Can't catch my breath the knife is stabbing me!

The pain is rushing through my body

from head to toe. It goes from stomach pain to welts under my eye, to throwing up. What did I
do to deserve this? How do I make it stop? The unbearable pain feels like its never ending.

When I was thirteen years old at a sleepover eating a piece of pizza along with some
pretzels, and chocolate cake. I was shocked at the pain that was rushing to me. This pain was
different than anything I have ever felt before. It was like a needle from a shot going into my
stomach. At this sleepover I began to panic and wonder what it could be. I had to wake up my
friend in the middle of the night because the pain would not stop and I began to cry. She then
rushes upstairs to get her mom and her mom asked me a few questions. She asked me these
questions to try and get a better understanding of what was going on. Immediately after asking
me questions she does not know what to do so she calls my mom. My mom was surprised to
hear from her because I loved sleepovers and usually did not want to leave.

This was not the last time I had pain, it continued to happen. It happened at school,
sleepovers, restaurants and basically anywhere I ate. My mother kept thinking more and more
about it and eventually started taking me to doctors. The first doctor I went to just said it was a
stomach virus and that if it continued to happen to come back. Then the next day I ate spaghetti
with maraina. The pain came back so I called my mom again. She began to worry and question
what it could be. Then the second doctor said it was also a stomach virus. We kept going to
countless doctors and no one could figure it out. I had many tests including an upper GI scope
and a Biopsy. A Biopsy and or an upper GI scope was not like a blood test at all. It turned out
that for these tests they have to put you to sleep and they take a sample of tissue in your small
intestine.
We then reached the 30 doctor and she told us something that we have not heard yet.
She suggested that every doctor was looking at this wrong. She re-examined my results from
the upper GI scope and Biopsy. She told me I had something called Celiac Disease. People
with celiac disease cannot tolerate wheat ,rye ,barley or oats. When they eat these things they
get symptoms like throwing up, severe stomach pain, and welts around the eyes. The only
treatment is to stop eating this food. She suggested that we meet with a dietitian.
The dietitian came into the room and started to suggest other alternatives to eat other
than gluten. Some examples are instead of flour crust there is cauliflower crust, corn tortillas
substituted for flour tortillas, wheat bread substituted for gluten free bread and finally instead of
regular flower there is Chestnut flower. Then she introduced us to some good gluten free
brands. They were snyder's pretzels, vans waffles and udi's baked goods. I left the doctors
office thinking that not eating gluten would actually be harder than I thought.
So for the next couple weeks I went to a couple different stores like Jungle Jims and
Whole Foods. In jungle jims they had about six different types of hummus set up. Each hummus
had its own flavor. The one that I remember the most was the horseradish hummus (it was
gross). But out of how many different types of gluten free food I had that day and only not liking
one thing I felt was a pretty big accomplishment. I found lots of great substitutes for the food that
I used to love. I happened to find one bakery in particular that was called,̈Tina's Sweet Treats.
̈ Its cinnamon muffin and snickerdoodle cookies were amazing. Most importantly after
changing my diet, I was feeling great.
All in all being gluten free is not as hard as I thought it would be. The experience taught
me to always keep fighting for a solution. I think this allergy is becoming more popular and
people are becoming more aware. Knowing that there is alternatives other than eating gluten is
fantastic.