My Sad Attempt At Stand-Up Comedy

Ha! You're not going to want to miss this... Sad. But that doesn't mean I might not try again!

http://gigieatscelebrities.com/2013/04/02/stand-up-comedy/

How to stay healthy when traveling

Nothing's worse than being sick when you're traveling or relaxing on the beach!

Here are a few ways you can keep from getting sick!

http://gigieatscelebrities.com/2013/03/19/healthy-travel/

So Long Peanuts

Have you been diagnosed with food allergies? Check out the celebrities who have in honor of Food Allergy Awareness Week. 

So Long Peanuts « GiGi Eats Celebrities

The Sunday sum-up

EXTRA EXTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT! The Earth Day edition! 

The Sunday sum-up - Boulder Nutrition | Examiner.com

Slay the sandman

It's time to kick some sandman booty!

Slay the sandman - Boulder Nutrition | Examiner.com

The Sunday sum-up

It's that time of the week again! 

The Sunday sum-up - Boulder Nutrition | Examiner.com

Retrain your trans fat taste buds

BEWARE! STOP! HOLD IT! CAUTION! DROP THE CHIPS!

Retrain your trans fat taste buds - Boulder Nutrition | Examiner.com

Emerge from Emergen-C

What's your favorite flavor? Do you look at the ingredients label?

Emerge from Emergen-C

Pancreatic cancer stands for: PC

I guess this cancer is more of a PC fan than a MAC fan.

Pancreatic cancer stands for: PC

Nix the "norm"

What do you consider normal these days?

Nix the "norm"

Don't be gluttonous for gluten

Do you do gluten-free?

Don't be gluttonous for gluten

Hospital airlines

I wonder if ORBITZ books these flights?


Hospital airlines -

Help for the heated

It might be dangerous to go outside with it being so hot, but if you must, take the proper precautions!

Help for the heated

Cleaning the kid's menu

Take a broom to that damn menu!

Cleaning the kid's menu - Boulder Nutrition | Examiner.com

Jennie-O-No!

Jennie-O-No!

One Year Anniversary!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY NON-EXISTENT LARGE INTESTINE!

One year ago on this day I had an emergency colectomy because I had a cecal volvulous! It's weird to think about... BUT despite this episode I am still alive and kicking!!



(My Sister & I!)

WHERE IN THE WORLD....

.... HAS ALL THE CANNED PUMPKIN GONE!!!!



That's right, pumpkin is definitely MIA at the moment and after 3 weeks of not seeing it on my grocery stores (all over my city - mind you) I decided to take initiative (because to me this is an emergency) and write Nestle (who makes Libby's 100% Pumpkin) to get to the bottom of this... and here is what the company said to me:

	Dear Ms. ******, Thank you for contacting Libby's® 100% Pure Pumpkin. I am sorry that you are having a difficult time finding Libby's Pumpkin. Due to unfavorable weather conditions last fall, some of the pumpkin did not meet our high quality standards. Therefore, our harvest was smaller than typical and you may have some difficulty finding Libby's Pumpkin. We are in the process of harvesting our pumpkins and you will be able to find it in all sizes within the next few weeks. We appreciate your interest and hope you will visit our website often for the latest information on our products and promotions. Sincerely, Tara Williams Consumer Response Representative

So there you have it... Let's just HOPE we can rely on Tara Williams... and the rest of them... when she says that they will return within a few weeks! Not only do I eat pumpkin EVERY SINGLE DAY at breakfast... but Thanksgiving and all the other holidays are just around the corner... and HELLO: Pumpkin is the center of attention for all of these holidays!



Anyone else notice the case of the missing canned pumpkin?!?!

Emergency Surgery

So it's been quite some time since my last post but I do have an excuse. I had emergency surgery April 15th and have been recovering ever since.

I woke up the morning of April 15th around 12:45am with severe stomach pains and an extremely bloated stomach - more so than usual... Thinking it was just gas, I tried to cope for as long as I could but eventually couldn't handle it anymore. I called my mother at 3:00am (after calling my sister... I really didn't want to wake my mother up). She is a doctor so I thought perhaps she would tell me something "doctorly" and everything would be ok... She told me to try and throw up, etc but nothing worked. I finally hung up the phone with her around 4:15am still in severe pain but thinking maybe, just maybe I could sleep it off.... Of course that didn't happen although I think I did manage to get about 15 minutes of sleep - ha ha.

