Something Else to Share

[JoAnn]

Hi everyone again, I forgot to mention an interesting experience I had while at the Grand Canyon. One evening we were in the dining room at the lodge on the North Rim watching a beautiful sunset. The waiter came to take our order and I went through my list of requirements (his eyes got wider and wider as I went on) but he seemed to be understanding. I ordered a steak, baked potato, and carrots. When he completed our order, a woman sitting behind me leaned over and asked me how I knew that I was gluten and dairy sensitive. (I didn't think I had talked that loud, but she heard everything I had said.) I tried to give her a very short explanation and soon she just opened up and started telling me all the health problems she was experiencing and planned on seeing a GI when she returned home to Ohio. We had a great conversation. Her symptoms could easily be MC. I gave her my email address and told her about The Potty People and Enterolab. She was there with her husband celebrating their anniversary. My DH, Sister, and BIL could hardly believe what they were hearing! Before we left, she told me that she is a spiritual person and felt like our meeting was meant to be. I hope so. I like to believe that God puts certain people in our lives (and on the internet!) to help us along the way. I'll let you know if I hear from her and maybe she'll pop up here one of these days.
JoAnn

[wonderwoman]

JoAnn, your post affected me emotionally. I feel that my finding this web site was a God thing. I am so thankful because without this site I would not be where I am today.

[Zizzle]

Joann,
I'm always amazed by the number of people who open up to me about their digestive issues after I tell them about my MC. I'm convinced there his a hidden epidemic of MC and food intolerance out there, but people are too willing to chalk it up to IBS and never see a doctor about it. People are also too squemish and private to talk about their "butt troubles" Even my health-conscious aunt who has some tell-tale symptoms refuses to have a colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy because of the risks involved. But at least she is willing to adopt difficult dietary changes, unlike most people.

I wish more people could stumble onto this board when researching their "private" digestive issues. It would save them lots of time and frustration!

[Ginny]

JoAnn, what a beautiful experience;and absolutely I believe that people are put in our paths for a purpose. You probably made that woman's anniversary special; she found out that there are other people like herself! I know that's how I would feel.

I still get mad when I have to go to a terrific grocery store and cannot buy hardly anything! Eating out with friends is the same and not so much for the food, but everything changes. Yes they are sympathetic, but life goes on and it is up to us to "fit in".

You are right about how many more people want to talk to you about food intolerances, but most of my friends have an iron gut; just a tad bit jealous!! Ginny

[barbaranoela]

Jo-Ann---what a great post ---it was a meant to be ---a-coincidence---nope!!!

I saw an arrticle on TV one day----which opened my ears--

A reporter and someone she was speaking with and the subject was the usual phrase--*what a coincidence*---and he said nothing is a coincidence *tis an act of God*
So she sitting behind U was just that an act of god---

Im so happy U had a chance to talk with her a bit---and hope she will join the Family!!!


Barbara

[Stanz]

JoAnn,

It's probably not unusual that people talk to me about diet since I'm a caterer, but I have had so many experiences like yours. If I am any barometer for awareness I can tell you that it is RARE that I do not have several people I am feeding who know they are gluten intolerant now. It is an absolute epidemic from my experience, especially in the past year. The word is getting out and we can only hope that our doctors catch up. There is absolutely NO excuse for GI Dr's. not to mention gluten as a possible cause anymore.

Speaking of serendipity - I've had 2 experiences with it in the last week. My youngest daughter has recently begun writing childrens stories and is in the process of looking into publishing them. Last week while chatting on the job, I learned that our Directors partner is an award winning professor who specializes in this. I've known him for almost 20 years and worked pro bono on a short film for his reel awhile back. (I catered 3 meals a day for a crew of 25 people and only spent $400. so I guess he owes me something :) He has put them in contact with each other and now she is advising my DD and critiquing her work. Then on Tuesday our actress turned out to be a published children's book author who had invaluable information for my daughter and now they are talking too. Could not have been just a coincidence. And if that isn't enough, my DH and I met a couple from the Netherlands 9 years ago while we were staying at a hotel. We struck up a lively conversation (it was the week of 9/11 and they'd been in NY that day), met them again for breakfast and exchanged email addresses. We kept in touch and 2 years ago they came and stayed here for 6 weeks, she has become like a sister to me and we will go to the Netherlands soon to see them. She illustrates children's books and is working with my daughter as well. Gotta love it.

