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.