Dean did his first Half Marathon last weekend which I thought was pretty impressive! I have done a layout with pics of him crossing the finish line. Poor fella was absolutely knackered, but hammed it up for the finish.
Here is one of me. I had an interview with SBE as I am designer of the month this month there. (25% off selected products!) They asked for a layout of me and I hadn’t done one for a while, so here is my latest about me layout.
Both of these layouts were done with Funkified, now available at DigiscrapArt.com
On the health front, I had an appointment with a rheumatologist earlier this month. He doesn’t think it is lupus as he said I don’t have enough of the symptoms, however at this stage he thinks the most likely diagnosis is Mixed Connective Tissue Disease, which is another auto-immune disorder, not necessarily much better. (Lupus is a connective tissue disease) I have to have a bunch more blood tests done, many of which I haven’t had done before and see him again in 6wks so STILL no answers which I find very frustrating!
Mixed connective tissue disease from what i have read is an auto-immune disorder with a combination of symptoms from various connective tissue diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritus, scleroderma and polymoysitis. Apparently it can develop into one or more of the other connective tissue diseases later on in the progression of the disease.
Anyway, there are a huge number of blood tests I have to have done so hopefully I will have a more firm diagnosis in 6wks time. At least we are getting closer to finding out what is wrong. I have been a fair bit better the last few days, so I am waiting till I have another flare before I have the blood tests done.
Tags: layouts, lupus, mixed connective tissue disease, New Releases
Posted by clikchic on Dec 6, 2007 in
Family Scraps,
Gluten Free,
Rant Scraps Firstly, I have been a bad blogger… with the silly season approaching and busy weekends I have had several gluten reactions thanks to eating away from home, causing me to be extremely tired and subsequently zonked for most of my non working hours.
Dean bribed me into coming along to a golf resort (I wasn’t really interested in going and leaving the kids for the night) for the Ozgolf Champs by offering a Spa Treatment while he was out playing. He dutifully rang in advance to make sure they would able to cater for my Gluten Free dietry needs. Of course we got there and there was NOTHING for me to eat on the menu except for salad. I have never been one to eat salad and certainly not for an entire weekend! Had we known we would have brought meals for myself and lugged along our microwave to heat them up if need be.
So rather than starve on lettuce (why is it that people consider this a acceptable single menu choice for gluten free diets?) I asked them to make me steak and salad. Of course, steak was cooked on a likely to be contaminated grill, and later I asked for a steak sandwich without the bread and sauce and cooked in a seperate pan to prevent contamination. Well I reacted even more severly to that meal. Of course at night there was VERY slim pickings from the menu and I opted for the closest to gluten free I could find which was lamb roast and vegies. I strongly suspected that they were however far from gluten free.
In any case, I had a strong gluten reaction to the weekend and was sick with diarrea, extreme tiredness & lethargy and also fevers, bloating etc etc.
Then this past weekend, I had JUST gotten over the golf weekend, we head off to Sea World Nara for a 5 day holiday, which was full on but loads of fun by the way - photos when I get a chance. We got a kitchenette so I could cook my own meals, and planned on eating some at quality restaurants there. That was a great idea, but I think I will trust the restaurants less and bring more of my own food next time. We went to a LOVELY Italian restuarant/cafe that went out of their way to be helpful cooking me gluten free meals on two occasions, but I think knowledge of the strictness of a gluten free diet is not as good as one would hope even in quality establishments. I suspect that either cross contamination or lack of knowledge of premade stock or sauces ingredients may have caused a problem. In any case, I was ‘fortunate’ enough to suffer another gluten free reaction, again lasting for more than a week, diarreah, fevers, bloating and extreme tiredness. I was falling asleep in our room after our busy days at 7pm.. even before the kids!
As much as I was in denial, thanks to only minor reactions if any when I first went gluten free, I am discovering that as time goes on my reactions are becoming more intense and lasting longer, and that there are very few establishments in the hospitality industry which have sufficient knowledge to cater successfully for a gluten free diet. I will do just fine for weeks eating my self prepared food, or prepackaged food labelled as gluten free, but when I go out with friends for a meal, eat away from home or come along to a work ‘do’ where food cooked by others is involved, I inevitably 95% of the time end up with a gluten reaction.
