1 Love with damaged villi...
Cast:
Jenny Grenville-Fields, married, mum of 3, living in the town of Deverton, UK.
Rene (Ren) Duval, special ed teacher, separated, no kids. Los Angeles.
Setting:
December 2010. Jenny and Rene each create a profile on Hemisphericconnections.com, a site for pen pals.
Rene's profile
Well, i'm good looking, lazy, polite, shy, funny, absent-minded, thoughtful. separated 2 years after 18, boo. some days i am very focused and engaged some days i just want to lay in bed and have someone tell me how wonderful i am. my job is teaching middle school, which is hard but i am good at it so what can you do... Just looking for someone nice to talk to.
Jenny's profile
I'm a happy homemaker, married, living with kids and dogs and cats on the Deverton coast. Lived in Italy for a year, studying Italian and history of art, and would love to end up living there one day. I can be deeply serious and seriously superficial. I don't bite :) much.
I have complicated relationships with online shopping, my bike, and mirrors.
He saw her profile before she saw his. She had posted pictures of her, pictures of dogs, trees, fields. He wanted to send a message to her but he couldn't think of anything that didn't sound dumb or like he was trying too hard. He gazed at her profile a long time and then closed the window.
The next morning there was a message in his inbox. From her.
Day 1
Hi, you stopped by, so I looked at yours!
We have some things in common - we're both good looking, both have a gluten free interest (celiac, diagnosed 3 years ago), both big on the mood swings.
We have absolutely no films, music or books in common; this bodes well for the open minded, less so for the set-in-my-ways lol.
I'm very nice to talk to, I make an effort, or I'm entertainingly glum and crying out to be teased back into some semblance of a functioning human female.
We have a bitch of a time difference, but I hope you feel it's worth saying hi back.
In any case, Season's Greetings and Happy Holidays !
Jenny
Hi Jenny,
I just signed up for this site yesterday and clicked on you because of your white-ish hair. the fact that you have celiac is astonishing. i'm so glad you wrote. must be a dna connection. i started going gray when i was 16. you? btw i think julian assange probably has celiac, too. that makes 3 of us. say hi if you bump into him in the gluten free section at the supermarket. we have one other thing in common: i really liked 'in bruges' - brendan gleeson.
and yes, i would love to share whatever mood swing tips and tricks there may be. it's a bitch getting celiac as an adult because you don't heal, at least not all the way. anyway, two words: swiss chard! but you already knew about that.
anyway, it was nice to wake up and see your message. hope to hear from you again. any topic is fine: meds, life without pizza, food, movies, the end of civilization, whatevah.
best of luck with your snow and ice
Ren 😄
Hi Ren,
Thanks for your message. I totally thought the same thing about Julian Assange, how weird. I just love coincidences, they make me so excited, like a mad grey baby.
I think I started getting lighter hair about 15 years ago - I'm one of three sisters all diagnosed in their 40s. I was asymptomatic, just asked for the test when I was slightly anaemic, because of the sibling situation. Absolutely GUTTED that it came back positive, but now I don't really care, except that eating out is pretty much over - not worth the hassle. I didn't realise that you don't heal completely as an adult - is that universal? How long have you been diagnosed?
I just went to a friend's Christmas lunch party, and ate meringues. Just meringues, with raspberries and cream, as well as sloe vodka (awesome) and mulled wine. My diet could be better :)
I know nothing of swiss chard! Enlighten me, please
Day 2
hi Jenny,
Glad you enjoyed a social afternoon and a blast of sugar and alcohol - i would be passed out.
i was reading a magazine 'gf cooking' or 'living without' (awful title) and there was a story that said latest research on adults (avg age 47) is
after 2 years, only 30% of patients healed
after 5 years, 60% healed
i am just about at the 5 year point. but i had it for 7 years before diagnosis, cuz the american medical association doesn't, or didn't then, bother to include it in med school training.
and for what it's worth, i just learned that c-section babies (like me) are prone.
swiss chard - go to foodyououghttoeat.com and look at the nutritional profile for swiss chard. it's a big leaf, basically. i just chop it up and make salads with it.
here's a question: are you making 2 dinners one for you and one for family or do you make them eat gf, too? cause i know that's an issue.
all the best,
Ren
Hi Ren,
I wonder if I'm a lucky exception - I did have an endoscopy after a year, as my serum ferritin results were still awful, and all was normal with the biopsies from duodenum and stomach. I have no idea how I'm doing blood-wise now, as I seem to have fallen off the hospital list....and I'm reluctant to chase it up, being a big wuss and hospital-phobic.
Agree with you - it's a VERY under-diagnosed condition, which is unforgiveable given that a simple and cheap blood test can rule it out at least.
Family dinners aren't really an issue - I'm cooking for different numbers at different times, because I have sons away at university 6 months of the year and a husband who works away 4 days a week.
Our meals are fairly simple, so I just cook a separate helping of gf pasta for me and share their sauce, or make fajitas and eat mine without the wrap, in a bowl! The only gf I inflict on them is in the form of baking - I'm good at cakes and crumbles, and the gf flour I use is unnoticeable, and sometimes preferable to the normal kind. It's easier if you eat mostly home-made, which we do, and which I control.
I miss French bread the most :(
And I'm not c section, nor were my sisters - genetics here, I guess.
Jenny
(Jenny later) Hiya!
I'm too tired to go to bed...
Such a long day - lying in bed at 7am, watching a tree split and fall perilously close to the house (sheer weight of snow); standing in my dressing gown in a blizzard at 7.15 making sure the dogs don't go anywhere near any tree to pee! Getting the car stuck halfway out in to the road, abandoning it and walking a mile to the big supermarket; buying FAR too much for 2 of us to carry, having to call middle child to come and meet us with toboggans to get the 7 huge bags home.....quick lunch....walk 1.5 miles to train station, 3 hours Christmas shopping in the city, wait for delayed train, freeze to death; walk 1.5 miles home, uphill, in deep snow and ice, carrying too much again (will I ever learn??). Cook comfort food (chili and rice) and remain catatonic since 8pm...
How's LA today??
Day 3
(Rene) Jenny holy crap! so sorry but what an adventure - hope you are taking some pictures of the mayhem. has the army been sent out to clear the roads? this whole thing sounds like what happened to me in boston in 1978. we got 6 weeks off from school. i know you're in the middle of it but there's something that feels satisfying about fighting the elements. Enjoy.
LA: rain soaked, has been will be for days.
Get some rest! Extra blankets, hot tea with brandy and repetitive TV.
(Jenny) I have to do MORE shopping in the city tomorrow, Thelma (daughter,16) needs advice and has left all her buying until this week....and I'm waay too soft to teach her a lesson at Christmas!
The army? LOL
It's common knowledge in the UK that snow, even an inch, means THE WORLD STOPS TURNING. No post, no buses, no taxis...
You're right though, there is an element of excitement, battling and winning, chatting with strangers - although I do that all the time anyway, incorrigibly:)
Watching Community with eldest son, full of rice pudding :)
Brandy next, hurray.
I bet it's WARM rain where you are!
Thank you for reading this. J Love With Damaged Villi will be back next week. Rene writes Jenny a poem.
