Celiac Disease Awareness Month 2021: We Can’t Stop
Disclaimer: I am not a licensed medical doctor or counselor. All of my posts are from my own personal experiences in the areas of my own health and wellness. My posts are meant to inspire you in your health journey, but do not qualify for professional medical advice or diagnosis. Please consult a licensed medical professional or counselor. I cannot be personally held responsible for any advice you take from my blog postings and implement into your life without consulting a medical professional first.
Hello my loyal readers! I hope this post finds you happy, healthy, and well. It is May, which means it is Celiac Disease Awareness Month. You can check out all of my other posts regarding celiac disease here.
This is my tenth May raising awareness for this autoimmune disease, which is crazy and hard to believe. For those of you who don’t know, Celiac Disease is an autoimmune disease in which your body is not able to process and breakdown gluten. Instead, the body attacks itself and harms the “villi” in the small intestines. This attack happens in every organ of the body and there are over 300 symptoms associated with the disease. It can occur at any age throughout life after gluten is introduced into the diet.
I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease in October of 2011, which was shortly before my 21st birthday. Experiencing gastrointestinal problems my whole life, and dealing with an exhaustion I could never describe well enough, is what brought me to my celiac disease diagnosis. That, and the fact when I would go to the bathroom my sister complained to my mom how it smelled up the whole downstairs. Some other symptoms I experienced were mood swings, constant headaches, and skin rashes.
Since I became gluten free I’ve been very consistent with adhering to the gluten free diet. I also can say that within the past ten years there have only been a handful of times I potentially ate gluten accidentally, and countless times of cross contamination while eating out.
Unfortunately one of my glutened experiences happened just three short weeks ago.
My Recent Glutened Story
My fiancé and I had grabbed lunch at a place we have been at a few times, and that I’ve ate at a couple of times throughout my gluten free years. I walked away from eating at the establishment feeling like I was cross contaminated, which means my food came in contact with gluten when it was prepared. However it has never been that big of a reaction out of my body.
“Three weeks ago I had probably the biggest reaction after eating out in the past 10 years. I was glutened.”
When I experience cross contamination with my food, I sometimes experience bloating, nausea, gas, and some brain fog within three hours of eating. After managing my celiac disease for ten years, when I eat gluten now I experience extreme vomiting, diarrhea, bloating, and brain fog. My symptoms also last for days and I am typically out of sorts mentally for almost a week, not to mention the many weeks of healing it takes for my gut, and whole body to recover.
After managing this disease for the past ten years, I thankfully can say it isn’t something I actively think about on a daily basis. I’m used to packing my lunch, eating before going to friends house, not partaking in the holiday meals or other events I attend. Is it always easy in the moment, absolutely not, but it’s way better than the alternative.
“Sometimes I forget this disease is a part of me and my life. That is until I am head deep in a toilet bowl and my body is taking every means necessary to get what I ate out of me.”
Celiac Disease is a very real disease and is hard to manage, especially when it comes to eating outside your very safe at home kitchen.
It is important that we always keep our guard up when dining out, that we always educate when we are called, to constantly raise our voice when it comes to making people aware of this disease, and to stick to our gluten free diet.
We can’t stop and we will not stop until there is a cure.
Until next time,
