUR long and so I took the morning off work and headed down for my 8am appointment.

I met with the dietitian (she was actually a dietitian intern 4 weeks from finishing and I was asked if I would be okay with meeting with her - I said it would be okay with me) and we went over a lot of info that I had already learned with all the research I had done online since my diagnosis.

She confirmed some things I had been wondering about how careful I needed to be about cross-contamination and there were some thing that she told me that I hadn't known. She did strongly recommend me joining the Canadian Celiac Association as it has lots of info and they send out newsletters with up to date info about gluten free (GF) foods and new products or info. She also told me about a pocket sized "dictionary" that lists TONS of food items and tells you if they are GF or not or if they are questionable. It would make grocery shopping more enjoyable as there are often items that I am not sure about if they are GF or not and so I currently have to leave them or risk getting sick!

I did enjoy a wonderful meal of brown rice spaghetti with meat sauce on Friday night with a friend of mine! It made me very happy as there has been a lot of monotony in my meals and I look forward to some variety in my diet!

I will be going back to the dietitian for a follow-up at the end of June. I think she wants to make sure that I am getting everything I need in my diet. Right now the thing I have to work on is getting in all my grains. It is a bit more of a challenge since I can't have most of the common grains! I also have to find some gluten free vitamins that I can take as my dietitian is concerned that since I am not able to eat the enriched flours that I am not getting most of the vitamins like the B vitamins, niacin, and others that are added into the foods we eat! ( okay - so the foods YOU eat!)

Right now my diet is consisting of mainly fresh foods - very very little processed food as most of them contain gluten in some form. I am glad that I have found the brown rice pasta as that allows for another option. I mainly have been eating salads at work for lunch and rice & chicken or nachos for supper. Thankfully I really enjoy fresh veggies and love salads with lots of veggie variety in them and I found some dressings that are GF!

Now that I have seen the dietitian I am planning on a field trip of sorts with some of my girlfriends to go "visit" the various stores around this area that carry gluten free items. There is a gourmet & organic grocery store in White Rock that also has a rice bakery and carries a wide assortment of GF foods. I want to check it out for "special" food items - food that I won't eat all the time but can have for variety, special occasions and when cravings happen!

yeah - finally done

Well after all my troubles yesterday - I finally got my layout done!

If you would like to see it you can go here

you can see not only the layout I did today but all of the other layouts that I posted as well!

I was not feeling well today and so came home early from work and slept for the majority of the day. I'm still really tired and can't wait until I can go see my family doctor on the 30th of May and hopefully we can find out why I have been so tired lately!

arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I tried to do a digital scrapbook layout tonight and was almost completely finished when the program decided to freeze up & I lost the whole layout! I tried to redo it and again it froze! I was so happy with the original layout and I can't seem to recreate it a second (or third) time! It is SO frustrating!

Hopefully I will have better luck tomorrow!

Good-night

Mother's Day gift from Skype

Today, because it is Mother's Day, Skype had a global free calling day - to any landline or cellular phone anywhere in the world!! The invite said to call your mom and then call all your friends. Well, instead of calling my mother or any of my friends - I called my husband!!! I read through all their instructions and they asked only that you limit your calls to 200 minutes and your Skype account must be in good standing. Well, my account is in good standing and so I am using up my fair share of the 200 minutes!! Ronel & I are currently at minute 115 and not planning on stopping! I called when I got home from church - we talked for almost 20 minutes but he was on his way to a soccer match so we made plans for me to call him at 4pm my time when he would be back from the game. So I set my alarm on my phone for 4pm and proceeded to pass the time until I could call him back. My alarm went off and I called him back asap! He laughed cause it had just turned 6pm at his end and he said that I had good timing! I had told him that if he didn't hear from me by 6:30pm his time that he needed to quickly call me in case I had fallen asleep or something crazy like that! Come on - who gives up the chance to call their hubby and it all be FREE!! (it would so far have cost me 26 dollars for the time we have spent on the phone! )

updated~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~7:53pm
So in total today, Ronel & I were on the phone for a total of 218 minutes & 20 seconds that is 3 hours 38 minutes & 20 seconds.

I wish that Skype would have a free global calling day like this once a month!!

yes, I do realize that I went over the requested 200 minutes but the 218 minutes was in a total of 4 calls (once earlier today for 17 mins, then for 2hrs & 45mins till Ronel lost connection, then for 35 mins and then finally for just like 2 mins to tell Ronel that I got the email from his cousin.) so it was hard to keep track!

what's next....

So, yesterday I went back down to VGH to see Dr. Yoshida. It was a most frustrating experience! I had to take 3 hours of my day (and that of a friend of mine who came down with me so that I wouldn't have to pay the outrageous price of parking at VGH)
My appointment was at 9:15 am - I got to the office at 9am and got called into the office at 9:40am, I left the office at 9:45am!! Basically he told me that I didn't do the gastroscopy for nothing because it showed that I did in fact have celiac disease. He then told me some things about celiac that I didn't previously know - like how I have a increased chance of bowel & intestinal cancers and that while some people think that the weight loss & diarrhea is great and continue to eat gluten (though I have not yet had any weight loss symptoms) that it would be a very BAD idea to continue to eat gluten and my only option is to stick to a strict gluten free diet.
He gave me two pamphlets on celiac disease and said that his receptionist would get me an appointment to see a dietitian/nutritionist to learn more about eating gluten free. I asked if it would be at all possible for me to see a dietitian that was more local (not in Vancouver where I have to take off from work so that I can go) He said he would see what his receptionist could do. Well, yesterday afternoon I got a call from the Vancouver General Hospital & UBC Hospital Outpatient Nutritional Counseling Clinic asking me to call to set up an appointment. So, apparently I will be taking more trips down to VGH.... I got a hold of the clinic today and I have an appointment on May 23rd at 8am (so once again - missing work!) but the only upside is that this time I will bring my birth certificate with me and go down to the Human Resources office and change my last name. I tried to do it yesterday but didn't have my birth certificate with me (I had taken it and my passport out to go down to the US and apparently didn't put it back in the purse I currently use!) It was a little frustrating (okay - a lot frustrating!) but at least I'll be able to go back soon!

Yesterday after work, I got to call Ronel since my payment to Skype finally came through ~~ I learned I have to put more money on sooner - before my balance is too low so that I don't have to wait so long to be able to call my hubby!

o happy day!!

Wow, okay I know I just posted and said I was going to bed but I just got an email from a friend who sells Epicure Selections and it turns out that ALL their products are gluten free except one of their dips! We used alot of their products in Haiti because Karen's daughter sells it and so we got it from her and it is great quality! But it is great to think that I can have good quality spices, dip mixes and much more and not have to worry about getting sick!

Okay - NOW I am off to bed!

doctor's appointment

so today at work, I got a call from my gastroenterologist's office. Dr. Yoshida would like to see me again and his secretary asked if next Wednesday - May 9th- would be okay!

It took almost 3 months to get me in the first time, so an appointment in a week is a pretty big deal! I don't know what he wants to see me about but I am thinking that he probably wants to discuss my results and how I go about living gluten free.

My appointment is at 9:15am so I will be taking off the early part of the day off from work and heading downtown. I am not looking forward to driving downtown in rush hour traffic but this allows me to not have to take a whole off of work.