Growing up with celiac

I think you could imagine what growing up in the early 2000s was like with Celiac. Not very easy. As a two year-old, I could not explain my symptoms. It was very difficult for my parents to figure out what my issues were or that I even had a health problem. Not to mention, I was only my parents second child, two years after their first. They were still new parents trying to figure out the way of parenting. Being diagnosed with an incurable disease was not something they ever wanted to hear four years into having kids. It is something that I do not want to imagine and thank them everyday for the parents that they are. They took me to my primary care doctor who, ironically, put me on an all wheat diet. Obviously, that was not the smartest move but I was only the second case of Celiac that she had ever heard of so you can't blame her. It wasn't until my preschool teacher talked to my parents about bringing me to the hospital for a diagnosis. My parents immediately took me to Boston Children's hospital. I walked into to see the gastroenterologist and he look one look at me and said "she has Celiac Disease." Once the doctor explained to my parents, "you just have to keep her on a gluten free diet" my parents thought "oh that's easy!" WRONG. My mom went to the grocery store after my diagnosis and ran out of the store crying. She had no idea how many food products contained gluten. This was in 2004, there was close to nothing gluten free. But damn did my parents learn fast and whoop my families asses into shape. They read everything they could about Celiac, took me to conventions, dietitians, nutritionists, anything that could give them and myself a better understanding of this disease and I couldn't be more thankful for them.