Our Paths to Gluten Free-dom

Jazphoto · Joined: 12 Mar 2007 Posts: 32 Location: Maryland

Here's my story...I am currently 29.

When I was born, my mom could not breast feed, so they gave me milk...which would not stay down. I could not tolerate formula either, so I drank soy milk.

At 2 years old, I developed Asthma due to severe allergies. I am still allergic to almost everything...except pigweed, milk, tomatoes and oranges. Spring and fall are very bad times for me. I cannot even go near horses without having my throat close up and hives covering me from head to toe.

Once I got to High School, I had severe gas pain. So bad that I would start sweating and could not even stand up. It felt like someone was stabbing me in the stomach. My stool was always inconsistant.

At 23, I had been on the pill for about 7 years. 15 different ones because while on the pill I would get my period every 2 weeks. My OBGYN also found a good sized ovarian cyst and endometriosis...which he found unusual for someone my age. Had them removed and went off the pill. I am now completely regular.

At 25, I went to a Sushi buffet with some friends. I do not eat seafood, so I had all vegetarian stuff including some deep fried tempura. I was totally fine until about 1am, when I woke up with the worst pain I had ever felt in my abdomen. I thought it was gas. I used the restroom and it was red....and I figured it was something I ate. Felt so much better after. Went back to bed and 1/2 an hour later, the same thing. I realised that it was blood...and a lot of it. I finally called my mom to pick me up and take me to the ER. By the time she got there, I was hurting so bad I could hardly walk out to her car...and there was NO WAY I could drive. They gave me demerol at the ER, but I could still feel some of the pain. Turns out I had Colitis...and it was bacterial...they gave me Cipro and I felt much better within a week. My Mom sent me to a dietician and they put me on a Wheat Free diet. I felt so much better once starting that, but the carb devil kicked back in and for a while I was okay.

During the period of time between the colitis and now, my therapist kept telling me to go and get tested for Celiac...as she has it herself. I talked to my physician and he refered me to a GI. This guy was so cold, and I could not bear to have him doing any procedure on me. So I dropped the ball and life was hectic as it was...so I put my health on the back burner. Finally about 8 months ago, I talked to my physician and asked for a Celiac blood panel. He looked at me and said "you do not have Celiac Disease". I was about 30 pounds overweight at that time. He did basic blood work on me and actually said to me "I can't wait to see how high your choloestrol is". What a jerk. He got my results back and said, "wow, you have VERY good cholestrol". And that was that. I was also diagnosed with bi-polar disorder around this time...that was after being diagnosed with ADD in high school.

Age 29. The same jerk physician that said that to me, misdiagnosed my mothers cancer as muscular. My mom is a Registered Nurse and is in very good shape. She knows what is muscular and what is not. Still, she went to physical therapy and her pain got worse. Finally, she went to her GI, b/c she was also having Gallbladder issues. The GI gave her the correct diagnosis. So, I went to my Mom's GI and she actually listend to me...and she diagnosed me. She is a very old school doctor and really takes what you say into consideration.

So I have now been Gluten Free for about 3 weeks and am starting to notice little things changing. I can only imagine how good it will feel in a year, 5 years, 10 years...for the rest of my life.

It's so sad to me that I cannot trust doctors. We need more compassionate doctors who are more concerned for their patients than the money.

Sorry for the length, but everything is finally coming together. Thank you!
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JAZ

Amooliakin · Joined: 09 Oct 2006 Posts: 363 Location: NYC

First time I saw this thread. It is a good one. Al can you keep it up on top without always having to bump?

Anyway - I'll tell the very short story of my 8-year-old daughter.

She had complained of stomach aches on and off since age 5, but the pediatrician always thought it was nothing. Just told us not to give her milk. She was always around the 50th percentile for weight and 70th percentile for height, so that seemed fine.

Last summer she started feeling nauseous all the time and having diarreah. I kept thinking something was wrong so we went to a pediatric gastroenterologist. The doctor was GREAT. She talked to us parents and to my daughter and told us it could be one of 3 things. One was an ulcer, one I don't really remember, and one was Celiac. She did say that Celiac was the least likely, but that it was the easiest to test for, so we would do that blood test first.

