How in the world did I get here? Part 2

Previously, I posted a blog about the beginning of our journey to living gluten-free. Our journey had just begun and we were far from having the real answers and health that I wanted for my family.

Like I said before, I cooked nutritious meals for my family. Baked with whole grains, ground my own flour and avoided many of thepre -made items that a lot of our country finds in their pantries. Yet, even with all of that, we were still having stomach issues and the frustration set in.

It took us years of just living with the issues, avoiding the real problem and just making do with what we could live with. I knew it wasn't good enough, but felt totally powerless to do more. The world of gluten-free living was not a well known way of life, and I just couldn't believe that the whole grains I fed my family could be bad for them.

My oldest son went through some allergy testing for seasonal allergies and was tested for some food allergies, several years into this journey. He was allergic to everything that couldn't move under its own power, basically every plant on earth, or so it seemed. All of the food testing they did came back OK, so we moved on to the shots for seasonal allergies. I left the food issues out of my mind and we moved on.

Now, my oldest son had very few issues, if any, that the rest of the family seemed to display. He had a problem with dairy early on, but in time that seemed to diminish and he seemed fine by the time he hit about 12 or 13 years old. It was the rest of the kids and I that were continuing to have problems.

In time, gluten-free diets came up in conversations with different friends. Then a member of my husbands family was told by a doctor that he needed to avoid gluten and dairy due to severe stomach issues. That started my searching. Sounded like a challenge I needed to take on so that I would be able to cook food for family functions that he could have. Why I didn't feel like I could do that for me and my kids, I honestly don't know.

By that point in time, our stomach issues were "normal" for us and cutting out gluten left the forefront of my mind for a time. I tried a few recipes, bought a few cook books and played with it for a time. After a while, this family member scaled back on his limitations and eating gluten was not something he worried about. So, I let it go.

Not long after that, my stomach issues began to increase to a point where I was sick most of the time. This too became part of our normal and I lived with it for years. I had been told several years ago that part of my problems were due to acid reflux as well, so I did what I could to live with it. Not even giving gluten-free eating a second thought.

How sick would I have to get before I started to listen? Pretty sick! I am one that tends to just keep going, regardless of how I feel, what pain I have or anything of that sort. I have a family that is counting on me, a job to do here and I couldn't afford to just not keep going. So, I lived with the pain and sickness.

It wasn't until about 3 years ago, when I was talking to a friend of mine about some of the symptoms I was having that I started to really think about making a change. Even then, it seemed too far beyond what I could do. How would I ever afford to feed my family, let alone myself, this way? I knew from the little bit of cooking that I had done that was gluten-free, that it was not an inexpensive way of life. For me, that was a major deterrent.

We are a one income family, living in a two income world. That was a choice my husband and I had made before we even got married. We wanted me home, raising the kids and taking care of the home. It has not always been an easy choice, but it was one that we knew was right for us. Money was and is tight, being frugal has always been a must. This just seemed way beyond what our budget could handle.

Strangely enough, right about the same time I was talking with my friend about my symptoms, they got increasingly worse. I was sick more often than not. Had no energy to get through my day and was struggling to maintain my home and all that I needed to do for my family. Little did I know, I was sicker than I could have ever imagined!

Within about 3 months, I found out just how sick I really was.