Forever Unaswered Questions

The pain gets worse each time: acid reflux, stomach cramps, numerous trips to the bathroom, feeling feverish. The only thing that would keep me going is knowing that it will go away within 3 hours.

When I first started going gluten-free, I used to have a 'slip up', aka gluten myself, more than once a month. There was a period of time last summer, 3 months into my new diet/lifestyle, where I was glutening myself once a week. That's when it truly hit me that each slip up was more painful than the last. Ever since then, I've been getting increasingly more cautious as time goes on because I know what all I have to lose.

Recently I began to wonder, how often do other Celiac Diseasers gluten themselves? What's the norm? I can gladly say that the last time I was glutened was 5 months ago but I have nothing and no one to compare my accomplishment to.

The thing that really freaks me out is that the pain truly does get worse over time. But does it ever hit a point where the level of pain levels out, or does it truly get worse and worse? How bad will my symptoms be when I'm 30, 40, or 50??

At this point in the gluten free game that is my life, you couldn't pay me enough money for me to willingly gluten myself -- unless a million dollars is out of the question.

Gluten Free = Contains Wheat?!

I've never been a very observant person when it comes to grocery shopping. I didn't even trust myself to go grocery shopping alone until I literally had to do it otherwise I couldn't eat.

My sister was always my favorite shopping buddy because she noticed the details that my mind automatically ignored. "The buy one get one free is for that type of cereal, not this one..." "The milk's leaking..." "You dropped your wallet on the ground over there..."

Ok may I make myself sound a little more helpless than the reality of the situation but the moral of the story is: I just didn't pay attention at the grocery store. So imagine how hard it was for me to grocery shop after being diagnosed with Celiac Disease and being forced to check every label of every food. Let's just say it wasn't a piece of (gf) cake.

I'd say after a year of my label-checking routine, I've got it down...But there are still times when I slip up, and that means money down the drain and a potential glutened situation.

I'm used to slipping up but I'm not used to slipping up when I bought something from the gluten free section of the grocery store. Last week, I decided to start trying out gluten free soups so I stocked up on a few. Right when I was about to heat them up, I glanced down at the label and saw: "contains wheat". I was pissed! Every can I bought contained wheat. I'm sorry for thinking that gluten free meant it doesn't contain gluten.

I'm not sure if the store intentionally stuck those cans of soup in the gluten free section because the were Annie's brand but I have definitely learned my lesson: Check literally every label of every food!!

Has anyone else had a mishap like this happen or am I just shopping at the wrong grocery store??

Oh and in case you're wondering, I prefer to shop alone now-a-days and have completely weaned myself off of using shopping buddies.