I am your every day wife and mother, with a twist. My husband has Celiac and an airline pilot. Here’s our story: In May of 2007 my husband, Adam, was diagnosed with Celiac. After the diagnosis the Doctor patted him on the back and said “stay away from pizza and beer and you’ll be okay. Good Luck”. Then we met with a dietician who told us that as long as he removed the bun from a McDonald’s hamburger he would be safe. Little did we know that neither of them knew what they were well informed. On July 3, 2007 after losing 50 lbs in just a few weeks, Adam was admitted to the hospital with a collapsed lung and an empyema caused by pneumonia crushing his other lung. We strongly believe the combination of a contaminated endoscopy used to confirm the celiac and a weakened immune system due to celiac disease are to blame. There were two moments that forever changed my life. The first was when the Doctor looked at me and said that Adam would not survive if he didn’t have the emergency surgery immediately. The fear of losing him was like a mountain of rubble crushing my chest. The second was sitting in the ICU for 11 days sleeping in the visitors chairs reminding myself to breath. If we got through this I was going to make sure he lived healthy. I made a promise to myself in that hospital chair, I promised that I would learn everything I could about this disease and we would live with it. Most importantly he would live. I have done an extreme amount of research and have educated myself on this food allergy. It’s my goal to teach others what I’ve learned and help them to live gluten free too. Our food at home at home is healthy and tastes good. I each what Adam eats. Also Adam travels for 3—4 days at a time so the quick stop at a fast food place is out of the question. We also make meals suitable for packing, lunches, sweets, treats, etc. I want to share what we have learned so that the next person will transition a little easier.