Got the blood test back and it was positive, although not by much. Had the endoscopy and it was positive too.

We have been working on the GF diet now for about 7 months and the diarreah and stomach pain have pretty much gone away. There is still some reflux and burping and general yucky feeling though, so although I think we are 95% OK... we are not 100%.

As a mom this makes me feel very guilty. But we are still trying. Later this week we go back for the follow-up blood work and I hope we will find out something.

This forum, needless to say, has been a lifesaver.
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Amy - Mom to two kids, one with Celiac, and assorted pets...

aklap · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 8302 Location: WI, USA

bump for Celia.
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Al

“We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” Mother Teresa

Celia C · Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 47

Oh, wow, me? Heh heh! I just started reading through this thread and would not stop til I read through all the stories! So many disappointing experiences with doctors!

Okay, my story is real short as I only found out SOMETHING was wrong with me 5 months ago in November.

Now, before that, I did have a bit of an itchy thing with my hands, which would come and go and leap from one hand to the other but not really bug me enough to think it wouldn't just go away and stay away here, sometime.

And, I did also have that thing at the back corners of the mouth kinda like a cold sore that wouldn't heal, would be one side, the other, sometimes both, fade awa and come back, and I figured that was something that would go away too, eventually.

So last November I took a hike with two galfriends on a cool sunny morning and had bought my usual hiking day heartburn sandwich -- chicken salad on sourdough bread, which tasted so good it was like there was crab or something in it, and loaded with mayo, and it **always** set off my part-time acid reflux but I would **always** buy one anyway for a hike, they were soooo goood!

About an hour up the trail I suddenly noticed my arms had broken up into stingy, itchy hives right from my hands up to my elbows! Red bumps all around! This wasn't the same thing that had been going on with my hands, which had got to be on both hands and was tiny water blisters in big areas (but not 100% of the hands were covered). My arms felt "poofy" too, as in swollen up in a strange way I had never experienced before.

As if I wasn't alarmed enough, the next morning my FACE was all poofy and swollen, too! No bumps, but it was itchy, and it happened to be a Monday and I happened to be at work. (Somehow my memory is fading on that scary day but I'm pretty sure the poofing started AFTER I had been sitting at my desk, as I can't imagine I'd just show up at work that way, but all I remember was it appeared on Monday morning.)

Now I was scared, and made an appointment for that skin specialist who comes to town once in a while, but meanwhile I went in to a doctor's that takes walk-ins and got seen, and was given some pills to take which I wasn't sure I wanted to take, and was not told anything about it except it is a form of excema that may come and go for years, now that I had had it, and the nurse there told me she had it too. Well, terrific! ($150 for that visit, and around $20 for the pills.)

Around 2 days later I go to the "skin specialist" who kindly told me it was excema, he could give me pills and cream to get me through this 'outbreak,' that he had no idea what caused it, and that some day, (maybe weeks, months, years from now, he didn't know when!) it would go away. He did say it was some kind of "systemic allergic reaction" to something, and that I apparently had some hidden allergy, and that almost anything could have set it off but once it did it had to just 'run its course.') $150 for the visit that told me nothing, another $100 for the medications (because I stupidly went to the wrong drugstore and my insurance didnt' even cover it). My $500 per year deductible on health insurance was getting painful, now that I finally had to use it, and of course starts over again after Dec. 31.)

There was also a problem at work with rain coming through the ceiling, and in my first internet searches I suspected I was allergic to black mold, and that my office air was slowly killing me. After all, the poofy face thing happened at the office! And I had never been allergic to anything in my life! (Oh, except for occasional hay fever that I didn't have til I got older.)

Fast forward to March 2007, as I remained clueless except for learning that calcium bentonite clay was the only thing that stopped the itchy attacks on my hands, but probably caused the sking to dry up and crak and flake up and fall off, with too heavy use, putting the clay on and allowing it to dry (aaaah! Relief from that burning itching from he(ck)!) Anyways, some of you know what I mean, and the prescription stuff kept it at bay mostly but didn't prevent any itching or leprosy-look on the hands, once it got started.

