Hope you can cling to

As you may know, because I blogged about it a few weeks back, my best friend in Los Angeles has breast cancer and is going through a course of chemotherapy. I don't think I'm exaggerating at all when I say she is finding this tougher than she ever imagined it to be.


You may also be aware that I make cards to send to people who are ill, bereaved or who may just need some happy mail. So in October over at splitcoaststamper I am participating in making a card a day for the breast cancer patients at the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston,Texas, they are calling this event "Hope You Can Cling To".


This is an article about the event that appeared in the Houston Chronicle, I hope to be showing you some of the cards I will be making even though I have a 3 week New Zealand trip in October as well. My timing is sometimes a little bit off but I hit the mark more often than not **smiles**. 


Speaking of cards here are three of my most recent ones.

Keep Well,
Nicky =^-^=

Vaccine for Celiac Disease finishes it's Phase 1 Trial

For people who have CD (Celiac Disease) or gluten intolerance as little as 15 milligrams of gluten or 100th of a slice of bread can damage the bowel and with many on a GF (Gluten Free) diet after 5 years up to half of the people studied still have damage and the failure of the "gut" to heal leads to more health problems. It was these findings that led to the search for a vaccine to desensitise the gut to gluten.


34 test subjects were double blinded to test the safety of the new Nexvax2 vaccine for patients diagnosed with CD. All patients were HLA-DQ 2 positive with CD following a strict GF diet.


In all, 19 subjects received the vaccine. Three different doses were administered (30, 60, 90 micrograms). Side effects were common with higher doses and included; nausea, vomiting and one subject having to withdraw from the trial due to “severe gastrointestinal symptoms”. In several cases the injection caused symptoms similar to that of typical gluten exposure. 

I have mixed feelings about the vaccine because I truly think that eating whole foods made by me is the best thing for me therefore I don't need to have a vaccine. But, and this is a big but, when I travel I am at the mercy of others and that's when a vaccine would be good for me. I have been on "vacation" for the last two weeks and I have had to stay in a hotel without any food making opportunities. This has left my health at the mercy of others and I think that I have been "glutened" twice during the two weeks (pain, nausea and diarrhea) and I feel dreadful in myself. 


Don't get me wrong I like to eat out with friends but it's always a roll of the dice when I do. It's a shame for me to feel this way but I can't wait to get home just so I can feel normal again. It absolutely ruins any trip for me if I can't go self-catering, just imagine yourself having to worry about every single meal, having to explain your dietary needs over and over again ad nauseam, it's a real drag and I really do need to have that total control over the food I put in my body. 

: ( I'm Sad

I'm sad for two of my friends. The first is my friend in New Zealand, Renee. It is winter in New Zealand and my good friend Renee slipped on some ice and fell and broke her arm. This comes on top of losing her job due to flying to South Africa to attend her Father's funeral. I mean show some compassion, it's not as if you can fly to SA and attend the funeral in 4 days or however long the bereavement leave period is. Anyway here is a card I am sending to her to cheer her up, well I hope it helps to cheer her up, she's having a pretty tough time of it at the moment.

Renee's card.

And the other of my friends who is having a tough time (I shan't name her here) has just been diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. We're all devastated by the news but she's a fighter and she starts treatment shortly,  so I'm thinking good thoughts for her and will continue to do so during her up and coming battle. Here is a card I made for her, it is from a template shared by dini over at splitcoaststampers it was my first attempt and although it's a bit rough and ready I know I'll be able to make a better one next time. I made it in a hurry because I wanted to give it to her while I am in LA for the next 2 weeks because words are just to difficult at a time like this. 

Hugs Card.

Keep Well x 

The Day I Met Patty Boone.

I've known Patty over the internet for getting on close to two years now. She lives in LA and so did I for a little while but we never managed to hook up together even though we'd spoken about it for a while. That was until I came back to LA for a visit, this time we were determined we'd get to see each other in the "flesh". So Patty came to pick me up from my Hotel on Sunset Boulevard. Fortunately I'd already seen Patty's Jeep on a photo so I knew what car I was looking out for. After a couple of wrong turns in the traffic thanks to Patty's new droid app we headed out towards Long Beach where her DH (Scottie) works. Scottie turned out to be as sweet a person as Patty. What a great couple.

