So Long and Thanks For All The Bread

This post has been a long time coming, just like the decision I made in the summer to cut out wheat.

Having been misdiagnosed with coeliac disease when I was younger, I spent most my childhood without gluten. It wasn't a misdiagnosis on the "what the hell were they thinking?" level, as even after five years without wheat, the two week 'cheat' period on holiday in Florida when I was 9 saw my stomach balloon but my overall body weight go down (while my entire family gained weight, God bless American food).

When I was a teenager though, I saw all the sausage rolls, doughnuts, pasties, pasta, burgers, sandwiches, and convenience food forbidden to me, and started sneaking more and more. A slice of garlic bread here, a Krispy Kreme doughnut there.

It didn't really seem to be having an effect, so I plunged into a full on gluten diet, and my dietician discharged me pretty soon after, saying that if I had any form of coeliac disease, it was lying very dormant.

As university went on I found myself more and more tired, and after graduating it soon became a daily struggle to get out of bed and go to work. But I figured it was just working life. Fatigue comes hand in hand with having a heart condition, and I had no means of measuring my tiredness with that of other people, so I figured I'd just get on with things.

However, this summer I went to a BBQ where my friend was talking about how horrifically tired she felt all the time before being diagnosed with coeliac disease. She was describing the fog in her brain that made her thoughts slower and her inability to find energy for simple tasks. Everyone exclaimed how horrible that sounded.

The penny dropped. My wheat intolerance had resurfaced.

Pasta now being a big staple of my "yes, I cook at home" diet, I really didn't want it to be true. I tentatively avoided gluten for a week, and suddenly I was thinking clearly, getting out of bed within reasonable times on my days off, and finding I still had a lot more energy left over after I'd finished a task.

I went back to the doctors for a blood test, convinced my dormant coeliac had returned after reading accounts of these type of things on the internet. It hadn't.

But in the six weeks of eating gluten required for a coeliac test, the fog had returned, and as hard as it was to say goodbye to easy meals, I felt a lot better again.

It's been almost two months since I've eaten a significant amount of wheat, and when I can't get out of bed in the mornings now, I know it's just pure laziness. So, long live my gluten-free diet. Though I will miss you so much, burritos.