One Year

Well, we've arrived, I guess. It's been one year.

I have been eating gluten-free for one year.

I have known that I have a life-long incurable disease for one year.

I started this blog one year ago.

But what does that mean? It's not like a birthday, I can't celebrate with (gluten-free) cake. It's not like the anniversary of a death, I'm not sad and melancholy. One year ago, I got some very hard-to-hear news, and it started me on the best path of my life. It is sad, happy, and strange. I don't know how to feel.

It's crazy to think that one year ago, I thought I was physically normal, I never would have guessed that I had any sort of disease, nevermind an autoimmune disorder. It's crazy to think that one year ago, I was so sick, I couldn't walk from the couch to the fridge without sitting down halfway. It's crazy.


As I recently mentioned, I decided to get a tattoo today, the exact one year anniversary of my diagnosis. I explained to my artist what I was thinking, and why I wanted it, and she designed the most perfect tattoo. The one I was picturing wasn't as perfect as this is.

That's a fresh photo, so there's a little redness. The colours will change as well, they'll probably all get a little lighter when it heals. (Haha! "Heels")

There are two stalks of wheat, outlined in brown and filled in with yellow and a green support ribbon wraps around them. Green is the colour for celiac disease. I was torn between a true green and a lime green, because it seems to be interchangeable. I decided on lime, because the other green is the colour in the Saskatchewan flag, and I really don't want a "Saskatchewan tattoo". No thanks. I've lived here this long, I don't need a tattoo for it... I kind of feel like the support ribbon takes the "Saskatchewan" out of it a little, and maybe I should have gone with a darker green. Well, I'll see how it heals and make up my mind then.

Oh, and yes, it hurt. Oh my gosh, it hurt. I did really well, I didn't make her stop and I didn't move my leg on her, but I felt like I was dying. And it only took 20 minutes. (20 minutes of kill-me-now pain...)

I can not imagine any tattoo that could mean more to me than this one does, at least not at this point in my life. I'm so happy with it, and I'm so happy to have it.