It all started on St Patrick's Day

The irony of celiac disease is that it is very common in people of Irish descent. Yes a nation that prides themselves with their beer drinking ability and savory Irish Whisky is also well known for the disease that prevents the consumption of either of these. 

I guess it's the irony that that makes my diagnoses so perfect. My "last meal" was Irish Soda Bread consumed in great quantities on St. Patrick's Day in 2005. Thinking back if I had known it would be the last thing I ate with gluten in it (on purpose anyway) I'm not sure it is what I would have chosen, but now I am glad I did, it is not something I can easily forget. 

Two weeks of nausea, especially after I ate, brought me to the doctors office. My doctor was all too used to seeing me since my bout with mono two years before, I never seemed to fully recover. This time I had had it, a person should not be sick that often, there had to be a real problem and a solution to the problem. The doctor performed many tests, years later I cannot remember what they were testing me for, but none of them were for celiac disease. My mother was the one who suggested they look in that direction. A family friend was living with celiac disease and my mother recognized some of the symptoms. She requested a blood test be done.

A part of me didn't want the test done at all. I didn't want to know I was allergic to gluten, what was I going to eat?? But I had no choice. The doctor handed me printed out sheets of how to live with Celiac and sent me home. I lived off corn chips and salsa for weeks. 

Slowly my mother and I did more research, poked through every grocery store and health food store around looking for gluten-free food, browsed the internet for any kind of information to keep me from starving to death. Thankfully we knew a whole family full of celiacs who were more than happy to help out with my introduction to the gluten free world. 

Four years later I feel like an expert navigating my way through new grocery stores, dealing with waiters, traveling abroad, and attending college. It has been a little difficult getting used to new things, living with new people, and trying to keep my food uncontaminated. But now, it is just a way of life. And when people say, "Oh, it must be so hard on you, gluten is in everything, how do you do it?" I just wave it off, "Eh, piece of cake." Gluten-free cake, of course.