pchick's Blog

Being this is my first blog entry here, I'd like to give a bit of my history so as to explain how I got here in the first place.

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I'm 40 now, and was just diagnosed Gluten Intolerant by my naturopath from stool samples, and bloodwork. Then I came right home and started my own research... that is how I found this space. I'm not sure if I'm a true "celiac", but I was told I was born with this.

That makes sense to me too... as a kid, I was ALWAYS nauseas with lots of rumbly tummy aches. I also had very high anxiety and before any tests I would be up all night vomiting. I was always tired as a kid and always just wanted to sleep ~ my folks always told me how fat and lazy I was.

Fast Forward to age 18-28 where I was kicked out of my family's house because I didn't want to be the same religion as them (long story) and ended up a homeless, drunk, drug-using gutter punk. During this time I always felt like crap, but just associated it with feeling "hung-over". I got pregnant at age 21 and proceeded to lose 35 pounds before gaining it back plus 10 lbs to be at my full pregnant weight. The whole time I was pregnant, I stayed clean ~ and I felt VERY sick. I also had kidney stones during the pregnancy. Again, I just chalked this up to being pregnant. I became very anemic to the point I was passing out in public. I also was nauseas the whole pregnancy.

Then I had my daughter in 1991 ~ 3 weeks overdue, but healthy!

After her birth, I mellowed on some drinking by switching from vodka to beer... this is about the time I started becoming so tired I wasn't able to do the things I needed to do, like go to work. So... I started using meth... I know, I know ~ terrible! BUT it was like my coffee ~ it wasn't to party, but to go to work and keep up with being a single mom. Of course this burned me out and when I was 28 I had a breakdown of sorts and decided I needed help.

Luckily for me, that is about the time I met my future hubby. He stuck by me through quitting meth, alcohol, cigarettes and later coffee. He also helped me take care of my daughter during this time. Anyway he totally saved my butt!

Soon after quitting all the crap, I started getting sick again ~ nauseas all the time, abdominal pain, ear ringing, headaches, jaw tightness, anxiety, constipation, and weight gain just to name a few. The ab pain became so bad I was sent to the sidewalk on many occasions before my hubby brought me to the ER to find out I had a HUGE gall stone. I thought this could be the answer... I was excited to have it removed. After the surgery though, I still felt icky!

Now I have to say, I don't have any insurance... so to have my gall bladder removed I had to get a low-paying part time job for six months to get state insurance to cover the surgery. Since then I haven't been to a "real" doctor. Also since then I started having more symptoms that I just started chalking up to old age, being overweight, and being an ex-drug user. Some symptoms:

abdominal pain in all quadrants

constant low back burning pain

ear ringing, headaches, face twitches

constant nausea, frequent vomiting, acid reflux, BAD heartburn

irregular menstral cycles

joint pain and swelling especially in the feet and tongue

brain fog, fuzzy vision, dizziness, disoriented feeling more and more

heart palpitations, sometimes high blood pressure

thyroid disfunction - going from hypo to hyper and back again

high blood sugar, high triglycerides

bad teeth, tongue losing taste buds in weird shapes

anxiety

constipation / diarrhea

tired ALL THE TIME ~ couldn't get up before 10am without feeling like a truck hit me... and I don't even drink anymore!

did I say nausea yet...

Okay... so you get the picture... all these "symptoms" never really struck me as being abnormal... for ME. I ALWAYS felt kinda crappy. I just thought that's how people felt... and some were just good at pushing themselves.

So I finally decided to see an acupuncturist in 2007 when everytime I ingested ANYTHING my guts would start cramping INTENSELY. It hurt SO bad!! I felt like they were contractions... they even came and went. This happened 3 times in a row... the third time sent me into a full blown panic attack where I couldn't hardly breathe and that freaked me out completely... so I went to get help! The acupuncture helped A LOT to make me feel less nauseas. Also, my acupuncturist is a chinese medicinal herbalist and made me a tea to drink that really helps. But after 2 years of seeing him, I realized he is just making the symptoms better ~ that I need to find out what's going on in my belly.

That's when I went to the ND/MD and had a bunch of tests taken and found out what I had! Now it makes all the sense in the world. Some people would be bummed to have to change their diet so drastically, but not me... I'm SO excited to see what a normal person feels like. I've been gluten free almost 2 weeks and feel PHENOMENALLY BETTER!! I already have more energy than when I was on speed!! (I can't hardly believe it myself) my nausea is clearing too ~ I've only felt it twice in two weeks!!!!! Heartburn is basically non-existant (except when I have any sugar or grain). Plus, the most amazing thing of all is I lost 10 pounds! For someone who has tried every diet plan under the sun with no effect, this is just amazing!

So you could say: I'm a believer!!! I'm gonna be gluten free for life and I know I will LOVE it!!

I have to heal my small intestines first (leaky gut), then I can add some other grains back into my diet, but for now I'm eating lots of fish, chicken, eggs, green leafy veggies, other veggies, some cheese, and some fruit and nuts.

I haven't been diagnosed with celiac with a biopsy, but from what I can tell, being gluten intolerant for life is pretty much the same thing. You can't have any gluten. So I hope I'm in the right place to write. I really needed to vent ~ I feel like I just discovered gold and can't wait to tell everyone. Unfortunately, most people don't have a clue what this is about... so maybe I'll just keep it to myself

Thanks to all who have written posts on the forum, I gleaned a bunch of great info from there and am happy to be here where people talk my new language!!