WashingtonLady's Blog-a-log

This is harder than I thought it would be....and I don't mean going Gluten Free, either! I just spent the last 40 minutes trying to figure out the settings for this website! Sad, but true.

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Anyway, I've always got something to say. As I sit here, with my gut on fire 'cause I used some idiot-premade-sauce for my rice crust pizza. It didn't say gluten free, but I didn't see any warning ingredients, so I went for it. {{sigh}} Another lesson learned, I suppose.

I have known I couldn't eat white flour products for several years now. It's gotten worse as time went on, until someone mentioned the word Gluten Intolerance to me, I had no idea such a thing existed. I figured I wasn't "that far gone," though! Ha ha. After Thanksgiving, 2005, I determined to cut bread completely, 'cause by then even the whole grain stuff was killing me. My gut was always bloated--unlike a more text book Celiac, I have always expanded, not shrunk, in reaction to wheat (in particular) and gluten (secondarily). I'll never forget the Thanksgiving my mom made a "flour free" stuffing with sprouted grains in an effort to make something I could eat. Before the evening was over I was two-three sizes bigger than when I arrived! The proof was in the pants, literally: when I got there, Mom had me try on a pair of nice slacks she'd bought for me, but they nearly fell off my hips (tiny though they aren't). By the end of the night, those same pants were almost too tight! What an eye opener that something was really wrong with my body. That's when I started cutting out bread more and more and educating myself about this thing called Celiac's.

I have only had medical insurance for a couple months now and haven't made time to get things officially diagnosed, but I won't be at all surprised if I'm labeled a full Celiac. I have adopted--or, rather, am in the process of adopting--a completely gluten free diet for myself. My teens won't go there with me, although they fully support what I'm doing and will indulge in some of my gluten-free stuff. My parents still don't completely get it, though my friends sympathize. All they have to do is see me 20-60 minutes after consuming either wheat {{{shudder}}} or gluten products {{ick}} to know that I'm not kidding around. Wheat bends me in half, you know, the "something is in there and twining my intestines around a hot poker" kind of pain, followed by pretty much LIVING in the bathroom (bring a novel the first trip and leave it there to come back to every 15-30 minutes) for the next (hopefully only) 24 hours.

Well, I suppose this might seem a bit graphic for a first time out, but if any of you have experienced even a smidge of this--and I now know how many of us there really are--then I'm going to be understood, not condemned. That's such a nice reality!

God Bless and Take Care. ~WA Lady