It’s been almost a year since I’ve eaten wheat...
Last year, Kaiya and Megan made fast friends with our neighbors children, Kylie and Jack. Little did we know then that this friendship would be life changing…even life saving.
After about a month of playing together at each other’s houses one school morning we woke up to a few inches of snow – which shut down the schools and most of Maple Valley. Instant snow day! The kid-dos all went sledding and built a snowman, then came in to warm up by the fire and trade silly bandz. After all that it was getting close to lunch time. Kaiya and Megan wanted to know if Kylie and Jack could eat lunch with us, so we asked if they could. Their response wasn’t what we had expected. While Jack said, “sure” – Kylie said, “I can’t have any with gluten or wheat” – what? You can’t have wheat? That sounds crazy! Wheat’s in everything! I called her Mom (Trez) to get the scoop and it turns out both Kylie and her mom, have Celiac Disease, an autoimmune disease, which means the body attacks itself after wheat or gluten are ingested. After a brainstorming session, we ended up figuring out that Mark’s Nachos Grande would be safe for Kylie to eat. Lunch was a success and later in the day Kylie’s mom, Trez, brought over some books and literature for me to read. I wanted to find out all I could to make sure our home was a safe place for Kylie to come play. I had no idea what Celiac Disease nor had I ever heard about it.
As I read thru the first book, The G-free Diet by Elisabeth Hasselbeck, I was amazed at how much I related to her story. For those who didn’t catch the first season of Survivor, Elisabeth was the winner of that season. She talks about how although she had little to nothing to eat the entire time she was a contestant, she had never felt better in her life. Later she realized that the suffering and pain she was enduring and even accepting as normal was all due to her eating wheat and gluten. When she was on the island there was NO wheat. As she listed symptoms, sparks and stars started going off in my own head…but it was hard for me to believe that food, especially wheat, could have that kind of effect on anyone. I have to say I was actually very dismissive of the whole concept, but was compelled to read more…
Here’s the list of symptoms – a person with Celiac Disease or Non-Celiac Gluten Intollerance could have 1 or 2 symptoms, 8 to 12 symptoms, all the symptoms at different times or never have symptoms at all and still have Celiac...
• Abdominal pain
• Bloating or pot belly
• Constipation, specifically Celiac Disease Constipation
• Diarrhea
• Weight loss
• Vomiting
• Delayed growth, stunted growth or Failure to Thrive
• Gluten Ataxia
• Sjogren’s Disease
• Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis
• Turner Syndrome
• Peripheral Neuropathy
• Type 1 Diabetes
• Autism
• Anemia
• Arthritis
• Bone loss
• Bone pain
• Depression, irritability or Celiac Depression
• High and lows in personality, feelings of being inconsistent
• Fatigue
• Infertility
• Joint pain
• Mouth sores or mouth ulcers
• Seizures, Epilepsy
• Numbness or tingling in the patient’s hands and feet
• Stomach pain
• Gas
• Foul smelling or bloody stools
• Hypoglycemia
• Hair loss (Alopecia)
• Lactose intolerance
• Teeth and gum problems
• Vitamin and Mineral deficiencies
• Dermatitis Herpetiformis (a skin rash)
• Osteoporosis
• Steatorrhea (high fat or lipids within the stool or feces); often causes floating stools
Isn’t this a crazy list??
As I read through the list I related to abdominal pain, bloating or pot belly (mine was SO bad people were always asking if I was pregnant again!), diarrhea, mild depression and unexplainable irritability, highs and lows in my personality, fatigue, joint pain, stomach pain, gas, hypoglycemia, hair loss, lactose intolerance, teeth problems, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, skin rashes, and definitely the last one floating stools – sorry for TMI – but it’s an important part of my story!
I started reading the second book, The First Year: Celiac Disease and Living Gluten-Free by Jules E. Dowler Shepard. As I started reading – scary as it was – everything that I was reading rang true to unexplained feelings and symptoms that I’d been experiencing for 11 years.
I would try to explain what was going on to doctors and they would just look at me and say, ‘there’s nothing wrong with you’ ‘you’re healthy as a horse’ ‘I’m sure it’ll go away’ or my personal favorite ‘it’s all in your head’.
Knowing these symptoms weren’t normal, it always felt VERY wrong hearing doctors tell me these things. But you continue on, living with everything, because if a doctor can’t figure out what’s wrong then maybe it is all just in my head! Tests come back negative for different theories – trial of medications trying to fix this symptom or that symptom – but still you never feel like the diagnoses fits.
After reading the second book, I started reading all I could about Celiac Disease, Autoimmune Disorders, Gluten Intolerance, and Wheat Allergies. I knew I was onto something, all the puzzle pieces were starting to fit together.
After three weeks of reading and research, I made the decision to stop, cold turkey, eating wheat and anything else that contained gluten…and I was shocked. Shocked to realize just how much wheat I had been eating every day with every meal and every snack. Shocked to realize I had no idea what to eat??!! I had no recipes I could whip up that didn’t contain wheat.
It was hard to come to terms with the fact that if I had Celiac I would never eat real bread again, muffins, cupcakes and cake, donuts, cookies…and don’t even get me started on the fact that Panera Bread was my favorite restaurant!
But I think the most shocking realization came when I started to notice just how wonderful and comfortable I was feeling as I cut wheat and gluten out completely. The results were almost immediate – it only took 2 days before – my whole body felt great – it was incredible – so incredible that I made the decision never to eat wheat or gluten again…
I will always remember the last gluten filled treat I ate, though, Shauna Wolfert's Lemon cupcakes with Lemon Frosting. As far as treats go that was the perfect note to end on!
It’s been almost a year since I’ve eaten wheat, it’s been a long all-consuming road (hence the lack of blogging…well amongst all the other things I still need to blog about that have impacted my blogging abilitlies…blurg) of educating myself on how to cook and bake and eat – but I’m finally feeling like things are normalizing again – and I’ve never felt better or clearer in my life. I thoroughly enjoy my gluten-free-dom!
And I will forever be grateful for that snow day last year when I first heard the words Celiac Disease…stay tuned for more...