I find myself with a dilema, I can either come along and eat nothing, bring my own food which frequently is not allowed, take a risk that they will know what they are doing, or just avoid food prepared by others altogether..which is to me a totally unsatisfactory lifestyle choice.
In a couple of weeks we have our work Christmas Party. The owner of the restaurant has assured me he will look after me and make sure he has gluten free bread for me etc. What should normally be something to look forward to is giving me a feeling of dread. What if the knowledge isn’t quite there, and I end up with yet ANOTHER gluten reaction. That will leave me feeling crook over Christmas which is something I have no desire to endure. I feel stressed every time there is a function or a reason to eat out with friends etc. I hate to miss out, but I also hate being sick. I find myself no longer looking forward to social occasions, and sick of feeling like a social leper.
I am having another winge, but I am sick of being labelled as a fussy eater, because I am SO not, I love food, I love a large variety of food, my diet is not a choice and has nothing to do with fussyness. I have had a workmate say to me I should be used to looking at other people eat food I cannot have (while I sit there hungry and eating nothing) by now. I don’t think I will ever get used to it.
Anyway, I just intended to post a link to this blog post by Gluten Free Girl because it really spoke to me, but once I started just kept going! LOL Anyway, a great read this article, it really speaks to me, have a read. 
Posted by clikchic on Apr 24, 2007 in
General Scraps,
Rant Scraps Well I have had the diagnosis of Coeliac’s getting onto about 8wks now I think.
After starting the Gluten Free diet, which I must say is rather trying!, I had some dramatic improvement within a few days.. and was starting to feel gradually better and better. It was such a relief to actually have a bit more energy to do things again.. I couldn’t wait to feel entirely normal again!
I still have sooo much to learn about what I can and can’t eat, but I have been making plenty of my own bread in the breadmaker. My favourite so far is my fruit loaf. It is still nowhere as good as the Wheat variety but it taste’s pretty close as long as I make sure it is hot the entire way through when I toast it. So far the home made bread is not that nice when it has not been heated. Having said that it is a darn sight better than the bread I have bought to date!
For someone who likes to go with the flow, I am also finding it rather trying having to ask things to be cooked seperately or with gluten free ingredients. I am soo over having to ask for my meat to be cooked on foil, asking restaurants if they can cook my meal seperately and without sauces and having to stand there and watch everyone eat treats at Birthday Morning Tea’s or other special occasions or Pizza at staff training while I sit there and munch on my corn crackers with cheese and tomato. Even when they especially get me gluten free dip and rice crackers, I can only have one dip before everyone has dipped in the wheat crackers and left crumbs in it. It is so sweet of them to think of me, I haven’t the heart to tell them that they probably needn’t have bothered unless they ONLY buy gluten free dipping crackers.
I am over people rolling their eyes and gritting their teeth.. you know they think I am being overly paranoid and over the top. Even those close to me do it.. What can you do? Only I know how totally horrible I had been feeling and how I never want to feel that way again. People don’t understand how serious the disease is and how real it is that the effect of just a teeny piece of gluten can cause problems..it is not just the immediate short term effects it also poses major long term health risks such as osteoperosis and cancer. Not to mention immediate health issues such as high cholesterol, debilitating anemia, aching bones, joints and stiffness, bloating, insomnia, restless legs syndrome and the list goes on.
Food simply does not hold the same interest it did before…it has become rather boring. That may change as I learn more.. but for now.. it remains boring. Thank goodness I can still have some chocolate or I would have lost it by now! Thank you Cadbury for GF Fruit and Nut!
Life as a Coeliac certainly isn’t easy. Having said all that.. if it means I will be healthy, it will be worth it. The trouble is..the past two weeks or so I have gone backwards again. I cannot pinpoint why. I believe I may have had some cross contamination issues over easter, and it is possible that the easter eggs I ate that I thought were gluten free in fact weren’t. I have been very vigilant since so SURELY I should be feeling better by now.
Instead I feel almost as bad as I did just before I was diagnosed.. which was at a point where I was that tired I was constantly at the brink of tears.. and only getting to mid morning before struggling to stay awake.. aching joints, sore and stiff spine… I am not QUITE that bad now, but pretty darn close. It is sooo frustrating! I am tring so hard to eat the way I need to.. and I still feel sick.
