Having been diagnosed myself about six years ago, I feel pretty qualified to offer up this diagnostic checklist:
- You fall asleep at your desk more than three times per day and now have bruises on your forehead from hitting the keyboard. The letter “H” is permanently stamped into your right eyebrow.
- You eat like there’s no tomorrow yet manage to lose 50 pounds. And you only weighed 85 to start with.
- You basically have the flu 7x24x365 – not counting overtime – you have it then too.
- Even though you have the flu, you manage to catch every illness currently circulating in Australia, even though you live in Dubuque, Iowa.
- You often think you would kick butt on Survivor, mainly because they don’t eat food.
- While sitting in clinical waiting rooms, you’ve made up your own Latin names for every gastro-intestinal test procedure known to man. When you ran out of Latin words, you resorted to pig Latin. OlonoscopyCay’s suck.
- You’re pretty convinced that you have been abducted by aliens. They’ve removed all digestive organs from your body and filled the void with achy pain generating devices. Like ThighMasters or something. While they were at it, they also dosed you with an extra craving for the forbidden fruit you cannot have – Krispy Kreme Donuts.
That should about cover it. Anyway, that’s how I found out I have Celiac – after a one and a half year study of all medical institution waiting rooms up and down the eastern seaboard. By the way, Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore has the crappiest cafeteria food ever, especially if you’re a Celiac. More on that later, I have a bone to pick with some of my specialists…
My wife and I (God bless her patience with this!) decided to start this Web site to try to help others who are having similar Celiac adventures and running from the Gluten monster. I figure I’ve had a couple thousand conversations with people over the past six years trying to explain this whole Celiac thing with little success. I’ve run across people newly diagnosed with Celiac and have struggled to figure out a better way to help them get started – there’s a really big learning curve to this thing. Those little Glutens are just about everywhere. So here we are.
If you’ve just gotten The Diagnosis, don’t fret! All the tests you just went through hopefully tell you that there are 2,371 horrible things that you DON’T have, including Gout and Rabies. Well, speaking for myself anyway. Once you get the hang of this thing, life is good. Yes, eating at restaurants is a bummer, because they are all out to get you. But besides that, there’s a lot to be positive about.
My wife will be contributing to this blog too, so I have to be honest and admit that I fall into the occasional self pity well, especially when we’re on the road and people start eating nice and oily extra cheese and pepperoni pizza… My life sucks… Stop! Think positive! Sorry, almost fell in for a moment there. All
better now. At least until I drive by another Mellow Mushroom.
I’m looking forward to sharing this journey with you. If you have an irrational need to blog about disgusting intestinal procedures like I do, let me know in the comments – I am building a blog roll and would be happy to post your link on this site.
After an 18 month adventure through the catacombs of the medical system, I was formally diagnosed with Celiac Disease. The bright side of that journey is that I know 3,712 nasty and horrible conditions that I do NOT have. 
So funny and so true. I ate and ate and ate before I was finally diagnosed and stayed at the same weight. People were mystified. Thought I was an exercise bulimic. Now I eat a normal amount of food. People still think I’m an exercise bulimic as I’m still thin.
I’m so glad I found your website! I’m just starting the testing to see if I have celiac or another variety of gluten intolerance or allergy. Over the past 6 months I’ve been tested and scanned for lymphoma, sarcoidosis, and an array of autoimmune disorders. I had a blood test yesterday and we’ll take it from there. I’ve had several xrays and CT scans, enough blood work that I should have deflated by now, and I can’t even remember what all. I’m getting a lung function test in March and … well, on it goes. I’ve started reading about gluten intolerance and man, it seems like that could be my thing. While it will be hard to switch to a gluten free diet, it is certainly not undo-able. I’ve noticed that some restaurants have secret gluten free menus to show what items on their menus are gluten free. I’m starting the diet today, and have decided to go for at least a month, no matter what the bloodwork says. I have a feeling it will work.
Hey Kellie – Thanks for stopping by! Keep in mind that going Gluten Free (really) is a pretty complex thing. Give it more time than a month if you can. It takes time to learn about all the hidden sources of gluten. And if you do have Celiac, it can take longer than a month to experience improvement in your health. Be patient and persevere! Best to you!