About Me

Hello

My name is Hana, I'm 23 years old and currently living in London. 

I was diagnosed with Coeliac Disease during my final year of university. I was unwell over christmas  2012 with some sort of bug where I felt sick all the time and could hardly eat. Once it had passed, I felt as though I didn't really recover. When I went back to uni in January I had days where I was absolutely fine, and then had days where I felt constantly sick, tired and bloated, there was no pattern to it, and would happen about once a week. I kept a food diary for a few weeks to see if I noticed anything, but nothing pin pointed it directly to gluten. I was run down, and literally had a cold about once a week (my housemates at the time used to joke how I was always ill and on the echinacea drops) I just didn't really feel myself. I put most of it down to stress as I was working on my final year project, working to tight deadlines and spending long says at uni and most evenings doing project work. 

Then one weekend I was back home and felt ill the entire time, my mum made me book a doctors appointment. I told the doctor my symptoms and he suggested I get tested for Coeliac Disease. I had no idea what this was, and thought avoiding gluten just meant not eating bread or pasta, so I was quite shocked when the results came back positive. I also felt that my symptoms weren't THAT bad compared to other people so was slightly confused by it all. I straight away discovered CoeliacUK and reading about the disease made me realise the seriousness of it all, no gluten ever again.

Luckily I have an extremely supporting family, and as soon as I found out I booked the first train home. I had another appointment with the doctor and was told that I probably wouldnt need an endoscopy, so I cut out gluten there and then. It was tricky at first trying all these gluten free products but my parents saw it as a new opportunity and started experimented with new dishes involving foods like polenta and rice noodles. We are all really into cooking so didn't need to adjust things too much, as everything is always made from scratch. 

After a couple of weeks of no gluten I felt a massive difference. I had so much energy, the stomach aches had gone and I was no longer feeling sick at random times. Then after an appointment with the hospital, they told me I would need an endoscopy to confirm my diagnosis, which meant having to eat gluten again for 4 weeks. 

After my endoscopy and my official diagnosis, I was back on the gluten free diet. It does have it challenges, but you have to think of it positively. There is nothing you can do about it, its something you have to live with and therefore you need to deal with it, things could be a lot worse. When going out for dinner I try and stick to chain restaurants that I know are safe for coeliacs, and If im somewhere new I just have to ask the waiter. I hate making a big deal out of it as I don't want to be the difficult person when I go for dinner with groups of friends, however I have got better at informing waiters the importance that my dish has to be gluten free. I find it difficult sometimes when I go for lunch/dinner with work, as I don't want to make a fuss, so sometimes will avoid eating. Its also slightly annoying going to events where they have canapés as you will almost certainly not be able to eat them.

I found gluten free blogs really helped me when I was first diagnosed, and I used it as a great tool for finding new places to eat and countries to visit, so I wanted to start my own where I can write about my own personal experiences, which I hope will be helpful to other people. 

If any one has any questions or needs any advice, please get in touch, I would love to help. 

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