Famous people with Crohn's?... Really?

Today I woke up thinking about Crohn's Disease... That does not happen often since I have been in remission for so long. I have been blessed with the opportunity to forget about the disease... I have been in a diet for so long that I have become part of my daily living, and because I have been pain free for some time now, I some times have the luxury to forget.

However, this working I remember what it was to have Crohn's. Not because I had pain, but because I remembered those who have struggled like me. And at 6:30 am in the morning I wanted to checked, again, for those who had Crohn's and are famous. Of course, I am not famous... I am just a regular girl, but for some reason, we believe that this type of disease only happens to the common people... To those who are not under the world's scope... Well, this is what I found... at this websites:
1) http://crohn-colitis.hu/eng/famous-people-with-ibd.php 
2) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/01/celebs-crohns_n_913641.html#s318526&title=Cynthia_McFadden
3) http://crohnsvoice.blogspot.com/2009/06/famous-people-with-crohns-disease-or.html

So, I chose the ones that had an impact on me... Let's start..

1) Dwight D. Eisenhower

(1890-1969) the 34th President of the United States. On June 8, 1956 Eisenhower developed vague, ill-defined discomfort in the lower abdomen at 12:30 am. His physician arrived at the White House 30 minutes later and found moderate distention and tympany, but no particular point of abdominal tenderness. The President slept fitfully for the next few hours. Tap water enemas in the morning gave no relief. The pain became colicky and centered on the umbilicus and right lower quadrant. Without surgery, Eisenhower's bowel obstruction could easily have killed him. Even so, the decision to operate was contentious. Eisenhower had had a serious heart attack just nine months earlier, and this made surgery risky. As you might expect, it is difficult to decide to operate on the President of the United States when he might not survive the operation. At operation, the terminal 30 to 40 cm of the ileum had the typical appearance of chronic "dry" Crohn's Disease. An ileotransverse colostomy was performed, bypassing the obstruction. The post-operative course was smooth as well. He began conducting official business on the fifth post-operative day.

2) Anastasia

The thing I loved more about her is that she is not ashamed to show her scar!

She is a songwriter, a singer and a dancer. Born in Chicago, raised in New York City, Anastacia came from an entertainment oriented family: her father was a singer, her mother an actress in musical theater on Broadway. She was diagnosed with Crohn's disease at age 13. "I have a big scar on my stomach and would never hide it" - Anastacia said. "For those with Crohn's, holding in our emotions fuels the symptoms. What is seen as a curse for some, is a gift for me, because it has helped me to discover who I really am as a person. The disease has given me a clear window to my own emotions, which causes me to live each moment and to understand exactly how I'm behaving in a particular situation. Crohn's can be debilitating, but I am lucky to be in the two to three per cent of sufferers who are relatively healthy. I think I got it so young that I incorporated it into my way of living, enabling me to become stronger."

3) Shannen Doherty

In 1999 she has revealed to Starmagazine, that she's been secretly battling an agonizing stomach ailment for years. "I have Crohn's disease," she confides. And she says the condition, marked by a chronic inflammation of the intestine, can be quite embarrassing. People with the disease may experience abdominal pain, diarrhea and low-grade fever. "It can kind of mess with you," explains Doherty, who divorced first husband Ashley Hamilton in 1994 and dates director Rob Weiss. "There's nothing sexy about women saying: "I've got to go to the bathroom right now." The disease occurs in about 150 out of 100,000 people in the United States. Symptoms may be mild to severe and interrupt normal digestion and absorption of foods. Most sufferers take medication or have surgery. No cure. Unfortunately, Crohn's isn't the former Beverly Hills 90210 wild child's only health woe. An avid rider, Doherty says she's been thrown so many times by her horses that she now suffers from a painful back condition. "I'm supposed to wear a brace 24 hours a day," she laments.

 

4) David Garrard

The Jacksonville Jaguars quaterback was born in 1978. Garrard, a third-year veteran who played college ball at East Carolina, started feeling sick in January 2004. After a battery of tests, he was diagnosed with Crohn's on March 23. He has since lost about 10 pounds. Last week, medicine he had been taking to combat the illness lost effectiveness and he had be hospitalized. He opted against surgery to alleviate the blockage and instead went on a relatively new medicine, Remicade, that removes a type of protein from the bloodstream that can cause the inflammation. Doctors have assured Garrard that playing football won't put him at any risk because of the disease. "It's going to do whatever it's going to do on its own," Garrard said. "Football isn't going to bring it back or keep it away." Garrard conceded he was scared before he knew what was wrong. Now, however, he's looking at the bright side: He's eating better, has lost weight and is happy because the illness isn't as serious as it could have been. "It's bigger than football," he said. "It's just how I'm going to be from now on."

