Important morning lessons for busy mums and puppy owners.

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-When you wake up in the morning, RUN with the puppy to take him outside, don’t wait. Don’t wait even a little, unless you want a puddle the size of a small lake in your bed.

-White bathroom rugs look almost exactly like puppy pads. And they are much squishier and nicer to use then puppy pads. Apparently.

-When puppies whine while you are doing something, don’t tell them off, chances are they are not being obnoxious and asking you to play, but perhaps they need an urgent poo….. if you don’t listen (and act), this may happen in your bedroom.

-When you are done cleaning up the rug, the bed, the kids cereal and so on, be careful with your blusher brush, it does NOT go in the eye, but on the cheeks.

-The bowl of white stuff next to the coffee is sugar. You use it. Lots of it. Don’t forget to put it and then take a big swig of coffee just before getting your shoes on, it will give you a rather bitter start to the day.

Have a great morning everyone! 🙂

Linda

My Celiac Awareness Post

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May is for Celiac Awareness.

In the UK Celiac is spelled Coeliac, same in Australia and New Zealand. In the UK they have Celiac Awareness week, rather then the full month they do in the US. Its in May, so for me, May is for Celiac.

Celiac Awareness is not really needed on a blog like mine, because to me, Celiac Awareness is about reaching those who are NOT here on this blog. Those mums endlessly walking their screaming (undiagnosed children), those dads who scratch their elbows with a knife because their (undiagnosed) DH is itching so bad. The women who have been trying for years to become pregnant. Those who struggle daily with stomach issues and put it down to IBS or stress (yeah… could be undiagnosed celiac).

Of course, not all people with stress tummy or an itch or whathave you have undiagnosed Celiac disease. But the numbers speak for themselves, in Europe something like 1 in 100 (slightly less or more in some countries) have Celiac, in The US numbers used to be 1 in 133, thats now thought to be incorrect and latest figures show similar to European figures. And how many are diagnosed? Hardly any. Estimates say that somewhere around 97% of Celiacs in the US today could be undiagnosed. In Europe they talk about numbers around 80% (varies from country to country).

So that pretty much means most of us know at least 1 undiagnosed Celiac. Maybe they have classic and visible symptoms, or maybe they are walking around with nothing other then slight anaemia or feeling a bit depressed. Thats the thing with Celiac. You can have diarrhoea or be constipated, you can gain weight or loose weight, you can have aching bones or depression. There are 300 symptoms to date associated with Celiac disease, and a sufferer can suffer only one symptom, or 50!

The people who need to know all this are not Celiacs, the people that need to know all this are people who may never have heard of Celiac!

Then the other part of Celiac awareness, the one that explains to the world that Celiac is an autoimmune disease, not a fad. Not an allergy.  The one that explains what gluten actually is. A protein, found in wheat, rye and barley and all products thereof. The one that talks about cross contamination, and explains that one breadcrumb is enough to hurt someone with Celiac disease. The one that explains that although we may not suffer anaphylaxis, there is long term damage to our systems every time we are exposed to gluten, and a Celiac who keeps being exposed to gluten can suffer other life threatening diseases such as cancer.

Eating just a little bit of gluten, is not an option. Some may not react to ‘just a little’, but the long term damage on the inside still occurs.

I am asking you all a favour today. Help us spread this awareness. Help us – the Celiac community – to spread this awareness as far as we can. Please share this post, or one of the many other Celiac awareness articles out there. If you see it on twitter or Facebook, like it, tweet it, share it. Help take the awareness further.

I also have a challenge for the bloggers out there, the non gluten free bloggers. Please, if you can find the time, write a post about Celiac for Celiac Awareness Month. YOU can reach exactly the person who needs to read it. I already gave this challenge to my small expat bloggers Europe group, and two lovely ladies accepted the challenge. I will be sharing their posts next week, along with yours if you accept 🙂

MAY! Is for celiac Awareness. May is when my own little Celiac was born. How oddly appropriate 🙂

Linda

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Celiac, Dubai, School and another Pneumonia!

Image Boy do I owe you all an update, its been a month! Admit it, you couldn’t sleep at night for missing me? 😉 Right, so we went to Dubai, had an awesome awesome holiday. Got a sunburn, went to Wild Wadi, splashed around on the beach. Celiac kid had a wheeze by day 3, so once again it just reconfirms how right our decision was! Being in Dubai was so ‘normal’, felt like we never left, so comfortable being around those people we have known for so many years. I miss having friends like that here. It will come, Im sure. Anyway, back to Wroclaw, picked up our puppy and then Big kid started school. 1 week in he says he loves it JUST AS MUCH AS HIS SCHOOL IN DUBAI!!! Woop Woop! RESULT! After the horrid experience in the last school he deserves the best school we can possibly give him. I need to know that my kids are happy and loved whilst in school. Fingers crossed and touch wood this school keeps on delivering 🙂 Celiac kid had her birthday! She’s 5, FIVE! How the hell did this happen? My baby is a big girl? Then yeah… the crappy news. Celiac kid coughed a few days ago, just one cough, but I looked at her and I just knew what was around the corner…. the day after I ended up taking her to our landlord’s clinic (our landlord is a gastro and knows Celiac well, what luck!?), he helped me find a good Dr who speaks English and works with kids. I must say, so far the Dr is wonderful. The same afternoon we saw her, and although Celiac kid just had a slight cough and no fever (yet) the Dr listened to me and believed me. Examination confirmed a bad right lung, and by evening her fever was reaching close to 40. Thank God we acted so fast. Saw the Dr again yesterday and the entire right lung is very bad, but luckily her left lung is clear and because of this her oxygen levels have managed to stay high enough for her not to be admitted. Obviously any other kid would be admitted, but again, the Dr has listened to me and agrees Celiac Kid is better of at home. We have remained in phone contact by texting every few hours. Best part though, this Dr is already sitting at home doing Celiac research and learning more then she knows now, and is finding us a string of expert so we can investigate every avenue there is and make some kind of plan. Its not fair to keep having these pneumonias. I am no longer able to tell you how many she had…. awful. Anyway, once she is better there will be testing for other allergies, lung scans etc, Im actually at this point thinking finding something may not be so bad, because at least then you can try to treat it! Im glad I decided to not let her start school til September, this time was meant to be spent growing and getting stronger, not having pneumonia number 6 or 7, but hey ho. Im feeling positive despite all. How can I not? A great landlord, a great house, a great and understanding Dr, ok oxygen levels, a puppy!  We choose our reactions to some extent, and I am truly grateful for what we have and that I haven’t lost the plot. Every time the sh**t hits the fan and Im able to stay with my feet firmly on the ground is a victory in it self. I have blog posts waiting to be written, Celiac Awareness one with some great links from lovely blogging friends, and also an Airplane food one. Soon, One day InshAllah! -Linda