No More Mama's Noodles?????

For years I've had tummy trouble.  Ulcers starting in 8th grade, caused by cheerleading try-outs, piano recitals, pharmacology, and nursing boards.  Then since high school, I have always felt bloated, had stomach cramps, heartburn, and would get sick in the middle of the night for no reason.  It finally came to the point where I would tell Andrew my stomach hurt, in which he would respond, "What's new?"  (Thanks, for the sympathy pal!)   He really did feel bad for me and encouraged me to see the doctor.  If you know a nurse, who have come to realize that we are the worst patients.  So I waited a few more years.

After I had diagnosed myself with gallbladder trouble, IBS, chronic appendicitis, and many other diseases, I went to a wonderful gastrointerologist.  After telling him my GI history, he asked me if I had ever been tested for Celiac Disease.  I had been to a GI doctor when I was in high school and remembered him doing some nuclear test that looked for an egg shaped something, I had had 2 upper GI tests, but I didn't think I had been tested for celiac.  He ordered some blood tests and told me he'd call with results in a week.  After a week of waiting and looking up what Celiac Disease was (an auto-immune disorder where the body attacks the small intestine if gluten (a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye) is ingested, resulting in malnourishment, GI discomfort, and can ultimately lead to cancer), I received the call at work that I had tested positive.  Normal is below 20, moderate chance is 21-30, almost positively for sure you have it is >30.  Mine was 72.  The nurse told me to go ahead with my normal diet and scheduled an EGD for the next week..   My first thought: "But what about Mama's noodles and rolls?  And Monical's pizza?"  I immediately texted my praying friends and family with a text that read, "Please say a prayer.  I tested positive for Celiac Disease.  Please pray that it is a false positive so that I can still eat my mama's noodles.  Thanks."  Maybe a little bit of a selfish prayer, but you haven't had my mama's noodles!   My second thought: "I'm going to eat anything and everything that has wheat until my EGD when they give me the for sure positive."  I gained 3 or 4 pounds in those two weeks of waiting.  I ate cookies, pizza, pasta, breadsticks, cake, etc.  I also had some belly aches those two weeks.  My third thought: "I can't cry.  I'm at work.  I have 6 patients to take care of and some blood to hang."  That week, I had also taken care of a 19 year old with newly diagnosed crohn's disease and was going for his first colectomy, a 24 year old with a small bowel obstruction and colectomy, and a 50 year old man with a colostomy related to an intestinal disorder.  Celiac disease would not be the end of the world.

The day finally came when the office called said it was a for sure.  Start a gluten free diet today.  (I was actually on my way to get chicken noodle soup and a bread stick.  I ended up getting a chicken salad)  And this is where my story begins.....The Life of a Band Wife....Who Happens to Have Celiac Disease.