Isabelle

During lockdown, I suffered from extreme tiredness, and I found it hard to eat. I’d be hungry and go to dinner, have a few mouthfuls, and feel full, but the smell of the food would make me feel sick. This caused me to lose a lot of weight; I dropped down to 42kg and suffered headaches and fatigue. I’d struggle to stay up late; I’d sleep for 8 hours and feel exhausted. Only when my mum approached me with concern about my weight did I then reach out to the doctors. They booked me in for a blood test, so thinking nothing of it and having no idea what was wrong with me, I just carried on. When I got the results back, the doctor called me to tell me my blood had come back showing antibodies for coeliac disease! I had never heard of it, and I had never in a million years thought it was gluten causing these issues. So from this, they booked me in for a biopsy, which happened in December, a few months later. And on my 19th birthday, I received the phone call to be told I officially was diagnosed with coeliac disease! I arranged a dietician phone consultation a few months later to go through what I could and couldn’t eat etc. To be completely honest, it wasn’t super helpful, and I learned a lot myself from trial and error. The greatest advice I have for anyone is to join Facebook groups and the coeliac community online, as that is what helped me so much! I struggled to stick to the diet change massively. I’d have “cheat days” and not take cross-contamination seriously. It took me a year to realize I needed to stop as I wasn’t feeling healthier. Creating my social media account held me accountable and helped me realize I was not alone. I now want to do what I can to help others, giving my advice and creating products such as travel translation cards to make living with coeliac disease easier!