Last Month (!) a gal told me about her celiac disease, and she was years into recovery but she would vomit and/or faint if she ingested gluten and it took her ten years of many visits / tests at doctors to find out what was wrong with her. The skin thing, the poofy-face thing, and the mouth sores thing, as well as the body sores (I forgot to mention I had a mild case of those too which I was cheerfully ignoring) we had in common, and perhaps the anemia and the acid reflux were things related to the same thing, too, I found out. I started thinking about it, but not too anxious to find out I was killing myself eating my homemade spaghetti sauce on wheat noodles for dinner every night . . . . .

Then, coincidentally, that same evening, my mom who has never been within 20 feet of a computer in her life, told me some gal on TV had the hives on the arms like I did, and to look for "www.celiac.com" and find out if I had it, too!

Holy cow. ALL of my skin conditions were related to this, the anemia, the constant fatigue after work, I did admit I had a bit of gas more often than I thought was normal, and a bit of --- not quite diarhea but kinda like that --- every couple days or so.

I ignored the solution to the problem one more day and went to work and ate girl scout cookies which I had bought for me and for the office, and then went gluten free the next day (which was Saturday) having probably two or three accidental ingestions when I was still too stupid to figure out it was EVERYWHERE and EVERYTHING I ate had to be eaten with forethought.

Had one definite reaction when I totally forgot myself and ordered a short mocha. That afternoon I got a mild poofy face, with actual tingly-feeling around the mouth area, which I did not have before. Ahah! It was the mocha! Or maybe the corn bean tortilla I bought "outside" was a corn-and-flour bean tortilla. Or, maybe that piece of crustless quiche I bought "outside" had flour mixed in since it was crustless. Nevertheless, I quickly learned about the seriousness of accidental cheating and that I did have a problem here, for sure!

Body sores are gone, the hand thing is pretty much invisible but an occasional itch here and there which I rub DRY calcium bentonite clay into, which has some oregano juice dried into it, strangely enough, scratches the itch, stops the itching, and does not make my skin dry up split and fall off.

The other symptom gone is I no longer am allergicto morning! I didn't notice it until probably three weeks into it but I was waking up every morning without having to blow my nose! I had this 2-hour every morning runny-nose problem for YEARS, never tried to figure out why. My mom has sinus problems, I figured I inherited them.

Oh gosh, I'm terribly long-winded, but this whole thing fascinates me and I feel like I have woken up in a whole different universe! I am totally enjoying everything I eat, and eating 99% at home only. I am taking the time to bring food to work for lunch; sometimes too much, sometimes too little, but it's become important to me to do so. I realize even with my addiction to gourmet organic gluten free salad dressing, it really does not cost me more to eat natural like this, not at all, even buying almost 100% organic produce. I feel blessed.

I somehow did not bother to deal with my anemia / fatigue until yesterday, by buying some liquid B vitamins with iron mixed in for starters, as I couldn't find all the items I wanted at a store at that hour. Iron helped me before, I felt better, started forgetting to take them, got totally weak and anemic again, and was too tired to care about much of anything. Plenty of reminders in the gluten readings about that problem, too.

My food has been, now, eggs wrapped in corn tortillas, finely chopped raw veggies melted in between corn tortillas with sharp cheddar cheese, topped with GF french dressing, and for variation, also topped with Knudsens Hampshire Sour Cream and, of course, Pace Picante Sauce. Or gourmet soups consisting of 1 can organic navy beans and one can wax beans, with chopped onion and garlic added, with pizza flakes and butter melted in the bowl. Corn spaghetti noodles topped with my home made vegetarian spaghetti sauce! And frequent simple salads made at home. And grapes! and peanut butter! (Organic crunchy.) And peanut butter on organic celery! for Breakfast! For snackies, plain corn tortillas right outa the bag with sliced sharp cheddar cheese. And, now and then, a box of gluten free wafers. All in one sitting with plenty of hot coffee!

