Seems Like 40 Is The New 60 Around Here

Here is a carefree "us" kissing under some mistletoe last weekend at the botanical gardens here in Jena. I say carefree because we just learned yesterday that Mark has Celiac's disease. My poor guy. He has been having digestive issues for quite some time and coming to Germany made his symptoms go from bad to worse. Gluten in the food he's been eating has caused an autoimmune response in his body and then his body has attacked his own small intestines. It is quite serious and he must stop eating gluten immediately. Turns out he's had this all his life and there were many clues present which we never put together until very recently. He has suffered from strange blisters on sensitive skin areas for about the last 20 years, a distinct symptom of Celiac's, but one the doctors were never able to decipher. Drinking beer has always made him sick. He eats thousands of calories each day, but is always hungry and has lost 15 pounds since last summer. The disease has caused so much damage that his body cannot absorb nutrients and he is malnourished. He'll have to have injections of large amounts of vitamins for the next six months. The doctors here wanted to give him a colonoscopy and an endoscopic biopsy to take tissue samples, but he declined until we return to the states. Our health insurance here covers next to nothing and since those test results won't change the treatment plan, we've decided it's okay to wait. So we're going gluten-free. That means no wheat, spelt, rye, or barley, ingredients which are in just about everything, no beer, no bread, no bratwurst (gluten is used as a binding agent in sausage), and pretty much no processed food of any kind. Just rice and corn. This would have been inconvenient in the states, but it's almost a nightmare here trying to read ingredient labels in German! But we are relieved to finally have a diagnosis. He has not been feeling well for a long time but ignored his symptoms because my thyroid cancer kind of pushed to the forefront of our lives before we left. Seems like 40 is the new 60 around here with all of our health issues this past year. And of course the kids will have to be tested when we return; Celiac's is hereditary, but only a 5% chance. So if you know of good things to eat that are guaranteed gluten-free, feel free to pass the info our way. I'm searching the internet for new ways to cook and scouring the stores for ingredients that don't contain the offending grains. The kids and I won't let him do this alone, even if it means remembering to bring a banana for him to snack on while we eat at McDonald's!!