On the bright side..I have discovered someone I know has Coeliac’s. The mother of Jasmine’s best friends. (twins) She has known about hers for 2yrs so is a fair way ahead of what I am. She has gotten to the point where she feels normal again and has also been off the rails. It will be good to be able to talk to someone locally who knows the places to source gluten free food etc.. and be able to talk to her about it in general.
She tells me it is extremely important the remain vigilant for the first 6mths while I am healing so that I can feel healthy again. I guess I don’t have as far backwards to go if I eat gluten. Something I am learning at this very moment!
I just can’t wait till I am healed so that I can feel like I can fully participate in life again. I am soo sick of being an observer, not having the energy to join in. Sick of looking at mess but not feeling like I have the energy to do anything about it. Sick of feeling too tired to play with the kids! I guess it is lucky I have a desk job or we would be in real trouble!
Anyway.. while I am still tired and sore, I am feeling less bloated today again so fingers crossed I am once again on the mend! I am looking forward to feeling like I am a 30-something year old instead of 65! I am not quite ready to retire just yet!
Ok, yes a totally self indulgent rant… I am impressed you made it this far..guess I just needed to get it out. Thanks for listening.
Posted by clikchic on Aug 1, 2006 in
Digi Scraps,
Family Scraps,
Rant Scraps WOW, I can’t believe it has been a month since my last post..
For those of you who we haven’t told yet, we have decided not to move to the coast after all. As much as we would love to live up there, we came to the conclusion that we just couldn’t afford to make the move and it turned out to be a little too risky for us financially.
It took a lot to swing me over to the idea and when I finally came round I was really looking forward to it, so now it will take some time to swing my thinking back round to the idea of staying here. At least Jasmine is still enrolled at her school and our plans in that regard can go back to what they were originally. All those things I was going to miss such as our friends here, doctors, hairdresser etc etc, at least I get to keep those now! LOL
One thing we do need to do now is reassess our plans for the future. Our business gets plenty of work, if anything we get too much, but the trouble is we just can’t seem to find staff who actually want to work, they don’t even have to be qualified, but all we ever seem to get is the dregs who can’t even turn up on their first day even if they do decide to accept the job. Then when we finally find someone, Dean spends a lot of time training them, effecting our output and then the up and leave a few months later. Apprenticeships apparently are not an attractive option when you can get paid plenty to do nothing at home.
The way the business is structured at the moment we can’t run it effectively without several staff, and since we can’t find them, we need to restructure somehow, so over the next 6mths we are going to have to work on a plan on which direction we are going to go.
The most attractive option to us is for Dean to work from home on his own so we no longer have to worry about rent etc. We are throwing lots of ideas around at the moment, trying to work out which direction we should go, we may even sell the house and rent for a while investing our equity to help us catch up a bit.
One thing is certain and that is I am almost definately going to have to return to work next year. Still working on a plan in that regard as well, but we are going to put Kyan in Daycare two days a week soon to get him used to going to daycare and I am going to use that time to work on CD to get it happening and who knows, perhaps I can grow it enough to make it possible for me to work from home. If not, no harm done, CD will stick around and I will return to work. We just can’t afford not to have that second income anymore and once Jaz starts school it will actually be worthwhile for me to work. It is pretty pathetic that the cost of daycare makes it not worth the effort of working if you have more than one child not at school. It is also terrible that in today’s day and age it is almost impossible for lower income earners to live on a single income. Oh well that one rant for the day! LOL
With all the upheaval at our house it has left us both feeling a bit down. We have some major decisions to make and all of them feel like a compromise. At the start of this year I told myself that 2006 would be a good year after all the difficult years we have put behind us in regards to all our losses and infertility and other struggles, but we keep struggling this year and there are times I wonder what I did in a past life to deserve all of this.
To top it all off I find out that some pretty nasty things have been said about me around the web. I try really hard to be a good person, I try my best to be good to people and treat them right, but sometimes no matter what you do, it still gets taken the wrong way. I am busy working away on my site, head down and bum up and have a busy household with a toddler who is good at climbing and getting into mischief. While the world goes on around me as I have my head down I find I have less and less time to keep in contact to people and apparently that makes me two faced???
To all those wonderful wonderful people out there who know me better, thank you for being so patient with me, I really do mean well, but I find myself swamped and overwelmed with responsibility every single day and that means I do let things slide… something I HATE doing.. but that is my life at the moment and for the moment can’t see an immediate end to that. I need to try and help make ends meet and I am doing that the best way I know how in our present circumstances.
