Grilled Cheese

Dear Mom,

Several years ago I realized I was going to have to give up wheat and milk, at the very least, in order to be healthy. Thank goodness at the time there were a few, a very few items for specialized diets available in health food stores. Other than that, a person with multiple food sensitivities was pretty much out of luck. The medical community vacillated between prescribing dangerous drugs and sending sufferers to psychiatrists. What else could they do with therapies that simply didn't work? For one thing, they could have listened to their patients, but that's another subject, one that will keep me ranting for hours.

For most of my 42 years at the time, I realized my body didn't work all that well, but conventional wisdom was that if you ate your bread and drank your milk, you'd be healthy. I was dying. Standing in front of the refrigerator with tears running down my face, wondering what to eat that wouldn't hurt all the way through my gut. When I was empty hours later, I had a short period of relief, then had to eat, starting the painful cycle once more.

Fortunately I found a diet, the Blood Type Diet, that gave me a guide to what the sensitivities were, so at last I had the time and mental clarity to find my particular sensitivities and adjust for them. The up-side was that I had plenty of opportunity to practice my new-found knowledge and skills. You have to eat, and often.

Bread. Bread was a huge concern. Everyone who has to give up wheat or gluten has this period when they go a little crazy. No wheat means no bread, no cake, no pasta, ever. Thank goodness I found out that wasn't entirely true.

Every day there is more information, more support, more community. You don't feel alone or lonely in your quest to stay alive and maintain your quality of life. I googled "special diet" today, found another blogger on Blogger writing about her 'adventures in restrictive diet'. She's an author and a pretty cool lady. I wrote to her and she wrote me back after looking at our sites and blogs. Very gratifying.

Now they sell Ezekiel Bread and soy cheese slices at HEB in Marble Falls. I can have something I never thought I could at the beginning of this journey, a grilled cheese sandwich...anytime I want.

I love you,

Lisa