3 Little Letters
by Shannon Deaver
Of the 26 letters in the English Language, who would of thought that three, one consonant and two vowels, would have such an impact on a life…
It’s hard to believe that just three letters could dominate the topic of conversation with such an unrelenting presence. For the past week, IgA are the three letters that have been hovering over my family. Confirmation that these three letters would follow my 14-year-old brother, Myka, around for the rest of his life was met with both a sigh of relief and an outcry from the devastating reality.
For those that do not have a medical background, IgA Nephropathy is a rare kidney disorder that occurs when IgA—a protein that helps the body fight infections—settles in the kidneys and blocks the “filtration system”, causing them to die off due to lack of blood circulation. After 10 to 20 years with IgA Nephropathy, the kidneys may show signs of damage and begin to leak blood and sometimes protein into the urine. About 25 percent of adults with IgA nephropathy develop total kidney failure. Only 5 to 10 percent of children develop total kidney failure. Symptoms of kidney failure include swelling in the hands and feet, nausea, fatigue, headaches, and sleep problems. By the time these symptoms occur, total kidney failure is near. Total kidney failure means the kidney damage is permanent. People with kidney failure need dialysis or a kidney transplant. There are only about 250,000 known diagnosed cases of IgA, a fact that keeps it from being studied since it has not reached “epidemic” proportions.
Luckily for my brother, the disease was caught before his kidneys were damaged beyond repair. That is, if you call 30 percent function, badly anemic, and left horribly toxic due to the fact his kidneys weren’t filtering waste from his body, lucky. The only way to maintain the disease is to adhere to a STRICT diet and a regiment of medications that keep the complications of the disease, such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol, at bay. The diet, for the moment, requires that he refrain from consuming ANYTHING with excessive amounts of sugar, fat, phosphorus, and potassium. At first glance, this may not seem too drastic. Healthy even. But if you sit down and look up all food items that contain all or just one of these items, you’ll notice that practically EVERYTHING has at least one or all of these things at some level. A fact that has presented quite a challenge for my family since we all have made the choice to follow the diet with my brother as much as possible. Our way of “shaving our heads”, so to speak.
Adjusting our lifestyle out of necessity due to disease is nothing new to my family. For those of you that don’t know my family, we have been long time sufferers of what is called Celiac Disease. Celiac Disease is an immune disorder that inflicts damage on the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food when a person with the disorder ingests a substance that contains gluten. Gluten is a protein that found in wheat, rye, and barley. It is found mainly in foods but may also be found in everyday products such as medicines, vitamins, and lip balms. I have even found it in random things such as licorice, jellybeans and soy sauce. It is amazing what you learn when you are constantly reading labels to make sure that you aren’t about to ingest what your body has taken on as its personal poison.
One might say that we have hit the “proverbial-jack-pot” of food allergies. In a sense, you are right. Fortunately for us, there have been great advancements as far as developing foods that are gluten-free that ACTUALLY taste like food. And through awareness of the disease, many health food markets, such as WHOLE Foods, have begun to carry a vast variety of gluten-free products, making our lifestyle nearly tolerable. The downside of these products is that they are quite a bit more pricy then normal standard products that most buy at the market. But when it all boils down to it, we have to eat and these disadvantages force our family to get creative with our dishes. I personally love a good challenge and have been more than willing to experiment in the kitchen. And luckily for me, I have my WHOLE family to test them out on. When the world hands us lemons, we make gluten-free lemonade!
Published in the KV Sun, August 25, 2009
(http://www.kvsun.com/articles/2009/09/09/kv_life/health/doc4a8af45009b9f625793821.txt)
Of the 26 letters in the English Language, who would of thought that three, one consonant and two vowels, would have such an impact on a life…
It’s hard to believe that just three letters could dominate the topic of conversation with such an unrelenting presence. For the past week, IgA are the three letters that have been hovering over my family. Confirmation that these three letters would follow my 14-year-old brother, Myka, around for the rest of his life was met with both a sigh of relief and an outcry from the devastating reality.
For those that do not have a medical background, IgA Nephropathy is a rare kidney disorder that occurs when IgA—a protein that helps the body fight infections—settles in the kidneys and blocks the “filtration system”, causing them to die off due to lack of blood circulation. After 10 to 20 years with IgA Nephropathy, the kidneys may show signs of damage and begin to leak blood and sometimes protein into the urine. About 25 percent of adults with IgA nephropathy develop total kidney failure. Only 5 to 10 percent of children develop total kidney failure. Symptoms of kidney failure include swelling in the hands and feet, nausea, fatigue, headaches, and sleep problems. By the time these symptoms occur, total kidney failure is near. Total kidney failure means the kidney damage is permanent. People with kidney failure need dialysis or a kidney transplant. There are only about 250,000 known diagnosed cases of IgA, a fact that keeps it from being studied since it has not reached “epidemic” proportions.