[barbaranoela]

Jo-Ann--

Gotta luve it --right U are----might lead your daughter to have her work published!!

Wouldnt that be teriffic!!!

Barbara

[Stanz]

Barbara,

What I didn't also mention in my answer is the reason that he and I got into a conversation about writing in the first place. I hadn't seen him in almost a year, even though we live pretty near each other. The last time I'd seen him was at the grocery store and before that I hadn't seen him in at least 5 years as he works on movies and I work on commercials. He looked very frail, he told me he'd had one of his heart valves fail and had been hospitalized for almost 4 months and was somewhat of a walking miracle.

So, when I saw him last week I was so happy to see how well he looked and we got into a conversation about survival and in the course of that I brought up my DD's friend and college classmate, Christine, who I have mentioned here before, whose life was saved on July 5, 2006 by a bone marrow transplant. She had been a donor to a brother who didn't survive. One of 4 children, their father an oncologist, she was the 3rd child in her family to have cancer and had been given literally months to survive before she found a donor in China. She is Filipino and as their nationality is so intermixed it is very hard to find a donor and they also have a high rate of cancers. I told him that she had had to have her blood type changed to his and that he was only a partial match but was her last hope. Since she has recovered her health and is completely cancer free now. what her friends have noticed is that she has had a personality change. You would think that someone who had fought for her life for over 9 years would live conservatively, but this is not the case with Christine. She has taken up sky diving, white water rafting, bungy jumping, is learning to fly a plane, pretty much doing everything she can to taunt death. For those of us who held bone marrow drives and who, in my DD's case, drove her to City of Hope for Dr's. appts. and lived next door to her and worried for her constantly all these years, this came as a bit of a surprise to all of us.

So, as it turns out, my Director friend has been writing a screenplay about this very topic and when I mentioned "personality change" in relation to blood he was instantly fixated on this. He and Christine are also now in contact. Christine is now just finishing her masters degree in writing, which is the class his partner teaches at another college.

So, you just gotta love it. He and Christine are both gentle souls with degrees in film production and maybe together they can finish John's screenplay and make a movie. You never know.

[JLH]

http://www.write4kids.com/

[Stanz]

Thank you, Joan,

I really appreciate any links that relate to this and have forwarded your link to my DD. Here are the links that I got from the actress: http://www.scbwi.org/default.aspx
http://www.cwim.com/

She is living in Portland now, but she and her husband, who is also a published writer, are originally from NY and have many friends in the Publishing business. Such a small world we live in, isn't it? I am constantly amazed by all the strange ways life turns to bring people in contact with each other.

On one trip I actually ran into a Director friend at the airport in Auckland, NZ when we were waiting to get onto the same plane to go to Queenstown. And then on the flight home to the US from NZ I sat next to a woman who turned out to be someone who lived in Wyoming across the street from, and was best friends with the parents of, the girl that this DD's HS boyfriend dumped her for and married. He had lived with us for a year when his mom was fighting cancer and was like a son to us. My ex and other DD went to the wedding and she remembered them.

The whole 6 Degrees of Separation thing never fails to amaze me. I've had so many odd connections with people. I have another "daughter", not my own, she was a girl the same age as this DD who moved in up the street and became a part of my family during her HS years. She now lives in Sydney, Australia and was just here for their HS reunion. So, we're having dinner here 2 wks ago and find another connection in Australia. I'll bet that if we investigated this long enough she's probably got connections to Gabes. WE probably have connections.