Personal Narrative: Living With Celiac Disease

I grew up like any other normal teenager. I enjoyed going to pizza parties, eating out at fast food restaurants, eating cake and cookies, and having spaghetti dinners at my grandmother’s house. When I was 14 years old my father deployed to Kuwait with the military. I felt stressed, upset and worried all the time because my father, my best friend, was gone and knowing he wouldn’t be around made me physically sick. I would eat, and immediately after eating, I would start to have physical and medical problems. My mother rushed me to the doctor. Little did I know this visit would change my life forever - I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. Having Celiac Disease means that I need to be extremely careful about the food I eat or I can have serious medical issues, including death. Slowly, I started to realize how hard it was going to be having Celiac Disease. I felt excluded from everything. If I attended a party, I would sit and watch everyone eat and try to offer me food, not knowing that I wouldn’t be able to eat any of it due to my strict diet. I would go to school every day and no one in my school knew what type of food would be appropriate for a child …show more content…
Living gluten-free means you must avoid all foods with wheat, rye and barley, such as bread and pasta. Ingesting even just a small amount of gluten, like crumbs from a cutting board or toaster, can trigger small intestine damage. People with a first-degree relative with celiac disease (parent, child, and sibling) have a 1 in 10 risk of developing celiac disease. Two and one-half million Americans are undiagnosed and are at risk for long-term health complications. Celiac affects people differently and even when you have it you may not have any symptoms at all. Currently, the only treatment for celiac disease is a lifelong adherence to a strict gluten-free