Anna Quigg

Topics discussed

Common symptoms
Blood tests
Eating in restaurants

Video Text

I think when you’re in it, you’re just so bothered by the symptoms and trying to act normally that you don’t realize – maybe until afterwards – that you were sick! That you were really sick! With the symptoms – with diarrhea and constipation, and fatigue and joint pain – all at the same time, and wishing so bad that I was normal and believing a little bit once in a while that I was, until I’d try to go out and do things. Like go to dinner with friends, or go to dinner and a movie. We never went out to eat to a restaurant without going directly home afterwards. And without being grotesque, that’s because I needed to be near a restroom.

Going to doctors as an adult, after 4, 5, 6 years of symptoms like the rheumatoid arthritis and iron deficient anemia and GI problems, first of all it was embarrassing to me to talk about my GI problems. Because, “I know you’re a doctor, but it’s hard to tell you how debilitating this is” and to me, I didn’t want it to be debilitating so I was trying for it to be a normal thing. So going in and saying, “By the way, I have diarrhea three times a day,” and they say “Oh, what does it look like?” “Oh my gosh! I’m a girl. I don’t talk about this kind of stuff!” And “Are you kidding me!?” That was very challenging for me – I was a very young 20 year old when I was trying to get the diagnosis. Maybe people don’t live like this. Because, do you really talk about that with your friends? “Oh by the way, how often do you have a bowel movement? And what kind is it?” You know?

And I was going to lunch with a friend, and I said, “I’m coming with you just to be social, but I’m pretty sure I’m not going to eat.” And this is a friend who relies on food for everything. And she said, “What?! What do you mean you’re not going to eat?” And I said, “I just haven’t been feeling well.” And she said, “Well what are your symptoms?” And here I am embarrassed again. And here we are, driving down the road and I’m thinking, “What is she thinking about?” She said, “You have Celiac Disease.”

So I had to stage a minor coup in the office of the GI doc, and inform him that he needed to learn how to order that blood test.

And the first time we went out after my diagnosis and I had my gluten-free menu and I talked to the manager and they were very accommodating, I ate that meal and we were walking around the shopping center where the theater was and Ryan, my husband said to me, “Are you feeling OK?” And I thought, “Well what a funny question. Of course I’m feeling OK.” He went, “Oh. Well good. Are we going to see a movie then?” And it occurred to me to me that, Oh my gosh, for the first time in I-don’t-know-how-many years, maybe 10 years? – I’m going to dinner AND a movie with my husband.

And then you get excited ‘cause you think, “I’m going to feel good. I’m not going to be fatigued all the time. I’m going to be able to eat, and still do stuff – still socialize, still be with friends without running to a bathroom and that, I think is a huge, huge life-changing event.

I’m Anna Quigg and I’m living my life with Celiac Disease.