Help Amber raise money

I'll be running 5K as part of Celiac Canada's team for the 5 years since I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. #StepUp4Celiac

There’s a massive stigma around having a gluten free lifestyle (as it was once considered a fad diet), but for many of us it’s actually really serious and definitely not by choice! I want to raise awareness on the severity of Celiac Disease and exactly why we can’t eat gluten!

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I was officially diagnosed with Celiac Disease (CD) in February of 2018, when I was 22 years old by the CD blood test (that cost $120 because it wasn’t covered by OHIP) and an endoscopy. Presumably, I had gone undiagnosed for many years beforehand. 

Leading up to my diagnosis, I was always the person that never felt well and unfortunately I thought that was just normal for me. I had a few symptoms as a child but they increasingly got worse into my late teens. Daily I suffered from extreme fatigue, bloating, nausea, acid reflux, stomach pain, rashes, canker sores in my mouth, lactose intolerance, abnormal bowl movements and periods, and more often than not I had a cold/flu that would last for months on end. I finally got to the point in my early 20s where my body was so damaged that I could barely make it through a day of work. I had no energy and no matter how well I ate, I was absorbing little to no nutrients because of the then unknown damage to my villi and intestines. 

My mother was diagnosed with Celiac when I was a child, but presented itself differently than in me. I knew CD had the possibility of being hereditary, so I tried to cut out gluten on multiple occasions and always gave up when I didn’t have a noticeable change right away. Post diagnosis I started on a strict GF diet, and it still took me a long time to feel better. Some symptoms were relieved fairly quickly, but others took nearly 6 months if not longer to subside. 

There’s a spectrum of how sensitive each person with Celiac is to gluten, and I’m personally on the fairly sensitive side. If I ever accidentally do consume gluten now (aka what I call being "glutened") it’s essentially comparable to 24-72 hours of excruciating food poisoning. 

It’s been 5 years and I do feel better now for the most part, but I still struggle with countless aspects of gluten free life… Constant label reading, feeling nervous eating food made anywhere but my kitchen, pre planning trips around places I can eat, always packing safe GF snacks in case there’s nothing I can eat out, missing out on potlucks and holiday dinners, missing old foods I used to love, and just the convenience of being able to eat whatever and whenever. I’m just thankful to be a part of such a supportive community that understands, and still struggles too sometimes.