Celiac Anniversary

Friday Friday Friday!

I thought this week would never end.  It was an awful one and I’m happy to say it is over.

I came home from work and plopped myself on the couch.  I’m truly worn out.  The go-go-go thing can only continue on for so long before you crash.  I’m aiming to be in bed quite early to get in a good 10 or so hours and will probably fall asleep on the couch in the near future.

Today is a very special day for me. 

4 years ago this evening, I was desperately searching the web for anything that might help me feel better.  I had been sick for years and I had no hope that I would ever get better.  Through pure luck, I stumbled upon some information on Celiac and furiously read everything I could get my hands on.  It wasn’t a perfect fit – I didn’t have the most common symptoms and I wasn’t aware (at that time) that I had any genetic predisposition to it – but I was at the end of my rope.  I would have tried anything in the hopes that it would have made me feel even 5% better.

So I decided to give it a try because I really didn’t have anything to lose and at least it would have given me one more thing to check off the list that I didn’t have, thus narrowing the list of the things I could possibly have.

April 16, 2006 just so happened to be a Sunday.  I’m not big on starting things on Mondays or the 1st of the month or the 1st of the year, but… I didn’t actually think it would work.  I thought it would be another thing that I tried that I got my hopes up over that didn’t pan out to anything.

So 4 years ago today, I ate my last morsel of  gluten as a gluten-eating member of society.  And 4 years ago Sunday morning, I woke up feeling better than I had in years.  It is hard for me to comprehend how I could feel so much better after ONE day GF, but I did.  And after a week?  I felt like a new person. (It doesn’t work that way for me anymore – I’m flat on my back for 5-6 days after a glutening.)

The first couple of weeks were incredibly difficult – I didn’t know what to make myself to eat and I was completely terrified of my own kitchen (and this was before I really understood cross contamination!).  I wandered the aisles at the grocery store, picking items up only to put them back down because I couldn’t verify they were GF.  But it got easier and easier and after a while, it wasn’t hard anymore.  And now, here I am 4 years later, thanking God that I was inspired for some reason to spend a couple hours on Google.

Dinner tonight was an $11.04 Whole Foods (Whole Wallet) salad.

• romaine / spinach base
• kale
• red cabbage
• red / green / yellow bell pepper strips
• shredded carrot
• zucchini
• yellow squash
• blueberries
• cantaloupe
• pineapple
• dried cranberries
• walnuts
• olive oil / balsamic

You know, I love a good salad.  But $11 for basically some raw veggies and fruit?  Meh.

I also had a slice of Kinnikinnick Tapioca Rice bread with Smuckers PB + Crofter’s Europe Superfruit Spread (which looks fine by the ingredient list, but I can’t find that it claims to be GF anywhere).

And I’m planning on some wine + chocolate chip stress therapy in 3… 2… 1..

Nite!