November 22, 2008

Jamie’s Aquathlon

Posted in: General, gluten free challenges

Who says that the celiac child can’t do anything they put their mind to doing?

Before Jamie was diagnosed with celiac disease, when he spent his days lolling around the house with no energy whatsoever and permanent tummy ache, I did wonder if he would ever really be right again. Four months after the celiac disease diagnosis and four and a half months into a gluten free diet and he is back to normal with more energy than he has ever had.

In fact he competed in an aquathlon this week! 150m swim and a 1.5kn run. It was unbelievably muddy- in fact at one point he left a trainer behind in a patch of mud and lost valuable seconds in going back to retrieve it- but to see him swimming and running like that, and to see the pride on his face when he got that medal was absolutely amazing (and yes- I was a very proud Mummy myself!!)

I think it proved to me ( and to him) that life isn’t changed forever for the worst because of celiac disease. That’s a tiny part of his life and completely manageable. It didn’t feel like that at first, but I really want to encourage you if you are in the early stages of this journey: you will get there!