5) J.F. Kennedy

President John F. Kennedy was in far greater pain and taking many more medications during his presidency than previously known. Kennedy was sick from age 13 on. In 1930, when he was 13, he developed abdominal pain. By 1934 he was sent to the Mayo Clinic where they diagnosed colitis or it was called colitis. By 1940 his back started hurting him, by 1944 he had his first back operation, by 1947 he was officially diagnosed as having Addison's Disease. And he was basically sick from then on through the rest of his life. He had two back operations, in '54 and '55, which failed. And he needed chronic pain medication from '55 through his White House years, until he died in Dallas. He was never healthy. I mean, the image you get of vigor and progressive health wasn't true. He was playing through pain most of the presidency. By the time he was president, he was on ten, 12 medications a day. And on top of that he was getting injected sometimes six times a day, six places on his back, by the White House physician, with Novocain, Procaine, just to enable him to face the day. He had compression fractures in his low back, he had osteoporosis. He had a lot of surgery. In 1954, they put a plate in because the pain was so bad he needed, or they felt he needed to have his spine stabilized. It got infected in '55, they took the plate out. By the late '50s there were periods had he couldn't put his own shoes on because he couldn't bend forward.

Not all chemicals are bad... Hmmm

"Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in beer." -Dave Barry


Well, I could not put this... He included the word chemicals... :)


That brings to the topic... Beer... I started enjoying beer not many years ago. The local Beer of Puerto Rico is well know around the world...

Medalla was awarded medallions in Australia, Barcelona and New Zealand, as one of the best beers of the world, according to Cervecería India's president, Camalia Valdés. According to management, the beer was awarded for its manufacturing process, the quality of the product, and commitment to its unique taste. The awards were: Gold medal and best beer in its class in the International Golden Lager category at the 2007 New Zealand Beer Awards, Quality Medal for the third consecutive year at the World Selection contest 2007, and Quality Medal at the Australian International Beer Awards 2007 (the second biggest beer competition in the world).(www.flickr.com)

So, once I wrote about ladies in the wine industry, being inspired by my trip to Napa, I decided: Why not do a research about women in the beer industry? So I did... What do you think about this: Some beer companies may still be reluctant to hire women because of the perception that women don’t like beer? Wrong!!!

So, I decide to do a search about ladies in the beer industry, I found this website that talked about this ladies... And here it is:

Carol Stoudt

Lady No.1:

Carol Stoudt, who founded the family-owned brewery that bears her name. Launched in 1987 in Pennsylvania, its success marks Stoudt not only as a pioneering female brewer, but also as a craft-beer pioneer in general. At the time small brewers struggled to get retailers and bars even to carry their products. It was doubly hard for Stoudt, who says potential clients figured she was just shilling for her husband, because she was a woman. (www.slate.com)


Can you believe that people thought that the whole idea and the person behind was HER HUSBAND? No offense, but why assume this?

Teri Fahrendorf

Lady No.2 :

Teri Fahrendorf, founder of the Pink Boots Society and the second female craft brewmaster in the United States was once denied a job at a brewery because her perspective employer refused to hire anyone who could not lift more than 50 pounds. When Fahrendorf landed a gig at Golden Gate Brewing Company in 1989, she ensured that physical limitations would not pose a hindrance to any employee.(slate.com)




I like her idea about Pink Boots Society, HELLO, PINK BOOTS!?! Love it :) .... Check this out from the http://pinkbootssociety.org/




Mission: The Pink Boots Society was created to empower women beer professionals to advance their careers in the Beer Industry through Education.
Organizational Goals: 
1. Encourage women consumers to learn about the history and craft of beer.2. Encourage women to learn how to homebrew.3. Encourage women to study to become professionals in the beer industry.4. Support PBS members to advance their beer careers through education.5. Teach women beer professionals the judging skills necessary to become beer judges at the GABF and other competitions.6. Educate the public about beer's historical and traditional role in society.Who Are the Pink Boots Society?We are the female movers and shakers in the beer industry. We get the beer brewed and fermented with the highest possible quality. We also own breweries, package the beer, design beers, serve beers, write about beer, and cover just about any aspect of beer, and we are all women. Most importantly, we teach each other what we know through our own seminar programs, and we help each other advance our beer careers by raising money for educational scholarships.

