I was a little bit concerned about what I would eat but decided to go anyway. A quick conversation with the waiters made it obvious they didn't really know what gluten was, or what was in their dishes. I decided I would avoid everything with soy sauce in and be as careful as possible. Obviously the risk of contamination at these places is massive but I took the risk. I'm really regretting that today!
I had rice and plain stir fried vegetables along with crispy duck and rice pancakes (without sauce) and felt fine. I then got to the dessert section. I had some of the Chinese jelly and fruit to start with. I then found some mango and tapioca pudding (like rice pudding but tapioca.) I had some of this and felt quite sick after it. I assumed I had just eaten too much and went home.
When we arrived home we played Mah Jong (awesome Chinese tile game) to finish the evening on the same theme! (well actually because we love it.)
I felt tired as we were playing and this got worse and worse. When I am going to have a fit I first lose the ability to talk. I can understand what people are saying to me but I struggle to respond. It's like one of the connections between my brain and my vocal cords stops working.
I then passed out and began fitting (well they are like fits - we call them "twitches" because they are less violent than "fits"). My hands and head shake and I have occasional spasms down my whole body. My friends said it was the worst one they had seen me have. It lasted about 10 minutes. I then came round and was aware of what was going on around me again but I still couldn't talk. I can read and write after such attacks but am unable to coordinate my brain and my vocal cords to produce speech.
It usually takes a good night's sleep to regain my ability to speak. I feel rough today, like I've been hit over the head hard, and my stomach is in its usual turmoil but I feel a bit better.
I should probably point out that I don't have a typical response to gluten. Lots of research has been done into the neurological symptoms of coeliacs and there is a group of consultants that believe the fits suffered by some coeliacs are because the antibodies produced in response to gluten are particularly attracted to the cells in the brain, or due to the inability to absorb key nutrients.
Dr M Hadjivassiliou from Sheffield does a lot of research into this. Most the articles require free registration to view them so I can't link to them all. This article on "Neuromuscular disorder as a presenting feature of Coeliac Disease" is a free one though. If you are interested in this and want to read more put "Hadjivassiliou", "coeliac" and "neurological" into Google. It comes up with plenty of results but they are quite technical so some scientific knowledge is useful.
So yes, last night I took a risk with food and it didn't pay off and I am suffering. That'll teach me!
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