Luvox CR

Well, yesterday I finally heard from my doctor. He'd been using his PDR to research GF meds for me and found out that the PDR no longer lists the inactive ingredients which makes it impossible (or very nearly impossible) to find out which drugs are GF. Being a medical librarian I went to the other classic drug guide and found that Drug Facts and Comparisons (an expensive big brown brick of a book) not only lists the inactive ingredients (where the gluten likes to hide) but also says Gluten-Free when appropriate. Of course, neither of the drugs he wanted to switch me to was GF but I found one in the same class that is. He gave me enough samples for one month to see how it works for me. My pharmacy doesn't normally carry the drug but they will order it for me and have it available within 24 hours. I feel like a weight has been lifted off me. Success - sometimes you just need to keep on pushing to get what you need.

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The only thing that's past is 6 days

I just called my doc to see why he hasn't called me back. I am having definite withdrawal symptoms in the form of a never ending headache. So, here I sit hoping he'll call back this afternoon. I'm not generally a pest but I do believe he has a responsibility to find me a new drug to replace the one I can no longer tolerate. Anybody agree/disagree with me?

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The medication saga continues

I finally heard back from my doctor and he told me to keep taking the drug while he researched a replacement for it. Why not? It's only a little poison. I'd rather go through the withdrawal for a few days. I am not taking it and hopefully I'll hear from him today. One would think a doctor would know this stuff. One would be wrong. It's up to us to educate them at times.

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Meds DO have gluten in them

When I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease my gastro's nurse told me to be sure and check out my medication to make sure that none of them had gluten. I tried to get the pharmacy to help but was told was that gluten was wheat and medications didn't have wheat in them. I sent the pharmacist who told me that (and it was a hospital affiliated pharmacy) a couple of chapters from different books explaining that gluten in medicines could be a problem. This weekend I ate cleanly - absolutely no gluten. I woke up Sunday morning in terrible pain. I got my book out again and read the section on medications and one of mine was listed as not gluten free. So I got the name of the company off my Rx bottle and called the company and sure enough the medication has gluten in it. So now I've got a call in to my other doctor to get him to switch to another medicine. It seems that everything that is manufactured by Pfizer or its subsidiaries is tainted with gluten. Good to know.

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Black Bean Soup

It's still cold here. In fact we had a record low of -15 degrees on Saturday so I decided to make soup. I found a good recipe in the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of Eating Well for Black Bean Soup. It was quick, easy, and tasty. I've been reading Gluten Free Girl - the book and the blog. I like her idea of eating naturally GF foods instead of trying to recreate the goodies I ate before I went GF. This soup fits that idea - no substitutions or figuring out which flours to use. I've been using packaged foods for the last couple of months even though I really enjoy cooking. I got a couple of GF cookbooks for Christmas so I think I'll try to cook something a couple of times a week. I live alone so I end up eating leftovers for a couple of days after I make a meal. Try the soup. It's very good.

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Amy's Kitchen Products

I recieved this statement in an email yesterday from Amy's Kitchen. I noticed that most of their boxes claimed to have no gluten ingredients but they did not say Gluten-Free. I contacted them to find out what they meant by this statement. Were the products contaminated since they used the same equipment to process wheat. Here's their response.

"From Amy's:
Our gluten free products contain only the ingredients listed in the ingredient statement. There are no hidden, unlabeled ingredients. We understand that it is critical that these products be free of gluten and we take this very seriously.

A wide range of activities and cross-checks are completed to ensure that cross-contamination and/or inadvertent use of the wrong ingredient does not occur.

Examples include:

-Full shift manufacture of products with complete clean-up of all food contact surfaces between products. Pieces of equipment that come in contact with the food are cleaned and sanitized prior to the manufacture of the next product.

-Separate item numbers for all ingredients; these are checked by two individuals on receipt of the ingredient and three people on use of the ingredient to confirm the correct item is used.

-Use of colored tags, papers and containers in production as an addition visual check to ensure intermediate components are not interchanged.

-Designated areas for flour use to control airborne gluten and minimize its spread.

-Bar code readers at packaging lines to ensure correct package is used with each product.

-Spot screening of ingredients and finished products at University of Nebraska (FARRP - Food Allergy Research and Resource Program) to confirm there are no unlabeled allergens (utilize tests for gluten, soy, milk and peanuts)."

I'm sure it was written by lawyers but it did make me feel better about using their products.

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