Let My Guard Down...

[Glutina]

Hi everyone!

It has been a while wincw I last wrote, not really by choice, but due to 2 jobs and moving etc. So I hope everyone is doing well!!

Well it is currently 4:15am and I am wide awake in a state of full-fledged glutening. And I have noone to blame except myself!! Not even the wonderful thanksgiving meal that my fiance's mother cooked up...and she tries very hard to always cook gluten free and read labels. Nope, it wasn't someone or something else that got me this time but it was me. Ugh.

Fiance and I were at the grocery store before going over for dinner and I decided that I wanted to bring my own pre-dinner munchies for when we were playing monopoly (tradition haha). So, I went to my usual section where I buy gluten-free Cheechas (really good light munchies!) and saw a flavour on sale: Salt and Vinegar. mmm sounded good. So, assuming that they were also a gluten free flavour, I grabbed a bag and we paid and left.

Fast forward to about half-way through our monopoly game, which also leaves me half-way through the bag of Cheechas! I was noticing my brain getting "foggy" and I was having trouble concentrating/people were even making fun of me for missing collecting my rent all the time haha and my tummy was unusually gurgly. My fiance's brother was interested in my snack of choice and asked if he could see the bag. As we was reading the ingredients, he read "blah blah blah...wheat flour...blah blah"...and he stopped and said, "um...doesn't wheat flour have gluten"...and that's when things started going south. My gurgling stomach soon started to turn crampy/gassy, and I had to ask for a heating pad. Nothing says thanksgiving like a heating pad and stomach troubles, huh???

Because I had just assuuuumed that this flavour was also gluten free because several others say it right on the bag, I had failed to actually read the label. I had gotten lazy!!! Oh noooo!!! And I paid for it...and still am. I can't sleep as the pain is coming in waves...bathroom issues are doing the same...I am puffed up and bloated like a blow-fish and look about 4 months pregnant. I am finding some relief from the IBS drugs I was given during my last trip to the hospital about half a year ago before diagnosis (I'm still kinda a newbie...diagnosed severe gluten intolerance in January) called "Dicetel"....but not much. Just seems to dull the pain a bit, almost like it's foggy...but the cramping and gas are still there. I bet if I hopped on the scale I will have magically gained 5 pounds...I am a "gainer" when eating gluten. Not pretty.

I am supposed to work this morning...but since I haven't slept and can hardly walk I will now have to call in sick (not good) and miss out the subsequent holiday pay. Boo.

I also teach music lessons/am a singer, and this has given me such bad reflux that my throat feels raw and almost like I am getting sick now.

So all in all...LESSON LEARNED. I know better than to assume that things are gluten free, and I admit I got lazy.

I am in such a food rut ( little to no time to cook...2 jobs...) that I think I just simply got lazy. Maybe this is a wake-up call that I need to do more cooking and prepare good, tasty food for myself on a regular basis so that I can have food to bring with me on occasions like this...or at least not be tempted to just buy without reading labels.

I hope all of you reading this are feeling better than I am, and I'm wishing all you Canadians a great thanksgiving monday too!!!

-Glutina

[MollyBeth]

I'm sorry you are not feeling well and that your holiday isn't going well!!! I hope you are on the road to recovery!

[ShayFL]

Dont beat yourself up too badly. We all make mistakes. That is how we learn. Hope you are better soon.

[DarkIvy]

I've done the exact same thing with flavored potato chips before. It seemed like a harmless flavor, so I started munching on them. A little while later I started to think "hmm, I never actually bothered to read the label"... sure enough, there was barley something or other on them!

Even more recently, I got sick off of tomato paste. I love the stuff and was eating it out of a jar with the spoon (yeah, I'm weird, I know)... I read the label and realized that it was the "Italian" flavored kind (instead of the regular tomato paste that doesn't really have much in it besides tomato) and was full of spices and wheat. Whoops. I usually grab two or three cans of it at a time at the store just so I have it on hand for cooking (or eating, lol!) and I think I may have just accidentally grabbed a can of the Italian stuff that was mixed in with the regular stuff in the bin. Now every time I shop, I look at every can to make sure I didn't accidentally grab a flavored kind. It was completely inadvertent, I know, because I've always checked the labels on canned foods before I buy them. Once I read one label and knew it was safe, I must have just grabbed a couple more, not making sure each one was the same.

It sucks but it happens, and I'm sorry you got sick! It's the worst when you make a tiny mistake like that and feel really bad about it. I get really hard on myself over this sort of thing, we work so hard to keep gluten our of our systems and the tiniest mistake over something as silly as chips or tomato paste ruins it. After the tomato incident, I cried for about thirty minutes, ranting to the BF about how no one gets it, and how frustrating it is to try so hard to stay healthy, how unsupportive outsiders are, how someone had gotten in my face and said "but I thought you couldn't *eat* bread!" one day when I was munching a sandwich on gluten free bread, etc, etc.

Bah, this stuff is rough. I hope you feel better soon though, and next time you'll know

[Glutina]

Thanks everyone, you already made me feel better

Actually it is still affecting me a bit today...feeling "off" and irritable for no otehr reason, despite getting enough sleep and eating well. I am still kinda bloated as well...probably me least favorite of the lovely side effects of glutening.

But now I know for next time, and I have realized that being so hard on myself has no point. It is bound to happen sometimes, right??? Noone's perfect after all of course

I hope you all have a great rest of the week and thanks for the caring replies!!!

-Glutina