Me? Deprived? NEVER!

PS I also have a bloated stomach from large fibroids which I am not kidding myself what it is, of course, but **some** of that distended stomach may be caused by diet. No shrinkage yet, but it was an honest factor in my thinking in hurrying up and getting on that clean diet, here!

I love this forum where I continually learn lots of things I need to know, and get reminded of how much sicker this could have made me before I found out about it. What fascinates me is I believe God pushed me towards the truth, or else I would have to believe I found out totally on accident what the problem is! I could have gone years more in ignorance. I am so glad I am starting **now**!

aklap · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 8302 Location: WI, USA

back to the top
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Al

“We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” Mother Teresa

aklap · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 8302 Location: WI, USA

Back to the top for DavR. Just know that you are not alone. There are many like you search for answers. This thread contains many that have found answers - with or without the help of the medical community.
_________________
Al

“We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” Mother Teresa

aklap · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 8302 Location: WI, USA

I'll bump this one up for Debbie H too Wink

_________________
Al

“We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” Mother Teresa

melffr04 · Joined: 13 Oct 2006 Posts: 6 Location: Falkville, AL

My Daughters Story....Almost exactly One Year ago!

She was 7years old last summer and began vomiting one day...then turned into extreme bathroom usage! I just wrote it off to a virus. One morning I woke up to her vomiting and she had messed all over the bedroom. She was so pale and could hardly hold her head up! She and I headed to the Doctors office.....our normal doctor was out on vacation. The on call doctor was very very worried and sent us to the hospital. We spent several hours in the ER before being admitted for a White Blood Count of 26,000. They ran EVERY test they could think of! She would use the bathroom at least 35 times in just over an hour! We were sent home two days later with the Dr's shaking thier heads.....no answers!
Less than a week later we were back....white count of 28,000 and she had lost 13 pounds! The doctor on call in the ER was a friend of the family....he called her Ped's Dr and requested a CAT Scan. It was scheduled for the next a.m. After the CAT Scan was done we waited for several hours until her Ped's Dr came in and said the Ambulance was on the way to pick us up! We were headed to Children's Hospital 1 hour away. They tought Croans Disease. So we were going for bi-opsies and more tests. Spent 3 days there NO tests done....they did NOTHING for her except run all the same tests that the other hospital did!!!! Never even looked at the CAT Scan. We came home more confused than ever!!!
Two days later we went back to the Peds office and she reffered us to a WONDERFUL man named Dr Laney! I think this man has saved my daughters life in more ways than one. He had her diagnoised within a few weeks! Thats been almost 1 year ago. We still have our ups and downs. She attends public school and that has been a little tough..they don't want to work with us! But she is doing so much better...we still see the darkness in her eyes when she attempts to cheat..so she can't lie!!!!
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Thanks for the input!

aklap · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 8302 Location: WI, USA

bump
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Al

“We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” Mother Teresa

krisiw · Joined: 23 Sep 2007 Posts: 104 Location: Colorado

I think I’ll write my own story.
I believe it all began when I was three and got pneumonia from swimming in a public pool. Both my mom and I got pneumonia and I lost my hearing around the same time. (Doctors believe that it was a virus in my ears at the same time as the pneumonia and nobody ever noticed it) After that, I was always sickly, thin, had a lot of stomach and digestive problems, bad asthma, allergies, you name it. I also got pneumonia again a few years later.

I got a little better as I got older, but my digestion was never good and I started to take enzymes. I also refused to eat meat most of the time (it was probably too hard to digest) though I ate a lot of bread and crackers. I was still thin and starting in third grade, I had to wear glasses.

In high school, I read a book about herbs and got interested in natural health and started trying to do things to make myself healthier because I knew that even though I didn’t feel bad, I never really felt good either. I had a lot of headaches and depression during this time though I thought it was just because of my family’s situation. Now, I look back and know that a lot of it was from gluten and food allergies.

