CeLiAc CeLeBrItY

After taking the tour in the spring of '02, I headed to Thiel to begin my freshman year that August (the 18th, to be precise). Cross Country camp starts early--I'll be there on the 21st this year (if I don't have to go to the country fair with the radio station for my internship). I was terrified, even though the campus is small, about numerous college awareness factors for young, single, vulnerable females. I remember waiting for my physical and literally gripping the wall. Initially (in high school, where I made fun of for numerous reasons), I didn't do well in social situations. Not all outgoing people can be outgoing 24 hours a day. Try being outgoing and having sensitivity issues at the same time because of your past. Eventually, I got to know each team member, and dated two of them. Both boys (to call them men is to give credit where credit is not due, to put it nicely) dumped me--the first boyfriend for another runner on my team. This particular girl used to make comments in practice shortly before their relationship (he cheated on me the entire time) was made public to the rest of the team when he left me. I will post the story about this from one of my first posts when I joined the message board last year. It will be in the next entry.My first roommate also stole $480 from my saving and checking accounts by stealing my debit card when I was in class. I caught her when I went home with Mono for the weekend--since I discovered that the card was missing. She was promptly asked to move across the hall, and I moved in with another friend of mine, who has since transferred to attend nursing school. I decided to get a private room the following year, and, in March, I began to show symptoms. I was at a party at my boyfriend's apartment, and although I didn't have much to drink, maybe three drinks, I started to vomit. I was sick for two hours, and then fell asleep early in the morning. I do not know if this turned the gene on, since my stomach hurt a few hours beforehand, and I took Tylenol. I had Smirnoffs that night, so the malt may have been a problem. I felt guilty when I told my parents about that, because this was before my diagnosis and I thought that I was an alcoholic. I was 20 at the time, because my birthday was in another month. I didn't drink on my birthday, because I was taking Aciphex (incorrectly prescribed to me by a Physician's Assistant--this particular woman, Donna Price, is--well--not adept with handling Celiacs. I don't hate all Physician's Assistants, but she's limited my respect for what they're legally allowed to do). I was still sick--I even threw up my dinner (sorry) back onto my plate in front of my boyfriend and an ex-friend of mine. After being a lightweight, as previously mentioned in the first entry (109), I gained nine or so pounds, which I had maintained until I was sick last March. Then I was down to 115 in less than a week. I was throwing up everything---water, yogurt, it didn't matter. To sum up the diagnosis results, the head nurse told me the following: "Here are all the things that you can't eat. Are you ready?" She then proceeded to name them all--bread, pie crusts, cake, pie filling, etc.It was my mother who discovered the gluten free diet--while I was in shock (lol--emotional, not literal), she did an internet search and found all the information that I carry in a Celiac portfolio to this day. After that, it wasn't so bad.