Luckily for my brother, the disease was caught before his kidneys were damaged beyond repair. That is, if you call 30 percent function, badly anemic, and left horribly toxic due to the fact his kidneys weren’t filtering waste from his body, lucky. The only way to maintain the disease is to adhere to a STRICT diet and a regiment of medications that keep the complications of the disease, such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol, at bay. The diet, for the moment, requires that he refrain from consuming ANYTHING with excessive amounts of sugar, fat, phosphorus, and potassium. At first glance, this may not seem too drastic. Healthy even. But if you sit down and look up all food items that contain all or just one of these items, you’ll notice that practically EVERYTHING has at least one or all of these things at some level. A fact that has presented quite a challenge for my family since we all have made the choice to follow the diet with my brother as much as possible. Our way of “shaving our heads”, so to speak.
Adjusting our lifestyle out of necessity due to disease is nothing new to my family. For those of you that don’t know my family, we have been long time sufferers of what is called Celiac Disease. Celiac Disease is an immune disorder that inflicts damage on the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food when a person with the disorder ingests a substance that contains gluten. Gluten is a protein that found in wheat, rye, and barley. It is found mainly in foods but may also be found in everyday products such as medicines, vitamins, and lip balms. I have even found it in random things such as licorice, jellybeans and soy sauce. It is amazing what you learn when you are constantly reading labels to make sure that you aren’t about to ingest what your body has taken on as its personal poison.
One might say that we have hit the “proverbial-jack-pot” of food allergies. In a sense, you are right. Fortunately for us, there have been great advancements as far as developing foods that are gluten-free that ACTUALLY taste like food. And through awareness of the disease, many health food markets, such as WHOLE Foods, have begun to carry a vast variety of gluten-free products, making our lifestyle nearly tolerable. The downside of these products is that they are quite a bit more pricy then normal standard products that most buy at the market. But when it all boils down to it, we have to eat and these disadvantages force our family to get creative with our dishes. I personally love a good challenge and have been more than willing to experiment in the kitchen. And luckily for me, I have my WHOLE family to test them out on. When the world hands us lemons, we make gluten-free lemonade!
Published in the KV Sun, August 25, 2009
(http://www.kvsun.com/articles/2009/09/09/kv_life/health/doc4a8af45009b9f625793821.txt)
Feline Madness
by Shannon Deaver
This is a random gathering of words that I wrote down one day in response to an inquisitive young man in regards as to why I had neglected to respond to his messages…. =P enjoy
“As far as my feline escapades this week…
The most pleasant looking, soot-colored kitten found it’s self atop a very large telephone pole for it had the grandest idea to follow a common ground squirrel as it fled across the black electrical wire. The ground squirrel, being an expert at scaling these ninja-warrior-esque obstacles, bounded to a nearby oak tree that had the most supple acorns upon it. Needless to say, the squirrel paid no mind to the kitten any longer.
For miles in every direction, the sad mewing of the kitten could be heard. Two small, blonde children stood at the base of the pole, beckoning the kitten to safety at the bottom. Alas, the kitten did not falter from it’s position atop the pole; mewing and looking sadly pathetic. I happened to be on my afternoon walk when I came upon the scene.
After pointing out the obvious, literal translation of a “pole-cat” and having myself a small chuckle at the kitten’s expense, I quickly came up with a plan to rescue this unfortunate casualty of squirrel conspiracy.
After repeated attempts of calling “Here kitty! Kitty! KITTY!” at great decibels rendered no change in the status of the situation, I slyly commandeered a pool net from a neighbor that has the most elaborate inground pool (that is rarely used for anything more then bragging rights in conversation) in hopes of coaxing the kitten into the basket of safety and therefore bringing peace to this world once more.
Breaking off a medium length branch and scaling the rather large oak tree with the supple acorns, I proceeded to lull the kitten into the blue haven of woven nylon. Two thousand and a half failed attempts later, the cat seemingly unaware of the purpose of the pool net began to bat at it playfully…
Sensing my time to act, I quickly swooped the cat up into the net with the aid of the medium length branch and lowered it to safety! The children applauded with great enthusiasm and with no haste, quickly scooped up the kitten into their arms proclaiming that the kitten shall now be referred to as “Gumdrop” and then scurried on their merry way with the kitten looking not so pleasant for I am sure it would much rather have stayed atop the pole, facing eminent death, than be given such a ghastly name.
