About Coeliac disease (and what it's like to live with)

Woohoo! It's finally the summer holidays - even if the weather doesn't show it. Since it's the summer and I don't have college for 6 weeks, I've become a bit obsessed with Coeliac disease and researching it in detail to see what it really is that I'm suffering from as well as mulling over my thoughts and feelings about the whole thing.

I was diagnosed with coeliac disease when I was about 2 years old. I've made a few mistakes with the food I've eaten (not deliberately which is a sort of nice thought) and learnt just how cautious Coeliacs have to be when it comes to a life-long gluten free diet.

So here's a description of Coeliac disease and what it's like to suffer from it: (I did know some of this, but a lot of it I didn't know or realise. Also, facts etc are from research - if anything isn't completely right then it's an accident so please let me know and I'll make any edits needed.)

- Coeliac disease is an autoimmune disease. When a sufferer eats gluten, the gut basically attacks itself. This leads to little hair like structures called villi being damaged. They are flattened and so cannot absorb the goodness from food as they should. If this continues, it will lead to the person being malnourished (which we all know is pretty bad..)

Image from http://www.bupa.co.uk/health-information/directory/c/coeliac-disease

- You can have coeliac disease with no symptoms. This would mean that your gut is being damaged without you knowing which is very bad news. some people also have symptoms which they don't notice as they are very mild, or don't realised their symptoms are due to coeliac disease - the symptoms are very similar to IBS and so it can be tricky knowing what the cause is.

- Some people with Coeliac disease think that it's okay to eat small amounts of gluten (such as bread being cut up on the same chopping board as non-gluten free bread). I'll admit I thought I was okay with it too simply because I didn't have any reaction to similar circumstances. However, this simply isn't true. No matter how much gluten you have, or what it's in, it's going to damage your gut, which can take a long time to heal properly. If you keep eating like this, your gut will be unable to heal, leading to the symptoms of coeliac disease reoccurring and being malnourished. You need to stick to a very strict gluten free diet - even a crum can do damage. It's so hard to do, but it's worth it as eating gluten as a coeliac can affect your fertility and long term health - apparently it can even cause bowel cancer!

- I read somewhere that giving someone with coeliac disease gluten is as bad, if not worse, than giving someone food poisoning! Understandable if you understand what happens when a coeliac eats gluten - it's not an allergy and it doesn't simply cause a stomach ache.

- It's really hard to eat out when you have coeliac disease - it's hard to trust someone else to cook your food when you need to cooked separate from anything with gluten and for it to not contain any traces of gluten at all. Even when a chef says they know about cooking gluten free, it's hard to believe they do considering some of the experiences I've had and that people I know have had. As annoying as it can be, you have to keep asking the same person the same questions and telling them the same things over and over - and even then some people don't seem to understand. 

Thought this was quite funny, as well as true. https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/d5/63/a1/d563a15219be8afb04832e55ad2589eb.jpg

- It's hard to be a coeliac in a world full of people trying gluten free diets to lose weight or get healthier. People don't take us seriously and think we're just over reacting, which can lead to us getting ill. 

- when a coeliac reacts to gluten, there can be a range of symptoms. If I eat a reasonable amount of gluten, I'm immediately sick - one night I was up for about 3 hours and was sick 5 times just because of some rice which had a few bits of pasta in. Other peoples reactions can last for weeks and can include headaches, swollen fingers, short temper, hot flashes, an upset stomach and fatigue. 

- There's no real 'cure' for coeliac disease. the only thing you can do is stick to a gluten free diet for the rest of your life. I've heard of people creating injections and medication which will apparently make us able to eat gluten, but I'm not sure how I fell about these or if they will even work well. It's a tough, life-long battle which we have to face. 

I hope that this post will help to raise awareness of coeliac disease. I really want to make it more known about - not just that it exists, but what it really is, what it does, and how to deal with it. It's a very real condition and about 1 in 100 people suffer from it. it's not something that you can make mistakes with as it can ruin a life. If we work together, we can do it. 

'If you die tonight' - Just a thought..

I was listening to a song a few weeks ago which had some lyrics which really stood out to me:

‘If you die tonight, where would you be? Where would your soul spend eternity?’

Wow.

A pretty big question as far as I can see.

I really had to think about this. If I was to die, am I living in a way that would make me certain I'm going to spend eternity with God? At the time, to be perfectly honest, I really wasn't sure if I was. I was in a rubbish place and I wasn't really taking any notice of God.

