I have continued to heal well from my gallbladder surgery. My surgeon told me that my gallbladder probably wasn’t working properly before, which I think is true. I’ve been feeling real good since surgery, and I can eat everything I ate before, with less bloating and discomfort. Thank you Lord.

My stitches are healing well, and I’m starting to do more and more of my normal routines. I’m still not carrying anything heavy, like laundry, but I am doing other things. But I also rest when I need too. The other day I did a major cabinet cleaning in the kitchen and afterward I was tired so I took a nap. So I know not to push myself too hard, and rest when I need to.

My gallbladder is not the only health issue in our family. We are thinking that Sarah’s rash on her hands is a gluten intolerance/allergy. We had a celiac blood test done, and that came back in the normal range. But I’m still learning what that test really means, and what being in the normal ‘range’ means.

Sarah and I both deal with IBS, and people have been telling me for years I should go gluten free because of it. But honestly, I just couldn’t have cared. I can control my IBS with enough fiber, so it really wasn’t an issue to me. But my daughter, that is another story. When we realized it could be gluten, Paul said we would all go gluten free. It does make it much easier. So we’ll see if my IBS symptoms were caused by gluten, and if it’s the cause of Sarah’s rash.

Going gluten free is not an ‘easy’ diet or quick fix, believe me. If you really started studying how much they use wheat/gluten as a filler in things, it would shock you. I’m not talking about just food, but they use it in lotions, shampoos, soaps, and so much more. But I will say here and now, I do not believe that everyone should be on a gluten free diet. I do not think this is some health kick that people should try ‘just because’. I think there are some very good nutrients in healthy wheat, and if it wasn’t for Sarah’s issue,we probably wouldn’t even be trying this.

That said, if I find it does help with my IBS (and some symptoms that Paul has been showing), Paul and I might stay GF even when Sarah isn’t around (like when we are out by ourselves). I am truly thankful that Sarah does not have celiac disease and that this isn’t a life and death situation for her. I know people who have celiac disease, a dear friend of mine does, and I know how bad that can be. Like I said, I’m blessed that its not what Sarah has. (But this dear friend is also a huge help with our changeover, thankfully.)

Sarah and I have decided that the first thing we will be learning to do is bake GF breads and goodies. To us, if we have that, the changeover won’t seem like a huge deprivation. I have been reading, getting books, getting recipes from friends and continuing to learn what it takes to bake gluten free. We know there will be a lot of trial and error and a lot of learning, but that’s ok. It’s something we need to do to help with the transition.

As Paul, Sarah and I have talked about this, the biggest thing that happens with GF living is you loose convenience, and honestly for us that is huge. It’s not that we can’t have fries anymore, we just can’t pull a bag out of the freezer and pop them in the oven, things like that. It’s not that we can’t have most of the things we like to eat, we just have to be more scheduled with it, and not just fly by the seat of our pants with food. No more guessing at 4 in the afternoon what I’m making for dinner. I have to start to make menus again, and start filling my freezer with meals that I can pull out and cook quickly. It just takes more fore-thought, and that’s not all bad. It use to be how we were, then life starts moving faster, and convenience in the kitchen becomes the norm. It’s not a horrible thing to have to change, but it is a change none-the-less.

We have decided to take the change fast yet slow. I did clean out our cabinets and gave away pastas, box pasta mixes, canned cream soups etc… (that was the big kitchen clean I talked about). And we are stocked with GF flours, breads and cereals. Yes, we are buying some things GF, again it makes the transition so much easier. We consider this weeek being the week we started GF, though we are still eating it some times. Sarah is in an Easter play all week, and they have to be there so early before the play, that the church feds them dinner. Obviously those dinners are not gluten free. Plus we are having Easter dinner with friends this Sunday, and we are not putting a burden on them, this close to the meal, to try and go gluten free. But during the day, and as much as we can, we eat gluten free.

Besides cleaning out our cabinet, we got a new toaster, that will only be used for GF bread, some more containers for the different GF flours we get and I set up a gluten area for Paulie. We are letting Paulie transition a lot slower than the rest of us. He likes toast a lot, so we set up our old ‘glutened’ toaster on it’s own little table in the kitchen with butter that just he uses. Then, as we get better and better at making GF breads, we’ll slowly change that for him too.

We do hope that this helps Sarah’s rash. Honestly, I am going to be quite bummed if in a couple of months, after doing this changeover, it doesn’t help. But Sarah did go GF for 3 days a few weeks ago, and she said her stomach felt better while she was off of it. So I’m pretty sure her IBS symptoms are caused by gluten. If that is the case, then she’ll stay GF, I’m sure. At least she’ll be learning young how to cook, bake and live GF. It will make it easier when she has a family. Like I said, Paul and I will see how we feel on how strict of a GF life we live.

So there is my health update, and honestly this will probably be the last one for a while. I am quite tired of talking about my health. It just seems to be the focus so much lately, and I’m tired of that focus. I thank the Lord for His healing touch with my surgery and everything since then. I pray He continues to be with us and guides us on this new journey we are about to go on. And I pray healing for the rest of the health issues in our family. But as far as this blog, I think health topics will take a break. I’ll find some new things to write and tell you about, like the new kitchen gadget my hubby bought me the other day. But that’s for another post.

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