And…
I’m spent… ;)
This is a random gathering of words that I wrote down one day in response to an inquisitive young man in regards as to why I had neglected to respond to his messages…. =P enjoy
“As far as my feline escapades this week…
The most pleasant looking, soot-colored kitten found it’s self atop a very large telephone pole for it had the grandest idea to follow a common ground squirrel as it fled across the black electrical wire. The ground squirrel, being an expert at scaling these ninja-warrior-esque obstacles, bounded to a nearby oak tree that had the most supple acorns upon it. Needless to say, the squirrel paid no mind to the kitten any longer.
For miles in every direction, the sad mewing of the kitten could be heard. Two small, blonde children stood at the base of the pole, beckoning the kitten to safety at the bottom. Alas, the kitten did not falter from it’s position atop the pole; mewing and looking sadly pathetic. I happened to be on my afternoon walk when I came upon the scene.
After pointing out the obvious, literal translation of a “pole-cat” and having myself a small chuckle at the kitten’s expense, I quickly came up with a plan to rescue this unfortunate casualty of squirrel conspiracy.
After repeated attempts of calling “Here kitty! Kitty! KITTY!” at great decibels rendered no change in the status of the situation, I slyly commandeered a pool net from a neighbor that has the most elaborate inground pool (that is rarely used for anything more then bragging rights in conversation) in hopes of coaxing the kitten into the basket of safety and therefore bringing peace to this world once more.
Breaking off a medium length branch and scaling the rather large oak tree with the supple acorns, I proceeded to lull the kitten into the blue haven of woven nylon. Two thousand and a half failed attempts later, the cat seemingly unaware of the purpose of the pool net began to bat at it playfully…
Sensing my time to act, I quickly swooped the cat up into the net with the aid of the medium length branch and lowered it to safety! The children applauded with great enthusiasm and with no haste, quickly scooped up the kitten into their arms proclaiming that the kitten shall now be referred to as “Gumdrop” and then scurried on their merry way with the kitten looking not so pleasant for I am sure it would much rather have stayed atop the pole, facing eminent death, than be given such a ghastly name.
And…
I’m spent… ;)
Children's Legend Explaining Seasons
by Shannon Deaver
Many moons ago, when the Earth was cold and covered with snow, there was a little girl that loved to tell stories. Everyday, the animals of the forest and the people of her tribe would gather around her as she told stories about the world around them. Sometimes she would tell stories about animals, like Rabbit, Coyote, or Eagle, and stories about the mountains, the sky or the river. One day she began to tell a story about Sun. Burning high and bright in the sky, Sun moved closer to hear the story. When Sun came closer, it became warmer, melting the snow. The people and animals were so excited to feel Sun’s warmth. When the little girl finished the story, Sun went behind the mountains and night fell over the land. The next day, the little girl told a story about Sun again, and again Sun came closer to listen. The little girl told stories about Sun for several months. After a while, the animals of the forest and the people of her tribe grew tired of the Sun’s warmth. They asked the little girl to stop telling stories about Sun so that the snow would return. The next day, she didn’t tell a story about Sun, therefore, Sun did not come to listen. Slowly, but surely, the snow returned to cover the Earth. After a while, the animals of the forest and the people of the tribe asked the little girl to tell stories about Sun again because they were tired of the cold and snow. From that day forward, the little girl would tell stories about Sun so that he would come closer to warm the Earth for a while and then would tell different stories so the snow would return. People now call these times seasons.
Many moons ago, when the Earth was cold and covered with snow, there was a little girl that loved to tell stories. Everyday, the animals of the forest and the people of her tribe would gather around her as she told stories about the world around them. Sometimes she would tell stories about animals, like Rabbit, Coyote, or Eagle, and stories about the mountains, the sky or the river. One day she began to tell a story about Sun. Burning high and bright in the sky, Sun moved closer to hear the story. When Sun came closer, it became warmer, melting the snow. The people and animals were so excited to feel Sun’s warmth. When the little girl finished the story, Sun went behind the mountains and night fell over the land. The next day, the little girl told a story about Sun again, and again Sun came closer to listen. The little girl told stories about Sun for several months. After a while, the animals of the forest and the people of her tribe grew tired of the Sun’s warmth. They asked the little girl to stop telling stories about Sun so that the snow would return. The next day, she didn’t tell a story about Sun, therefore, Sun did not come to listen. Slowly, but surely, the snow returned to cover the Earth. After a while, the animals of the forest and the people of the tribe asked the little girl to tell stories about Sun again because they were tired of the cold and snow. From that day forward, the little girl would tell stories about Sun so that he would come closer to warm the Earth for a while and then would tell different stories so the snow would return. People now call these times seasons.