Sunday, January 11, 2009

Update on Mike

Life is busy for us once again with the new year, though it's not quite as carefree as last January was. We are doing a series of dietary experiments to help Mike's health. His sister recently learned she has Celiac, and the more we learned the more Mike's own health seems very similar to Celiac symptoms. He saw a doctor about it, and the doc suggested we try a few different diets and see if something helps. We could get him tested, but man is that expensive! So we're conducting our own experiment instead. Last week we were lactose free, which produced a slight improvement, but definitely not the whole problem. So this week we are going gluten free. What a pain, let me tell you. You'd never realize how much wheat you really eat until you try to TOTALLY cut it from your diet. It is going to be an interesting week. If it turns out Mike feels much better, then I'll be completely redoing our meals to fit his needs. Since it's genetic, there's a chance that my kids have it too. Hopefully nobody does, but time will tell. So wish me luck with this whole gluten-free thing. I'm going to need all the help I can get!

Here are a few pictures of the kids and their activities lately. We made a gingerbread house together. Mike insisted that it would be a simple one, since he didn't want to get too involved. So here is an engineer's idea of simple! If it had been me, it would be 4 square walls with a flat roof!



This is the kids in an attempt at playing twister. They had a great time, but I finally concluded they are still a little young for actually playing the game.

8 comments:

Jamie said...

Good luck with your glueten free week. My mom had a brownie recipe for my brother. I will have to get it for you.

Jadi said...

I didn't know Mike wasn't feeling well. I hope you can find the solution. The gingerbread house turned out great! Your kids are adorable as always.

Amy said...

I hope things get better with the diet. I know a few people who have had to go gluten free for various reasons. It is very difficult, but doable. There are a lot of stores now that carry gluten free things. Do you have a trader joes or Whole Foods there? I'm sure you already know about them.

Oh and I totally get the "simple" version!

Dean said...

Sure hope Mike gets better quickly. When I actually start practicing, diets are (hopefully) going to be a specialty of mine. So, if you're willing to wait another 10 years... Haha! I love the Twister game!

LindsC said...

Good luck with the gluten free thing that would be tough. But I do hope that mike gets feeling good! and the gingerbread house did make me laugh, I'm with you that was not simple! :)

Quilter 007 (Katrina) said...

You might check out Bob's Red Mill's web-site. They have a whole line of gluten-free products and recipes. They also have other way cool stuff like coconut flour and powdered buttermilk! Anyway, I know the gluten-free stuff gets expensive -- if that's a permanent change for you guys, you can probably save some money by ordering on-line & you'll a bigger variety than at your mega-mart.

charlesfam said...

I hope Mike gets feeling better soon. It's no fun trying to figure out what's going on when you don't feel right. I'm glad you have some methods to try to help.

Hey, I'm teaching in IF two nights a week. We should try to meet up some time. I'd love to see you guys again.

Mary said...

I have Celiac, but so far none of my kids do (all bloodtests were negative).
Bob's Red Mill offers a lot of gluten-free mixes, and has the best bread I've tasted yet (a bit egg-y, but holds up well). Albertsons will usually order things from Bob's for me.
Watch out for meds that may have gluten!
Here are a couple of good sites:

http://www.glutenfreedrugs.com/list.pdf
http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/digestive-health/nutritionarticles/PlogstedArticle.pdf