When I went to college, I got better. I started running track and eating a lot of salads and beans. I still had bad days and mood swings and depression sometimes, but not all the time. I now know why and although sometimes the thought floated through my head, I never really believed it until later. I kept thinking that at home I ate a lot of bread and I felt bad, but at college, since they didn’t have whole wheat bread in the cafeteria, I almost never ate bread. I did sometimes have crackers and breaded meats which is probably why I still had bad days. I also discovered in college that I had really bad hypoglycemia.

The summer before my senior year of college, I went to camp for two months as a counselor. The second day I was there, my retina detached. I didn’t know what it was and I was determined to stay at camp, so I prayed about it and left it alone. I believe it was a miracle I didn’t lose my eyesight--the doctors would go, “you went four days with your eye like this?” No, I’d say. Four weeks. “Four weeks? And your eyesight is still fine?” They couldn’t believe it.

I have no proof, but I think my lack of nutrients may have contributed to my retina having holes in it.

After I had surgery and then finished up the camp counseling, I went home and that’s when my gluten sensitivity got really bad. I’m thinking that the stress of the surgery made the problem worse. I got really depressed, gained a lot of water weight, and had a lot of stomach aches. I thought it was all from the surgery but there was no reason for the surgery to do that. I would eat ice cream for lunch and sandwiches for dinner.

When I finished college and went back home, I started connecting the dots better. I went on an anti-yeast diet which cut out all sugar and all white flour and a whole bunch of stuff. I lost 26 pounds which I didn’t need to do, and while I felt slightly better at times, I was still eating wheat so I didn’t feel great. I did notice that I felt worse when I had whole wheat. I went off of that diet and then decided to go off of wheat. My depression lifted in a week.

I thought I had imagined it, so I went back on wheat and after a couple of weeks, got depressed again. I went back off. I went on and off several times before I was convinced. Then I had to realize that I was sensitive to ALL gluten, not just wheat. Plus, I learned about hidden gluten. This was the worst time for my gluten problems. I would go to work and have to run to the bathroom every five minutes. One time, I started vomiting right after my boss left the room. Soon, after that I stopped taking the communion cracker on Sunday. (I had thought I could handle it once a week!)

I was doing much better but still not 100%. I married my husband and spent the first year being a little grumpy and having lots of stomach aches that baffled me because I wasn’t eating gluten. I went to an allergy doctor and got the skin pricks which told me nothing. He said I may still have problems with these things but a skin prick test wouldn’t tell me about a digestion problem.

Shortly after my husband got deployed to Iraq, and I moved back home, I decided to go off of corn. I went back on it a few times and the second time it gave me the runs. So that was it for corn. I also finally went off of dairy and lastly discovered tapioca. So now I’m a pesco-vegetarian, GF, corn-free, and tapioca-free. Some days it’s frustrating, but I feel so much better that it’s completely worth it. Oh, and as an added bonus, my skin looks so much better.

skyeofblue · Joined: 09 Nov 2007 Posts: 16

Hello! I have been poking around the site for a few months now, I have posted a couple of replies and thought that it is past time that I formally introduce myself: I am a 26 years old Celiac, diagnosed by blood work and biopsy, just two weeks ago. I have been suffering from random symptoms my whole life that seemed completely unconnected until my diagnosis.

So… here is my story: (I am apologizing ahead of time for the length of the story…I don’t know how else to tell my journey other than to start at the beginning) – I hope that the thoroughness of this can help someone else who does not have typical symptoms find their way!

I first started to develop symptoms when I was very young. I suffered from migraines starting in about 1st grade. I did not know at the time that was what they were, I received reading glasses and slept a lot. Turns out as the GI doctor told me that the migraines I suffered from was actually the first of my long list of symptoms in a long line of ATYPICAL symptoms of Celiac disease.

When I was about 10 years old I became lactose intolerant. I suffered from reoccurring sinus congestion and infection issues. My reaction was pretty immediate, and since I have other relatives that have a hard time with lactose, it wasn’t a big surprise – so I adopted soy milk, and began to see improvement. (My Second symptom of Celiac Disease)

When I was in middle school I started having 13 day long menstrual cycles. The doctors said it was because I was so active, and was starting to lift weights and that I would outgrow it. (Later found out that it was actually another autoimmune disorder – endometriosis, It is common to if you have one immune problem to have another one. Endometriosis: My immune system does not recognize uterine tissue build up outside of the uterus in other parts of my body... Celiac my immune system recognizes gluten as a poison! I do not know if one caused the other, but both are related to my immune system.)

