I had just gotten used to the thought of having a lifelong disease when I got the call. I actually remember where I was sitting when I heard my mom talking to the doctor. Looking out the window at the mountains, I was wondering why my mom sounded so shocked. And it hasn’t occurred to me until right now that the fact that my mom had to go through hearing that her 10 year old daughter had not one but two diseases in the span of two months was probably way harder than everything that I went through.
Life hasn’t always been easy for me and this was one of the times that I remember it being anything but that. Two months after leaving the hospital with type one diabetes I found out I also had celiac disease. “Another disease?!” That’s all I was thinking over and over. I felt this huge weight being added on my shoulders because I had spent the last couple months realizing I could be a normal kid even with diabetes and now there was something else despite that. Not only did I now have to give myself shots for every single thing I had to eat but I also had to watch every single thing I ate as well. No bread. No pasta. No cookies. No crackers. No cake. Nothing with wheat was okay or my intestines would be damaged and I would be sick.
This may not sound too bad because wait, can't those things be made gluten free? Yes, but in 2007 anything that was certified gluten free tasted like cardboard. But it went from one extreme to the other since then. Don’t get me wrong, I would take 1,000 gluten free options compared to none in a heartbeat. But everyone was starting to go gluten free because it was the healthy option. That's a great choice for people trying become healthier, but then restaurants would start assuming eating gluten free was a preference and would mix my gluten free pasta in with the normal pasta. I’ve even had a waiter say, “Oh, you’re one of those.” He had an utter look of disgust on his face just assuming I wanted gluten free just to make his job harder. “Yeah, it’s not a choice, it’s a disease,” I responded to the waiter, glaring right back at him. I have to constantly confirm what I am eating is completely free of gluten.
Eating at home is easy. I buy what I want and cook it how I want; I don’t have to worry about being contaminated by cross contamination or by people who say they “think” an item on a menu is gluten free. The hardest part of having celiac disease is traveling, which I have done a decent amount of with track and field. In the past, where my teams have stopped to eat on the road haven't necessarily had the best options for me, so sometimes I had to be okay with settling with a salad or a few pieces of grilled chicken. Once I’m at the hotel I had to find which places had gluten free that is close, which might not be the restaurants that are right next to the hotel. It takes a little more planning then just walking to the first restaurant I see.
Days of competition are the hardest. Since I’m also diabetic, I have to plan to eat around three hours before competing so I have enough energy. An average time to compete for me would be 7pm, so I have to plan lunch at noon, dinner at 4, and snacks for before I compete. There have even been times where I competed during my normal meal time, so I bought an extra meal to bring with me just in case. It’s fairly easy to find gluten free sandwiches on the road, but on competition days it’s hard to find a variety of foods to keep my energy levels up.
The positive thing about having celiac disease is that I learned how to be healthy from a young age. With limited options at ten years old, I was forced to eat the healthiest foods even if they did taste like cardboard. Now that there are millions of more options out there, it’s easy to eat gluten free and I’m not tempted to eat the “unhealthy” gluten free cakes and cookies that are made at my favorite gluten free bakeries. With a lot of searching, I’ve found gluten free options that are actually way better than normal foods and I’ve come to appreciate what eating gluten free has done to my overall health despite the challenges.