Michaela's Story

 This is an older post that I thought would be appropriate to re-post.  Many of you know who inspires this blog, but many do not.  My inspiration is my daughter, who went through many years of suffering at a very young age.  We were both inspired by her experience to develop a site that would offer help and encouragement to other allergy and Celiac patients, hence 'Living with Food Allergies and Celiac Disease'.  

For those of you who did not know of our blog a year ago, here is her story.













  Living with allergies and/or Celiac Disease is a challenge, there's no doubt. Your attitude towards the change can make the difference between success and failure. My daughter, Michaela, had been sick with stomach pain nearly every day for 4 yrs before we found out what was actually wrong with her. It had gotten to the point that people would look at her and assume she was saying her stomach hurt just to get out of doing something.  The school system believed it was 'all in her head' and that she just didn't want to go to school.  She felt alone and abandoned.  I felt as though I was helpless.  I could not find help for my daughter and continued to watch her suffer in pain, day after day.



We had been to several hospitals and doctors before we requested a referral to GI for Kids in Knoxville, TN. On our hour drive home from our first appointment, I received a call from her doctor notifying me that her tests showed she was allergic to cow's milk, eggs, corn, and wheat. I remember being devastated, driving through rush hour traffic on I40. I never heard past the 'eggs'. I thought to myself how in the world was I going to make it through Christmas without milk and eggs. Little did I know at that time that milk and eggs would turn out to be the least of my problems. Corn allergies? There is not a whole lot out on the supermarket shelves that doesn't have some type of corn or corn byproduct in it's ingredients! A week later, Michaela had an EGD and Colonoscopy. The doctor came to the waiting room to show me the pictures of her intestines. "She's positive for Celiac Disease", he said. Again, my heart fell into my stomach. I knew very little about Celiac except for the fact that one of my best friend's son had been diagnosed with Celiac the year before and I knew what he had gone through. I had been set up with a Nutritionalist for an appointment to go over diets. I expect this would be great for one allergy or Celiac alone, but for me, it just gave me a guide to get started on the many sleepless nights of research.



I made that long drive back from Knoxville once more, deciding that this would not beat us. My daughter has the right to live a full and productive life the same as anyone else, her diet may just be different.

I read numerous times reference made to not try to replace "normal" recipes with gluten-free flours because they would fail. I refused to agree to that and have since come up with numerous great tasting foods, cakes, cookies, and candies. Of course, I have thrown away my fair share of failures.

 

Everything was based on attitude. I had to stay positive and keep everyone else in the house positive. If I made something and my daughter said 'it doesn't taste the same', I would reply 'it doesn't taste the same as what?', close your eyes and taste it as if it is the first time you have ever ate it and tell me if you like it'. She would, and a smile would come across her face and she would reply 'it tastes good, I like it' as she opened her eyes. Memories can crush something new. People get disappointed because they are trying to make things taste just like they remember it. I have found success in our situation is making foods that just taste good today!

 

I will begin to post recipes in this blog with adaptations for other allergies. I hope you try the recipes and enjoy living with allergies and Celiac Disease!





Many more trips to doctors offices, hospital, and tests have occurred since this post was written.  And many changes have come about because of results.  But the purpose of this post was to re-share and allow my readers to understand my inspiration behind this blog.  

If you have a story to share, I invite you to comment.  Michaela loves to read the comments and it reminds her each day that she is not alone, and that there are others out there that are just like she is.