Saturday, September 7, 2013

“Lessons Learned or Why I Should Quit Being a Doubting Thomas”!




Throughout my life, there have been times when I tried to push the envelope or do what “Everyone Else” was doing. It has never worked.  I always get caught! That being said, I will move on to my latest lesson learned.

As you know, Shank and I were in Europe for 2 weeks. While on the ship, I was able to follow my gluten free lifestyle. However during shore excursions and in Barcelona, it was more difficult. If the excursion included a lunch, it was usually pasta. So, needless to say, I cheated. I did pretty well in Europe, just some joint pain and swelling, but nothing that I couldn’t live with. I think the reason is because there is less gluten in European wheat.

Flash forward: We come back from Europe and Labor Day is upon us. The last weekend of August, we spend a wonderful day with our friend Judith on Group Therapy. Everyone brought food to share. One of the foods available was chicken strips. I decided to have 2.  After all, I had just spent 3 weeks eating pasta and bread once a day, what was going to happen with the breading on 2 chicken strips?  The next day, I woke up with what I thought were mosquito bites.  The next week went by and everything seemed to be fine. On Thursday, I woke up late and missed breakfast. So I stopped and got a sausage biscuit. Now usually, I throw away the biscuit and just eat the sausage, but again, what could it hurt. 2 hours later, I am aching and having chills. In my denial, I thought, “ I must still be tired from the trip”.  Saturday, I cooked Gumbo and Shrimp and Grits for 20 people! We had so much fun! I have adapted both recipes so that they are gluten free. The only thing that I made that wasn’t gluten free was homemade Banana Pudding. I had a serving. I woke up in the middle of the night itching and I was so sore the next day I had trouble walking. Again, I realized that the aches were from the pudding but thought I had a mosquito in the house. On Sunday, I went to my friend Lorie’s for a cook out! I thought that I had not had any gluten but after about 30 minutes, I had chills again and had what looked like chicken pox appear on my arms.

Now here is where I should have listened to reason. But I just had to push that envelope. I just had to know for sure. I told Shank, this is probably not the thing to do, but I have to know for sure if this rash is caused by wheat/gluten. I decided that if I was going to do it I was going to go out with a bang! I had a chocolate chip cookie and a turtle brownie!

By midnight, I was covered in whelps and oozing sores, having chills, headache, and aching all over!  I tried to self medicate (being a nurse and all) but after 5 days of no relief and being unable to sleep with out clawing myself and drawing blood, I ended up at the doctor’s office.  Now 3 days into steroids, I can wear clothes with out pain!

The doctor told me that if I wanted to be tested for Celiac, she would order the testing, but that her recommendation was to consider myself Celiac and NEVER eat wheat or gluten again. I am considering whether to have the test or not. Either way, I am off of gluten.

Now why am I telling you this? First gluten is gluten. I should have not eaten it in Europe. It is interesting to know that I am not as bothered there.  Secondly, 95% of people with Celiac Disease do not know that they have it. I am including a Celiac Symptoms website that you may find interesting. I hope that this may help someone who is having issues and does not know why.

Until next time!

No comments:

Post a Comment