Friday, March 20, 2009

Wines I've Tried That Work for Me

Wine seems to be a hot topic on the celiac.com forum, so I've decided to post wines I've tried that seem ok to me to drink in hopes it will help others when they just can't decide what to try.  I don't want to go posting to the forum when I don't have clear evidence these wines are gluten free, so I'll put it in it's own section on the right column of my blog this evening sometime.  Then it's clearly just IMHO.  :)

Update:  Ok it's up.  I'll keep it updated as I try new ones.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Picazzo's Pizza

I had gourmet pizza last night and it was fantastic!  If you are gluten intolerant and want a fun (though slighly pricey) night out, check out Picazzo's Pizza.  Almost everything on their menu is, or can be, made gluten free.  There are only a couple of things off limits.  It's the first time in a long time that I've been able to sit down and consider eating anything on the menu!  

I ordered a gluten-free pizza with chicken and artichoke hearts.  It was a little skimpy on the sauce, but otherwise delicious.  What a luxury to eat the leftovers for breakfast!  I recommend this restaurant to anyone living in AZ or OR.  They go to great lengths to ensure your pizza is safe from cross-contamination (even though nothing is ever guaranteed 100% at any restaurant) and the staff seemed very well educated on Celiac, which made for a very relaxed evening.  I enjoyed a great meal, free from illness or sleepiness.  Ah, heaven!  :)

Cataplexy Questionnaire

Hey I just found this neat study Stanford did on using a Cataplexy quesionnaire as a predictive model for Narcolepsy diagnosis.  Guess what?  I test pretty 'classic' on this thing.  Take that, mean sleep docs who don't believe me!  You can go stuff it for all I care.  :P

Saturday, March 7, 2009

The HLA Test is Ordered

It's done!  What I've been waiting to do so long is finally under way.  My Celiac HLA test!  I'm so excited.  I genotype mice for a living, now I get to genotype myself (for a nominal fee of course.)  I'm really hoping it confirms my suspicions about a lot of stuff regarding things that run in my family and the gluten/narcolepsy link.  Wouldn't it be awesome to finally have something on paper that verifies I'm not insane?  

UPDATE:  It came on Wednesday, which means I have to wait until Monday morning to do the swab and send it in.  Monday??  Argh I can't wait that long!  lol

Friday, March 6, 2009

I want for to eat pizza!

The other day my doctor told me that Garlic Jim's serves gluten free pizza with a corn-based crust.  And I was all excited that I could finally eat pizza!  Yummy pizza, even!  But alas, no.  It was a lie.  I called and the crust is rice-based.  However, this allergic girl just may order one anyway, and let the narocolepsy take her down in a fit of pizza-induced ecstacy.  One nap won't hurt.

UPDATE:  I broke down right after I wrote this and ordered one (with the encouragement of the family...they're such enablers...lol.)  I have to say it was AMAZING.  Total ecstacy.  It was greasy like a Pizza Hut pizza, and I didn't even mind the thin crust.  I'm a thick crust kind of girl, but at this point, any real pizza is heaven.  I'm happy to report that despite it's rice-based crust, I had no adverse reactions to it after I ate it.  No nap, no weird feelings.  Yay!  I did wake up with some burning gut this morning, but I suspect it could just be cross-contamination.  Rice never does that to me.  I'm almost inspired to buy plain rice and see if it really is an option for me.  Cross your fingers!  :D

Sunday, March 1, 2009

gluten list resource

http://www.healthnowmedical.com/info/gluten_foods.html

Here's another great list of things to avoid when going gluten free.  Sometimes the memorization drives me mad.  IMHO, labels should be absolutely explicit where gluten-containing foods are concerned.  Nothing should be hidden.