This felt like a bit of a kick up the bum. The blunt truth is I could die at any time, so why am I living in a way that makes me question the way I’ll spend eternity? And anyway, the commandments he gives us and they way of living he shows us is for our own good. It’s the best way to live. I want to be able to live like that. I'm trying to live like that. It’s really not easy, I'm so far from perfect because I'm unfinished and God’s still working on me. But there’s no point in doing things that are no good for me in the long run that will leave me with an eternity of suffering...

One thing I'm thinking about at the moment is how do I work on this? How do I get to the point where I stop making the same mistakes? How do I start to live the way I'm supposed to and want to? It’s really not easy...being a Christian isn't easy...but then again it’s not supposed to be! It’s meant to be a challenge!

I want to find things that can act as constant reminders to me of my faith. I recently stuck a metal fish shape on my car so that I think about how I drive as people around me will know I'm a Christian. If I drive badly, people will think badly about Christians. I would love to get a cross necklace or something that can remind me of how I should be living. I used to write bible verses on my mirror so that every time I looked in it, there was a reminder of God. I'm trying to change the people I spend time with and the music I listen to and the TV I watch. I’d love to say I'm doing really well at all these things, but I'm not. I need God’s help, but I will get there.

There are so many other things I could try to do. I need to start doing these things. I need to start living differently. I need to make sure I'm confident of where I’ll spend eternity, and I hope that this post will get you thinking about the same thing.

7 tips for Dealing with Stress

Stress - something almost all of us face at some point in our lives. Work, school, exams, friendships, family life - no matter the cause is, it's not a nice thing for anyone to go through.
I've been feeling particularly stressed recently due to a number of things. 'Stuff' seems to pile up and before you know it you're lost under the pile and don't know how to move it.
I've found that I really suffer when I'm stressed - I get ibs and so my stomach gets tense and I lose my appetite which has led to me losing quite a lot of weight...
I've been trying a few different, little things to try to keep myself relaxed and on top of things. This post is going to give a few ideas to help you deal with stress.

1) make time everyday to just relax and not think about anything. It might only be an hour, but it helps. Take a bath, just lay down, go for a walk, sit in the garden with a cup of tea. Make that little bit of space for yourself and you'll soon be feeling more like yourself. (If you do have a bath, use lavender oil or a lavender scented candle and add some Epsom salts to the bath - my friend, who owns the blog Living Stark Naked, wrote about how these help you relax so I tried it and they really do work and are completely natural which is always good!)

2) Sing. No matter how bad (or good) your singing is, just sing. Sing in the car, when your cooking, cleaning, in the shower, in the supermarket (okay so that one might get you some strange looks, but you get the idea...). Singing helps you control your breathing which will help de-stress. I think it downs something else for your body but I can't really remember. All I know is it works a treat!

3) Chew gum. This is something else I was told about by a friend. When you chew gum your body releases some kind of chemical which helps you to relax (you can tell I listened in science...).

4) Get enough sleep. There's nothing worse, when you're feeling stressed, than to be tired. You'll feel so much better after a good night's sleep. It won't solve any problems but it'll help you to look at them with a clearer, more relaxed mind.

5) Write a list. Make a list of all the things that are stressing you out. It'll help to stop things going round and round in your head. There's nothing worse than having 10+ things to think about at once. Being able to look at what's making you feel stressed is good (it works for me anyway). Another thing that might help is to write another list of things that are making you happy or that you're grateful for. It might be that you have close friends to talk with, or something exciting that's happening soon. This should help you to keep looking at the positives as well as the negatives so that they don't seem like they're taking over your whole life.

6) Have a cuddle with a dog (or a friendly cat). Can't quite remember any of the science behind this (or even if there is any) but a cuddle with your bestie will always help.

Who wouldn't want to cuddle up to this cutie?!

7) Talk to someone. Find someone you trust - a friend, teacher, parent, relative, work colleague, someone that you can just talk everything through with. It might be that you just need to talk at them to get your thoughts straight rather than get any advice. If you know someone who's stressed, invite then round for a coffee, let them talk at you if that's what they need. Be a shoulder to cry on. Give them a hug. It helps so much and its so lovely to know that you have support, especially when you need it the most.

I really hope that this post helps you, either now or in the future, and that you won't feel as stressed the next time that it feels like the whole world is against you.