our battle with gluten

Wes has celiac disease.

Tangent: Pronounced without the "s" sound on the end of celiac. I meet so many people who when after hearing my husband has celiac disease, respond with,

"Oh! I had a roommate who had an uncle with celiax disease!"

"Oh really. I've never heard about celiax, please tell, is it similar to celiac disease, cause that is what my husband has."

Back on track: This means when Wes eats wheat (gluten) it slices off all the celia lining his small intestine making absorption of nutrients quite difficult.



You can see here what normal celia look like.






And here is a celiac patient.




Most people react with nasty stomach problems. Wes gets a terribly itchy rash on his elbows and knees, dermatitis herpetiformis. And for his entire mission he blamed it on some "weird Mexico disease" but it got worse when he returned home.

Finally he was diagnosed a few months before we got married. When we found out, my mom jokingly (I think) asked me if I still wanted to marry him.

Getting married usually entails the girl learning a few more cooking skills. This is difficult enough. Now we throw on gluten-free everything... and well... it gets more difficult.


















Have you ever thought of everything that has wheat in it? We're not just talking bread (8 bucks a loaf for gluten free at the store), it seems like EVERYTHING has gluten in it.

For example:

Salad dressings
Chapstick
Pretzels
Candy
Any sauce or gravy
Pizza crust
Cereals (hardest one!)
Pasta
Pie crusts, cake, muffins, bagels
Chicken nuggets

and recently discovered... this brand of toothpaste!














We're trying though. We eat plenty of fruit and vegetables, wrap lots of meat in lettuce and experiment with bread recipes. Wes is gaining weight and I am learning.

Story: The Elder's Quorum Presidency came to visit and brought 2 dozen chocolate chip cookies. Obviously we didn't have the heart to tell them right then and there, that Wes couldn't eat them. Sooo, yeah. I ate all of them. After that episode I told Wes we needed to get the word out, otherwise I was going to double in weight.

Celiac disease runs in my family too, so our children are pretty much doomed.