Happy New Year!

[a2zmom]

It's been forever since I posted but I'm going to try to be around more in the new year!

How is everyone? My life has been good but busy aside from being scared about the direction the country is headed in due to the orange idiot.

Comments

[scribesds]

I wondered how you were doing! Good to see you back! Thank you for your card! (And to the artists!)

Our year was mostly okay, more downs than we would have liked. My daughter has been poorly for the last 18 months and they still don't know what's up with her. The latest tests are for Crohn's, though so far nothing has come up.

[a2zmom]

If it is Crohn's talk to me - I've been dealing with it for 50 years. Contrary to what your gastro doc tells you, diet is key. In fact, diet helps pretty much any gastro issue.

Check out the IBD-AID diet. It really can make a huge difference. My nephew collapsed in college a few years ago. It turned out to be Chron's. His mom reached out to me and he immediately started this diet. He now has no trace of the disease.

[scribesds]

Thank you so much for the advice. She has already been following similar guidelines in an effort to help her symptoms. She cut out milk and went vegetarian a couple of years ago and we eat heaps of vegetables! I will pass this info on to her - perhaps there is something else that will help.

When the possibility of Crohn's came up, she freaked a little bit. She couldn't see how she could possibly lead anything like a normal life, and I hope you don't mind, but I mentioned to her that I knew a lovely lady online who had coped with Crohn's for decades and had managed to hold down a good job, run a home and raise a family, among other things. I know it hasn't been easy for you, but you're the most inspirational person I know with this disease, and just knowing she wouldn't be alone helped her come to terms with the possibility. She's more philosophical about it now, more like her usual self, and we will just have to see what the tests show up. Or don't, as the case may be.

[a2zmom]

You definitely can deal with it. It helps being a stubborn ass which I am.

For me (and a lot of Crohn's sufferers), it not vegetables per say, it's starch. I don't eat potatoes, I don't eat grains other than steel cut oats, I do eat nut butters. I don't eat flour, rice, quinoa, barley - whenever I do, I pay the price.

As far as dairy, I eat yogurt and aged cheese. Aged cheese has no lactose. I haven't had pizza in a decade.

I also try to only use honey and maple syrup as sweeteners. Corn syrup is especially bad I find.