It's been a long time since i was able to create a post. I have been sick for several years, each year bringing new symptoms to try & understand. As it stands today I have Fibromylagia, CFS, Peripheral Neuropathy, Chronic Depression, Gluten Intolerance, & Lactose Intolerance.
The Gluten is a new revelation, I'm only just getting started on my new gluten free life but already i can feel the difference! I have read a number of blogs, facebook pages, etc; anything i can find to try & understand. So much of what i thought i knew was wrong & there is SO much more to it than I ever could have imagined!
I plan to post about all of my symptoms/conditions as well as the GF various brands I have tried, anything I think someone else might benefit from. Living Gluten free is a massive undertaking & not to be entered into lightly, or blindly. To live gluten free you HAVE to do your homework, you have to learn what is & is not safe, all the many names behind which gluten hides (You wouldn't believe the things I have found gluten in - like popcorn!).
One thing that was hard for me & for my family is the fact that i am... well an adult (no need to get into the specifics of age), meaning not a child. How did i live for years eating gluten daily without feeling sick from? Doesn't Gluten Intolerance (GI) start when you're a child?
Well the answer is that GI can strike at any age. You can also have GI without being sick to your stomach! (that one was a shocker to me) I met a woman who has what she calls silent Celiac - she went to her Dr for osteoarthritis & the the tests showed that she had celiac! This lady told me that she never feels sick to her stomach when she eats gluten - not even 12 years after her diagnosis. In her case it was her bones that bore the brunt of the illness; although she had also been treated for cancer, which her Dr later realized had been caused by her undiagnosed GI!! I was beyond shocked, it had never occurred to me that GI could damage your bones, let alone cause cancer!
I have learned that celiac disease destroys the villi that line the intestines, the villi are responsible for absorbing nutrients from what we've eaten. So over time as more & more villi are damaged or killed your begins to suffer from malnourishment & vitamin deficiencies. Here is where we encounter another commonly believed falsehood about people with GI. I used to think everyone with celiac was super thin. This is not the case, in fact many people with GI are often of "normal" weight & there are many who are even over weight.
If you're anything like me gluten makes more than 50% of your diet, so facing a GF life was terrifying. If you had suggested it to me a few months ago I would have laughed & said not a chance! It dosen't take long - when you're so sick every day that you're confined to the couch & bathroom - to realize that life without gluten sounds pretty good after all.
In my case I thought that all of the new IBS symptoms I was having were because of my fibromyalgia; GI couldn't have been farther from my mind. Until a friend of mine tagged me in a link on facebook. She had found an article that listed some of the known symptoms of GI & it had made her think of me. The article listed 10 symptoms that could indicate GI; among the symptoms listed were, fibromyalgia, CFS, peripheral neuropathy, depression, & anxiety. Needless to say seeing all of my problems listed together in association with a condition I had never before considered caught my attention.
With helpful advice of some friends - real & virtual - I have been able to start this journey with a considerable advantage; an advantage I hope to pass on to as many people as possible.
