Kool and the Gang in Vegas

I went to Vegas for a break from responsibility and to hang out with my sister who was there for the Western Veterinarian Conference. They put on a free concert for the conference each year on the Tuesday night and this year it was Kool and the Gang! Holy crap, was I ever excited!!

The venue was a conference ball room in the Mandalay Bay and we were pretty much right in the front row on the dance floor. I had no idea what to expect because the opening "act" was a pretty bad Tom Jones impersonator. He was all skeezy and lame with his chest hair sticking out and sang "What's New, Pussy Cat" like 4 times. Some people thought he was actually the one and only (they announced him that way several times) but there is just no freakin' way that he was truly opening for Kool and the Gang for a lame-o pre-concert dance contest. We joked that we should have thrown our panties at him but then almost barfed in our mouths at that thought. I decided he was more than likely the one and only "Thom Jones" from Alabama or something.

Once that awkward and strange opener was done they introduced the headliner. I had no idea what to expect as we all know that Kool and the Gang was really popular well over 30 years ago. The bulk of the group were the originals with a couple of young(er) pups in there mostly for lead vocals. They were high energy for the whole show and it was actually quite impressive considering a few of them MUST be at LEAST 60+ years old. The horn line was a trombone, trumpet and alto sax - all original players! They did all their great stuff (Celebration, Jungle Boogie, Too Hot, Ladies Night, Hollywood Swinging, etc.) as well as some James Brown, Michael Jackson and other classics. I was dancing the whole show and had a hard time taking video for too long because I didn't want to stand still to record!! Best show I've seen in a LONG time :-) Here's a 2:22 video of Jungle Boogie complete with trumpet solo.

Somebody feed me something safe: Vegas Style

I settled in to the hotel around lunch time today and went on a mission for food. Celiac safe food that is relatively healthy and easy for me to dose for insulin. I was starting to get hungry, not in a good way and needed something close by. Not an easy task, as it turns out. I went to the buffet at the Excalibur and asked the hostess about food safety for Celiacs. She had never heard this word before and suggested I speak to the "chef". He walked me through the buffet pointing out things that were "safe" (I know buffets are dangerous areas for cross contamination but I was focusing on ingredients for this expedition). He pointed out several things but some items he declared "safe" had either soy sauce or worchestershire or other sauce types in them. The more I spoke with him the less safe I felt. He even suggested I go to a restaurant as they would be better at making me a safe meal. So I took his advice and got the H outta there.

Fast food is out of the question as it would likely be more dangerous than a buffet. There was a Marble Slab BUT I didn't want to have to take a shwack of insulin and that really isn't a meal anyway. I ended up at Starbucks with a soy latte feeling quite sorry for myself and wondering what I was going to do for food over the next 4 days. I decided that the Italian restuarant nearby was unlikely to have a hot meal for me but they MUST have safe salad.

Buca di Beppo has a lovely Apple Gargonzola salad that is apparently safe. I had a small for $15 but it really could have fed 3 people (at least) for their entire meal. When I was done the bowl was still mostly full. I sat at the bar and the bartender happens to also be a Billy Idol impersonator from Seattle now living in Vegas to try and get his show sold here. Nice guy. Good salad. Crisis averted.

Feral Children

The conversations I have had with my husband in recent days have been quite comical. I have felt the need to specifically request for him to do certain things while I am away. It isn’t that I think he can’t handle it – I know he can – but we parent a bit differently and I don’t want our kids to feel like something in missing in my absence.

Some requests I have made this week:

“Please feed the cats”. It sounds like a no brainer but my husband hates them more than I do and I wouldn’t be surprised if one or more were no longer with us when I return.

“Please put Em’s hair in a high pony”. I don’t want to come home to a girl that has a permanent kink in her neck from craning to see out from under her hair.

“I don’t care what this place looks like from now until 11 on Saturday night but it would really be best for everyone if when I get home the kitchen is clean, laundry is done and the toys are put away”. Enough said.