I was moved to tears this morning when a very wonderful friend who I run into at Jasmine’s swimming lessons sometimes (you know who you are!) reached out and said she and her husband had some ideas about our business and that she wanted us to know that they were in our corner and would help us out if they could. She invited us to come over and chat about it as you never know when a fresh point of view will help which is so true! It means so much to know we have such wonderful friends who care and are willing to help us out.
The kids are doing well. Jaz is still loving her swimming lessons and is relieved we are not moving to the coast. I asked her if she wanted to stay home and go to school with her Pre-prep friends and she said yes, and I explained we would be staying and she promptly said we can’t have a pool because I want to stay here and went off to play. ROFL Kids are so funny sometimes.
Her sticker chart for packing up is working reasonably well tho she often will only pack up if you help her. We will keep at it, we have a few little gifts ready for her when she reaches 10 again, this will be her third lot of 10 when she does. Thanks to Aunty Peta and Oma for sending up some stickers for her chart. She was excited to get some mail again.. everytime there is a break in mail she tells me her sad face didn’t work. LOL
Kyan is STILL teething. He will have the odd night where he sleeps through but more often than not he is still waking at night from it. His fourth molar is giving him lots of trouble. It is absolutely huge at the moment and looks like it is full size but just not cutting through. It looks as big as the other one so he has a HUGE lump on his gum where you can see the tooth underneath.. I wish it would hurry up and cut through properly for the poor little man! I may get the doc to look at it next time if it isn’t through by the time I see her next as it looks so red and sore.
He is leaping ahead developmentally learning new words every day, some words he says are Mummy, Daddy, Opa, Oma, Hop up, Whats dat, bibi (bickie), ba (bath), boo (book), bush (brush), and there are heaps more I can’t think of right now. He said his first 3 word sentance a couple of weeks ago, when he pointed at a book, and said, What dat boo? (Whats that book?). He is constantly asking the name of things and lately has been picking out dvd’s from the cupboard and bringing them over to us to put on. He LOVES the wiggles and anything where there is dancing. Today he was copying the arm movements the kids were practising at Jasmine’s swimming lessons, very cute! LOL
He is still a mega mischief, climbing on chairs and the table and on top of the toilet and goodness knows where else as well as pinching Jasmine’s felt pens and sneaking of and drawing on walls, doors, table you name it.
On a side note…It seems also by pure co-incidence that our Bonnie Babes Charity kit was launched the exact same day as a kit for SANDS on another website. A bit of bad luck they were launched the same day! How would you be, that a kit that was organised months in advance, and a charity voted on by the team of designers out of about 5 other charities as the charity to do the kit for, just happened to be a similar charity and launched the same day as another Mega Kit. I hate that, that has happened but what can you do?
Anyway, the kit is still available and a HUGE bargain, there is so much in it and it has such pretty and versatile colours. If you haven’t already got it, go check it out. If you are on dailup you may prefer to take advantage of the cd burning service rather than downloading. Why not grab some other kits while you are at it! 
Anyway, I have poured my heart out in this post and I feel better for doing it, I wonder when that good year will happen? I think I will go crazy if it isn’t next year! Why is it that some people just seem to come up smelling like roses no matter what they do, good luck just seems to follow them around, whereas others keep slogging hard at it and never seem to catch a break.. maybe that past life theory has some merit??? LOL
Posted by clikchic on Apr 9, 2006 in
General Scraps,
Rant Scraps Continuously play that horrible horrible ad on tv of the car accident where the baby gets hit by a car. I HATE that ad with a passion. The first time I saw it I felt physically ill. Now whenever it comes on we try to change the channel so we don’t have to watch it. If I am not near the remote I cover my hears and shut my eyes till it is over.
I quite honestly find that ad traumatic to watch.. is there REALLY a need to show all the terror, blood and gore of such a horrifying accident in such graphic detail?? I think not. I am sorry but I think in this case their shock tactics have gone WAY to far. I wish they would get rid of it. It has been playing for a while now and I have soooo had enough of it.
Ok, there is my rant for the day.. I really must ring the stations that show it and complain..(just another thing to add to my list of things I have to do!) Ok, that is my rant for the day!
