I’m originally from Ohio, but relocated to Denver in 2009 for work and despite leaving Colorado for a brief stint in Seattle I quickly found my way back and now call Colorado home. Professionally, I worked in Human Resources for 20+ years and in the last few years pivoted from the corporate world to launching my own HR Consulting Business to create a better balance for our family.
My husband and I have three children – a 10 year old boy, a 7 six old girl and a 5 year old boy (our Celiac kiddo). We live in Castle Pines and love travel, sports (Go Broncos!), camping, skiing, and cooking. As you can imagine, three young kids definitely keeps us busy!
When my youngest was just over a year old we noticed he was dropping off the growth charts, getting sick quite frequently, and was increasingly irritable. Initially, we chalked it up to the stomach bug or whatever the virus of the month was at daycare but things continued to deteriorate quickly – to the point he wouldn’t even stand up anymore. Our pediatrician sent us to Children’s where they ran a plethora of tests and his Celiac markers were off the charts. I was afraid he was too weak to go through with a biopsy to confirm but we immediately started him on gluten free diet. Within months he was like a new kiddo – happy, growing, eating all the (GF) things. At that point, I decided to proceed with scheduling the biopsy to confirm Celiac disease, but since months had past the doctors weren’t sure the test would be conclusive – well even after all that time, his biopsy came back at the most severely damaged state.
Having a child diagnosed at such a young age was an adjustment – I had to be his advocate, since he was too young to advocate for himself. Fast forward three years and he’s doing great and his big brother and sister have also learned how to be great advocates for him. Yes, it’s an added step of complexity in everything we do and adds to the stress of planning vacations, eating out, starting school, etc but that’s also why I wanted to join the Denver Celiac’s Board to help other families navigate these challenges!