Life With Celiac Disease

March 5, 2010 | Posted by

A General Explanation of my Life With Celiac Disease

When I first began to tell people I had Celiac Disease I had
some pretty odd reactions. Most people had never heard of it. If
they had they didn’t know what it meant. Most don’t want to ask,
after all, it does have that word “disease” in it. It’s not
catchy, doesn’t spread like the common cold or the flu and you
can’t get it from anyone, anywhere. Except, probably, from your
long passed grandparent, aunt, uncle or some other distant, or
perhaps, close relative. Celiac Disease is usually an inherited
disease, in the same family of diseases as diabetes, lupus,
rheumatoid arthritis, etc. All autoimmune diseases. It just
means the body turns on itself. There are little soldiers inside
beating each other up. The more gluten you take in the happier
they are.

I generally am amused at the reaction I receive when asked how I
possibly EAT! My rheumatologist, who I have seen for all these
years and who diagnosed me after several years of trying to
figure out why this crazy lady had so many really odd symptoms
that no one else has, still asks me how do I live without pasta.
He knows I come from a large Italian family & have big Sunday
suppers, mostly of pasta with homemade sauce and homemade
everything else. People always say they know they couldn’t do
it. Oh yes you can. I just think of the alternative and now I’ll
never go back to “toxic pasta” and “illegal bread”. No way. You
see, bloating, cramping, nausea, diarrhea, constipation, on and
on, is always in the back of my mind. I can’t tell you how many
times I have attempted to order a meal at a restaurant that I
could somehow manipulate to be gluten free by the time it
arrived at my table.

There are no restaurants where I live with the words “gluten
free” on the menu so I must prod the server for information
related to what might be in the food I want to order. Since most
people don’t know what I mean by gluten free, I just ask if it
contains wheat. If there is nothing visible on the plate that
looks like wheat the answer will always be no. Don’t blame the
server, they don’t know they are deceiving you. Always follow
that up with something like…is there gravy?….is it
breaded?….have those fries been dusted in flour?….is there
croutons on the salad? The reaction I usually get when I say
that I can’t have bread is this…”oh, there’s no wheat in it,
it’s white bread”. I don’t laugh, that would be rude. I just
follow that up with, sorry, can’t have it. We Celiac’s will
never be able to educate the masses on what it really means to
live without gluten. We just have to accept that this is our
job, no pay of course. When someone doesn’t get it, just smile
and say no thanks, and order the salad with oil and vinegar and
dress it yourself. http://www.vickisglutenfreeforlife.com

About the author, Vicki Mattera:
Diagnosed with Lupus in 1991 followed by Celiac Disease in 1995.

Categories: Autoimmune Disease, General Fitness, General Health, Wellbeing, Wellbeing And Health Management | Tags: autoimmune diesease, celiac disease, coeliac, gluten intolerance | No Comments »