I am feeling so much better! How long has this disease been developing? Anemia as a kid, allergies as a teen, but overall, I was a pretty healthy person. Then I had my last baby and like all new moms, I took the advice, "sleep when they do."
...and sleep when they don't. When they toddle and no longer take four naps daily, I find myself tipping over the couch to block a quick exit, switching on public TV and going about modifying the carpet print with my left cheek.
My acute exhaustion was first misdiagnosed as pernicious anemnia. My anemia had advanced unchecked because I took iron pills (for heaven sakes) that masked the symptoms.
I learned to play a complicated version of Nap Attack. I napped while cleaning - in closets with the vacuum, while tucking in sheets between the bed and wall--wherever the attack struck, I could nap. I should have known there was a problem when I found myself curled up in the linen closet--asleep.
...and sleep when they don't. When they toddle and no longer take four naps daily, I find myself tipping over the couch to block a quick exit, switching on public TV and going about modifying the carpet print with my left cheek.
My acute exhaustion was first misdiagnosed as pernicious anemnia. My anemia had advanced unchecked because I took iron pills (for heaven sakes) that masked the symptoms.
I learned to play a complicated version of Nap Attack. I napped while cleaning - in closets with the vacuum, while tucking in sheets between the bed and wall--wherever the attack struck, I could nap. I should have known there was a problem when I found myself curled up in the linen closet--asleep.
I could nod off between traffic lights. "Kids, wake me when it turns green!" I would volunteer at school only if they promised a tablecloth with a higher thread count than my best sheets.
I was a woman turning 40 ("Therefore," the doctor says, "these things happen when you reach forty"). When the doc is stumped, it's always all about age. I had liver problems, kidney pain, pica, reflux, restless leg, joint pain, IBS, migranes, alopecia, heart fibrillation, exhaustion, neuralgia, anemia, and worst of all bifocals! I now have none of these! Not even glasses!
I spent 2005 straightening my learning curve of celiac disease and still every day of that first year I wondered if the curve was a full circle and that there was no reprieve.
I was tired. Along with all exhaustion, I developed a myriad of other diseases--or rather the symptoms of those diseases:
I was a woman turning 40 ("Therefore," the doctor says, "these things happen when you reach forty"). When the doc is stumped, it's always all about age. I had liver problems, kidney pain, pica, reflux, restless leg, joint pain, IBS, migranes, alopecia, heart fibrillation, exhaustion, neuralgia, anemia, and worst of all bifocals! I now have none of these! Not even glasses!
I spent 2005 straightening my learning curve of celiac disease and still every day of that first year I wondered if the curve was a full circle and that there was no reprieve.
But, as I look back, I promise you there is. Seven years later, it's been a long journey back to life, but every day I'm the living proof.
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