Andy Holmes

Topics discussed

Finding gluten-free food
Contacting your child’s school

Video Text

It’s great to find out the problem, but then you’ve got the problem. Grocery shopping trips are not pop in and get it. It’s just- you now have to – can’t – you can’t do the things that you would normally do. You can’t grab a chocolate out of the community box at work. You can’t – um – you can’t – even in some restaurants where they swear they’re doing a good job for you, you can never trust them. Yu cannot explain to a waitress well enough why they can’t just do that. And quite frankly, sometimes you’re talking to a 17 year old kid – and I have one of them – and they don’t listen anyway. But even though they write it down, it’s very – it’s very hard. And your chef isn’t always somebody who knows what Gluten is, he may be very good at making the prettiest canapés you’ve ever seen, but they may not know what gluten is. And they certainly don’t know that it’s in soy sauce.

There are days that I forget that I have this disease. And now I’ve got the good days. And the bad days are few and far between. I’ve found a support group of friends. I’ve found a support group of close-knit people who understand and just this morning a lady came into the office and said, “I didn’t bring a cake in because I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.” And I was like, “No. It’s OK.” You know? But everybody knows. And everybody supports you and everybody – you know – everybody’s going to get behind you.

Another work story is: They ordered a gluten-free cake from Buffalo, New York for me for my birthday back in April. You can eat as well as your wife or your friend if you just take the time and work at it. Your finer restaurants will go out of their way if you call them in advance. Cruise lines will go out of your way – out of their way if you call them in advance. There’s so many options out there, but you’ve just got to persevere. Don’t accept it. Don’t say “Oh well I’ll just get sick, ‘cause it will go away.” Just – it’s worth the effort.

My name is Andy Holmes and I’m living my life with Celiac Disease.