Who am I and why do I eat Gluten Free?
For many years I felt lethargic and had headaches but could never really put a finger on why. A lot of things make sense looking back at them but at the time it is hard to explain.
The turning point for me was my 30th birthday. It was a memorable event for many reasons, my daughter was old enough for us to feel comfortable traveling with her, and it was the first time that I visited San Francisco. We were having the time of our lives exploring the city and felt that for the first time ever we had found the place where we belonged. We were staying with my wife’s uncle getting a local experience by living in the neighborhood. For my birthday he cooked us an incredible pasta dinner, pasta had always been one of my favorite meals. In fact, one of the first dates my wife and I had, I cooked her a great pasta dinner. Much like that meal this meal had a loaf of garlic bread, it was a meal to savor. That night I woke up early in the morning feeling unwell with this incredible pain in my stomach, as I lay in bed my head began to pound. This was my vacation I did not want to be sick after laying in bed for a few hours the pain in my stomach had become worse I got up to brush my teeth and face the day, as I got to the bathroom I could feel my stomach tighten, I hurried to open the toilet and just in the nick of time I got the toilet open to heave out my dinner from the night before, I can clearly remember the bright green bile being expelled when my stomach was empty I sat on the floor in a cold sweat continuing to have my stomach dry heave tighten and dry heave over and over. By this time of the morning, everyone else was awake and aware of my condition.
Being the wonderful host that my wife’s uncle was he offered to make us breakfast, as the old tale goes what is good for an upset stomach. Something bland to absorb what every is going on in your stomach, He made us a pot of 9 grain cereal what could be better than a blend of grains (wheat, barley, Oats, etc. ) well that sat ok at first so along with a healthy dose of Pepto-Bismol we headed off for the train to further explore the city. Having woken up so early we were joining the commuters on the train as we made our way downtown. Sitting there I felt something stirring in my stomach a little burp and my stomach decided it was no longer enjoying the Pepto so up it came. I was able to keep it in my mouth and avoided spraying all those around us on the crowded train. Some how I managed to choke in back down and carried on with the rest of our holiday. Returning from the vacation I had lost 10 lbs, which may sound wonderful to some but when you are only 150lbs to begin with it is a little concerning.
This traumatic experience convinced me that I needed to know why I was feeling awful. I went to the doctor to figure out what was going on. He quite quickly clued in that I had a family history of Celiac disease. My mother had be diagnosed many years before and had been eating gluten free for years, in fact I used to poke fun at her and never thought I could some day be in that boat. He ordered a blood test to see if I had an antibody indicating celiac disease, the results came back off the chart. The doctor said that I could get a biopsy to confirm but he was very confident based on the blood test and the family history. So that is when my gluten free journey began. I never had the biopsy taken because I didn’t want to wait to begin feeling better.
Within 2 weeks of eating gluten free, I felt like a new man, I had energy, and my head was so much clearer, I didn’t need to sleep as much as before. While it hasn’t always been easy I am thankful for how it is minor compared to so many other conditions.
While my story of diagnosis ends here, it was just the beginning of my gluten free life. The bigger challenge of dealing with my daughter diagnosis as a celiac was still to come.