Am I Sad Or Mad?

[lily-celeste]

I am new to this but shouldn't be. I was diagnosed with celiac, my mother tells me, as a baby, 50 years ago. She said I ate lamb, but never mentioned other dietary changes. My parents are both pharmacists and I think they would have eliminated gluten from my diet if they had known to. I grew up eating the same things the rest of my family did. Did they know and just didn't think it mattered?

I just assumed I was cured as a baby. I ate normally until I went away for college and began dieting. I eliminated the normal things, but I wasn't very strict about it. I continued to eat that way, off and on, until last year when I was hospitalized for 11 weeks and began to enjoy "treats" such as bread, pasta and desserts since they were specified for me by the dietician. Once I came home I included bread/cereal/pasta in what I thought was a balanced diet. I gained a lot of weight this year!

I have been depressed most of my life. I have tingling in my legs (peripheral neuropathy), stomach ulcers, IBS, insomnia. I think I mentioned celiac to my doctor, but maybe I didn't since I thought it was moot.

I guess I'm mostly wondering if they knew celiac was only cured by a gluten-free diet 50 years ago. Please help me.

[Nantzie]

I'd say I'd be both. I'm sure your parents must not have realized how serious it was. It's really common, even now, for people who are diagnosed with celiac to be told by their doctors to "try to avoid" wheat. People also saw the very thin body type as being the main problem with celiac, and what parents usually brought their children to the doctor for. Once a child started gaining weight they probably thought, or maybe even were told, that the crisis was over and they could return to normal life.

The father of a friend of mine was diagnosed with celiac 50 years ago as well. He still "avoids" gluten, but hasn't been gluten-free since he was a kid.

I think there were some doctors who knew how essential the gluten-free diet is for someone with celiac. But just like today, I don't think most of them really knew much of anything.

I'm sorry you've gone through so much for so long. I hope you start feeling better soon.

Nancy

[hez]

Feelings are not right or wrong, they just are. It is okay to feel angry and sad. I think those feelings are understandable given what you have gone through.

Hez

[lily-celeste]

Thank you! Your reasoning seems very sound and comforting. I will proceed from here as a gluten-free eater.

[tarnalberry]

Ditto the other comments - you feel what you feel, and that's ok. How you react to it and move forward and use it is what is important, and it sounds like you're taking the right step - going gluten free. I'm sorry that you had to go so long without the proper treatment, of course, but it's improvemen from here!