Invisible Illness Awareness Week

Did you know it was Invisible Illness Awareness Week?

Maybe not - 'cause it's invisible!

Well.... you know. As invisible as it can be.

There's lots of illnesses that are invisible. But I'm going to blogging about those that are nearest and dearest to my heart.

I'm not going to start with Diabetes...

No, I'm going to start with Celiac Disease.

The Celiac Disease Foundation Website (http://www.celiac.org/) explains it as this...

Celiac Disease (CD) is a lifelong inherited autoimmune condition affecting
children and adults. When people with CD eat foods that contain gluten, it
creates an immune-mediated toxic reaction that causes damage to the small
intestine and does not allow food to be properly absorbed. Even small amounts of
gluten in foods can affect those with CD and cause health problems. Damage can
occur to the small bowel even when there are no symptoms present.

Gluten is the common name for the proteins in specific grains that are harmful to
persons with celiac disease. These proteins are found in ALL forms of wheat
(including durum, semolina, spelt, kamut, einkorn and faro) and related grains
rye, barley and triticale and MUST be eliminated.

How's this for invisible?? SPELL CHECK didn't even recognize Celiac!!

I had no idea about the complexities of this illness. I knew a little about it before D ... but I thought that it wasn't that big of a deal. Diet change. You could eat a little... just not a lot.... of gluten.

Uh...no. That's like saying that Sweetpea can eat a LITTLE bit of carbs without insulin. Just doesn't work that way.

Oh how clueless we are until it smacks us in the face!

Have you ever paid attention to what foods contain gluten... wheat... Well, it's pretty much EVERYTHING!!!

I can't imagine dealing with celiac on top of diabetes. But many do...


Sweetpea has been tested for celiac and was negative. But it's not uncommon for people with diabetes to also have celiac. So we'll keep testing... just to make sure.

There are some great resources out there for folks with Celiac... and some great blogs...


Check out Wendy at Candy Hearts. She has celiac and so does super sweet Sugar - her T1D kiddo.

Check out Gluten Free Eating. This family also deals with Celiac and Type 1. Lots of great recipes!

And now for a laugh...

Sweetpea LOVES the Berenstain Bears. LOVES. THEM. She wants to know where Bear Country is. She wants to go there on vacation. She asked me the other night a question and said something about playing with her cubs.....

SO..... when Sweetpea visits the library, she often gets Berenstain Bear books. At a recent visit with Mimi and Gaga, Sweetpea picked up the book, The Berenstain Bears' Big Bedtime Book.

This is a cute book filled with traditional stories and fairy tales.... but they all have a twist!

My favorite was The Little Red Hen.

In this story, the characters all HELPED make the bread. They all pitched in!

And at the end, when the Little Red Hen asked who would help her eat the bread..... THAT was when they said, "Not, I."

The reason? They are all allergic to wheat.

Hahahahahahahaha!

So, I dedicate this story to all my dear friends fighting the invisible battle with gluten. Fight on, friends. Stay strong. I know life isn't easy. I know cooking might well be a nightmare. But at least the Berenstain Bears "get it"!

**If you want to get a copy of this book for yourself, click here for a link. I get nothing from this... just the joy of knowing that you're reading a great book! **