By Taylor O’Brien

At eight years old my life changed when I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease.  Celiac Disease is a life-long and incurable disease. The only treatment is an adherence to a gluten-free lifestyle, excluding wheat, oats, rye, barley and malt. There are many symptoms of Celiac Disease such as weight loss, failure to grow, skin rashes, vomiting, etc. My most prominent symptom was failure to grow. Despite all of this, having Celiac Disease has effected my life in a positive way, not in a negative way as one might think.

In 2004, I realized that I was lucky to have been diagnosed with Celiac Disease. That year I went to Camp and was happy that everyone bonded really quickly. We bonded not just because we have one thing in common, but because we understood each other, and we didn’t need to spend our few days together sharing the stories of our diagnosis, but rather sharing more about ourselves, where we were from, and what we liked to do. That year I attended Camp and met two friends who suffer more than I do. I feel lucky that I only have Celiac Disease, because my friend has Celiac Disease, Diabetes, and is lactose intolerant. Another girl I know has Celiac Disease, is allergic to nuts, soy, eggs, and is also lactose intolerant. It has to be a lot harder for them than it is for me. Although I had been diagnosed with Celiac Disease four years earlier, I never really thought about how lucky I was that I only had one thing to worry about.

Early in my diagnosis it was hard to accept that I had Celiac Disease. At first, I hated it because it required so much thinking about whether I could eat this or that, and everything was so new to my family and I that it was hard, especially on holiday’s, at birthday parties, family gatherings, and when going out to eat.  Nine years ago, just starting out with gluten-free food was terrible. The consistency and the appearance of the food made me not want to eat it.

However, throughout the nine years, the food has gotten much better and more and more people are being diagnosed, which makes the demand for gluten-free food higher. Now restaurants are starting to have gluten-free menu’s which makes eating out a lot easier. There are even special dining cards that explain your allergy situation in languages such as Chinese, Japanese, Indian and others for when you go to restaurants where they might not understand your dining situation. I learned throughout nine years that it is not always about the food, it’s about the people. Nine years ago I didn’t know anyone with Celiac Disease. That all changed when I attended Celiac Camp for the first time in 2001.

Celiac Camp and Celiac Disease in general was one of the best things that ever happened to me. Celiac Camp is just a normal summer sleep away camp with swimming, canoeing, field games, scavenger hunts, but for one week out of the year we are surrounded by other kids with Celiac Disease and we can eat anything we want.

While having Celiac, I found out many of my friends care more about me than I thought. I don’t go a day without hearing the words, “Can you eat that?”  I usually bring my own food when I go to a party at a friend’s, but it makes me feel special when they go out of their way to have something there for me.  My friends don’t want to make me feel different, and whenever it is one of our friend’s birthday’s someone always makes brownies for them. This year my friend decided to make me gluten-free brownies with a special gluten-free mix. No one has ever done something like that for me before. My friends are always looking out for me, and whenever an article in the newspaper is about Celiac I can always find it in my mailbox, and if they see a box of gluten-free cookies they think I have never had before, they will buy it for me so we can try them.

Living with Celiac Disease hasn’t really been that hard for me. Maybe it was because I was diagnosed so young, or because of the support of my friends and my family. All it really takes is a little extra time in the grocery store but stores like Whole Foods and Wegmans make that task much easier. The hardest part for me is being short. I’m eighteen years old, and I am five feet tall. Eating gluten prevented my body from growing, but once I eliminated gluten from my diet there was great increase in my height. Eliminating Gluten means no pizza, cupcakes, pretzels, sandwiches, or anything else along those lines. Gluten is also in places where we wouldn’t think like in some toothpaste, makeup, and even the adhesive on stamps and envelopes. They now have gluten free pizzas and tons of other products that make the gluten free lifestyle so much easier, after all Celiac affects 1 in 133 people.

People think that having Celiac Disease makes me feel different.  But, it’s not like I wake up every morning and think, “Oh, I’m different. I have a food allergy.”  Really it has helped me realize I have it a lot better then other people.