ncteacher

I've been very low on energy pretty chronically for the past 6 years now.  Interestingly, low energy periods always coincided with abdominal pain (very similar to what MS sufferers call the "bear hug").  Other symptoms progressively got worse: shortness of breath, joint pain, chest pain, nerve pain, back pain (sciatica), anxiety, and others.  Two trips to the MRI cleared me of any major problems.  

Blood tests in 2010 FINALLY picked up what had become SEVERE anemia and Vitamin D deficiency (my doctor wondered how I was still walking around).  Doc told me that anemia that bad can only come from a bleed.  I had upper and lower endoscopy to look for those bleeds, but only one benign polyp was found and removed.  

After that, the advice was to take iron and D supplements and call if symptoms got worse.  I had already suspected I was lactose intolerant, so I cut dairy out and looked for improvement, and there was some--although I still felt horrible by the end of every, single day.  It wasn't until I ate a particularly bread-heavy breakfast one morning that I suspected gluten may be the issue.

Anyway, my whole point here is that I went through my medical records the other day and realized that there was never a blood test done to measure anti-gliadin antibodies.  Anyone else have a similar misadventure?  I'm just wondering if those tests may have made things a little less miserable and drawn out.  Plus, I don't even think the upper endoscopy went as far as my duodenum...they were looking for stomach ulcers.  

So, day 3 of my gluten-free journey felt miraculous! The pain in my gut was gone and it felt amazing being able to stand at work for 8 hours without doubling over.

Then, on day 6, I'm bloated and generally feel full and kind of gross. I've read and read to see if changing my gluten-filled diet to a gluten-free diet can cause stomach upset and bloat. Today, the culprit seemed to be a gluten-free, dairy-free muffin from a new celiac shop in town. It was pretty tasty, but it just hit me wrong. Is this familiar, or common?

Should I stay away from the pre-packaged gluten-free foods for a little while?

Thanks!