“Encourage the babies to use words when they want something. I really don’t want to return to home full of children that grunt, groan, whine and cry instead of using language to communicate”.

“Eat all of the gluten in the house. Eat as many gluten filled meals as you can think of and just get it out of our house”. I am actually pretty tired of cleaning the kitchen not just 3 times a day but sometimes 2 additional times so that I can have a safe meal.

Am I going to come home to a house full of feral children? Will they be running around in dirty diaper shirts, unwashed faces, full diapers, no capability to use words to communicate with jam covered hair and sticky fingers?? Probably not. A few non-essential things may get missed while I am away but overall they will have a great time with their dad. Probably a better time than with me as the rules will be relaxed and he is more brave in taking them out to do things. He did say he might just cut open a bag of cheerios and put it on the floor for them to graze off of. And every time I reminded him to do something his response was one word: Feral.

Ready, Set, Go?

I'm getting prepared for a trip to Vegas that I have been looking forward to for months. My life has changed so much since I was there 9 years ago. I am now married and have 3 kids. I also now have Type 1 Diabetes and Celiac Disease. This trip will be a little different than the last one!

I do plan to have a GREAT time with my sister. While I may be a little more annoying to wait staff in restaurants and I won't be drinking nearly as much as I did on my last trip, I do plan to have heaps of fun. I won't be partaking in yard long margaritas but I will carefully be having a few (dozen?) of my new drink of choice: vodka-soda with a twist of lime. Delicious!

Since I have 3 small children and we have all been sick this week I have spent most of my time staying on top of the never ending pile of laundry in our house so that I actually have something clean to take with me. But who am I kidding? I plan on shopping for new stuff the day I get there so I may pack light anyway.

So, my dilemma today has been to decide how on earth I am going to pack all of my "accessories" in a small enough "purse" so that night club staff won't think I am smuggling in a small child. My diabetic friends know what I talking about. I lined up all of the things I thought were important enough to pack in my purse and I came up with this:

• wallet
• camera
• cell phone
• lipstick and compact
• Lactaid
• Insulin pen and needles
• Blood glucose meter, test strips and lancet
• Glucose tabs

I decided this was all a little too much to be hauling around for several hours in the evenings. So I took a deep breath and made some adjustments. I clearly HAVE to take my testing supplies, insulin and glucose tabs. I also need ID, money and health info for emergencies. I decided the camera could stay behind (no one needs evidence of their time in Vegas anyway), and I could just cull my wallet for the necessities. The Lactaid isn't essential either as I can avoid dairy but it is small so I thought I could squeeze 2 in there. My lipstick and compact were also "optional" but I'd rather have them than not. I can't decide on the cell phone and may need to get creative with that one. 

I managed to get almost all of it in this little bag!

I couldn't fit the glucose tabs so I put some single tabs (4X4g) in one of the small pockets. I figure I will always be within 10 feet of a bar and can get some sprite or juice if necessary so I have enough for an emergent situation until I can get someone to get me some juice/pop. The cell phone won't fit so I may just leave it behind. If I think about actually needing my phone to call 911 I wouldn't be in any state to call for myself anyway if paramedics became necessary. Plus, every person within 100 feet of me will have a cell phone if I really need one.

Tomorrow I plan to call to enquire about the Tournament of Kings menu at the Excalibur. It is extremely unlikely that their dessert is gluten free but I'm hoping that the soup, cornish hen and potatoes are. If not, we will have to eat somewhere else and then see the Thunder From Down Under instead! HAHA!

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

The good news is I have a confirmed diagnosis of Celiac Disease. The bad news? I now have to go gluten free. And the ugly is that I have an endoscopy today. That was unpleasant.

I will say that they fire you through those procedures at the hospital like an assembly line. That GI clinic is like a well oiled machine; a revolving door of patients getting tubes put up or down various body cavities. I was "fortunate" enough to have mine down my throat today and not up somewhere else, if you know what I mean. There was a certain Calgary Stampede celebrity in there this morning too but I won't say who on here for privacy reasons. If you really want to know you will need to send me a gluten free offering for that kind of information.