Around 8am, after pacing back and forth between my bed and the couch, I finally tried to use the bathroom again but of course that didn't work... then I crawled back into bed and around 9am my mother called me asking if I was feeling better. In agony I cried NO and fell to the floor because I was feeling as if I was stabbed 15 times in a row. My mother finally told me in a serious tone that I should go to the hospital so that's what I did. I called 911 and an ambulance came to my apartment complex and wheeled me out in a stretcher after of course, taking their sweet ass time trying to look for me (they got lost in my apartment). In the ambulance there was a professional EMT and an intern who had NO CLUE how to load a syringe with the DRUGS to take the pain away and boy was I going to go crazy... Oh and I did!

I got to the hospital and was drugged many more times to ease the pain which was nice except I still could feel it through ounces and ounces of pain meds. I had a barium enema (just to give you a graphic image - ha ha ha) and multiple x-rays (all tests extremely uncomfortable and painful because of my stomach).... but all technicians came up with the conclusion that I had a twisted colon/cecal volvulus - Emergency Surgery was the only way to fix me. I was rather shocked when they told me I needed surgery because I had never even been a patient in a hospital before... let alone get cut open!

After being informed, I was finally able to call my mother who was shocked herself because she just thought I had really bad gas pain from eating too many vegetables. It turns out I am one of roughly 10% with a longer than normal cecum/large intestine, which is why it twisted.... It was aggravated by the vegetables I ate too though (I won't be eating Lamb or Eggplant for a while - the meal I had the night before, ha ha)!

I had surgery (otherwise I would have died, seriously this is a fatal condition), in which they took out 22 cm of my twisted in a 360 degree purple knot cecum/colon/ ilium and my appendix, at 4pm and was in a private hospital room by 6:30pm where I was joined by my brother, the only one in the area at the time. My parents started driving to see me April 16th but got stuck in a snow storm and ended up getting to me by 6pm, April 17th - But I was perfectly OK with that because the hospital was incredibly boring and I wasn't doing much more than sitting and walking through the hallways of the hospital like an 89 year old lady (I couldn't stand up straight and was still incredibly bloated & weak).

Usually people who have the surgery I had stay in the hospital for 7 to 10 days but I got out at day 5 and then stayed with my mom at her hotel for a week until I was allowed to be in a car for eight hours (of course we did it in two days and stopped every so often so I could walk around - to make sure I didn't get any blood clots). So that's that. I am officially home and it's been two weeks post surgery and I am feeling pretty OK. Not 100% by all means but I feel at least 75%... I even went on a 5 mile walk with my mother the day after I was discharged from the hospital... When I was in the hospital, I walked the stairs to get some exercise! ha ha ha. I am now walking roughly 100 minutes a day (granted at a slow pace but still it's better than nothing) plus walking gets things MOVING because I have to wake up my bowels... because when they have been tampered with they forget how to work! I am currently only allowed to eat COOKED foods so NO SALADS, SASHIMI, CEVICHE or RAW VEGETABLES.... which stinks because I love those foods so much... but this "new diet" is not for life. I can eat my normal diet in about 5 weeks from surgery... so May 20th or so... I will have a nice large salad!

If anyone is curious about cecal volvulus, here is a definition: Cecal volvulus is the twisting of the cecum and ascending segment of the colon. Normally, the cecum and ascending colon are fixed to the internal abdominal wall. If not (which apparently was my condition), they can move and become twisted. The main symptoms of cecal volvulus are crampy abdominal pain and swelling (two symptoms I had) that are sometimes associated with nausea and vomiting (I tried, but it didn't work). When surgically taken care of, recurrence is extremely rare. (Although with my luck... ugh!)

*And if that isn't a good enough definition for you... and you have seen the movie: Marley & Me... think about what happened to Marley... and relate it to me!

*Oh and did I mention, I had the best surgeon in all of Boulder, Colorado! (Well that's what all the nurses, etc told me so there must be some truth to it... my mother even approved and as a doctor herself, she has a pretty good judge of character)