Dogtor J
The American vet with coeliac disease has updated his web site.
He’s as forthright as ever.
An Interesting Article on Coeliac Disease
Found this on the Welcome web site.
Thick and Easy
I was given this in Hong Kong to help me swallow. I thought it affected me. When I finally got hold of the tin in Addenbrookes, it said it had no allergies, but contained maltodextrin. I react to the latter, but then the EU says it’s OK for me. Is the EU a coeliac? No!
Tête-Bêche or Herringbone
BA and Cathay Pacific have very different ideas about how Business Class should be laid out. In the former you sleep head to tail, whereas in Cathay, you’re arranged on either side of the aisle.
In my view BA’s layout is much better, as you can leave your seat so much easier, without taking the seat out of the sleeping position. Apparently, the herringbone gives a wider seat, but I don’t need that. I also found the Cathay seat a lot more uncomfortable, probably because I couldn’t lay on my stomach and because my spine sticks out at the bottom.
I should also say that the gluten-free food on BA was much better than that on Cathay, but this might be because it was out of Hong Kong. Strangely, the best I had, was on Astraeus on a charter to Gambia. It had been produced by a small Welsh company.
A Very Good Sweet and Sour Pork
I just had a very nice lunch. It was all gluten-free too!
It was thickened with corn flour.
Aux Armes de Bruxelles
It was very cold in Brussels, so I decided that it would not be a bad idea to have a good lunch in a warm restaurant.
I chose Aux Armes de Bruxelles.
Aux Armes de Bruxelles
It is quite an expensive restaurant, as one would expect if a past Kings of Belgium is amongst its former clients, but I chose the set lunch and a decent small carafe of white wine. There was a good choice and I had Ardennes ham followed by grilled salmon in a béarnaise sauce with boiled potatoes, and then ice cream. I followed it with coffee.
I thought it was reasonable at just under 28 euros.
As to being gluten-free, the waiter understood and I had no reaction at all.
Hay Fever
To add to all my problems, I seem to be suffering from awful hay fever.
C’est la vie!
But I never suffered before I was diagnosed as a coeliac.
Wonderful Building – Shame About the Contents
One of the places I wanted to see in Newcastle was the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art.
It certainly is a magnificent building.
The trouble is the contents. And judging by the lack of visitors in the various galleries, the good people of Tyneside don’t think much of them either.
However the restaurant was good. Or certainly my venison was excellent. And it was gluten-free, of course!
I ate early, but by the time I left, the restaurant was full.
So perhaps if you give people what they want you attract the punters.
The Missing Sock
The Missing Sock is a strange name for a pub and it the new name of the old Prince Albert at Quy.
The Missing Sock
I did pop in after a game of tennis to enquire if they could do gluten-free food. Not sure if they are clued up or not!
But I’ll give them a try.
I do wonder though, if the amount of money they have spent on the pub might be wasted, as after all it is a pub you drive to and it may just be too remote. But they know about pubs and I don’t.
Computers Beat Doctors at Diagnosing Child Illnesses
This was a headline in The Independent.
A computer has proved more accurate in diagnosing severe fever in children than doctors using their clinical judgement, researchers have found.
Is it the way medicine is going, as it looks like the computer system is better in this case? There’s no reason to believe that in certain areas, this may well be possible.
As a coeliac and a computer person, I’ve always felt that the diagnosis of coeliac disease could be done by means of a simple on-line system, that gave an indication that could be confirmed by proper tests. This is because coeliac disease shows itself in many and diverse ways. I had chronic dandruff for a start and would you see a gastroenterologist for that?
I think too, you have to look at the statistics of medicine and especially GPs. My granddaughter was born with a congenital hernia of the diaphragm. She’s fine now and just like any other eight-year-old. Now this problem occurs in about one in 3,000 babies. When I told my GP about my granddaughter, she said she’d never come across one in general practice.
So perhaps the computer can be much better with rare complaints.
The Anonymous Widower 