Chiana

It means that you think you're gluten-free, but you're not.  You're gluten-light.  Look for sources of contamination you might be missing.  I tend to get hit with barley because labelling laws ignore it.  Check BBQ sauces, cereals, and chocolates for malt. 

Along that line, my fiance picked up two containers of dry roasted peanuts from the same manufacturer, and noticed that the larger container (even through it was the same brand, flavor, etc) had wheat starch in it, while the smaller did not.  Read every label, every time.  Lipton started putting barley in their French Onion soup mix, and I figured it out the hard way. :/

Also, do you eat out?  It doesn't matter how careful you are and how particularly people handle your food, restaurants will get you sometimes.  If someone handles a sandwich and then handles your food without changing their gloves, that can be enough.  The amount needed to have a reaction is smaller than is visible to the naked eye. 

I'm not a stomach celiac.  My big issues were psychiatric, cognitive, and neurological.  I will say a couple of things. 

1. A positive on *anything* on the test is a positive test.  It doesn't matter if it's by a narrow margin or it's only one of the markers.  Positive is positive.  Current medical guidelines support treating even so-called 'silent' Celiacs (people without any symptoms).

2. It does get worse for a few months before it gets better.  I was having anxiety attacks in public, and all sorts of crazy things.  Your body is adjusting to a big change.  The fact that it is getting worse is actually a sign that the diet's having an effect. 

3. The brilliant thing about being a celiac is that you don't really need all those crazy specialists.  If they can't figure out what's going wrong, you can just stick to your diet and you'll know one way or the other after a few-six months...no crazy tests needed, and no drugs needed.  At the end of the day, having a piece of paper isn't important -- feeling better is.

Redbridge is a great gluten-free beer.  I once heard a professional beer critic say that it was the only 'good' beer Anheuser-Busch has ever made. lol

Take this as an opportunity to get everyone eating better things.  My gent eats the same things as me, and he has gotten much healthier since I went gluten-free.  Carbs and pizza and beer are tasty, but they are fattening and not very nutritious.  The added time, effort and price of gluten-free versions should add to the motivation to have them less.  If there is anything this adventure has taught me, it's that "You are what you eat" really means something.   

Don't feel bad if you have to designate things as 'yours'.  Food is a great place to start when teaching children respect for others' belongings. 

 

Imagine for a minute that you have the flu.  There are millions of little viruses in your body, all smaller than anything you can imagine.  Your immune system systematically finds and wipes them out.  It can locate a single virus or organism in your body and irradicate it.  Now, think about this by logical extension: you are turning the most powerful part of your body on your own tissues, intentionally.  Even if you don't feel it happening, you are causing terrible amounts of damage and not allowing them to heal. 

My uncle has MS.  He has been in a wheel-chair for the past 30 years, from a single MS event.  He got tired while at work, sat down, and never stood up again.  His immune system did that to him, without pain or warning.  Auto-immune diseases are not something to screw with.  We have people on here with the celiac cancer, people with failing kidneys, people who lost all their hair. 

One of my coworkers was a Celiac who cheated from time to time.  He was 45 and looked 65.  I say was, because he died last year.  This stuff can kill you.

It might be time to head to a dermatologist.  It could even be a third type of problem  -- skin stuff is very difficult to tell apart.