alesusy

I have found out most of the food I give to my two cats contains either "wheat flour" or a more generic "cereals" (Royal Canin Ageing and Ultra light, and Hill's k/d in pouches).

I'm going to change their diet. However - did anyone have inklings and/or established that the food they gave their cats was actually a cause of glutening?

thanks

alessandra, 6 months gluten-free

One must have been there to understand.

For instance: why have I been feeling so off key for the last couple of months (at least?)  Why did I spend the last ten days with persistent dizziness, GI problems (although not awful), huge tension in my shoulders and most of all, disabilitating levels of anxiety (crying jags, hypocondria totally out of control?)

I do not know for certain but today, feeling much better, I believe that I have added CC to CC . I am astonished that once more, I managed to FEEL like I had been glutened without having the clarity of mind to understand what was happening.

I cooked myself or watched everything being cooked, I thought I was being really careful... Well, here is a list of suspects:

1) hairspray, which I use on my wet hair and massage with my bare hands. It is more than possible that I got the stuff from my hands to my mouth (i do wash my hands afterwards but it's really sticky stuff). I am not CERTAIN that it contains gluten (Camille Albane Eau Texturisante, rings a bell anyone?), but I cannot exclude it and have been sick for about the right amount of time since I bought it (and no, I'm not using it again).

2) pet food, which sometimes I touch with my hands while cooking for myself as well. I do wash my hands, but still..

3) four beef hamburgers I bought off the counter at the butcher a couple of weekes ago. "MInce the meat for me, please", I said. "I certainly will" said the butcher. "However, while those croquettes there and the spinach patties and the stuffed zucchini have bread crumbs in them, the prepared beef hamburgers are plain meat". "Ok", I said, "then I'll have those, thanks". Well, I am brought to believe now that he may have been sincere, but the burgers were certainly prepared in the same room and probably on the same wooden board that the croquettes patties etc etc. Stupid me.

The point I wanted to make is that while I am not certain about the source of CC, it is very clear to me now that I WAS glutened. The worse part of it was the anxiety. Well, the dizziness and slight nausea and general imbalance are not nice either, nor is the awful tension in my shoulders or my spastic gut. And what about the vision loss?  And since I'm at it, does anyone suffer from AURA MIGRAINES (colored haloes around objects, during 10/20 minutes) albeit  with no pain from repeated CCs?

However, while in the deep of it, it is easy to tell myself that it is anything BUT a glutening. From symptoms of a new sickness, to psychological problems. And since nobody seems to believe that I may have gotten sick from hairspray or from a crumb in a beef hamburger...

That's why I want to thank you all, guys: for being there and having been there and having lived through it already, and valitading one's perceptions when everybody else (gastro doctors included) tell you "that is nuts".

alessandra, almost 6 months gluten-free

Sorry for the outburst - it's a NO day. I believe that - as somebody aptly put it to me - I might be "gluten light" rather than "gluten free". I particularly believe it on such days as today (and the last two days before...), when I'm somewaht dizzy, blurry eyed and itchy all over and I wonder whether this is celiac or SOMETHING ELSE.

I know it happened before and it will pass. Rationally I know it, but it's so hard. I've been gluten-free all of 5 months, which is not that much, but my antibodies are much diminished and I'm feeling generally so much better.

My gut feel generally better apart from some bad days and my BM are much, much, MUCH improved. But new things are coming out:

the dizziness

the itchiness

the worsened, blurry vision

sometimes, very bad pains in my legs (and sometimes I'm all right)

Irregular menstrual cycle

some episodes of colored flashes in my eyes (they come and go, I may not have one for months and then I'll have one for two days in a row, lasting about 15 minutes, very disturbing - I'm going to an ophtalmo next week even if I think he'll tell me it's got nothing to do with Celiac)

The array of symptoms sounds very Celiac-like to me from what I've read from people in the Forum (apart from the colored flashes? anybody can comment on that?). All of these things did happen to me before DX, but never all together or so strongly.

So - am I gluten light rather than gluten free? I believe it might be the case. On the other hand it might be that my body does not react well to food with istamines right now. Or it might be something else entirely.

I've been playing detective and coming up with very little. The sorghum flour I used for my muffins which might not be entirely exempt from CC. Possibly some of my creams etc which does NOT state any ingredients with gluten in it but you never know. Pet food (I have two cats) from Royal Canine which does NOT indicate anything with gluten in the ingredients but MIGHT be suspected. Dinner out with friends even if I cooked my own pasta in a separate pan with a separate stirrer.

Oh experienced people in the forum, what do you think? It is humanely possible that my 'new' symptoms have to do with Celiac? And if yes, could anything of what I listed be responsible?

I know it will sound like a boring question but please answer, I'm in full anguish mode (which might have something to do with Celiac, again...)

alessandra

I'm almost 5 months gluten-free and doing generally much better in terms of energy, intestinal problems (bar bad days here and there), mental clearness etc. However I am very surprised to see appearing new symptoms which seem to be typycally celiac and I did not have before. Such as: irregularity of my menstrual cycle and, most notably, the appearing of small pruriginous pustoles on my back, torso, buttocks, shoulders and back of knees. It is nothing major, just mildly annoying; it happens, recedes for a few days, then appears again. It looks very much like DH but I never had this before. Why should it appear when I'm gluten-free and doing generally better? Any advice? So frustrating...

thanks all!

Ok, so I was in Lyon (FRance) and I tried a super restaurant which allegedly uses NO allergenes: no soy, no wheat, no lactose and other stuff. I was hungry and I ate a lot - way too much. Then I got back to my hotel and I had a VERY strange BM and then a bout of diarreha. I think I just ate too much because thank God I was OK that night and the day after (still always tired, but that's a given).

Now, here is my problem. MY BM was strange in that the stools were of two colors, light and dark, as if made of two different materials pressed together lenghtwise (never happened before). Such dark color in fluffy stools must have come from something (undigested) I ate. But the only really dark thing I had had in the previous 48 hours was some black rice with my fish at the gluten-free restaurant. But I had finished eating that rice only an hour before!

I have read that scories from food take generally about 24 hours and sometimes much more to get expelled from the body. Maybe - just a guessing - a recovering celiac, though, processes and absorbs food at lightening speed? Any thoughts?

thanks