When Gluten Attacks

I ate at this restaurant twice before with no problem. Chicken breast sandwich, plain, gluten free bun, tomato, nothing else. This time I ordered it with pickles. Could the pickles have made me sick? Was there some cross contamination with them? Was the grill contaminated this time and not last time? Or did I get such a slight bit on contamination in the past I just put it up to something else?
This time;
Day 1 - Headache within minutes of eating.
Next day big tummy problems and lots of bathroom visits. Pain in abdomen all day. Like a stomach virus where the pain kind of floats around and bites hard. Hardly eat anything all day. Had to lay down.  Drank a lot of water
Day 3 -  Still have stomach pain. Especially bad after eating. Ate some pineapple for breakfast, avocado & hummus on Udi's English muffin. A lot of pain after eating. Skipped dinner. Ginger tea. Water.
Day 4 - Pain gone, very tired. Starving!

And that's my gluten reaction. I wish I could know how the contamination happened. Was this a lot of gluten that hit me so hard or just a bit of cross contamination?  There's only one way to find out and I'm not going there!

Gluten free since 2003.

How does gluten hit you?

Udi's at Uno's ...Restaurant Review

I was at a writer's conference this past weekend and, although they promised a gluten free lunch, I packed food. Diagnosed with Celiac Disease over 10 years ago, I learned early on not to trust people to know what "Gluten Free" really means. However, I was happy to find a plate of grilled chicken and veggies served at lunch. One meal safe and done!
For dinner we were on our own. I was ready to sit in my car and munch what I packed for lunch. When my conference buddy suggested Uno's and said it had a Gluten Free menu, I figured I'd try.

At Uno's, I was happy to find the Gluten Free Menu was in the regular menu and not just some xeroxed page from the Internet. It made me feel more normal. A small thing, but I appreciated it. I ordered the burger with mushrooms, lettuce, tomatoes, and onions that came on a toasted Udi's hamburger roll. Uno's also offers cheese, peppers, and avocado for the burger. I wanted the skinless baked potato to go with it, but they didn't have butter so I opted for a side of broccoli. I was impressed when the manager delivered the plate and asked if there was anything else I needed. For a Celiac eating out is always a risk, but the fact that Uno's manager went this extra mile made me feel they took extra care with my food.
Overall, I'm gonna give my experience at Uno's 5 Stars! Excellent meal, delivered in a timely manner, exactly as ordered. Good job Uno's!

PLEASE DON'T FEED THE CELIAC

Why do people feel they have to feed me? Offer me food? Go out of their way to make sure I have something to eat?

One thing I hate about this world is that it's food based. Go to someone's house and they offer you coffee, cookies, or lunch. Sometimes I wonder if they really want to eat cookies and my visit is the excuse to get a treat for themselves. With other people, it's their mission. I explain about Celiac Disease and tell them not to worry about me. I either bring my own food or wait till I get home. Still they persist.

"It's okay, I checked," they say.

I quietly assure them it's okay and still they push. I'll try, "I'm not hungry," or "I ate before I came," but short of pushing food in my face they keep at it. "Take just a bite, I want you to try it."

Politely I try to change the subject and sometimes this works. Like distracting a dog from a bone.

What I really want to do is scream. I want to get up in their face and yell, "No means no! I don't want your freakin' food and I'm not eating any of that sh*t! One crumb can take me down for three days and I'm not going there just to please you with your one bite nonsense! DON'T FEED THE CELIAC!"

Whew! Too bad good manners prevents me from doing that. 

And what was your worst food moment?