Survived My First Glutening

[tea-and-crumpets]

I guess it had to happen sometime, right?

I have been off gluten since 10/10. On Friday afternoon, I went to a local restaurant that offers a gluten-free menu with my sister and some friends. (They ordered off the regular menu.) I'm not really sure what happened -- did I get a crumb of bread from the others at my table? Did my food get contaminated somehow? (I hope not, because they advertise the gluten-free menu pretty widely and it was the middle of the afternoon, so not busy.) I guess I'll never know.

It was weird, because usually, when I have digestive symptoms, they hit within fifteen or thirty minutes of eating. This time I had a bit of a stomach cramp but no real serious need for the washroom for about two hours and then, well, I couldn't come out for a while. I spent the entire weekend pretty much in bed with no energy whatsoever and D on and off. Oddly, though, tonight, about 48 hours after I first got sick, I felt much better and was able to get up and cook dinner, all that.

I can't believe how much better I felt after two weeks without gluten, and how badly I felt when I just got a tiny bit of it. I can't believe I used to feel this way all the time! I had become convinced that I was just lazy when I could barely get out of bed, climb stairs, all that. Now I know it was the gluten.

I'm fairly good now, but I'm having an anxiety/depressive crash. Perhaps this is just a part of it?

All I know is that I'm definitely not tempted to cheat! Not that I was contemplating it, but I really am not now.

[T.H.]

Did you talk with the wait staff about being gluten free, or did you only order off the gluten free menu? Because my first thought would be that they weren't as careful with your food as they should have been.

I've noticed that with restaurants we go to, if we don't give some specifics, like 'use clean gloves with our food please' and 'if you grill this, please put some tinfoil on the grill to keep it from contaminating my food, please' then they assume we are gluten free for reasons that don't need them to be very careful.

Like we're on the fad diet, or we're diabetic so we need low carbs, that sort of thing. We have a great restaurant here that we went to before we had to be gluten-free. They had a gluten-free menu that had as many selections as their normal one, so when we lost gluten, we thought it would be a great place to go. Instead, we found out that they don't treat gluten free foods like they are needed for an allergy/ severe intolerance. There were no practices to prevent cross-contamination. They would use the same knives, the same pans, the same toasters, etc... Very disapointing.

So now, we always make it clear that we are very sensitive to gluten even touching our food, or touching the tools that touch our food, and we will be very ill if that happens. We ask if they can accommodate that, and I'd say maybe 1/4 of the time, at the least, they will admit that they don't think we can eat in their restaurant safely because their gluten-free foods are not that strictly prepared.

Frustrating, but better than getting sick.

And oh man, I know what you mean about not wanting to cheat. When you get a bad reaction - gluten holds NO appeal, eh?

[tea-and-crumpets]

Did you talk with the wait staff about being gluten free, or did you only order off the gluten free menu? Because my first thought would be that they weren't as careful with your food as they should have been.

I've noticed that with restaurants we go to, if we don't give some specifics, like 'use clean gloves with our food please' and 'if you grill this, please put some tinfoil on the grill to keep it from contaminating my food, please' then they assume we are gluten free for reasons that don't need them to be very careful.

Like we're on the fad diet, or we're diabetic so we need low carbs, that sort of thing. We have a great restaurant here that we went to before we had to be gluten-free. They had a gluten-free menu that had as many selections as their normal one, so when we lost gluten, we thought it would be a great place to go. Instead, we found out that they don't treat gluten free foods like they are needed for an allergy/ severe intolerance. There were no practices to prevent cross-contamination. They would use the same knives, the same pans, the same toasters, etc... Very disapointing.

So now, we always make it clear that we are very sensitive to gluten even touching our food, or touching the tools that touch our food, and we will be very ill if that happens. We ask if they can accommodate that, and I'd say maybe 1/4 of the time, at the least, they will admit that they don't think we can eat in their restaurant safely because their gluten-free foods are not that strictly prepared.

Frustrating, but better than getting sick.

And oh man, I know what you mean about not wanting to cheat. When you get a bad reaction - gluten holds NO appeal, eh?

I did talk to the waitress about my ordering off the gluten-free menu, telling her I was grateful that I was able to order things there, etc. She said that a lot of people are really happy. I didn't say anything beyond that and that's really my fault -- I am not confident enough yet, I guess. Honestly I would rather eat at home until I'm more stable but I wanted to spend some time with my sister. Next time I'll insist we go somewhere like PF Chang's that has a very clear protocol for gluten free foods.

[srall]

My first glutening was after six weeks gluten free. That pretty much clinched the "lifestyle" for me. I really don't think restaurants understand gluten free. I have too many stories, like the salad still coming with croutons or bread on it, saying no dairy then cheese sprinkled on top. Breading on fish...it's really a hassle. I'm glad you had a quick recovery.