What was I thinking?

That's it. I am throwing in the towel! I thought it wouldn't be a big deal to reintroduce wheat and knock out the Celiac test, after all dairy is my biggest issue, right? Wrong! Sunday night, after the kids were all tucked in bed, I lay there hurting from my waist to my toes. I was nauseous, felt like I had a brick in my stomach, was light headed, had shortness of breath....and it was getting progressively worse each day. Until Sunday, I had pretty much just felt yucky right after I ate it so I would eat it right before bed and sleep off the worst of the effects. Sunday was different. I was sick off an on all day. I have a pretty high tolerance for pain and discomfort but even I could see that it wasn't heading anywhere I wanted to go.



I had started eating small amounts of wheat right before I left CO. Man, those egg rolls were good. I had no adverse reactions so I though it was going to be a walk in the park. Ha. Boy was I wrong. In order to have the test done I have to consume the equivalent of 2 slices of bread each day for 6 weeks. For the last 2 1/2 weeks I manged to get in one slice most days but had to skip a day here and there to keep the discomfort manageable. The nights I tried two slices left me with my head spinning, my heart racing and feeling anxious. Blech! It would take me forever to get to 2 slices.



I finally saw how this was affecting my family when Jeff looked at me and said, "I'll be glad when my happy wife is back." Wow. That pretty much put it all in perspective for me. Now is not the time. I'm not sure I will find the perfect time to feel lousy for 6-12 weeks but now definitely isn't it. We are off to a great start with school and I am enjoying a relaxed year. I don't want to blow that.


I am feeling better already after 3 days of no wheat. I am thrilled at how quickly I have bounced back. The brain fog hasn't completely lifted but Jeff says I am actually talking to him at night again instead of cleaning up from dinner, kissing him goodnight and crashing.


I am going to keep my appointment with the gastro doc on the 26th. I don't think he will have any new information for me. I called on Monday and talked to the advice nurse and she confirmed what I already knew. It is really just up to me to decide. Without the test I have to live as if I have Celiac Disease. For someone who does have it, not being completely gluten free (even small amounts) damages the colon which could lead to colon cancer later in life. There is also the chance that since I have been off of gluten for so long that the test results could give me a false negative. My system has started to heal and 6 weeks back on may not be enough time for damage to show up. I could test negative, go back to allowing traces and still have trouble later on. Seems pretty simple now that I see it all laid out like that. Simple until we decide to go out to eat. Simple until I'm itching to take just one bite of Mom's famous apple pie after turkey dinner. :-)