You feel rubbish. No, not just rubbish but bloomin’ awful. Every day. And it’s not getting better.
Sound familiar?
Prior to getting diagnosed with Coeliac Disease, it’s a common story, and yet it could so easily have been avoided.
When I was Coeliac and didn’t know it, I was always looking for X.
X stood for what was wrong with me. X was the reason I had to walk out of an exam and go straight to the ER (which wasn’t the speediest ER I’ve ever come across – Lubbock, Texas, take note). X was the reason I never wanted to go out. X was the reason I comfort ate. X was controlling my life.
And yet I did all I could to find X. I was continually going to the doctor. And in the end, it was a combination of self-diagnosis and persistence with the doctor that led to my eventual diagnosis.
X is the hidden killer because it absolutely saps your faith in life itself. It’s been proven that a significant proportion of undiagnosed Coeliacs suffer from depression and it’s not hard to understand why. If you’re doing everything possible to be well and you’re not and that continues for a significant period of time, it’s easy to see how upsetting that can be.
I’m a firm believer in spreading awareness. We can only be responsible for our own health if we’re informed. If we don’t know what we should be doing to be healthy then it’s not our fault.
Healthy & happy at Vegfest, Bristol Healthy & happy at Vegfest, Bristol
If I had heard of Coeliac Disease, I would’ve linked my symptoms with it. I wouldn’t have allowed doctors to operate on me to look for problems with my ovaries (yep, still have the scar). I would have reclaimed three years of pain.
That said, had I not had those three years, I might not have come to realise how wonderful it is to have good health. I truly am grateful for feeling well and a lot of people take that for granted.
What’s your Coeliac story? Do comment below!