In the Kitchen with Sock Monkey: Laughing your way through a gluten free lifestyle!

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On Straight Jackets and the Grocery Store

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was tired, worn out, desperate for something easy and familiar.

I made a  late night shopping trip to Wal-Mart after the kids had gone to bed and Charlie, my husband was home from work.  I started in the back of the store at the refrigerated goods, with the milk and the cheese and the canned biscuits and worked my way through the aisles-desperately searching for comfort – for familiarity- for normalcy.  I inched through frozen foods, the deli aisle, potato chips, snacks, breakfast foods…painstakingly pooring over each label, each ingredient list.

I was six weeks into the discovery that I had slowly, over the course of my son’s six year lifespan, been poisoning him with his food. We had just discovered he was severely allergic to dairy, eggs, and nuts. At the time, that diagnosis seemed severe…seemed like everything had dairly, eggs and/or nuts in it. Now I long for the days when there were only three foods on his “avoid” list.  It wouldn’t take long to discover more allergies…allergies like wheat, gluten, soy and beans, beef, pork and corn…and so many more.

I was overwhelmed.  By the time I made it to the canned goods aisle, I was in a panic.  The three bags of potato chips and 1 lb of organic ground turkey was not gonna feed my growing boy for long. I picked up a can of ravioli and a jar of spaghetti sauce and flipped them over to read the label….CONTAINS MILK…..

In a fit of utter despair, I crumpled on the floor in tears….picture it…ya’ll….middle of wal-mart, middle of the aisle, in the floor, crying like a baby. 

I can laugh about it now, two years later, with so much distance traveled since, but at that moment, I was completely broken.  I was mourning the death of the life I had imagined…the life I thought I was supposed to have.  I was utterly undone.

Fortunately, that night, just after crumpling in the floor in a sobbing heap, some friend s from church rounded the corner.  They didn’t know what was going on, and beautifully, they didn’t ask. They simply helped me to my feet, asked a clerk to put the groceries away, walked me to my car, followed me home, pulled me out of the car, walked me to the door, let him know what had happened, gave me a big hug and walked away. 

Those ladies saved me from a terribly embarrassing run in with Wal-Mart security that night, but it wouldn't have been necessary had I reached out for help BEFORE I had a nervous breakdown in the middle of the canned goods aisle! That's what we're here to do...got questions, just ask!

-Cari