Crohn's disease and Gluten Free

I have decided that I really want to track my progress and disease on my blog. So that I can keep up with what is going on and look back on my progression, or series of events. But also so that if I can help anyone else through this battle of Crohn's disease and going Gluten Free, I can. Please feel free to share my blog address with anyone who you might think would be interested.

I am going to start with an email that I sent someone with Crohn's disease and Celiac disease today.

This is my personal experience thus far:


I have Crohn’s disease (was just diagnosed in May, but they believe I have had it for 15 years or more without treatment and/or diagnosis). I have an ilium stricture and have not been able to get in remission since being diagnosed. I am hopefully going to start Humira again soon, as I had to stop because I got several infections after the initial loading doses.

I was tested for Celiac disease, and it came back negative. However, my GI specialist feels that I should try to reduce gluten in my diet as much as possible. I am not 100% gluten fee.

This is just what I am doing right now, as recommended by my GI specialist.

Also, eating out and being GF is extremely hard. Unless they have a totally separate GF kitchen, there will be cross contamination.

I do not eat any raw vegetables.
I do not eat any seeds or nuts.
I do not eat any peelings on fruits or vegetables.
I do not eat anything leafy. (spinach, lettuce, etc)
I do not eat anything stringy (no stalks on broccoli or cauliflower. No celery. No string beans. No okra.)
I do not eat any type of beans or peas.
I only eat raw fruit that can be easily broken down (bananas, peeled peaches, peeled apples, peeled pears)
I have found that regular potatoes do not work for me. any recipe with regular potatoes, I substitute with sweet potatoes.
I can eat broccoli florets and cauliflower florets, but they must be cooked to death.
I can eat squash and zucchini, but they must be peeled and have no seeds.
I eat a lot of chicken and fish.
I have tried to cut out red meat as much as possible.
Pork makes me sick almost instantly.
NO POPCORN.

As far as GF, I have found several websites were you can buys GF ingredients for way cheaper than the stores. I buy a lot of mixes and flours and cookies, etc through these sites.

Each person is different on what they like as far as GF. Personally, I am not a fan of the rice pasta, but a lot of people seem to like it. To me, its too much like rice to be pasta. haha.

www.Allergyfreegirl.com
http://www.katzglutenfree.com/Default.asp
http://glutenfreehomemaker.com/
https://sugarandspicemarket.com/
http://betterbatter.org/
http://www.glutenfreesaver.com/



If you add me on Facebook, I have “liked” a ton of GF pages, and they often advertise sales, etc on FB and you can sign up for their email lists to get email updates, recipes as well. I try to always “share” the deals, good recipes, etc on FB.

I hope all this helps. Please feel free to comment and/or email me with any questions. We are all in this together and I would love a new Crohn’s/GF friend.

Medical update/life update

Life has taken a definite spin for us this month.



Beginning the first weekend in May, I started having some pretty serious personal health issues. After seeing, my regular dr, a GI specialist, an ER visit, more GI specialist appointments, an ultrasound, and a colonoscopy later…..it is determined that I have Crohn’s disease. And a pretty serious case of it.



Right now, they have me taking 6 anti-inflammatory pills a day and 4 steroid pills a day to try to get everything under control and into remission.



I feel ok, but I am constantly tired and very worried/scared about the outcome of all of this and where this will take us on our journey that WE had planned. We should have known, this isn’t our journey, but it is His journey for us. I am putting all of my trust in our Lord and know that he has a plan for us.



If you guys (if anyone even still reads this blog) don’t mind, please just keep Ben and myself in your prayers. We would love to be covered in prayer during this time in our lives.



Does anyone have any experience with Crohn’s that could give me diet recommendations or any other advise. It would be greatly appreciated.