Biarritz And My Family
I am coeliac and I am fairly sure, my father was too, as he had all the wind, I had at fifty, which was something that led to my being diagnosed as coeliac.
But as my father was born in 1904, there was not really any tests for the disease.
I was one of many, who were diagnosed at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in the 1990s, where I am certain, they were testing out, the genetic test for the disease.
How else could I go in on a Monday and have a very short chat and give some blood for testing and then get a letter on the Wednesday saying I was probably coeliac and it would be confirmed by endoscopy.
I never met my paternal grandfather, as he died in 1929 at around fifty.
My father told me a lot about his father. He had been very affected by his father’s heavy drinking and alcoholism. I suspect, it was part of his plan to make sure, that I didn’t go the way of his father.
In fact now at 76, I am virtually teetotal, although I do drink a lot of bottles of 0.5 % alcohol real ale. But this doesn’t affect my gut or my INR.
I know little about my grandfather’s health, but he did suffer from asthma and that was what killed him.
Was he coeliac? From my father’s descriptions of his father, it was highly likely.
My grandfather had a profitable printing business, which even in the 1920s had around a hundred employees according to what my father told me.
My father also remembered going to see Spurs at White Hart Lane in a pony and trap. That at least showed a certain status.
My paternal grandparents also used to go to Biarritz for at least part of the winter.
My father did say a couple of times, that it did improve my grandfather’s health.
But when I went to Biarritz ten years ago, it certainly made me feel better.
I wrote Would I Go Back To Biarritz Again?.
The Anonymous Widower 
I am also convinced my father was coeliac – although he was treated for ulcerative colitis. As a child it was claimed by my mum and my dad that he had an ulcer, and there were things he couldn’t eat. He started making our bread because he said it it was much better for his tummy – his words. This was before flexible sigmoidoscopy and flexible colonoscopy. Any sort of scope was very different in 40 or 50 years ago than they are now. Added in dad’s side of the family – very strong history of bowel cancer. He grew up in a fairly wealthy very middle class family – his dad was a senior something or other at Pilkington Glass – he was charted engineer type of thing, can’t remember details. And his wife’s grandparents lived in large mansion in Godalming – when the family moved out, the place was bought by Charterhouse school and used for the sanitorium. In WW1 it was military hospital. So it wasn’t tiny by any means. Growing up my dad will have had a diet to match that lifestyle. I suspect that once dad was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, I think that diagnosis stuck, at the time coeliac disease was something you were born with and diagnosed with at a few months old. My mother had diverticular disease, but ate a poor diet from choice and ignored the advice she was given. It became a lot worse and half her bowel was removed. She didnt follow any advice. I also have diverticular disease – at least technically – the oscopy I had a couple of months ago said that on paper I have it, but there is no way the tiny things – less than 1mm across on the enlarged screen – could become infected with food. And there were only 11 of them.
Comment by Liz | August 25, 2023 |