Completely Shocked And Scared...

[sarahcate]

Hi everyone. This is my first post here. I just got back from the doctor's office where they told me they suspect I have Celiac Disease. They took blood and haven't gotten the results back yet, so I don't know for sure yet, but all the symptoms fit. I am 20 years old and all my life I have been able to eat whatever I want. I bake ALL the time. I'm terrified of the restrictions I'll have to put on my diet and how this is going to affect my life. Most importantly, I'm in college, and I eat dorm food. There is no option not to be on the meal plan and even if there was I couldn't afford to cook all my own food. How am I supposed to cope with this??

[ravenwoodglass]

Hi everyone. This is my first post here. I just got back from the doctor's office where they told me they suspect I have Celiac Disease. They took blood and haven't gotten the results back yet, so I don't know for sure yet, but all the symptoms fit. I am 20 years old and all my life I have been able to eat whatever I want. I bake ALL the time. I'm terrified of the restrictions I'll have to put on my diet and how this is going to affect my life. Most importantly, I'm in college, and I eat dorm food. There is no option not to be on the meal plan and even if there was I couldn't afford to cook all my own food. How am I supposed to cope with this??

It's going to be okay, I promise. You have found a great place for info and support with the changes you will need to make.

If you alreay like to bake that is a good thing, you still can. Almost anything that can be made with gluten can be made without. If you are diagnosed 'officially' you are covered under the disability rights act and your school will have to accomodate you. If the school can not feed you safely, and most can't, they will need to refund your meal plan. You will need to have accomodations to cook and store food. For my daughter that meant senior housing her freshman year because they had small kitchens and private rooms.

If your tests should come back negative you should be aware that there are high rates of false negatives so a dietary trial should be done no matter what the results. Make sure you don't go gluten free until all testing is finished.

Being gluten free can make a huge differnce in much more than tummy issues, it isn't the end of the world. It is the beginning of a healthier life with less chances of developing other problems. You are lucky although it may not seem that way. Many of us 'old folks' went undiagnosed for many years resulting in a lot of damage to our bodys. You are young and even though the changes will be hard they will be well worth it in the long run.

Ask any questions you need to and read as much as you can here.

Hopefully you will have answers and be feeling better than you have in a long time soon.

[purple]

It's going to be okay, I promise. You have found a great place for info and support with the changes you will need to make.

If you alreay like to bake that is a good thing, you still can. Almost anything that can be made with gluten can be made without. If you are diagnosed 'officially' you are covered under the disability rights act and your school will have to accomodate you. If the school can not feed you safely, and most can't, they will need to refund your meal plan. You will need to have accomodations to cook and store food. For my daughter that meant senior housing her freshman year because they had small kitchens and private rooms.

If your tests should come back negative you should be aware that there are high rates of false negatives so a dietary trial should be done no matter what the results. Make sure you don't go gluten free until all testing is finished.

Being gluten free can make a huge differnce in much more than tummy issues, it isn't the end of the world. It is the beginning of a healthier life with less chances of developing other problems. You are lucky although it may not seem that way. Many of us 'old folks' went undiagnosed for many years resulting in a lot of damage to our bodys. You are young and even though the changes will be hard they will be well worth it in the long run.

Ask any questions you need to and read as much as you can here.

Hopefully you will have answers and be feeling better than you have in a long time soon.

Sarahcate:

My 21 yr old went gluten-free in college almost 2 yrs ago. They refunded the meal plan for a whole semester. It was tough at first. She had extreme periods and lots of blood loss. She hates to cook. She had to get food at Walmart for about 3 months. When college was over she then moved to an apartment and had to learn some basic cooking. I am so thankful it only took one doctors visit to find out what was wrong. Her sister(18) had to go gluten-free last summer b/c we had learned so much about what to watch for. She is gluten-free/vegan and lives in an apartment so she cooks for herself. She even made gluten-free/v waffles several times now. She uses a rice cooker often.

I say all this to say...YOU CAN DO IT! Be patient and learn all you can on here, it gets easier with time.