When I reached High School I started having rectal bleeding and intense constipation. I used exlax and for the most part it helped. I still played 3 sports and weight lifted 2 times a day, I thought I was in great shape. I also began having intense pain in my legs and right hip from running. I was fitted with fiberglass heel cup orthotics that I will wear for the rest of my life. (Needless to say my shoe fetish stopped very quickly after that)

I left for college, ate campus food and stopped exercising. I began to have muscle pain all over my body. It got to the point that I could barely walk someday. I went to the campus doctor and he told me I had Fibromyalgia. So my parents took me to a specialist who told me that I did not have Fibromyalgia, I was just way too flexible from my years of gymnastic training when I was younger. He told me that I need to start exercising again, so I did. I got a little better.

That same year I contracted walking pneumonia, had a long list of sinus infections, antibiotic treatments, which continued into my sophomore year. That’s when I started developing blurry vision. The eye doctor told me it was from to much time on the computer and in the library. So he increased my prescription, and gave me glasses so I could drive at night. That summer I developed very itchy skin, and got a water purifier for my shower… didn’t help lol.

It was in my Junior year of college that the severe symptoms began. I was at work and started having side crippling pain in my URQ of my abdomen. It was CONSTANT, it NEVER stopped. I went to a general doctor, they tested me for Mono 6 times before admitting that every time it came back negative, but they still thought that was what I had until another doctor suggested that it was my gallbladder, they ran 4 different tests, all came back negative…. So they put me on a low fat diet, no more than 7 grams of fat per meal…I saw an improvement, (now I know it was actually not the fat, but the reduced amount of gluten I was consuming) That summer my symptoms returned, my regular doctor told me it was IBS and gave me a medication I had to take 4 times a day. I took it religiously, and felt a little better, all it actually did was block some of the nerves from registering pain. Needless to say about 6 months later, I was back in his office, he put me on another medication that gave me explosive diarrhea, and I actually did not make it to the restroom one time, so that’s when my parents took me to a GI doctor.

The GI doctor ran some tests, told me that I tested positive for a disease that I later found out was in fact celiac disease, but since I did not have typical symptoms I did in fact not have it. EVENTHOUGH I TESTED POSTITIVE!!!! At the time he blew it off, so we didnt pursue it because we were in shock of the diagnosis he did give me....He told me in a very straight forward manner that I had a FLOATING RIB, and had two choices, either (A) have it surgically removed… or (B) live with it.

My parents took me to our family chiropractor that then told us that EVERYONE HAS 2 SETS OF FLOATING RIBS!!!!!! So we went to a GI doctor at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle. He did a colonoscopy which came back clean, so he told me in a follow up visits, that I was too young to have any problems and that I might look into seeing a therapist because he thought it was in fact not GI related at all. He told me that I was depressed and should look into taking an antidepressant. From floating ribs to mental issues...I STILL DONT UNDERSTAND HOW THEY COULD BE SO RIDICULOUS! I actually started to doubt myself as did my parents, since no one could find ANYTHING WRONG!!!

I went back to school still in extreme CONTSTANT pain, and one night doubled over from a burning pain so bad that I went to the hospital was given drugs and released. As a last resort I went to my mother’s gynecologist who preformed an ultrasound and found a ruptures functional cysts the size of a tennis ball in my right ovary. He said he did not know how big it had been, but that I had had it for a while, and it had already been leaking for a few weeks. He gave me some pain meds and told me to come back in 3 weeks.