Lady No.3:

Tonya Cornett of Oregon’s Bend Brewing became the first woman to win a champion brewer award. Tonya’s first award came in 2006 when she won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival for Hophead in the American IPA category—the largest category that year. The following year she won a silver medal for Outback X in the Strong Ale category. Both wins put Tonya and Bend Brewing Co. on the map, as well as made for some very excited fans back in Bend.

But the best was yet to come—in 2008, Tonya was honored as the first woman to win the title of World Beer Cup Small Brewpub Brewer of the Year. Since, she’s been invited to guest brew within the U.S. and overseas, in both England and Belgium.(www.slate.com)

I know that out there, there's a lot of great women, making everything greater... I just chose this 3, just to interest you to find more.... If you do, put it in the comments... Be one with me!

Did I said Dinning in the Dark... Yeah I did!!

Well, when I said I was going to try to live life to the outermost I was not lying... Maybe I was exaggerating... But I not lying... I decided to wear bright colors... Love bright colors!! So I bought this nice dress for my birthday evening...

Of course... I was going to wear the bright shoes I bought... In the beginning I thought they might not go together... Well, I liked it... But, the interesting part comes now... I wanted my birthday dinner to be interesting, unforgettable... And for some reason, I wanted to have a story to tell... So I decided to go to Opaque Restaurant. Yeap, your heard me... Opaque... I chose to dine in the dark... I couldn't see my hands jajajaja I knew this restaurant existed from a movie and I decided to give it a try

From the movie When in Rome

Clip about Opaque LA

Our waitress was great! We literally walked in a line behind her... I was soooo worried I was going to fall... Did you see my shoes? Thank You! So I was in my head all the time: Do not fall, do not fall, do not fall!

They allow you to choose your food before sitting down... Of course, there is no way you can see the menu anyway... I have to say, It was great... Before dinner they brought us different vegetables with different sauces for us to try and guess what they where. I couldn't eat them all because they were vegetables, But at least I bit them just to guess what they were. At some point I did not use my utensils any more... What for? More that once I brought the fork to my mouth and it was empty!!! jajajaja So, I decided to use my hands... The food was yummy... The dessert was awesome!! chocolate cake with strawberries!!

I guess I can say... Dinning without looking at your food, eating with your hands and actually enjoy it.. CHECK!

PS The experience is nothing close to the one in the movie, the movie is jut far far far away from the reality... I just thought it was fun to watch :) and also, the waitress was  blind... so no weird mask or night vision googles 

Keep it coming...Birthday Experience!: Champagne... is the only wine that leaves a woman beautiful after drinking it.

Champagne... is the only wine that leaves a woman beautiful after drinking it- Madame De Pompadour

Who said wine, champagne and other liquor has to be owned, created or produced by man? Well, let me tell you that, a lot of Ladies have been an important key for some liquors. Let's take the champagne for example... I was reading this small article by Jiles Halling, who writes about leading ladies in the champagne business...

And I quote:

The success of many champagne brands, both in the past and right now, is down to the dynamic leadership of women at the head of the house. 

Lady No.1:

Nicole-Barbe Ponsardin

The first woman to take the champagne industry by storm is arguably the most famous of them all. No less than La Grande Dame herself: La Veuve Clicquot. Nicole-Barbe Ponsardin married François Clicquot at the end of the 18th century. François was the son of Philippe Clicquot who had founded Champagne Clicquot in 1772 and their champagne company was growing fast. François tragically died at the age of only 30, just six years after marrying, leaving Nicole-Barbe as the original Veuve Cliquot.( Veuve means widowin French).

Madame Pommery

Lady No.2:

Madame Jeanne Alexandrine Louis Pommery's story was similar.

Widowed in the 1860s, only two years after her husband Louis had taken a controlling stake in a champagne business, Jeanne faced the choice of turning her back on the whole thing, or pressing on herself. She chose to press on and over the next few years she built the fledgling house into one of the great champagne houses, building a magnificent, but weird-looking mansion in Reims and overseeing the contruction of 10 miles of cellars into the bargain.

