Monday, July 27, 2009

Bug or Gluten?

When there’s a celiac in the house who doesn’t feel well, there is always this glimmer of mystery. Is it a virus or is it gluten? Do both celiacs feel lousy? Does anyone else? Is there a cough/fever/runny nose/ear infection….or just a lousy gut and what caused it?

Neither celiac in my house felt well this past weekend, but everyone else seemed to be ok. We were both had icky tummies and were both wiped out. It was hot and sticky outside, but nobody else was bothered one bit.

I go through this process every single time. If the other kids are under the weather, then I assume a bug is going through the house and the illness is not accidental gluten ingestion. But if the celiacs go down first, it’s the added guessing game of “x” or “y,” illness or gluten?

If both of us are under the weather and I, as Dr. Mom, have ruled out a bug, then phase II kicks into gear…what the heck did we eat? I can’t remember my middle name on most days and now I have to go back through the menus of the past 24 hours and try to figure out how gluten slipped into the celiac meal plan.

As for this past weekend, I still haven’t figured it out. I have no clue what the two of us ate that made our tummies gurgle. All I know is that I felt pretty yucked out and my son felt worse, I must have nibbled while he devoured whatever it was that wasn’t quite meant for celiacs.

We’re fine now, but the mystery remains open ended.
Kendall Egan

1 comment:

Lynn said...

Maybe it wasn't gluten but just something else that didn't agree with you. I can no longer tolerate soy well. And the gluten free pizza at Pizzeria Uno has soy in the crust. Coffee now bothers me, alcohol bothers me, etc... So the possibilities are endless. I had an angioplasty done and had an allergic reaction to the dye used in the procedure. They had asked me if I had a shellfish allergy but I never had a problem with that. However, I can only wear allergy free earings. You do have to be a detective these days!