We are officially Gluten Free!
As many of you know, Ryan has had intestinal issues since he was a little boy. It has just become a part of our life.
However, for about a year now it has seemed to negatively affect our life more than usual. The major push to really look into it was the fact that Ryan was losing weight unexpectedly and unable to regain any of it.
So, he started seeing the doctor more and trying to figure it all out. On March 21 he had an upper gi and colonoscopy. They had to put him completely under and the doctor took lots of biopsies. We went back for the consultation on April 7 and we found out he is 'gluten sensitive.' It was very obvious that he is not absorbing food, hence the weight loss and has much gut irritation. We learned lots of big words and details about the intestines. Lovely.
We dove in head first. The doctor highly recommended that our whole family go gluten free instead of trying to balance both and risk 'cross-contamination' that would be harmful to Ryan. We tried to get everything out of our house and we are still finding things little by little and giving them to friends.
Cooking gluten free has been easier than I imagined but overwhelming at the same time. Lots of foods are naturally gluten free, so I am mostly sticking with that until I really get a feel for it. We have found that we like brown rice pasta. The boys LOVE pancakes, so we are buying the gluten free packages for now and we can barely tell the difference. A gluten free loaf of bread is not a loaf of bread! Ben recently asked for the 'soft bread.' Sorry kid! Not in this house anymore.
Eating at restaurants and attending our many potlucks for work have been the hardest things to navigate. Ironically, our first potluck for work just two days after we found out was a "breakfast for dinner" menu and Ryan couldn't eat hardly anything on the buffet! Don't worry, he survived it.
It has been an educational experience for us. We are learning just how many things have hidden gluten in them. We hope that we end up much healthier and Ryan's health improves dramatically. So far, we aren't very far in and don't have much to report in terms of whether Ryan feels better or not. We are praying this is it though! We welcome your prayers for our adjustment period and for Ryan's overall health.
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