Lady No.3:

Elizabeth Bollinger

In the 20th century Elizabeth (Lily) Bollinger took over the running of Champagne Bollinger when her husband, Jacques, died in 1941. It must have been a baptism of fire for Lily seeing that France was under German occupation at the time and resources of all types were in short supply.

With no petrol to fill the trucks and tractors Lily took to touring the vineyards on a bicycle to see and manage what was going on. The image of her on her bike, pedalling through the vineyards, has become one of the iconic images of champagne. 

Elizabeth Bollinger

Lily personally supervised just about every aspect of champagne making and handled the marketing as well. After the war it was Lily who spearheaded the expansion in the U.S. and U.K markets.

Her most lasting legacy is her famous quote about champagne that appeared in the Daily Mail in Great Britain in 1961:

"I drink it when I'm happy and when I'm sad.

Sometimes I drink it when I'm alone.

When I have company I consider it obligatory.

I trifle with it if I'm not hungry and I drink it when I am.

Otherwise I never touch it, unless I'm thirsty."

... I must say, I hope ladies around the world don't have to wait to be a widower to start a business, or to own something... I believe we live in different times now... I did found this other fact... I wonder, If we do not own a winery or make it famous, can we at least be knowledgeable?

Madeline Triffon

In 1987, Madeline Triffon, then at Detroit's London Chop House, became the first American woman to earn the title of master sommelier, awarded by England's Court of Master Sommeliers. It took another five years for a second American woman to be similarly honored.

Ntsiki Biyela

I also found this... 




In the South African wine industry Ntsiki Biyela is something of a rarity. The country's first black female winemaker when she started out six years ago, Biyela has established herself as an award-winning vintner.

I might not own a winery, a brand, or know much about it... But I do enjoy it, therefore, I decided to visit Napa for my birthday weekend.... However, I decided to do it in a more adventurous way... In a convertible... My dear friend and I drove around Napa and Sonoma. I enjoyed every minute of it... Great scenery, great wine and great company... What else do you need?

Who said a birthday cake had to be made with flour?

Well, my birthday finally came... I decided to try new shoes...For some reason, the new trend is NEON shoes, so I decided that for my birthday I was going to wear colorful shoes, colorful dress and a colorful new recipe as well. 

Once I got my gorgeous shoes, I wonder what type of cake I was going to make... Hmmm... no fiber, no fiber....GOT IT!! Jello!!!! So, I decided to have a Jello for a cake... But, I wanted it to be fun... so, I decided to do a rainbow jello... with... wait for it... wait for it....VODKA.. for those who do not drink, you can always exchange the vodka for water. I haven't try it with water, but soon I will do a jello with ice cream and no alcohol, so you can take that recipe too. 

I found this beautiful jello recipe on tablespoon.com. I decided to exchange the yogurt for ice cream... More yummy... Hints, if you are using ice cream like I did, you have to stirr the mix constantly. The ice cream is cold, so the jello starts getting hard before time... It is better for it to be at room temperature and "liquified" rather than sticky....

Ingredients

• 4 1/2 cups water, divided
• 6 3 oz packages flavored gelatin dessert mix
• 3 envelopes plain gelatin (6 tsp gelatin powder, divided)
• 3 cups flavored rum or vodka, divded
• 1 1/8 cup vanilla yogurt, divided

