My Celiac Story
About ten years ago, I had a routine blood test done. I went right back to school and unsurprisingly, nearly passed out. I expected to go to the nurse’s office, be given some juice or something, and wait twenty minutes. I was put in a wheelchair and sent home. I suppose the nurse could tell something was really wrong. Later that day, my mom got a call from the doctor. I was anemic and it made sense that I’d pass out after a blood test. I had been feeling faint before but didn’t say anything until it hit it’s worst yet after the blood test. And I kept feeling faint. Over and over again, for years. At first, it was ignored and I was told to get my iron levels up. Then they said my iron levels were not low enough to cause this much trouble and sent me to a myriad of specialists. There were some problems with my heart rate, but they didn’t correlate with when I was feeling faint. They tried to test me for a seizure disorder, but they only triggered migraines. As you can imagine, I was extremely frustrated. Finally, I met my now primary doctor. He wasn’t 100% sure what was wrong, but he gave me instructions such as drinking tons of water and other tricks that are now second nature. Between that and starting to drink coffee, I was able to keep myself alert. I slowly started to have stomach issues but ignored them at first.
