Eating Disorder

After looking at the pictures of us at the state fair like this one, I couldn't help but think that I look like a person with an eating disorder.

Yuck!

I just want everyone to know that I do not have an eating disorder.  I am being 100% honest.

In the fall of 2008 when we were looking into infertility doctors, I started getting sick.  It would only happen every now and then.  I'd go weeks without symptoms and then for a few days every now and then, I'd feel horrible.  Because I was a teacher and worked with kids, I blamed this on being around them and all of their germs. 

This increased to the point where I was feeling sick pretty much 24/7.  No fun at all.  Everything was making me sick to my stomach.  This led to lots of medical tests.  I even had a colonoscopy, organ ultrasounds, blood tests, and the list goes on and on.  Everything came back normal. 

It took forever for them to do a special test on the gallbladder and sure enough, it wasn't working properly.  I had surgery in May 2009.  No more gallbladder for me! All of the problems should be fixed, right? 

I felt better for a while.  I knew there were certain types of foods that I needed to avoid, but for the most part, I was feeling better.  Every now and then, I'd feel sick again, but just felt that was my body's reaction to not have a gallbladder.

Little by little, the symptoms started showing up again.  It got to the point that I didn't allow myself to eat out, for fear of getting sick.  I only ate small things (a piece of toast, some goldfish, etc) during the day to hopefully not get sick.  I'd eat a huge meal in the evening because I was soooo hungry.  If we were traveling, I wouldn't eat at all.  I'd learned that the only thing worse than feeling bad was feeling bad in public.  I've skipped fun trips, missed out on important events, and spent way too much time stressing over getting sick.  Let's just say that the first thing I look for in a store is the bathroom.  I'm over 30 pounds lighter than what I was when we went to the infertility doctor in 2008. 

Since we moved this past summer, I've noticed that it's gotten worse.  I'm sooo tired of it.

So, when I was challenged by a friend to go gluten free for a week, I finally decided last week that I was ready.  I figured that it wouldn't hurt.  I'd been tested for that and it came back normal, but hey, it couldn't hurt to try it, right? 

Well, last week, I went the entire week without gluten AND the entire week without getting or feeling sick!  I also gained 2 pounds!!!  Knowing that is what was making me feel so bad makes me not want to eat it, even though I'm totally a bread type of girl. 


So the verdict:  I'm officially gluten free!  Here's to feeling better and not looking like I have an eating disorder!