Directions

1. 1Place the bottle of liquor in the freezer for several hours before beginning recipe.
2. 2Lightly spray bundt pan or gelatin mold with non stick cooking spray. (I used a 10 cup bundt pan.) Wipe off the excess spray with a paper towel. A slight residue should remain, just enough to help unmold your gelatin, without affecting the taste or appearance.
3. 3Pour 3/4 cup water into a saucepan and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of the plain gelatin. Allow gelatin to soak for a minute or two. Heat over low heat, stirring constantly, until gelatin is dissolved (about 5 minutes). Wisk in the first package of flavored gelatin. Whisk for at least 2 minutes, or until completely dissolved. (I find the sugar free mix dissolves much faster than the regular!).
4. 4Remove from heat. Add 1/2 cup of the cold liquor, and stir to combine.
5. 5Pour 3/4 cup of the gelatin mixture into the prepared mold, and place in refrigerator. Allow to set for 20 to 30 minutes, until the gelatin is a little firm, but still sticks when touched. Very important – if the layers set up too much, the next layer won’t bond appropriated.
6. 6Refrigerate the remaining gelatin mixture in bowl about 5 minutes or until slightly thickened (consistency of unbeaten egg whites). Gradually stir in 3 tablespoons of yogurt and stir until well blended. This cooling step is also important – the gelatin must be cooled to room temperature before adding on top of other layers, or the layers will not be well defined!
7. 7Gently spoon the gelatin/yogurt mixture over set gelatin and return to the refrigerator Refrigerate about 15 minutes or until gelatin is set but not firm (Again, it should stick to finger when touched.) As the layers progress, the setting time will become shorter as the pan and gelatin becomes colder, and the layers become thinner as more layers are added to the mold.
8. 8Repeat steps with remaining gelatin flavors, for a total of 12 alternating clear and creamy gelatin layers.
9. 9After completing all the layers, refrigerate the gelatin overnight. To unmold, fill a larger container or clean sink with warm water (not too hot!). With clean fingers, loosen the gelatin around the edges of the mold cavities. Next, dip the mold almost to the edge into the warm water for just a few seconds (10 seconds worked for me). Dry the bottom of the mold with a towel and check the edges to see if they are loose, if not, repeat the dip for just a few seconds. Place your serving plate on top of the mold and invert. Viola!

My philosophy: Birthday week, let the fun begin...: Ahoy Sailor!!

  When I was a kid, my family for some reason decided that, each birthday was an opportunity for a trip. Each birthday, we had a road trip to different places in Puerto Rico. I remember my sister's birthday trip to the Morro, which is a Fort we have in the Old San Juan (Castillo San Felipe del Morro). We had a great day! 

San Felipe del Morro

    Therefore, I decided that a day is just not enough... With the years, I have developed this idea that a day is just no enough, you have friends, family and love ones who you want to spent your birthday with and sometimes is not possible to do it just one day... And of course, and excuse to make, the ONLY day dedicated just to YOU last a bit longer. So, I decided to go sailing a weekend before my birthday...Why not? I got this awesome deal at livingsocial.com, to sail at the San Francisco bay... neat uh?

Alcatraz

Me

It was great, for a moment I forgot about all the things I was worried about in my life, about all the things I can not control, about all my crushed dreams... And I focused on the moment... We sailed closed to Alcatraz and just enough to see the bridge... These are the days that I feel blessed... And all the stress goes away....

Snowboarding baby!

Part of the things makes me feel good is doing stuff I never thought I would. When I was diagnosed with Crohns', I realized my life was about to change in a drastic way... Before I even knew what was causing the pain, I wasn't able to eat much. Everything I ate caused me pain... NO matter how much I wanted to eat it, I couldn't. That's when I started appreciating food... You never know when you cannot eat it any more. And I was right! So, before I knew I couldn't eat fiber I started eating salads, which I didn't ate before, vegetable, and all kinds of stuff that I didn't like before... And I promised myself that I would try everything at least once... I might write later a list of all the weird stuff ( no fiber) that I have tried :). But the point is, that I realized, that sometimes we take things for granted... Even adventures...

Here is where my story begins... I live on an Island in the Caribbean... My beautiful Puerto Rico... I can snorkel, do boat trips, kayak but, I cannot ski or snowboard... Oh, I forgot, I've swam with sea turtles... But, there isn't snow in PR!!

However, while visiting California this spring I realized: Well, I am not in Colorado nor Canada, but I am close to Tahoe... Yeah baby! There's snow in Tahoe!! I do not know how to do anything related to snow... But I do not care! :)

I started planning my trip, and I decided to drive to Tahoe with my friend. We stayed at this chick's house, who we contacted by a website where you can rent  room at someone's house or the whole thing. So, we rented her room. For our surprise, she was a snowboarding instructor! By the way, do you realize that I do not even own snowboarding stuff nor stuff for cold weather?... Well, this girl was kind enough to lend us her clothes and hook us up with some equipment...That's when I said... Let the adventure begin :)

I was all excited that morning... We drove to Kirkwood and started learning... Oh man! I fell sooooo many times jajajajaja But, it is the pain of adventure and I love it! Of course, we stayed at the beginners area, and I was able to go up and down the hill by myself twice! jajajaj I know is not much, but is more than I ever thought I'll do :)

And at the end... I was able to look back and say: DONE! to another thing from my list :)