Here I am, four days until Tough Mudder New England, deciding to put electron to screen for what reason? An update on my training regime? No. Perhaps a discussion of the forcible shuffling of Osama bin Laden’s mortal coil? Nah. Maybe it has something to do with the reasons behind my latest Facebook vacation? Nope.

Perhaps the last two will merit some form of comment in the very near future, perhaps not. What has really gotten me off my duff and back on the blog is very simple: I had a doctor’s appointment today.

Maybe that doesn’t sound like much, but considering I’ve gone the better part of the last decade without health insurance, the fact I was able to get in for a physical a couple weeks ago was a big deal. Everything checks out fine, the doc asks me if I have any problems, I give him a short list, he says “hmmm” and sends me in for some blood work. Pretty routine stuff. Then comes the call Monday that he wants to see me to go over the results.

For the record, I didn’t panic. Being a guy and all, my thought process goes a little something like this: I’m still walking around, nothing has changed to an unusual color, and nothing appears ready to fall off. Therefore, I am fine. At most, it seemed a talk about cholesterol was coming.

So there I was sitting in the doctor’s office this morning when he began our discussion with Vitamin D deficiency. Okay, so more vitamins – great, thanks doc! Oh wait, there’s more? Celiac Disease? What’s that?

I am Todd’s overwhelming sense of surprise.

So there it is, no more Guinness or gummy bears (unless they’re Haribo gummi bears, which really doesn’t count since they’re not Black Forest gummy bears – but that’s a discussion worthy of its own 3,000 word post and we don’t have time for that right now). A lifetime of checking labels and trying to pretend that rice cakes actually taste good. At least, that’s how the cynical side of me was thinking in between cracking jokes. You see, that’s my coping mechanism – humor. After all, when a man realizes that he’s never again going to taste a namebrand Oreo Double Stuf cookie again, it’s either find a way to cope or begin the slow process of going insane.

However, there’s this other side of me that’s starting to emerge. The one that says – hey, all those years of stomach issues and your joints creaking was abnormal. Eating what you’re supposed to eat and avoiding the stuff that’s hurting your body will actually cause you to feel normal (whatever that may be). Maybe you’ll have more energy. Maybe your moodiness will kick down a notch or two… Okay, maybe I shouldn’t get too carried away. Baby steps and all.

I am now reading up on Celiac and contemplating brewing my own gluten-free beer. Hey, there’s an upside to everything, right?