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Celiac Disease and Being Glutened

By on May 20, 2016 in Celiac Disease, Dieting, Dining Out, Gluten Free | 0 comments

When you have Celiac Disease, you have days that are manageable, and you have days that are tough to get through. The diet restrictions alone are enough to keep you from enjoying some of the good things in life like dining out or traveling to new places. Since Julie’s diagnosis, we found that gluten free choices are limited to more than just places that advertise gluten free, but places that truly understand the contamination risks and take precautions to get the order right. There have been a few times we were either rushed or misunderstood and the order was not right, which led to Julie ‘being glutened’. We use the term being glutened like we use ‘food poisoning’, but the physical healing time from being exposed to gluten can last for days beyond the exposure. The mental and emotional effects can last longer. It is critical that we limit the chances that...

Celiac Disease and Broken Bones

By on May 17, 2016 in Celiac Disease, Health, Talking to Doctors | 1 comment

There are dozens of symptoms of Celiac Disease, some are more prevalent than others, and some are more difficult to deal with than others. Over the last several years, Julie has experienced many symptoms including trembling stomach cramps, constant fatigue, irritability, severe headaches, skin changes, debilitating joint pain, bone loss and broken bones. By the time we finally got her Celiac diagnosis, her nutrient levels were through the floor. Her first broken bone was in her foot, which she wasn’t overly concerned about. The second was a stress fracture in her leg, which could have been from anything, but she attributed to weight loss and physical training before our wedding. The third broken bone was more serious, so we started looking for answers. At first, we wondered if it was her thyroid medication. We found a possible connection, but we also skeptical because she had a...

Flying With Celiac Disease

By on May 15, 2016 in Advice, Celiac Disease, Dining Out, Travel | 0 comments

Flying with Celiac Disease is one of the more challenging dietary restrictions a person can face. We find it exceptionally difficult to find food while we’re moving through airports. Larger airports would seem to have more selection, but they are not much better than smaller commuter airports. Julie and I have spent more time looking for food in airports than actually sitting down and enjoying a meal. Our last trip was unfortunate – we found a gluten free restaurant advertised as such, open until 10PM with our plane landing at 8:45, so we should have had plenty of time to get to the spot and have a decent meal. By the time we reached the restaurant at 9:00PM, they told us they closed at 9. They reluctantly agreed to seat us, but no one knew exactly how the gluten free food was prepared, or the degree in which they could assure no cross-contamination. We were starving, so we...

Where Do I Begin?

By on May 15, 2016 in Celiac Disease, Talking to Doctors | 0 comments

The last couple of months have been incredibly challenging. After the due date for our child passed, our sadness accumulated to the point of boiling over. There is an unthinkable feeling of emptiness combined with the question of whether we could have done anything to save her. We question ourselves every day as to what went wrong, what we may or may not have done correctly, and where do we go from here? Our first instinct was to make someone pay for this. How could such a thing happen, especially in this day of modern medicine? We talked to people about it, but the reaction was not exactly what we were expecting. Surprisingly, people did not want to talk to us about it, pushing it off as any other tragedy in life. “Have you talked to a professional?,” was the most common question people asked us, as if talking to a professional would make us feel any more complete....

Welcome to MyCeliacWife.com

By on Mar 27, 2016 in Celiac Disease | 1 comment

As the weekend is coming to a close, I’m sitting on my couch writing the first blog post about my wife, Julie, and her struggle with Celiac disease.  Celiac has made a big impact on our lives, bigger than anything we could have ever imagined.  Last year we lost two children, something we’ll never recover from, let alone understand.  Today is our second baby’s due date, so it was exceptionally challenging for both of us. Fortunately, we had family with us to help us cope. We’ve learned over the years that Celiac disease can mean a lot of different things.  Some people have it and don’t experience symptoms.  Others have debilitating intestinal damage that takes years to heal.  Celiac doesn’t present itself as obvious as other diseases, and the damage that’s done can’t be fixed by a pill or surgery.  You literally have to come back to life...

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