I started to feel better, and 2 months later started to develop numbing sensations in my right leg. (I was still having the constant RUQ pain) I went back to the gynecologist, who scheduled me for a laparoscopy and discovered I had endometriosis on the nerve leading to my right leg. I was given a stronger dose of birth control, and given Lupron shots for 6 months. Essentially it shuts down your hormones, and puts you in menopause. I was 22. All I can say is I am NOT looking forward to it! I was still having pain in my abdomen, and ended up doubled over again in pain, got another ultra sound that found an abdominal cyst that had ruptured all over my intestines, and was accumulating in the bottom of my pelvis. The only thing I could do was go home, lie in bed on sleeping meds and pain meds until my body absorbed the fluid in my abdomen.

That spring I started bloating and suffering from abdominal distention and weight gain of 8 pound over 24 hours. I was put on a water pill.. which didn’t really help. I actually had to take pictures and measurements of what was happening, because the doctors did not believe me. I ended gaining 30 pounds over a period of 5 weeks.

I ended up at a Naturopath as a last resort for my abdominal pain, weight gain and distention. She ran a IGG4 and IGE antibody test for Food allergies. I was OFF THE CHARTS for Dairy, Gluten, Eggs and Mustard. They ran the test twice, and I got the results 2 weeks before my wedding. I started going gluten free on my honeymoon… I would not recommend it to anyone! But I did start feeling MUCH better!

I was GF with out any guidance other than my own resources, and lost 34 pounds in 6 weeks and went from a size 14 to a size 6. After about 4 months of feeling FANTASTIC, and symptom free. I broke, because the company I worked for restructured and I lost my job and had to let go 7 of my closest friends that I supervised. I was offered my job back as a contract employee, I also ended up going through some significant personal tragedies in my friend circle. It was 3 months of $#@ and I broke, and got REALLY SICK!!! I tried to go GF again, but it didn’t work…I started reacting to food I was fine with before, It actually turns out that the emotional stress was intensifying my symptoms and sensitivity.

My husband got hired in MT we quit our jobs, said bye to our friends and family, moved 750 miles, and I was sicker than EVER!!!!! Mentally I couldn’t function, I couldn’t do math at work, I had a hard time learning new things and was stuck in a thick mental fog! I went to a gynecologist who found another ovarian cyst, and my endometriosis starting to return. I ended up at an allergist who ran too many test to count, and put me back on a Gluten diet for 5 weeks… I had to quit work, and I slept an entire month before they discovered that I was a CELIAC!!!!! I was confirmed by biopsy just after Thanksgiving of this year. They believe that the reason my diet stopped working before was I was still being glutened, and that my emotional stress complicated an already delicate situation.

I have been GF again for 2 weeks now, and with the help of a nutritionist have understood the level of which I must avoid gluten. I have already lost 10 pounds and feel better than I have in a long time.

aklap · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 8302 Location: WI, USA

bump
_________________
Al

“We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” Mother Teresa

aklap · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 8302 Location: WI, USA

back to the top
_________________
Al

“We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” Mother Teresa

RitaF · Joined: 24 Sep 2008 Posts: 8 Location: Freeman, SD

Born 1939
1940's-1988 - Chronic health problems came and went
1988 chronic health problems came and STAYED
by then diagnosed with HG, IBS, FMS, CFS, High Blood Pressure, etc.
2008-August-diagnosed w/ gluten intolerance and began gf
1 month of worse burps, bloats and pain but it could be IBS? allergies?
Sept/08 ultrasound of liver/gall etc. shows no problem
Oct/2/08 suspect dairy intolerance - discovered dairy in Schwans potatoes, last dairy at 2 p.m.

RitaF and so we continue

Fidissimus · Joined: 17 Mar 2006 Posts: 1463 Location: Portland, OR.

I always meant to add my story to this thread but somehow writing it all out seemed daunting. I threw out my back this week and finally made the time since I wasn't doing anything else but staring at the ceiling. I also have a personal blog and get asked about my CD occasionally there. I finally wrote the post for that readership and just cut n' paste here so sorry if some of it seems overly explanatory.

"Just out of curiosity,(I hope you don't mind) how did you come to find out that you had Celiac? What kind of testing did you have to undergo? How old were you when you found out? What were your symptoms?"

Where to begin? First perhaps a definition for those not familiar with Celiac Disease.