“My life with Inspired RD,” a guest post by my husband

Because May is Celiac Awareness Month, I asked my husband to write a guest post about his experience so far with celiac disease. I am incredibly thankful for his love and never-ending support. Not only does he take care of me when I’m feeling like crap, but he also makes sure that the kids don’t kiss me after eating gluten and that others know just how serious my gluten-free diet is.

So without further adieu, here he is in his own words.

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When Alysa, or “Inspired RD” as I like to call her around the house, asked me to guest post, my first thought was that there is no way I’ll be able to completely capture what she’s been through in the past year.  But at the very least I’ll try to give you a glimpse.

For a couple years now, before being diagnosed with celiac disease, I had gotten so used to Alysa telling me how her stomach was upset or how she felt so tired all the time or how she felt like she was constantly in a fog.   To be brutally honest, I was a pretty crappy husband because I didn’t understand what was going on so my jerk-of-a-self thought she was either looking for sympathy or just had a weak stomach.  Can you believe that?!

First of all, my wife does not look for sympathy and she is definitely not weak.  Second of all, I was just being ignorant and didn’t want to believe that there was something else going on.  After doing some research and asking around, she finally decided to get tested and it was confirmed that she had celiac disease.  Although it was a relief on one hand, it really sucked on the other because, well, she had celiac and life would have to change.

Before being diagnosed with celiac disease last year, we were a family that really enjoyed a good meal.  We loved trying new things and with both of her parents always creating new dishes and experimenting with amazing food, we loved to partake as a family and enjoy good food and drink together. I really had a misconception when she was diagnosed as I thought we’d be eating nothing but stale rice cakes and vegetables every day.  That couldn’t have been further from the truth.  Now, we eat just as well as before the diagnosis if not better as we know exactly what we are putting into our bodies due to the fact that if a speck of gluten gets into our food my beautiful wife will be curled up in a ball on the couch for hours.

Seriously, gluten is like kryptonite for Alysa.  Her parents went to great lengths to prepare an awesome meal totally free of gluten and she would still get sick for a week.  It was brutal.  Although the food contained zero gluten the cookware and cutting boards were still contaminated which put the Inspired RD down for the count.  For the next week, after a gluten attack, she would literally be in a fog and just not be herself.  I couldn’t stand seeing my wife like this.

After learning of the celiac diagnosis my first comment went something like this, “So…you can’t eat bread anymore?”  I had no real idea that gluten was in EVERYTHING!  Seriously, breads, crackers, chips, cereals, candy bars, etc.  And yes, even Inspired RD’s eat candy bars from time to time!

So we ended up completely purging our kitchen of all foods containing gluten.  We got new pots and pans, wooden spoons, cutting boards, even a new toaster.  Alysa cleaned all of our kitchen drawers because there seemed to be crumbs in every stinkin’ drawer and, as I found out, even a tiny little crumb could “gluten” my beautiful wife.  After taking these steps to de-gluten our house I figured she would be well on her way to perfect health once again.  I was wrong.

Some other surprises soon came up that we had never even thought about.  Like when she kept glutening herself unknowingly every time that she washed her hair, put on her makeup, and even if she happened to feed the dog.  We think our dog may have celiac.  Just kidding, I think…

So, over time, the eating at home got to be pretty easy.  The real challenge came when we wanted to go out to eat.  You just can’t trust a restaurant that says they’re “Gluten Free”.  Most of them have no concept of what cross-contamination even means.  If we ever do eat fast food it will be at In-N-Out or Chipotle which both seem to do pretty good jobs but then again you have high school kids manning the food so you never know.  Another thing we never really took into consideration was eating at other peoples houses.  In the beginning, it was tough because Alysa wouldn’t want to be rude but wouldn’t want to get sick either.  Now she will usually just eat beforehand or bring something for herself to eat.

My wife is an amazing woman. She flat out is. Not once in the past year has she whined about her disease. She has completely adapted, adjusted, and overcome as Clint Eastwood famously said in Heartbreak Ridge. She’s going to get all embarrassed and not want to post this part but it’s true and that’s one of the many reasons why I love her. She has taken something that knocks a lot of people on their ass, and keeps them there, and has embraced her new disease. Not only that, but she has become an ambassador for the celiac and gluten-free community. I love that she has learned so much about this disease and yearns to share and educate others. I am so proud of my Inspired RD celiac-diseased wife!

This post originally appeared on May 31, 2012