Welcome to my life part one (Coeliac, Asthma and Buffy)

Photo taken in New York October 2007

Music Evanescence. Mood. Tired and a bit moody. Food. Ham and Pineapple Pizza

Updates on the website. I've added this blog, updated the news section and added some new photos.

Welcome to my blog peeps and thanks for visiting. This blog will be about my daily trials and tribulations. It will contain my thoughts on the day and this website. My intention is to not pull any punches on this blog (about the way that I am feeling) Some times you will like what I have to say and other times you'll probably be screaming at your computer. But hell, if we all agreed on everything we'd be robots. Which I am anyway a lot of the time...


So, who am I? Well, my name is Steven and I live in a little town called Wibsey in West Yorkshire. I was born with Eczema and Asthma (well at least that's the technical term) I actually developed Asthma when I was around three years old. My father had both and grew out of them. Although recently he quit smoking and the asthma came back. Touch wood my asthma is much better. As a child I was in and out of hospital and I had a machine at home for bad attacks. I haven't taken my inhalers in many months (I just stopped taking them to see if I could) But I do take a Ventolin inhaler if I need it. I have bad eczema but I'll discuss that at a later date (I bet you're excited... lol) I adore all things "Whedon" esp Buffy but more on that in a minute...

COELIAC

Recently I was diagnosed with Coeliac Disease. It's an auto immune disease that robs your body of it's vitamins and minerals due to your bodies intolerance of Gluten. Gluten is a protein, the sticky substance found in wheat, barley and rye. OK, on the surface that doesn't sound too bad does it? Well, think again. Wheat is in almost everything inc bread (obviously) I am not allowed to eat any of these products as they destroy my stomach lining. So, I eat substitutes which I get on prescription. The bread I get is called Shar and it tastes just like normal bread but it's made out of rice mainly. Barley is in beer and larger. So, I hardly ever drink and if I did it would have to be cider or horrible gluten free beer. My doctors tell me that it will take between six months to two years for my stomach to heal and that I can never eat gluten again. I felt ill for five years plus and I kept telling my doctors to no avail. So, eventually a kind nurse recommended that I be tested for Coeliac disease. The results came back positive but they had to be confirmed with a biopsy. What happens is a camera is placed into your throat and threaded around your intestines to your stomach so that they can see how your stomach is. My lining was almost flat when in a normal person it would be raised. I still feel achy and tired, I need to lie down often in the day and exercise to gain a little bit of energy. I'm taking iron tablets as my iron is very low due to coeliac. I feel exhausted alot of the time and because of this I'm at home alot. Hence this website which is a nice distraction.

BUFFY

Well, seen as I have all of these problems (and trust me we've barely scratched the surface) I (like a lot of you) look for inspiration in something. This inspiration is "the Whedonverse" I love Buffy and I want a Buffybot (there I said it) Yep, Joss knows how to appeal to the geek in all of us. I'm a little obsessed with Buffy and I have been since 1998 when season two aired for the first time. I remember watching the pilot and it didn't really grip me. Sure, I thought it was ok but it didn't kick start my obsession. It was so long a go that I can't remember which episode did but it was season 2 and during the BBC2 airings. Buffy means alot to me because when ever I was feeling down I could put an episode on and feel better. I would feel what the characters were feeling and going through the same problems. Buffy may be about demons and monsters but it's the closest thing to reality (in terms of characters) that I've ever seen on television.

I remember reading about a girl that started learning martial arts because of Buffy. A good female friend of mine did too and she loved Angel. But anyway back to the girl, she was attacked in the street and she fought the mugger off. Down to Buffy. I myself have studied kickboxing and tae-bo for many years because of Buffy. I have started writing scripts and I've wanted to be a serious scriptwriter for many years now due to Joss Whedon's writing (his commentaries are excellent) Buffy continues to influence my life through DVD showings and the new season 8 comics.

Tomorrow. Eczema and the real world.

Steven Lee is the creator of Whedonverse and Whedonverseforum at proboards.