The nurse did a great job getting a vein the first try (my veins are hard to get for some reason) and I was fully informed and gave consent to the specifics of this procedure. Everyone was very professional and caring and I did not feel like just another patient. They were kind and treated me with respect, even when at my most vulnerable.

Endoscopy is done to take a look at the small intestine and I now have 5 beautiful pictures of mine to keep forever (Yay). The gag reflex is pretty strong and I would say mine is even stronger than most. I gag when I have to touch raw meat or change the garbage. The procedure itself is fast (like 3-4 minutes) and from the time I was wheeled in to speak to the doctor and was wheeled out again it was maybe 20 minutes. Drive through endoscopy. Here's how this went today:

Nurse "Do you want to be sedated?"
Me "Yes, please, but please don't kill me."
Nurse *laughs* "Oh, I wouldn't do that." She places a mouth piece over my mouth to keep my teeth and mouth open and injects sedatives into my heplock. "It works really fast so close your eyes."
Me - I try to ask if I will throw up from the sedative but my mouth is inoperable and my world is spinning, everything goes black but I am still semi-conscious and somewhat aware of what is going on. Gag, gag, gag, gag. I am actually trying to swat away anything that is anywhere near my face. My face is wet and they are trying to wipe it while I swat at them and this tube is down my throat. I am thankful the procedure is done when you are on your side and I can now understand why.
Nurse (as she is trying to hold my arms down so the doctor can finish) "Just try to breath. You are ok. We're almost done." And the scope is out.
Me *crying*
Nurse "Are you ok? It's ok, hon. It's all over now."
Me *black out*

The sedatives they used today were Fentanyl and Versed. I felt like Will Ferrell in Old School when he nailed himself with a tranquilizer dart. I haven't been quite myself for the rest of the day.

*foul language warning*

(*Rant warning* Versed is used in early labour sometimes but I know that they give Fentanyl to some mothers later in labour and I am astounded that anyone thinks this is a good idea! You're not allowed to do much of anything for 24 hours after that stuff but new moms need to figure out how to take care of a new little person while all dizzy and disoriented?? Plus, if I feel this way, imagine how a newborn baby must feel after they get a shot of that via their mom *end rant*).

Manic Sunday?

Today started out pretty laid back, really. We had a crazy week and I am so incredibly thankful that Clint was able to take Thursday and Friday off so that I had very little stress getting to various activities and appointments. However, the kids decided that Sunday evening was the time they were going to completely lose their minds and make mummy crazy. I was counting down the minutes until we could put them in bed and when it was late enough I did not waste one single moment getting them tucked in.

I love our children but oh my were they nuts tonight. We have this bin for blocks that fits perfectly over a child's head down to their shoulders. That was the coveted toy this evening and sparked many crying and screaming fits. Emily would have it over her head and run around the play room with it, falling over this way and that; Colin would pick it up off of her head while standing on the couch and throw it across the room; Nathan would pick it up and put it over his head, spin around, fall down and wouldn't give it back to Emily who would be expressing her irritation with her brothers VERY vocally. Add to that business that Colin took the push-popper (noisy toy) and ran around the room, running into whatever he came across, including both siblings. Nathan took a blanket and pretended to be Super Nathan, jumping from the couch multiple times and spinning around knocking his brother and sister over. Have you ever seen Kindergarten Cop?? That scene where the kids are all running around like feral animals?? And Arnie goes all Terminator on them? I am quite proud of myself that I didn't lose it but I was so close to curling up in the fetal position and just rocking myself quietly until it was 7:30.

I'm not sure what prompted this little spurt of crazy but I sure hope that we all have a good sleep tonight and awake calm and patient (me) tomorrow. I'm going to go have a drink now ;-)

Lactose and Carbohydrates and Gluten, Oh My!!

