Give us this day our daily gluten-free bread...

Hello! 

Let me introduce myself….! 

I know…it’s been ages since my last blog! Did you all think I’d fallen off the face of the earth? That I’d been abducted by aliens? Escaped to France to live in a chateau? 

None of that happened. Just life. Life is busy! And my creative streak abandoned me. I haven’t been feeling great and so the last thing I felt like doing was writing. Or so I thought…..

I’ve actually had the flu! Yes…the flu! Not a cold, but the stay-in-bed, aching-all-over, hot one minute-freezing the next, actual flu! And it has knocked me for 6. That was a couple of weeks ago but I hadn’t been feeling well for a month prior to that. So I had a break from…well everything. A week off work, and some much needed down time. 

Today is another day of down time. Well…it’s forced. I’m having a gastroscopy this afternoon so I’m still in bed. 

This is my follow up gastroscopy after finding out I have Coeliac’s disease six months ago. My diagnoses came out of the blue during what I thought was a bout of gastro. That was a pretty unpleasant week last October. After a couple of days of right sided pain and many trips to the loo, my beautiful daughter (who happens to be a nurse) decided I should visit the doctor, fearing it could be appendicitis. Long story short….the doctor agreed, so off for an urgent ultrasound, followed by a cat scan. Not appendicitis….but a possible diagnoses of Crohn’s disease. What??!!! 

Dr Google told me Crohn’s ideas was…unpleasant. Only way to be sure…..gastroscopy and colonoscopy. I was sure it wasn’t anything serious. Even the gastroenterologist was skeptical of Crohn’s disease being my thing. He thought it was an infection. But in he went to check it out. 

To my surprise (and his!) the biopsy showed Coeliac’s. No family history. No obvious symptoms. Well…that’s probably not correct. I had felt like my digestive system was pretty shitty for a while. And I remember having a lot of tummy trouble when I was younger which my GP put down to anxiety. And like most mums, we kind of ignore those annoying things like…..our health. Because we are busy!!

But no…I have Coeliac’s disease. 

My initial thoughts were all positive. I had this. I would deal with it. Nothing major. I mean, it could always be worse. 

So I was thrown into the world of gluten free food. And so was my family! I mean….this is a whole new thing! What to cook for tea? What to eat for breakfast now that toast and cereal were off the table and out of the pantry. And the biggest problem…..my husband does a fair chunk of the cooking at tea time! He was mortified! So I lived on salmon, brown rice and salad (no dressing) for about a month until I got my head around what I could and couldn’t eat. And it was fine. I was fine. No gluten = no tummy upsets, no bloating. Winning!

Lots of skeptical remarks from people…

“Are you sure?”

“Surely you can have a little bit of pizza/bread/birthday cake”

“A little won’t hurt”

I even tested it out…..well, I was stupid and was craving chocolate so I got a Kit Kat. My favourite. And I ate it the night before getting on a train to go to Melbourne for the day with hubby. 

I’m now absolutely sure I can not eat gluten. Not pretty. 

So it’s been a learning curve, not just for me but for my whole family. 

And I’m not going to lie…it’s hard. It’s hard eating different food to my loved ones. It’s hard having to research restaurants prior to going somewhere to eat out. It’s hard walking past a bakery when it’s cold and really feel like a sausage roll. It’s not life-threatening hard. I get that people are dealing with way worse illnesses than me and I’m grateful and thankful that it’s this “C” word and not the other. I truly am. But it’s still hard. It’s hard going in to the city with my favourite people and spending a ridiculous amount of time figuring out where we can have lunch. It’s hard seeing people roll their eyes when you check that meal doesn’t contain a hidden dose of gluten. I feel like I’m being pain in the arse. 

But on the up side….I’m eating healthier than I ever have and now know exactly why my iron and Vitamin D levels have been so low. And I can fix that now and hopefully feel like I have more energy….maybe next week?!

So today I go in for my 6 month gastroscope to see if the lining of my gut has improved with the eradication of gluten from my diet. 

And every Sunday when someone in my family asked if I was doing a blog, I would shrink down and say….not today. I’ve been flat. I didn’t want to write about flat stuff. That’s not what this blog is for….I’m meant to be conquering the world and taking you all with me. 

But I’m not really conquering the world……just my  diet and my health, and that seemed really boring. 

However…..it’s real life. And I’m a real person with Coeliac’s disease. Conquering gluten free, one day at a time.

I’m hoping my writing mojo is coming back and  if it’s not the uplifting, encouraging, happy blog I usually try to post, then I’m sorry. But this is me today, and it was about time I shared. 

Thanks to my gorgeous family for helping with everything from organising a gluten free birthday cake, to eating their favourite meals substituted with rice flour. And a huge thanks to my hubby for bringing me a coffee at 6.30am before the cut off time for fasting before my procedure today! 

And thanks for reading my little pity-party-post. I’ll be back into the swing of things before you know it and coming up with some crazy adventures soon!

Love,

Cherie with a C (who has a disease stating with C!)