I was diagnosed with celiac disease when I was 10 years old. This means when I eat anything that has gluten (wheat, oats, rye or barley), the villi in my intestines get squished. This leads to me being super sick and not absorbing any of the essential nutrients in a person's diet. It takes six weeks for all of the damage in my intestines to heal. I've officially been gluten free for 10 years as I just turned 20. In honor of this, I thought I would write about what it means to have celiac and some things that have happened to me, both good and bad, as a result of my Celiac. I would just like to start off by saying these are exclusive only to me. I have no way of saying this is the universal experience for every person who has been diagnosed with celiac disease.

When you have a weird diet that you follow for any reason, whether it's a personal choice or for healthy reasons, you can get some odd questions as a result. One of my personal favorites I've been asked is, "Is there gluten in necklaces?" Unless it is a macaroni necklace, no, there is not. Once when I was at a drive in restaurant, I asked for a cheeseburger with no bun. I explained I couldn't have bread, and the server asked if I would like it on toast instead. I didn't because, unfortunately, toasting bread does not get rid of the gluten. This final one was actually one I said one day without even thinking about it. "I can't wait until they make gluten free Wheat Thins." That is not a thing that can happen, so I had a good laugh with my family when I said that. Although Rice Thins are now a thing, so I wasn't completely off base in my reasoning.

Going to a restaurant can be quite the adventure because you have to first see if there is a gluten-free menu, and if they do, in fact, have a menu, you have to check on a handy dandy app to see if people who have celiac can actually eat the food without getting sick. However, this does not negate that sometimes restaurants will be fabulous for one celiac, and a nightmare for another's. Over the summer, my mom and I tried to go to an Applebee's. In theory, they have a gluten-free menu, yet whenever I went to order something, I was told I couldn't eat it because it had flour in it. This was rather upsetting, and we ended up leaving as I couldn't eat anything anyways. Another thing that can happen is when your order gets mixed up and you start eating it. As a clarification, you can't taste the gluten in food, so when someone, like me, eats something with gluten, we aren't often aware of that until we start to get super sick or the manager of a restaurant comes over to start apologizing for poisoning me. My family went to a Mexican restaurant, which is usually one of the best places to find gluten-free food. I got fajitas, and as I was eating them, I just was commenting that it didn't really taste like corn, and how that was really cool. My dad totally panicked and asked if it tasted like it had wheat. I believe my response was along the lines of, "Dude, I haven't had a tortilla with flour in it in years. How would I know?" Unfortunately, they had screwed up my order. This sucked for many reasons. I had eaten there many times before and never had a problem, but now I don't feel comfortable going there. The restaurant apologized and did end up comping our entire meal and asked if there was anything they could do, which, as nice as they were, there wasn't anything they could do. My body was going to have to heal itself, and there was no way to undo that. I did get sick, but that's not the worst part about being "glutened."

When I am exposed to something with gluten in it, I don't just get sick. My body completely spazzes out. My moods go haywire, my immune system shuts down and my hair just looks like I live in a tornado. This is all compounded by never-ending nausea and throwing up as my body essentially has a tantrum in reaction to gluten. This continues for six weeks as my body heals. So, let's just say it was not a pleasant six weeks for me or my family.

The snarky little comments that come along with telling someone you're on a diet for whatever reason still happen when you tell them there is a medical reason for you to be on that diet. So, it isn't uncommon for me to hear "A little bit won't hurt you," or, "you're just being dramatic." I am not being dramatic, and yes, a little bit will hurt me. People with celiac have zero gluten tolerance in their body, which means if we are exposed to even the smallest amount of it, it causes damage. I may not get physically ill every time this happens, but my body will react each and every time, and when I don't get sick immediately, it can take a while to figure out why all of a sudden I just feel off and not like myself. It is pretty easy to avoid gluten food when shopping because most food companies label it when they have gluten or when it is gluten free. There are sneaky products you would never expect to have gluten in it, but they do. For example, hand sanitizer has gluten. I started getting really moody my junior year in high school. I went through about two weeks when I just felt awful, angry and sad and we couldn't figure out why because I didn't have a fever. While doing a science project, I read the ingredients in my hand sanitizer and saw on the fourth page of the ingredients list, in very small writing, it had wheat amino acids in it. Needless to say, I no longer use that brand of hand sanitizer. It can also be in shampoos, makeup and other random things you think wouldn't have gluten. So, I have to check every time to make sure nothing has changed because even small amounts, whether eaten or absorbed in some other way, can cause a lot of harm to my body.

I would just like to end by saying I am thankful for having celiac disease. It's something I can manage, and I can have a normal, healthy life as long as I stay completely gluten-free. So yes, I've had some annoying and weird things happen to me, but I've also had a lot of funny moments, too. After the whole tortilla incident, it is now a running joke in my family to run around shouting, "Did you feel the tortilla?" as this was the first question my dad asked me when he started to suspect it was a wheat flour tortilla. Or going an adventure with my friends to go find that really random obscure bakery that is gluten-free and seeing if the food actually tastes good. Plus a lot of restaurants have gluten-free menus. So, I am not deprived of the goodness that is Chipotle, as they are one of the best places I have gone because they do a full clean and glove change as soon as I tell them I have celiac, so I don't get sick. Or, if my family goes to Margaritaville, I still get to eat the epic nachos. So yes, I never get to eat bread from the breadbasket of fancy restaurants and the gluten-free sandwich bread in my life pretty much always has holes in it, but I still have lots of options and get to experiment in trying new things as a result. It's also helped me to form really strong relationships with my friends because it became very clear who actually cared about me and my well-being when they immediately started trying to make sure there are always gluten-free snacks or food options available whenever I come over. So yes, sometimes celiac is a pain, but the majority of the time, I get to be my colorful self and being gluten-free does nothing but add to my life experience.