I write a lot about the diabetes side of my life. Diabetes is time consuming and super scary at times. But I am also constantly reminded that I have another monkey on my back to deal with daily, and it's called Celiac Disease. It's already a challenge to find food sans wheat/barley/rye/oat, and trying to find health and beauty products is really really not easy, either.
While some Celiacs are able to 'wear' gluten, meaning it's ok if it's in their shower gels/shampoos/body care (as long as they don't accidently ingest any of it), I have severe skin irritation from wheat, so I am not able to use products that have any wheat/wheat derivative in it. I've been wondering for a while why my head has been so scratchy, and why I keep getting itchy, red bumps on the back of my neck (that for the life of me I can't leave alone)... is it the Minnesota winter? The dry air? Fragranced lotions? Too many highlight/lowlights, too frequently? Maybe it's because I'm blow drying the hell out of my hair everyday?
I knew my shampoo and conditioner were both gluten free, so it couldn't be that. But one thing I had not checked, and turned out to be the culprit, is my volumizing spray. If you can see in the ingredients picture(I apologize for the blurry 5am iPhone picture this morning, my iPhone would NOT cooperate with the auto focus), dab smack in the middle of the ingredients is triticum vulgare WHEAT FLOUR. Good grief. How could I have not checked this product before? Depressed, I reluctantly set it in the garbage can. Sigh. Now to find a volumizer I can use that doesn't have wheat in it (no small task and seemingly impossible).
It sometimes feels like a full-time job trying to manage my auto-immune diseases. Diabetes ranks #1 as most time consuming, but Celiac Disease takes a close second place. I don't get a vacation from either one. In fact, these two diseases tag team to make an ACTUAL vacation nearly impossible. Think it's a pain to travel with the big D? Well, add on trying to get gluten-free food through security at an airport (not to mention the hassle of having to pack an extra cooler to carry around with your food in it, in addition to all of the other bags), or risk not having a SINGLE food option at the airport, during the flight, and at the airport you are about to land at. The last time I flew, it wasn't my diabetes equipment that got pulled me out of line by security for 30 minutes. It was the jar of unopened, gluten free peanut butter in my carry on. As they assessed several food items I had packed, I had to produce a letter from my doctor showing this food was a medical necessity, because as a diabetic I NEEDED to have food options, and having Celiac Disease prevented me from having any safe food options at the airport or on the airplane.
Road trips aren't much easier, because with usually few or no food options along the roadsides, I have to pack food for the ENTIRE road trip in a cooler in the car. And if it's a camping trip with friends, then I can also plan on packing my own grill (can't use other people's due to cross contamination), food, cooking supplies and my own storage containers.
There's a reason I recently upgraded to a crossover vehicle from a small car, and it had everything to do with being able to fit everything I need to pack for trips.
I just wanted to give out special shout out today to all my friends who deal with Big D, or with Big C (Celiac), and an EXTRA special hug to those today who deal with the double trouble (Big D, Big C). For all that each of us deals with daily, all the different trials each of us face. High five.
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