[AKcollegestudent]

I'm 20, and my college, like yours, does not allow students to leave the meal plan. However, after a semester of damage, I'm in the process of getting an exemption. When the word celiac showed up in my life (again, as I was gluten-free as a child), I reacted like you did. But after going gluten-free? All I can say is that after a lifetime of baking, I'm still doing so. My friends no longer rate my food as a "pretty good for gluten free" but "pretty good period".

[AndrewNYC]

You can't eat wheat. Life could be MUCH worse.

[Googles]

Hello,

I was just diagnosed last June right before going to graduate school. While I don't have to deal with trying to get an exception to eating dorm food, it is a big adjustment with food. There are a number of threads that have to do with people's experiences in dealing with schools and where to go to get help if your school is problematic around the meal plan issue. It is a major adjustment. If you get the diagnosis don't start with thinking about having to do this all at once. Think about it as one day at a time, one meal at a time. Come here and ask lots of questions and get support. Almost every situation someone has had before and we can give you advice on how to deal with them and what foods to eat and which ones to stay away from. one thing I found was that I had so many other things besides just digestive problems related to my celiac. Things that I had never even thought of as problems, instead they were just a part of my life. Good luck and look around the forums and ask lots of questions. We are here to support each other.

[GottaSki]

First step is take a deep breath. Everyone regardless of age has difficulty understanding how seemingly healthy food could be hurting them. The first few months are not easy, but you will learn how to eat without gluten. Baking is EZ - I make delicious brownies, cakes, cookies and even make a cheesecake that everyone loves - I never cared for cheesecake - turns out the crust making me ill all these years was the reason I didn't care for it.

Googling any food or ingredient will usually bring you directly to the posts of this forum. Ask, ask, ask questions here - you will receive as much support as you need.

I can't answer the college meal plan question, but am monitoring the posts regarding this as I have a HS Junior (celiac) whom is currently deciding where to apply. One of our questions on campus tours has been regarding gluten free meal plan or ability to opt out of the meal plan in order to buy one's own food.

I can tell you that I count you as extremely fortunate - you along with my kids have found out that gluten is toxic to your bodies at an early age - you have the power of good health in your own hands. Those of us that went undiagnosed for 20-40 years end up with very serious health issues and healing is much slower.

Good Luck to you!

[rueyn]

Hi everyone. This is my first post here. I just got back from the doctor's office where they told me they suspect I have Celiac Disease. They took blood and haven't gotten the results back yet, so I don't know for sure yet, but all the symptoms fit. I am 20 years old and all my life I have been able to eat whatever I want. I bake ALL the time. I'm terrified of the restrictions I'll have to put on my diet and how this is going to affect my life. Most importantly, I'm in college, and I eat dorm food. There is no option not to be on the meal plan and even if there was I couldn't afford to cook all my own food. How am I supposed to cope with this??

Everyone is giving helpful advice; I just wanted to add my 2cents. The first few weeks of being gluten-free are hard. There's SO much to learn! Read as much as you can, ask a lot of questions, and take your time getting to know your new diet. After the first few weeks you'll hit a point where it's not so tough, and by the time you're around six months gluten-free you'll find it a LOT easier to navigate! Think of it like learning a new language...you'll have some slip ups and some times you don't understand things, but you WILL get to a point where everything makes sense! Promise

[mysecretcurse]

I felt like this in the beginning to, and now I laugh at the idea of JUST being gluten free being hard. I am now soy, gluten, dairy, corn, and chickpea free.... trust me, you learn to deal with it.

[Takala]

Hello, and welcome.

Many of us bake all the time, too, we just use the other stuff. Being gluten free is the beginning of your new baking lifestyle.

Of course there are alternatives to "dorm food," the school administrators just want you to think there are not. Getting an education has nothing to do with forcing you to eat something you are allergic to or is causing you an auto immune reaction.

Socializing- this would be the most awkward thing for your age group until you got the self confidence to just be yourself.... I just make sure to either eat before I go somewhere, or have something packed to nibble on, and then just get something to drink like mineral water or a soda. They make gluten free beer, but I don't like beer anyway so why bother. Nobody CARES whether or not you eat or drink gluten if you have made it clear you don't, and feel comfortable about it. Relatives can be the worst, they may try to guilt trip you because they tend to be clueless.... we just all come here and ****** and laugh about it.