Almost 2 months of GF and here are some highlights. I’m finding it hard to tell if being GF is helping. I had a sinus infection when I began my GF diet, and now have had one for almost 3 weeks (thought it was a migraine for the first week). I believe my body is reacting to the nasty antibiotics and my mind is more focused on fighting off the discomfort than appreciating any benefits GF might be providing. Unfortunately, I can’t separate the discomfort from fibromyalgia, sinuses/migraines, and reactions to medicine to pin point the culprit of my pain. I move forward believing that GF is not hurting me, so it is worth continuing.

I have my fiancé’s support and have been educating him. He was so excited when last week he found a whole section of GF products in a local grocery store. He had ventured out on his own to purchase some GF pasta to make for our dinner. Needless to say, he came home with several bags full of items that we both have tried and enjoy, some better than others. He even had me stop later and buy more of some of the snack items for HIM!

When I first started this, he had gone to the store to purchase items for dinner. He called me to give me the lowdown on what all he’d bought. Most items were perfect – GF soups, pasta, fresh meat, frozen vegetables. But, there was one exception, he had bought frozen broccoli with cheese sauce. He could not imagine cheese (dairy) and broccoli (vegetable) having gluten. After I insisted several times that these were not GF, he finally read the label. To his dismay, his bubble burst. We would not be having broccoli in cheese sauce for dinner after all. He now reads labels when making food purchases at the store.

I’m finding that when I don’t have my meals planned or when I’m in a hurry and don’t have time to stop home, I still head for fast food restaurants. I know what few items I can have at the various places and try my best to stick to that list. I take food with me to work to avoid having to scavenger hunt for something to purchase.

When the option is to eat at a sit-down restaurant, I am pleased to find that many chain restaurants (Olive Garden, Chili’s, steakhouses, just to name a few I’ve tried) have GF menus. I ask for a GF menu when we are being seated and explain to the waiter/waitress immediately upon ordering that I am allergic to wheat and to please inform the chef. I use the term chef, never cook, as I don’t want to insult the person preparing my food. Sometimes, the message is not always conveyed to all preparers of my food. I have had salads show up with croutons (after specifically requesting no croutons), bread placed in front of me while we wait for our meal (but my fiancé gets to enjoy that), and fries at a restaurant that stated on their GF menu to exclude them. I had a manager bring out a new burger (both times without the bun as requested) without the fries for me and apologize profusely over the mishap and the time it took to cook the fresh burger. I was grateful that they didn’t just remove the fries and bring the same burger and plate back to me.

Although I get tired of saying “I can’t eat that”, I’m adapting. What I wasn’t initially prepared for was the “it’s only a little bit of…” (bread crumbs, or whatever). I now turn the tables back on the person who says it by asking, “if someone had a peanut allergy, would you tell them to eat just one little peanut?” It took me awhile to come up with something that a typical person could understand. I’ve also run into someone offering me organic bread thinking that it’s so healthy it hasn’t to be okay for me to eat.

So, the learning continues and so does the eating. ..GF eating that is.

How it all started

Overwhelmed. ..anxious. ..excited…and a gamut of other emotions are what I felt that day. Did I hear this new doctor right? He left the exam room stating “wait here, I think I have something that might help you.”

I was out-of-town for a week when I started with sinus problems on the second day there. I was in a familiar town, had a former doctor there, but chose to visit a walk-in clinic hoping to be in and out of there quickly. I knew that going to my former doctor meant possibly waiting days to get in for a visit or waiting a long time in a waiting room, then an exam room. That may have been the best decision I’ve made. I had waited 3 days since the congestion began and my ears were still clogged. I knew I had a sinus infection and prayed that I could get put on an antibiotic, as based on past experience, if I didn’t, it was going to get unbearable and require a stronger antibiotic than I wanted to take.

I went to a walk-in clinic shortly after they opened for the day. There was only one other patient there. So far, so good. When the doctor walked into the exam room, he was an older man. Yes, my prayers were being answered…short wait (important because I had a 10 month old with me) and from past experience, younger doctors tend to not want to prescribe antibiotics, but I knew what I needed. After reviewing my medical history with me...fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, IBS, migraines, depression, abdominal pain (blamed on ovarian cysts)…he examined me and determined I did have a sinus infection. That’s when he said, “I’ll be right back. I might have something to help you.” Of course, I’m imagining he’s gone to get me a neti pot and my stomach turns.

He comes back with copies of something from the internet. My curiosity is piqued. He explains that he has started giving information to patients that come to him with a history similar to mine. It’s information about celiac disease. I listen to what he has to say while I remind myself that I was tested for that about six years prior and it was negative. Hence, the diagnosis of IBS. He asks me to contact him in about 3 weeks to see how I’ve done with it (note to self, contact doctor!). Wow, a doctor that knows I live out of state and he wants to know how I’m doing after I try this? I leave with a prescription for an antibiotic, a recommendation of an OTC sinus and cold medicine, and wondering if this doctor might have the answer for my other symptoms.

Loving to read, I buy the book he recommends (The Gluten Connection) and wait anxiously for it arrive. I started googling gluten-free and celiac disease. I realize that I needed to immediately change what I eat. The information is shouting out at me: you have these symptoms, nothing else has worked, it can’t hurt to try it. Okay, it can hurt the food budget, but if I can function better and feel better, it will be worth it.

My next blog will describe what I’ve experienced in the past month since starting to eat gluten-free.