My Journey With Celiac Disease

I feel like it’s only fitting to start my food and wellness pages with the biggest part of my life right now- navigating the world as a newly diagnosed celiac.

2020

My noticeable health struggles date back to the early pandemic days. When the world ‘shut down’ I was a sophomore in high school. As did everyone else my age, I just thought I was getting an extended spring break. I decided this was the perfect time to reinvent myself. I started doing at home work out videos from famous fitness YouTubers, and I had recently become vegetarian. My diet drastically changed. I incorporated more whole foods, more vegetables, and more plant based protein. I limited foods high in saturated fats, added sugars, and added sodium (all the health buzz words really).

Of course, my newfound fitness and diet caused me to lose weight (something I did not have intent on doing). I just wanted to become a healthier person overall, and I guess an aftereffect of that was slimming down and putting on muscle definition. However, with my slimmer figure I started noticing something else as well. After every meal, no matter how big or small, my stomach would inflate like a balloon. I literally looked like I was in my second trimester carrying twins.

My bloating started becoming physically uncomfortable. I had a constant pressure pushing out from my insides. My appetite started to decrease because it seemed like the only way to avoid the pain was to stop eating altogether.

After three months of constant pain and rapid weight loss, I went to a gastroenterologist to seek help. He did some bloodwork on me and my results came back with one marker positive for celiac. I was scheduled for an endoscopy the following week to officially test for celiac disease. To everyone’s surprise, the endoscopy came back negative. My gastroenterologist was a bit shocked, but he continued digging to see what could possibly be wrong with me. I had a gastric emptying scan done, a lactose intolerance and fructose intolerance test done, an x-ray of my intestines done, the list goes on. Nothing came back conclusive. I was left with no answers.

Fueled with frustration, I had to go on with my life. It seemed that this would be my new normal from now on.

2021

As time went on I began to lose more and more weight. My energy levels plummeted, I was irritable, constantly sad, self conscious, and always in pain. My family and teachers expressed their concern, but I brushed it off as being ‘fine’. This was in fact my new normal.

I had my yearly physical done for school and my physician noticed my rapid weight loss. I expressed my chronic fatigue and loss of appetite, so more bloodwork was done to see what could be the root of the problem. One of those tests being another celiac panel. This time around, two positive markers for celiac came up.

I was supposed to schedule another endoscopy, but with the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, I never got around to it.

2023

The summer of 2023 was my breaking point. That summer I was visiting my family in Italy. Pasta, bread, and pizza made up a majority of my diet (I mean, can you blame me?). Although my tastebuds were more than happy, my GI tract was as upset as ever. My symptoms became the worst they had ever been and a switch finally went off in my brain. When I got back to the U.S. I decided to make another trip to the doctor. This time, I expressed to my physician that I believed I had celiac disease. She ran another blood panel on me. This time, three markers for celiac came back positive. I was referred to another gastroenterologist and she agreed with my concern.

So, I underwent yet another endoscopy. After two weeks of impatience, my results finally came back- I was officially diagnosed with celiac disease… And so my gluten free journey began!

As of right now, I have been gluten free for about four months now. It has definitely been a struggle adjusting to this new lifestyle, especially as a sophomore in college. My family is from Italy and so much of my cultural food has gluten in it. Not only that, but going out to eat is virtually impossible. I struggle to find places that are affordable and safe for me to eat at.

On the plus side, I have been having so much fun experimenting with new recipes, so stay tuned for posts on that.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read my story! Until next time!

-Diana