F&*K*#&$!!!

Damn you people on the train, with your germs and your sneezing and your failure to cover your mouth!  Ok, so maybe its not the best idea to lick the poles on the metro (my toddler, not me).  Lesson learned.  Thank you.  Again, my household has been struck down.

For the first day, I thought it was allergies.  Really, really bad allergies.  But no.  Is it just me or do celiacs get sick all the time?  I guess it makes sense, right? Compromised immune system and all?  I actually thought that once you were on the diet and no longer testing positive, you were "normal".  This does not seem to be the case.  I think, in the last three months, I've been sick--with a cold, flu, etc.--at least three times.  That's a LOT!  And I'm not a good sick person.  I'm whiny, pathetic, irritable, cranky.  (When I'm sick!)

The icing on the cake is that, while food is increasingly labelled gluten-free, medication is not.  Apparently, there are proprietary issues; pharmaceutical companies have resisted any attempts to require allergen labeling because they fear that their super-secret formulas will be stolen.  Somehow.  From the indication that it has wheat in it.  Because the presence of wheat is clearly the missing link.  Anyway.  Suffice it to say, it can be tricky to determine whether a medication has gluten in it.

Take Zyrtec, for example (I thought I had allergies).  Google it.  Some sites say "zyrtec has gluten."  Others claim that calls to the company have assured them that the medication is safe.  Still others suggest that some dosages are fine, while others are dangerous.  Calls to the company--typically the go-to measure of last resort--were, frankly, no more helpful. I got transferred around.

I don't have a great suggestion here.  I'm worn down.  Really, I don't understand the logic behind not mandating the drug companies label the presence of common allergens.  I'm sure I'm overly cynical, but I have a fair certainty that effective lobbying has played a role.  What can you do to fight that?

Meanwhile, it's late.  I'm sick.  I need to go to bed.