Friday night, our family ordered the same takeout from a local restaurant that we have enjoyed for years. It seemed a bit different as we unpackaged it – but nothing to cause any alarm, just normal restaurant stuff (we thought).

However, as I was sitting in the den with Courtney, immediately after we had eaten, I quickly realized something was wrong.

In addition to the rapid onset of nausea and stomach cramping, my face began tingling and my head started hurting – and I knew then that my usual order has had an ingredient change and now contains gluten (something I never even considered at this restaurant, as we’ve been ordering from them for so long).

Of course, as a person with Celiac disease, I knew I was in trouble (especially after a full meal).

Within the hour, I was vomiting (sorry, gory details) and exhausted – and that was just the beginning.

Every person reacts differently to being glutened and there are many things that can happen.

GI distress seems to be a universal complaint (as one would expect from a reaction to food) – but the other symptoms that occur over the next days to weeks vary significantly from person to person and can be really nasty.

For me, especially with such a large exposure (even with vomiting after the meal), I have had ongoing joint pain and swelling, headaches, fevers, severe fatigue, and the expected – and really unpleasant – GI symptoms.

(Essentially, a celiac flare means a flare of everything else as well.)

These symptoms have persisted for the past five days and it is frustrating – as I did nothing out of the ordinary and still was glutened – as well as being so unpleasant to be ill.

As I ride this out, I am reminded to be even more cautious about ingredients and questioning everything at restaurants – even if I think I know what I am getting.

I also want to issue my usual Celiac PSA to our healthy friends – If you are sharing food with a celiac friend and are unsure about anything, better safe than sorry. I assure you they would rather skip a food than roll the dice.

Next up on the blog: a regular book report on several good ones I’ve read recently.

Onward. ❤

Be well, everybody. Take care of yourselves and each other.

Grace and Blessings.