Growing up on a small hobby farm just outside of Canberra, food was a big part of my childhood and I learned to cook from a young age. Our family maintained a fairly typical Australian diet and gluten-filled foods were a regular presence in our meals.
Although I led a healthy, active lifestyle and was by no stretch a “sickly” child, it was not uncommon for me to experience stomach issues. I’d often feel excruciating stomach pain and I vividly recall often feeling spontaneously ravishingly hungry. I was often prescribed antibiotics for my stomach concerns and to this day remember the foul taste they used to leave in my mouth. My stomach concerns dissipated in my teens and did not reappear until my late 20s.
In my late 20s I was working a high paced job and living with my two young daughters and my partner whose three children visited sporadically. Like most people at this stage of life, my life was busy and I was suffering chronic stress. At age 27, I started experiencing a lot of stomach issues and attended appointments with my GP on many occasions for support to diagnose and treat this ongoing concern. My GP didn’t have any answers and continually put down my stomach symptoms to the stressful life I was living. Her not so helpful advice was for me to eliminate the stress in my life.
I continued to suffer with stomach cramps, bloating that made me look seven months pregnant and bowel issues that would have me either constipated for days or racing for a toilet with explosive loose stools. In this time I lost a lot of weight and naturally felt fatigued all of the time. Visits with my GP continued. My questions remained unanswered.
In 2007, at age 29, after suffering these symptoms for two years, I decided to take matters into my own hands and did some research. Attending yet another appointment with my GP I asked her to write me up to be screened for both chrons and coeliac disease. I vividly recall feeling flattened when my GP told me she did not know much about chrons Disease, and had not even heard of coeliac disease. Fortunately she was agreeable to ordering the blood tests for me.
When the blood test results came through a couple of days later, I felt nothing but relief that my coeliac serology had demonstrated exceptionally high antibodies. Finally, I felt that I had an answer. My GP referred me to a Gastroenterologist for review.
My Gastroenterologist was a passionate and very well experienced gut specialist. He gave me hope that all would be right in the world again. At my first appointment with him, he was absolutely certain that I had coeliac disease based on my blood results but still followed standard protocol and advised me a biopsy was required.
When I awoke from sedation following the procedure, my gastroenterologist confirmed a positive coeliac disease diagnosis. He advised the only treatment for this was to adhere strictly to a gluten free diet and recommended I seek the support of a Dietitian to make the transition. A nurse very kindly gave me a gluten free sandwich and a loaf of gluten free bread to take home. My gluten free lifestyle had begun.
I immediately cut all gluten-filled foods from my diet and saw the dietician a few days after my diagnosis. To be honest I walked out of that appointment in an absolute funk. I remember looking at the gluten-free products she’d shown me and thinking I really didn’t want to eat that way. I felt like everything I’d known about food had changed. Like a big part of my identity had been forcibly taken from me.
I became a member of Coeliac Australia who sent me a pile of resources which were super helpful but to be frank, everything related to food became really hard for me. Grocery shopping took me hours to complete, I experienced disaster after disaster in the kitchen, I stopped enjoying cooking and eating and was a bit of a hermit at times a degree due to becoming so scared to eat outside of the home.
Thankfully, a lot has changed since my diagnosis. Packaged gluten free foods are often easier to identify, food services have increased their awareness and offerings and the gluten free staples like flour and pasta have improved tremendously.
Since my diagnosis, eating gluten free has certainly become a whole lot easier, but it’s not always easy. I still have times where eating gluten free is not fun, I still mourn the loss of some of my childhood favorite gluten-filled foods and curse myself when recipes just don’t always work out right. I am human afterall.
A big reason I started this blog was to help others who’ve been diagnosed with coeliac disease. As I continue to learn, I will pass my lessons on. I hope you find them helpful.