Fed up with being treated like I have am a picky eater!

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

I want to rant.

I am sick and tired of being treated like I am a picky eater and what I am

dealing with is inconsequential.

I do a lot of charity work. Today I was chair of an event, a pancake breakfast.

I was assigned this job by our board chair,

a doctor, who knew I have Celiac Disease. When she assigned this, I protested

that I couldn't eat the food. She assured me that there would be food from the

regular menu (it was at a restaurant) that I could order. She even changed the

wording on the

poster to say " full breakfast " instead of pancake breakfast.

Since I had to be there for several hours this early am, I ordered eggs and

potatoes. The owner of the restaurant

brought me my order without any problem. I knew other people with Celiac Disease

would be attending but

apparently this became a problem because the owner began to tell people they

could only order the pancake meal.

She had planned a specific breakfast for the people who

were attending the benefit event. Two kinds of pancakes and french toast. One

person with a wheat intolerance complained to me. She had been served a huge

pancake, a very tiny scrambled egg and a sausage (she's a vegetarian).

She ate the egg but looked glum. I mentioned this to the doctor who had planned

this event in the first place and

she became very angry with me. She said I had no right to come to a " pancake

breakfast " and expect to

be served something else. That she had once been a vegetarian and she hadn't

expected a " special meal " to

be prepared for her.

I repeated again that I have Celiac Disease and she became more angry, telling

me I was insulting the owner

of the restaurant who was donating all of the proceeds from the event to our

charity.

Later she told me she was going to talk with the owner and apologize for my

behavior!!! As if I was misbehaving!!

I had not mentioned any of this to the owner at all. She was apologizing

because I had ordered off the main menu.

It was degrading.

I am so upset and angry that a medical professional displays no knowledge of

Celiac Disease. I cannot believe

she would have insisted I eat donuts if I were a diabetic or drink wine if I

were an alcoholic but, somehow, Celiac

disease is treated like a food fetish.

I just had to say this. There must be others on this discussion list with

similar experiences. I know that only

by educating the public and the medical profession can we go past this but, in

the meantime, it hurts.

Thank you for reading this.

Peggy