The woman's voice on the other line asks for "Elle's mom".
That's me. I tell her so.
She in turn tells me this is Dr. So-and-so (the allergy doctor we saw two weeks ago for some mother's intuition food allergy testing) and that she had been trying to reach me personally for a few days so that she could tell me personally that my sweet little three year old Elle has something called Celiac Disease.
I've heard of Celiac Disease. My uncle has it. His daughter, my cousin has it. Her daughter has it.
I've heard of Celiac Disease. But all I know about it is...you can't eat anything with wheat in it.
And all I know about wheat is...it's in E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G.
If my neighbor had not been standing in my kitchen watching me talk on the phone, I might have broken down a bit with this news. While I know it's not something as serious as Diabetes or Cancer, it feels serious. It feels threatening. It feels hard.
But I can do hard things. I've done hard things before when I found out Elle's older brother, Dee was deathly allergic to milk when he was only a few months old. I did it before and I can do hard things again.
But if she had to be allergic to something if only she could have been allergic to milk just like her older brother... Now I'm going to have to make three different special meals instead of just the normal two. Whine whine whine. This Celiac thing sounds like a lot of work.
I want to Google it. But all at the same time I don't want to Google it. I need to know what our new life is going to be like, but I'm terrified all at the same time. I don't want to know. Then I really might cry.
Ahhh, but the temptation is too great. A'Googlin' I go.
10 comments:
Hugs for your little Elle. My grandmother is married to a guy who has Celiac and I blog stalk a gal (makieitandloveit) who has it... I have no experience with it in my own home but it sure seems like there are a lot more options for the gluten intolerant than there used to be. When googling avoid the horror stories and look for the recipes :) You can do it! Both of you!
I've seen a lot of gluten free things at costco? I know they have a bread in the frezzer section! Good luck:)
I will never take my wheat for granted again. Wow - you are going to be the most creative cook alive! You'll do great with this new challenge, I know it!
Oh Evelyn - I'm so sorry! One of Jonah's allergies is wheat and it has been the hardest because wheat is the binding agent of flour. I've had a terrible time finding a baking substitute. I've settled on oat flour. I found a cookbook called Sophie safe cooking and it gives all sorts of allergy free kid friendly recipes. If you're interested email me and I'll give you more info! Good luck!
Ev, I hate to have bad news but it will be so much easier to have the whole family on it. I went gluten free for 3 months last year and it's super hard to not cross contaminate. Even a crumb from the toaster ruins gluten free. If you want some advice or places I've found to look I could help. It's so overwhelming!! I know!! There is a crock pot blog that is gluten free - I'll send you the link. Also Pamelas @ amazon. I'll send u the link to that as well. The good news is that almost everything processed and unhealthy for you has gluten. So your family wil become healthier! Yay! ;-)
Kristine anderson
Hugs to you my friend. Any kind of allergy is definitely life changing. One really nice thing you have on your side is that now-a-days there are SOOOO many more options of foods without wheat. I hope that it isn't too hard of a transition for you. I'm thinking about you!!!
Oh man!! That's so hard.
The only thing is that it's awesome your mama's intuition kicked in and you know at 3 years rather than having her sick for 20 years trying to figure it out. :/
That stinks! I'm so sorry.
The good thing, there are a lot of gluten free things now, and a ton of blogs that are devoted to gluten free recipes. You can do this!
Thinking good thoughts for ya!
Oh you poor thing! I had a companion on my mission who had Celiacs. I got to know her very well, and saw her struggles. I asked her if it was hard, and she said not really. She never really liked pasta, or wheat things because it made her feel so yucky. Your little Elle will feel much better eating foods that are good for her.
And honestly, this may sound a little selfish of me, but I sort of wish my kids would have an allergy like that, because it would make us eat better. I guess that is the eternal optimist in me. Good luck!
Hugs, mama!! We thought for a while that hubby had Celiac's disease (and we're still not entirely sure he doesn't) and it scared the snot out of us too. We'll keep you in our prayers. I see more and more gluten-free stuff in the stores, so hopefully everything will be okay! It may not seem that way right now, I'm sure. Good luck, sweetheart. You can do this.
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