How Do You Know?

Hands down, the most common question I have fielded since Ruthie's diagnosis has been "How did you know that she had celiac disease?"

Pardon the pun, but it was a gut feeling on both Ruthie's part and mine.

It started when Ruthie was about 3.5 and she was having chronic stomach pains.  Every trip to the pediatrician for a suspected UTI or stomach virus yielded no substantial result. At the same time, my husband, Mick's sister, Ann, was diagnosed with celiac disease, at age 50.  I mentioned it to the pediatrician so that Ruthie's medical record be kept up-to-date, but truthfully, at that point, I hadn't made the connection.

Then Ann came to visit just before Ruthie's fifth birthday. Ann and I were talking about how she was managing her new diet and she said, somewhat out of the blue, "You know,  I wish I knew sooner.  I remember as a kid, having stomach aches all the time, but no one knew what was wrong with me."

All the cliches applied: the feeling that I was hit with a ton of bricks, the earth moving beneath me, the moment of clarity, all wrapped up in one sentiment:  Absolute certainty that Ruthie had celiac disease.

At the same time, I didn't want it to be true, so I opted for a brief moment of method to accompany the madness.  I decided that I would give Ruthie gluten products over the next few days and see what she did.  I offered her a sandwich; she opened it up and took out the turkey or licked the peanut butter with her finger.  I gave her pasta; she took two bites and turned it down.  I gave her pizza and she picked off the cheese, leaving the crust behind.

Then came the moment of truth: I offered her goldfish crackers.  She walked away from them. 

Then I knew.  No kid on Earth would turn down goldfish crackers. 

I called the pediatrician's office and asked to speak with the nurse, Maureen, who, incidentally,  is the World's Greatest Advocate of the Mother Instinct.  All I said was "I just feel it in my gut" and Maureen cleared the doctor's schedule for a consult.

Testing for celiac disease in our experience, was fairly straight-forward, but I feel explaining it is deserving of a separate blog post. 

As they say in soap operas, "The saga continues..."