When you have a family member who is in the hospital and they have celiac disease you must be their voice, and watch everything that enters their body. By everything I mean IV contents, medications and food too.
My recent experience in the hospital prompted me to warn others that even though you tell the staff repeatedly that you have celiac disease you still have to be the one to monitor your food intake. Also don't just tell them you have an intolerance (they really don't get that) tell them you have an allergy. Maybe they will understand the word allergy.
Do you, like me, think that if you are in a hospital that you are in safe hands, and that they will understand things like celiac, or gluten allergy? Well let me tell you that for me they didn't get it at all.
After waking up from surgery I was exctied about the thought of getting to eat. Afterall it had been almost 15 hours since I'd eaten anything, but when the menu arrived I was beyond disappointed. Out of all of the foods that were on it the only thing I could eat without a doubt was the scrambled eggs and peaches. Everything else on that menu was a question mark. So what I thought would be a no brainer for a health care provider was definitely not!
I have to say that I was truly disappointed that in this day and age when a patient has a red band on their arm that says ALLERGY the only menu they get is one which would have made a celiac patient like me very sick. This menu had oatmeal, cream of wheat, white bread, chicken tenders, cereal etc... on it. All stuff that I have worked to avoid for almost 5 years.
So once again the questions started. Could I eat the yogurt? She didn't know and would have to check. Was there a gluten free menu? She didn't know and would have to get back to me. Ahhh!! I couldn't believe this was happening in a hospital especially.
SPEAK UP!!!
Please speak up for those you love. When I asked for a gluten free menu they weren't even sure they had one, and they had to make all sorts of special calls to locate the information.
Was I really the only gluten free patient that they had ever had in their hospital? This was absolutely amazing.
Finally they showed up with an unbelievalbe menu. I mean it had so much stuff on it that I was honestly afraid to order because it just didn't seem like it could be GF, and by this time my radar was on high alert anway. After all it didn't even seem like they knew what a gluten allergy was.
I cautiously ordered from this unbelievable menu, and had a wonderful meal of gluten free pizza, yogurt, chocolate chip cookies and a banana. Yes, I know you're thinking, Pizza! After surgery, but it is such a rarety for me that I couldn't resist.
So what is my point of this article.
To let you know that with all of the gluten hype out there we who really need to abstain from gluten may be overlooked or passed off as just another person on a diet. So speak up for yourself and for those you love. Be firm, and don't back down. Gluten really does cause diseases and all kinds of problems. It is serious, and your caretakers will only be serious if you are too. Please share this article with those you love, and make them aware that they need to be proactive in their healthcare!