When I was about 15 I started having some, ahem, digestive problems. My super intelligent older sister had had similar symptoms and had started taking lactase (brand name Lactaid) with any dairy and found that helped relieve most, if not all, of her symptoms. I followed her advice and avoided dairy for a few days and when I tried it again, this time with the magical Lactaid, voila! No symptoms. It was like I was given my life back. I will say that it was a few years before I really had it under control as I didn't always know what was in my food (I was 15 and living at home) nor did I really think too much about it. My mom just couldn't believe that this was my problem and she even tried to kill me once with a quiche. After that episode I think she got the point. I never had the lactose intolerance tests done as this seemed to so obviously be my problem.

Then this year I was hit with this Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) crisis. An autoimmune disease. Autoimmune means that, for whatever reason, the body is attacking healthy cells. In T1D the body is attacking the cells that make insulin. No one knows for sure why it happens but they do know there is some genetic link. But what makes that genetic marker "turn on" and present as diabetes?? One of the theories is that a viral infection of some kind is the trigger. Apparently in schools where there are chicken pox outbreaks the community sees an increase in the number of T1D diagnoses several months later. An interesting theory but definitely difficult to prove. Another theory is that a stressful event is the trigger. I would say that being pregnant with twins and then having 2 babies and a toddler has been a stressful event. Days and months on end of stressful events. I think it is a little coincidental in my case that as soon as I started to feel normal again and had things under control that was when I started showing diabetic symptoms. Why is it important to know why? Well, if we can figure out why it happens then maybe we can prevent it in others. I would love to know how to prevent this from happening to my own children as I'm sure that at least one of them is also a "lucky recipient" of this oh so fantastic gene.

If you are diagnosed with T1D where I live the endocrinologist sends you for blood work to screen for Celiac Disease. Celiac Disease is another autoimmune disease that damages the small intestine. They do blood work that tests for certain antibodies and if those antibodies show up in the blood work it is an almost certain diagnosis of Celiac Disease. If you are diagnosed with CD you must never eat gluten. Ever. The list includes anything made with wheat, rye or barley (as well as others). Have you ever looked at the ingredients of the food in your cupboard? If you were to gut your pantry of gluten you'd probably have a very empty pantry afterward.

So why am I talking about Celiac Disease now? It turns out that in my antibody screen my levels were 10 times what a healthy person should have (normal is less that 20 and I was greater than 200). I will have to have an endoscope done to look at my small intestine and take some samples for testing. They shove a tube down your throat and look at your small intestine with a camera and then take teeny, tiny tweezers and collect samples. They better knock me out for this one. At this point I have been advised to continue eating gluten until the tests can be run to verify the diagnosis. I'm trying to enjoy my favorite snacks/meals now as I will almost certainly need to make changes in the very near future. This actually terrifies me. What kind of damage am I doing to myself while I continue to eat gluten?? I am actually looking forward to going gluten-free, as hard as it will be, because I am hopeful that I will just feel better. At least I will be able to manage this little lovely with diet. Insulin therapy is enough, thank you very much.

With all that is going on I am constantly watching my kids for signs and symptoms of both T1D and CD. I am more than a little paranoid and have checked the blood sugar levels of 2 of my 3 kids when I thought they were acting weird (both were normal). My husband outed me at our last diabetes appointment with my nurse and told her I even tested one of our cats (also normal). I have since tested the other cat too (normal). So now I have to consider doing blood work on my kids to see if they have Celiac Disease too. I don't present with "classical" symptoms and it could very easily go unnoticed in my kids. It is amazing to look at the looooong list of symptoms for Celiac disease, many of them NOT digestive symptoms. Depression. Lethargy. Migraines. Infertility. Miscarriage. Irritability (I bet my husband is looking forward to me going gluten-free to see if that helps!). From the reading I've been doing it appears that as many as 97% of people with Celiac Disease are undiagnosed. I guess that means I am in the lucky 3% that knows and can actually do something about it.

FYI, November is Diabetes Awareness month. Please visit http://www.diabetes.ca/awareness/ and donate today :-)