Treated Special And Loving It!

[watkinson]

Just a word of encouragement,

So often when I read the posts on this site I actually go away feeling down. I mean so often everything in our lives is so negative. We all have so much pain and so many illnesses not to mention all the inconvienience of living our lives gluten-free in a gluten filled world. Well here's a bit of happiness....

We recently went on vacation in Colorado Springs at a resort called the Broadmoor. It was a business trip with my husbands company. Every day they had a full gourmet breakfast buffet, lunch anywhere on the property and special event dinners for us every night. I was looking so forward to the trip but had resigned myself to the fact that I probably just wouldn't be eating while I was there. I had decided not to mention being a celiac because it would just be too much trouble at every meal, for a whole week, to deal with it. Well after being encouraged by my husband to talk to the hotel about it, I realized I was wrong.

I made a very silght mention to the fact that I had food problems, they jumped on it happily and told me they would contact me soon. I recieved a phone call in my room within the hour that the chef would be meeting with me at dinner. He went through all the ingredients of the whole menu for that first night and went through everyghing I could eat at the breakfast buffet. after talking to him, lunches on the property were easy, and at the event meals off the property they sought me out, and brought me a special groumet gluten-free meal. I mean they even went to a store and got me gluten-free bread so that my bread plate during the dinners would have something on it too. My dinners were hardly different from everyone elses (maybe no sauces) so I didn't feel weird or deprived. I even got specail desserts!!! It was neat, because since I didn't have to say anything to the waiter but would get a specail meal, the people at our table would wonder what was going on and ask me about it. I got tons of oppportunity to explain to many people what Celiacs was. People who were genuinly interested. Almost everyone had never heard of it and so many of them would respond with Gee..I wonder if that's my problem, or my mother, friend, or whoever. It was fabulous!

The last full day of the trip they had a special speaker who talked about health in the workplace ect. Yes...He talked about sugar being poison, and how we need to eat more veggies but guess what?...He talked about Celiacs. It was spectacular!!

I haven't had such a great vacation since I was a kid. I told my husband how I couldn't understand why I hated so much for this vacation to end, I mean we have had tons of fabulous vacations over the years. Then it came to me...this is the first vacation I have ever had where I wasn't sick.

I discovered I was a celiac in March of 2004. We didn't take a vacation last year. This was the first time I wasn't living on anti diareahal and spending the whole trip in a panic that I would have an unexpected attack. I felt great the whole time, while eating like a queen.

I just wanted to encourage everyone to speak up, to not be embarassed, but to tell people about the disease. It is NOT AN ALLERGY, it is much more serious. Most people are genuinly interested and really do want to help you. I think it makes people feel good to be someone's hero, to genuinly know they helped you. By not speaking up we are denying those around us the opportunity to help and to learn. And who knows... maybe by speaking up you could save someone from spending any more time being sick. I Wish like anything that someone had told me about the disease years ago....then I wouldn't have spent all these years living in physical torture. Not to mention all the time and money wasted going to doctors.

Get the word out

Wendy

[jenvan]

Good thoughts Wendy. I was reading in an article today where PF Changs and Wildfire both said they created gluten-free menus simply because more and more people were asking for them. There is truth to getting the word out. I am currently writing letters to all my old doctors who misdiagnosed me, humbly asking them to rethink their paradigm of celiac disease and hoping to try and add some celiac disease pamplets to the collection at their offices. I've already made some crazy connections b/c of celiac disease. Last Saturday I went to a celiac support group meeting and immediately afterwards went to church for a sat night service. The service is large, about 1,100 people, but on my way out, one of the ladies from the celiac disease meeting ran right into me. Small world

[Carriefaith]

Sounds like you had a great time! Lucky you! and you never even got sick. It's nice to know that there are people out there willing to take the time to help. Not everyone is like that.

[skbird]

When I was on vacation last October - one week after going gluten-free, we met up with some friends on the coast and it was one of their birthdays so we got invited along for dinner. It was at an Italian restaurant and I was really worried about it but didn't want to make a big deal. The place only had about 12 dishes and was pretty small. Turned out the owner was our waiter and his wife, who was Italian, was the chef. So when he asked what I'd like, I told him my food restrictions (not only gluten but no tomato/eggplant/peppers...) and he said, how about some polenta? with cheese and olive oil, and crunchy garlic, oh, also some fresh basil??? My dinner came out looking beautiful and was so incredibly delicious. Everyone was envious. And at the end, all of their meals were $15 or so each and mine was $8.50. So I totally scored!

There are good experiences out there, maybe we should all try to contribute some - I have read a few times recently that the bad stuff here has been depressing people. I think we have more good experiences than we let on because they don't stand out as much as the really bad ones!

Stephanie

[mytummyhurts]

Wow Wendy! That's awesome! My husband and I are thinking about going on vacation. Is that a good place to go for the vacation aspect of it? I would love to be able to go someplace and tell them the reason I went there was because of how they treated someone with the same disease as me. That way they will keep up the good work and know they made a difference.

[watkinson]

Hi guys,

Jenvan, I think it is spectacular that you are writing letters to all your old doctors, I have thought many times about doing that but never have. Iv'e always been afraid that I would go off on them and scream about thier idiocy and all the torture I went through because of it. And your right. I am meeting more and more people who are celiacs or have heard of it.

skbird, Wow I love that story, especially that your "speciallly prepared" meal was less expensive than theirs. There is a great Italian restaraunt near me here in Maryland called Boca de bepo. Just like you said I figured Italian, they will have nothing I can eat, with all the noodles and sauces, but actually they have a whole gluten-free menu. Tons of food!! Some of the best ever. We couldn't even eat it all

mytummyhurts,

Yes...It was fiercley wonderful. I encourage you to take a look at the site online. This place is the only resort in America that has achieved the 5 star rating on both the hotel and the food for 25 years in a row!!!

The pool is really cool, it looks like it goes on out into the lake. They even have water slides...big ones!! They have a bar on the property that was taken apart piece by piece from a pub in England and put back together on the site. It's called

THE B. They have a guy playing the piano and the whole bar gets to singing along! Great old songs like oom papa, and hey jude, piano man, Oklahoma, all the ones you can think of that a crowd would belt out. It was a blast. We went horse back riding. They have white water rafting. We even went to a rodeo. A great place. Check it out!

Wendy