Patty and I had lunch at the Crusty Crab and I have to say that although I managed to get something to eat, it took me x2 attempts for them to get it right, the first plate came out with battered zucchini and a slab of sour dough on top. I refused the meal and explained why I couldn't accept the sour dough and zucchini and why it was no good to remove the food from the plate either, the lovely server said and I quote "this doesn't have wheat, it's sour dough" on a positive note they did what I asked and that's OK, I mean I only actually ordered grilled prawns and rice just give me what I ordered for goodness sake, I wish that I didn't have to go through a whole rigmarole to get something to eat just one time.  To be honest even though I managed to get a meal and I wasn't glutened, I wouldn't recommend Crusty Crab as a place for people who require a GF diet because the risk of cross-contamination is just way too high. Here is a photo of my plate after I had finished.

Patty and I took a short walk and then had to head back to downtown LA to her house to avoid all the traffic. I got to meet the famous Pua, Pele and Makamae, well, I only briefly met Pua and Makamae because they hid themselves from me, Pele was much more relaxed about a stranger in the house though and we managed a bit of purr time together.  

Patty looking at the boats.

Me !

Keep Well x 

Naturally Gluten Free Food.

I eat food that is naturally gluten free (GF), for me that is food that is GF and as unprocessed as I can have it, foods such as fresh vegetables, fruit and meat. I also stay as far away from what I consider GF "franken" food as I can, that means that I don't eat cakes, pizzas, biscuits etc etc. This means that I also eat a diet naturally low in carbohydrates. Most of my carbohydrates come from fruit and vegetables. Here are a couple of examples of what I mean.

Octopus salad (not a crouton in sight)

Duck and Daikon wraps (duck wrapped in lettuce leaves)

As a celiac this diet works well for me and keeps the cost down of purchasing food because I don't buy those (what I consider) awful GF bread and cakes etc, etc. It's not that I look down on others for eating what I consider the GF "franken" foods it's just that there is no room in my life for them and guess what after a couple of years you don't even miss or want these foods. You can live without bread, cakes, pizza and biscuits, it's just that most people don't want to.

Keep Well x 

The Heat Exhaustion Blues.

So here in Texas it is hot. In fact it is very hot. We've been regularly hitting the 100+ temperatures for weeks now and I'm running in this heat. Well, I actually run earlier in the day when it is cooler (6 am)  which sounds like a good idea on the whole. The last couple of long runs that I have done on the weekends have been very tough, I usually take a day to recover from them but on Saturday (now to be known as infamous Saturday) I did my run as usual, it was supposed to be a 14 mile run but I cut it short at 12 miles because it was getting hot quite fast and I felt that there was no point in pushing too hard in the heat. So I finished the run and I felt OK, I  got home and started the long rehydration process. I had my shower and then got dressed and pottered around a bit, then I ate breakfast and pottered around a bit more and then I started getting a headache, then I started to feel sick, then I started being sick and then holy of holies I started with the diarrhea and then my head was pounding and I was crying with the pain, my whole body was shaking, my heart was racing and I was feeling really, really unwell.

I knew at this point I was in real trouble, so I walked around to the ER which is a two minute walk from my home and one CT scan, Lumbar Puncture, litre of IV fluids, pain relief and anti-emetic, I felt well enough to insist they let me go home five hours later. They only treated me for the headache and totally disregarded anything else but six days later I know I'm still dehydrated because at 96lb I'm 4lb under my "normal" weight, I still have a pounding headache that has me befuddled in my normal thinking, my ears are ringing fit to bust and I'm feeling as weak as a kitten. But I know that a few more days of rest and rehydration should have me up and running again.

The scariest thing about heat exhaustion is that when it was happening to me I did not have any physical warning signs, there was nothing during the run that had the alarm bells ringing, yes it was a slow run, much slower than I normally run but I was running with two other women and I was running at their pace (a slow pace) and not mine. I consider myself to be a fairly fit and strong person, maybe if I wasn't the consequences could have been dire.

Keep Well x

Mr Bigglesworth gets a shave.

I have a cat, I used to have several but now I just have one, Mr Bigglesworth.
He is an exotic Persian wih a very thick coat......

But with the temperatures soaring up into the 100s we decided that enough was enough and had him shaved on his last visit to the cattery. He is unbelievably a much happier cat now and I have the photo evidence to prove it.

Keep Well x