Under the Weather

Hey y'all,
So I have been feeling under the weather lately, I got a little gluten cross contamination bug if you know what I mean. I had almost forgot how painful it could be. I like many others had thought well you know maybe I should try some gluten and see if it really is that causing all my problems but I always talked myself out of it, going "No remember those 2 very painful years of your life". Now I actually been sick for more like 9 or 10 years but the last 2 were the worst because all I ate was pasta and I mean pretty much lunch and dinner every day was pasta plus breakfast was cereal and by the second year I had added in waffles. I know not the best diet but they were the first 2 years of college and I was home sick and then of course feeling sick made me miss home and want the comfort foods of home so I ate more pasta, it ended up being all my body craved.. I occasionally added other foods in you know a steak here and there, some tacos but my body just craved pasta all the time and so those were the worst of the sick days. Anyways back to the cross contamination, recently my school has decided to get with the times and add some gluten free options, including a rice pasta. I had a long school day and realized I hadn't packed enough to last me till the end so I thought hey why not I'll try it out, how bad can it be... BAD is all I can say. I saw the cross contamination going on and thought nothing of it at the time, I tasted the very much over cooked rice noodles and the horrible sauce, I had forgot how bad the sauce was at the make your own pasta (those 2 years at the beginning of college I ate the pre-made pasta where you didn't get a chose in pasta or sauce it was all the same). But I thought hey I'll continue to try some of this pasta, finally my brain kicked in and the taste put me off that I threw almost the whole thing out. That night we were having a fund raiser for our program to help with exhibition so I was like hopefully all will be good. Then when dinner came around and I still felt fine I thought I was out of the woods. I made it to my friends house and I started to feel a little nauseous but thought it was due to the freezing cold night and all the shivering, so I ate some of my gluten free snack bars and we went on our way to have a fun night of dancing (it was a pub night), we got to the pub shortly after 11 and I thought I was doing pretty good all thoughts of the possibility of cross contamination had gone from my mind, I was out having a great time with some great friends, well the movement must have brought the gluten into my system better because not a half hour later I was starting to feel sick by midnight I had sharp pains in my abdomen, and I thought how could this be happening I only ate gluten free tonight, this was suppose to be my relaxing night out, you know stress relief, I made a break to the bathroom to pour cold water of my wrists so that my temperature would stop rising and to take a breather. Well of course all the taps only ran warm or scolding hot so I sat there for a second and went back out to my friends pretending nothing was wrong. I lasted till about 1 and then finally my roommate asked if anything was wrong and I had to tell the truth. So shortly there after we came home. This was my lesson learned, "Listen to your gut"... literally,
When I first saw them barely washing their hands between pasta dishes, and then when I saw the woman grab my pasta with her bare hands I should have said something but my brain just wasn't catching up to me that day. Then when I got to eating it and my brain set off a few warning bells of silent hesitation, again I should have listened and not touched it but I was hungry and I didn't want to listen.
I hope you learn from my mistake and if something seems off say something or don't eat it.
I think I'll be writing to my schools food and beverages service I know that can't do anything for me now but maybe they can educate their staff on cross contamination and hopefully someone with the same condition in the future won't have the same problem.
-Enjoy the rest of your weekend, I have an early shoot tomorrow
-Photo Alley