Thanks for visiting My Gluten Free Life! My name is Melanie and I am a wife , a mom to 2 amazing kiddos; a blogger, writer, chef, baker, couponer, artist, and I have Celiac disease. I also work full time outside of the home assisting homeless individuals and families in obtaining housing and becoming self-sufficient. It's such a rewarding job and I wouldn't change it for the world!
My gluten-free journey was definitely not an easy one! In fact, it took nearly my whole adult life to find out what my body was trying to tell me. Ask anyone with Celiac disease and I'm sure they have had a similar experience. Around 90% of the people who have Celiac disease don't know they have it! How crazy is that!?
It all started for me in 2012. I developed some severe issues with eye inflammation (know as Iritis) in my left eye only. When the symptoms first came on, they were horrible. I had headaches for days, and not just normal headaches, these headaches were right behind my eyes and extremely painful. My eyes were very sensitive to light- my poor family had to live in the dark for a couple weeks! My eye also turned bright red like a fire engine. It was awful. After a couple days of pain, I called my Doctor and set up an appointment. After the appointment they had diagnosed me with Conjunctivitis and gave me a prescription for eye cream. Even as the Doctor was telling me it was Conjunctivitis, my head kept telling me, No, No, No, this is NOT conjunctivitis! Being a mom of two young kids, we had our share of Conjunctivitis and I just knew this wasn't it. Something else was going on. But I followed Doctor's orders, picked up my prescription, and started putting the eye cream on twice a day. After the second day, I wasn't seeing any change. My eye was still bloodshot red and my headache still in tow. I called my Doctor again who then referred me to an Ophthalmologist. On the day of my appointment with the Opthamologist, she took one look at my eye and told me I had Iritis, which is know as an inflammation in the eye. She took a look inside my left eye and saw an extreme amount of inflammation. Then she told me that I did not have Conjunctivitis. Surprise, surprise! She immediately gave me steroid drops for my eye and told me that after a few days I should be feeling MUCH better. And she was right, I did! After a few days on the drops, I was good as new! The redness of my eye dissipated, my headache was gone, and I wasn't sensitive to light anymore. Praise God! I finally had some relief! I stayed on the drops for 10 days and then was told to come off of them. I then went back to the Ophthalmologist and she re-checked my eye. She said the inflammation was mostly all gone! I was ecstatic! My life resumed as normal, working full time, taking care of the kids, cooking, eating, etc. After being off the drops for about a month, my headache started coming back one day. It's like I could feel it behind my eye and knew what was coming next....that awful pain and inflammation, sensitivity to light, the whole 9 yards! Nooooo! What is going on with me?! I immediately called the Ophthalmologist and got the soonest appointment. She checked my eye again, and sure enough, it was back! I was at a loss. Why was this happening again? I asked so many questions that day and got little answers, but the Ophthalmologist did call in for me to get blood work done. She said she wanted to check for a number of autoimmune disorders that could be causing this, one being Lyme disease and the other being some kind of Arthritis. During this whole experience I had also been researching Iritis online and reading on what can cause it. And in one article I read, there was a small link between Iritis and Celiac disease. Hmmm. I then started researching Celiac disease symptoms and was shocked to find out that I could check off more than half of that list! I knew I had to get tested for Celiac, just to be sure. I was so scared of the unknown, but I knew that I had to find out what was going on with me, I couldn't live with this Iritis. I wouldn't wish that kind of pain on anyone and I surely did not want to experience it again. So, I went for my blood work and got a call from my Doctor a few days later. They told me that my Celiac levels were very high and that I should start on a gluten free diet and see if it helps. They also told me that I have a gene called HLA-B27, which is the protein found on the surface of white blood cells, called the Human Leukocyte Antigen. A positive screen for this protein shows that I have a greater risk for having an autoimmune disorder. There are so many autoimmune disorders that it could be just about anything, or nothing at all. Great, just what I needed....more questions unanswered. Talk about discouraging! I immediately started to pray and ask God to show me and the doctors what was going on. I then started on a gluten free diet to kind of experiment and see if it helped. After a week, I felt amazing! I wasn't bloated or gassy anymore, I didn't have severe stomach pains that I had grown used to getting frequently, and even better was that my Iritis had not come back! Wow. Could this be the answer I was searching for? I decided to experiment one last time and go back on gluten. I started eating gluten as I normally would, without over-doing it. I kid you not, my Iritis was back within the week! The Doctor did not believe me when I told her and said it couldn't possibly be from gluten, but I am someone who listens to my gut, and when my gut tells me something, I know it's usually right on. Needless to say, I have been gluten free for the past 2 years and have never felt better. Since 2012, I have also had numerous tests done and met with a Rheumatologist to rule out any kind of Arthritis. I don't seem to have any signs of that, so I am glad. And there are times when all I want is a BIG slice of pizza, you know the kind that's crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside? Yeah, I have had dreams about that kind of pizza! And once in awhile I find myself not being able to resist the urge, but then I kick myself later when I have to spend my night in the bathroom hunched over in pain! I'd rather enjoy life and be healthy then have to face that kind of pain again. I am also happy to say that my Iritis has not returned in well over a year now! Glory to God!
