Sometimes I Just Can't Stand This Disease

[NicoleAJ]

Ok, so if you don't want to hear a rant, please read no further.

Today was my boyfriend's dissertation defense, so he is now officially a doctor! I'm so proud of him. I attended his defense and was very supportive--I also bought him a great gift that he absolutely loved and wrote him a great congratulatory card that he really appreciated--he bragged about this at dinner. We then proceeded to have a great day by doing things he wanted to do for the rest of the day and going out to dinner with two couples. After dinner we were supposed to meet several friends to play poker, and then we were supposed to go out for drinks after that. We specifically chose to go to the one restaurant in the area where I've never gotten sick. Though I think the food was fine, there were obviously some cross contamination issues because I spent 40 minutes in the restroom before the meal even finished. The owner of the restaurant has celiac, so they are always accomodating, but I think that we just had an inattentive waitress. Usually they are even careful to bring the salads out on a separate tray and then they bring bread for other members of the table in a basket, but this time around the bread basket was on the tray. I didn't fully notice that this happened at the time--I just remembered it in retrospect. Now my boyfriend was late to poker (not all my fault--partially because the waitress took so long with the check and then my next round of sickness kicked in), and I'm not there with him. This is such an important day for us, and now it hasn't gone off as planned. I'm just so sick of being sick. Since being diagnosed with celiac, I've also been diagnosed with pernicious anemia and proctitis--now I've found out that all of the bleeding from the proctits has made me badly anemic (iron rather than B12 deficiency). I'm just so sick of this disease--it truly sucks when it interferes with important life events. I know that my boyfriend understands, but I'm still humiliated to have been so sick in front of a large group.

Now I'm just going to try to take some imodium and see if I can rejoin the party briefly, but I wish I never got sick in the first place.

[marciab]

Wow .. What lousy timing for cross contamination. Not that there is ever a good time.... At least your boyfriend will understand ... Marcia

[breann6]

Im so sorry for you getting sick. anytime stinks to get sick but in such an important time- is terrible. the same thing happened to me last week- at a dinner with a large group of friends, who are celiac stupid an still think its -just- a bread allergy- 50% of the time and the other 50% (glucose) diabetes. its embarrassing to me when im with them to say to the waitress the celiac spill and blah blah....actually its only embarrassing to me because it seems it is to her.

Sorry you got sick. Hope you feel better soon and that your evening continues more smoothly!! Congratulations to your boyfriend! HUGE accomplishment!

~breann

[happygirl]

Nicole,

Hey sweetie-I am sorry to hear about your experience. My heart hurts for you .

Congratulations to your man! A PhD from the best place on earth....yes, we all know I'm biased

Please send him my congratulations---that is something to be so proud of. I know you must be so happy too. And you will be next!!!!!!!!!

I hope you recover quickly. How is the end of your semester going? Anyone word on jobby jobs for bf? Any down south ?

xoxo,

Laura

[jerseyangel]

Nicole,

I just want to say I understand, and I'm sorry that this happened on such an important day. Just not fair--plain and simple

Congratulations to your boyfriend! He sounds great, and I'm glad that he's so understanding

[eleep]

Double-congratulations to your boyfriend on the defense! I'm also sorry you had to go through that and couldn't just celebrate in peace.

Erica