Nicci D’Amico Howard

My celiac story is layered because it drags in one of my kiddos also. I had a lot of weird problems when I was in my first year of university. I had asthma and eczema that got worse but mostly I had major swelling on my face. I had these things on my face that were like acne but were so large even the doctors didn’t know what it was. Imagine being 18 and out on your own for the first time and having to deal with weird things and swelling on your face?

My self esteem was horrible but I kept my spirits up. I got really tired more often and I had aches and pains I kept to myself. But my face hurt so bad I could barley smile.

But I was also living in the dorms and experiencing college for the first time so when the doctor couldn’t determine why I was getting things on my face and I was swelling up, they chalked it up to anxiety and living a new unhealthier lifestyle. I found a dermatologist who would inject the welps on my face to make them go away, I was getting injections nearly every other week for years…it was fine I guess.

Then I graduated and moved and found a new doctor who suggested gluten and iodine removal from my diet. It worked SO much better. And I continued to be more aware of that but never taking it all the way out of my diet. Once I had my daughter, she was diagnosed “Failure to Thrive” because she wasn’t growing at 9 months old, about the time we added baby snacks to her diet. She threw up every day of her life and had bleeding eczema. We finally got her tested and they…after a long process, too many years to describe, diagnosed her Celiac. I went 100% GF for her, as did our whole house. We have both had biopsies and both been determined Celiac & have been GF for years, me for 15, her for her whole life (she’s 11).

We’ve been able to live healthy, navigate school lunches and even travel all while being celiac. It was a blessing not a curse…even if we think it is sometimes 🙂