Thank you for taking a glimpse into my gluten free life. As an avid cook and baker, I am excited to share my gluten free recipes with you. The journey to becoming gluten free is definitely not an easy one, but if I can do it than so can you. Here's to a happy and healthy gluten free life!
~ Melanie
My gluten-free journey was definitely not an easy one! In fact, it took nearly my whole adult life to find out what my body was trying to tell me. Ask anyone with Celiac disease and I'm sure they have had a similar experience. Around 90% of the people who have Celiac disease don't know they have it! How crazy is that!?
It all started for me in 2012. I developed some severe issues with eye inflammation (know as Iritis) in my left eye only. When the symptoms first came on, they were horrible. I had headaches for days, and not just normal headaches, these headaches were right behind my eyes and extremely painful. My eyes were very sensitive to light- my poor family had to live in the dark for a couple weeks! My eye also turned bright red like a fire engine. It was awful. After a couple days of pain, I called my Doctor and set up an appointment. After the appointment they had diagnosed me with Conjunctivitis and gave me a prescription for eye cream. Even as the Doctor was telling me it was Conjunctivitis, my head kept telling me, No, No, No, this is NOT conjunctivitis! Being a mom of two young kids, we had our share of Conjunctivitis and I just knew this wasn't it. Something else was going on. But I followed Doctor's orders, picked up my prescription, and started putting the eye cream on twice a day. After the second day, I wasn't seeing any change. My eye was still bloodshot red and my headache still in tow. I called my Doctor again who then referred me to an Ophthalmologist. On the day of my appointment with the Opthamologist, she took one look at my eye and told me I had Iritis, which is know as an inflammation in the eye. She took a look inside my left eye and saw an extreme amount of inflammation. Then she told me that I did not have Conjunctivitis. Surprise, surprise! She immediately gave me steroid drops for my eye and told me that after a few days I should be feeling MUCH better. And she was right, I did! After a few days on the drops, I was good as new! The redness of my eye dissipated, my headache was gone, and I wasn't sensitive to light anymore. Praise God! I finally had some relief! I stayed on the drops for 10 days and then was told to come off of them. I then went back to the Ophthalmologist and she re-checked my eye. She said the inflammation was mostly all gone! I was ecstatic! My life resumed as normal, working full time, taking care of the kids, cooking, eating, etc. After being off the drops for about a month, my headache started coming back one day. It's like I could feel it behind my eye and knew what was coming next....that awful pain and inflammation, sensitivity to light, the whole 9 yards! Nooooo! What is going on with me?! I immediately called the Ophthalmologist and got the soonest appointment. She checked my eye again, and sure enough, it was back! I was at a loss. Why was this happening again? I asked so many questions that day and got little answers, but the Ophthalmologist did call in for me to get blood work done. She said she wanted to check for a number of autoimmune disorders that could be causing this, one being Lyme disease and the other being some kind of Arthritis. During this whole experience I had also been researching Iritis online and reading on what can cause it. And in one article I read, there was a small link between Iritis and Celiac disease. Hmmm. I then started researching Celiac disease symptoms and was shocked to find out that I could check off more than half of that list! I knew I had to get tested for Celiac, just to be sure. I was so scared of the unknown, but I knew that I had to find out what was going on with me, I couldn't live with this Iritis. I wouldn't wish that kind of pain on anyone and I surely did not want to experience it again. So, I went for my blood work and got a call from my Doctor a few days later. They told me that my Celiac levels were very high and that I should start on a gluten free diet and see if it helps. They also told me that I have a gene called HLA-B27, which is the protein found on the surface of white blood cells, called the Human Leukocyte Antigen. A positive screen for this protein shows that I have a greater risk for having an autoimmune disorder. There are so many autoimmune disorders that it could be just about anything, or nothing at all. Great, just what I needed....more questions unanswered. Talk about discouraging! I immediately started to pray and ask God to show me and the doctors what was going on. I then started on a gluten free diet to kind of experiment and see if it helped. After a week, I felt amazing! I wasn't bloated or gassy anymore, I didn't have severe stomach pains that I had grown used to getting frequently, and even better was that my Iritis had not come back! Wow. Could this be the answer I was searching for? I decided to experiment one last time and go back on gluten. I started eating gluten as I normally would, without over-doing it. I kid you not, my Iritis was back within the week! The Doctor did not believe me when I told her and said it couldn't possibly be from gluten, but I am someone who listens to my gut, and when my gut tells me something, I know it's usually right on. Needless to say, I have been gluten free for the past 2 years and have never felt better. Since 2012, I have also had numerous tests done and met with a Rheumatologist to rule out any kind of Arthritis. I don't seem to have any signs of that, so I am glad. And there are times when all I want is a BIG slice of pizza, you know the kind that's crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside? Yeah, I have had dreams about that kind of pizza! And once in awhile I find myself not being able to resist the urge, but then I kick myself later when I have to spend my night in the bathroom hunched over in pain! I'd rather enjoy life and be healthy then have to face that kind of pain again. I am also happy to say that my Iritis has not returned in well over a year now! Glory to God!
Thank you for taking a glimpse into my gluten free life. As an avid cook and baker, I am excited to share my gluten free recipes with you. The journey to becoming gluten free is definitely not an easy one, but if I can do it than so can you. Here's to a happy and healthy gluten free life!
~ Melanie