My College Essay

I wrote my college essay on how Celiac Disease has changed who I am and how it has shaped me. So, here it is! Hope you enjoy it.

A New View of Life

When I got the diagnosis, all I heard was the word “disease.” All I could think was I have a disease. A disease is incurable and would impact my life perpetually. I should have been relieved to find out what was wrong; I had been bouncing between specialists and doctors for four months with no results. After a month of pain and tears, I was praying that something was wrong with me, so that we would be able to get rid of it. But when I found out what I had was a disease, the tears flowed freely without caring who was around. I remember my mom holding me close and reminding me that she’s there for me.

Sitting behind a computer, the gastroenterologist assured me in her detached, professional manner that I’d be “just fine.” She is a doctor who specializes in the digestive system and found out from a simple blood test that I have Celiac disease, which is a type of gluten intolerance. Handing me a stack of informational pamphlets, she told me the only thing I’d have to do to “cure” it was change my diet. Right after finding out what Celiac disease was, I searched page after page on the Internet about it. I stared at the screen of my laptop until my eyes hurt reading and re-reading the misleading information. I was led to believe just having the disease could cause further health problems. Luckily after talking to others who have a similar condition, I found that I wouldn’t die from having a food allergy.

Discovering I have this allergy has changed a lot about me and my outlook on life. At first, it was about trying new foods, such as brown rice pasta. When it was lifted from the pot it cooked in, it all clumped together like the roots of a plant. There was a difference in taste, too. I knew right off it’d take time to get used to. After a while of strange tasting pastas, cookies, and breads, I noticed that the food I eat wasn’t the only thing I had been changing.

I started trying new activities that I normally wouldn’t do and pushing myself out of my comfort zone. Staring down at my gummy bear sized peers from thirty feet in the air at a ropes course, I started on a pathway of overcoming my fear of heights. I tried kayaking in a single boat for the first time and managed to not tip over. Through two hospital visits, seven different tests, and four months of annoyance towards doctors, I realized that I can overcome something as simple as a fear or as complex as learning patience. It might seem silly to anyone else, but to me, at such a young age, this meant everything. Changing one little thing in my daily life taught me to take risks, whether they be big or small.

Lifestyle

I've been gluten-free for about five months now. Wow...has it really been that long already? It seems like just a couple weeks ago I was sitting in a hospital bed, getting ready to run some more tests...But here I am, five months later, gluten-free and healthier than ever. For the most part.

Sometimes in conversation, my having Celiac disease will come up. And sometimes, I slip up and say that I'm on a diet. Which, in a way is true. But I'm not choosing to do this. It's something I have to do. So, it isn't really a "diet" to me. It's more of a lifestyle. A diet is something people do when they think they weigh too much, so they eat less, or eat "healthier." Eating gluten free foods is one way people do diet. But I'm not doing this because I want to lose weight. I'm doing it and will remain to stay on this so-called diet because I have to. It has become a lifestyle, something that I will get more and more used to and less and less annoyed with.

Just a thought, I suppose.

Introductions.

My name is Brittany. I am 17 years young and I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease in March, 2011.

I want to be able to use this blog to inform people who don't know what Celiac Disease is. I want them to know that it is possible to have an allergy to gluten. When I first heard of it, I just thought gluten was a funny word. But now that I have an allergy to it, I know that it's a serious condition. It's as serious as having a peanut allergy, or a shellfish allergy. For those who are unfamiliar with Celiac disease, I'll tell you what happens in simple terms, or at least how I understand it. If I were to eat something with gluten in it, the food will break down and everything like normal food, but damage is done to the intestines. The intestines are torn apart and unable to absorb nutrients. If this continues for too long, a person can become malnourished and other health problems can occur.

But luckily, there are ways to prevent that! All I do is eat gluten-free. Meaning I don't eat anything with wheat, barely, rye, or oats. It can get really tough, though, because some things are not right there in front of you to see that they are gluten free. Sometimes, you have to read the ingredients really well, and even if something doesn't say "wheat" doesn't mean it's gluten free. That's the really frustrating part.

There's so much I want to say about myself and my experience with Celiac disease. But I'll save those for later posts.

I want to try to reach out to other teens/young adults who have this and share experiences. It would be beneficial to me, because I'd have someone who understands what I'm going through and can give their own advice, and it will benefit others as well, because I will do the same for them. I also want to try to reach out to spread general awareness, because this is a growing issue. Having Celiac disease is becoming more and more common. I would like everyone's help who's willing to get the information to restaurants and companies, while providing helpful information to others who are gluten-free.

So welcome to my life of having Celiac disease.