healthygirl's Blog

I am into about week 4 or 5 of gluten free again. I am still waiting to hear when my specialist appointment is and know that I might be doing the stupid thing by staying gluten free in the event they are going to biopsy. I keep telling myself "tomorrow I'll go back on", but then I just can't stand the thought of it, and dealing with the symptoms again....so, having said that, here is the list of symptoms I have noticed that have disappeared since going gluten free.

Celiac.com Sponsor (A13):
 

1. Canker sores gone. Over Christmas when I was gluten heavy, there was one week where I had 5 of them at once...Don't miss them!!

2. Bunyons aren't hurting. I have had bunyons since I was 18. Over Christmas they flared up so bad on my left foot, particularly by my baby toe that I was actually getting a blister/callous on it...very tender, would ache and throb even with just bedding touching it. Now pain free and much less inflamed.

3. Itchy bellybutton has no more itch. This one makes me laugh...I had no idea it would be related and have never heard of anyone else on this site mentioning itchy belly button (if anyone reading this has this symptom, send me a comment, as I'd love to know if it is common, or just me!!) I run alot and have a really deep innie belly button, so figured it was just sweat excabberating the skin, but when it was itchy, man was it itchy!!! Totally annoying and uncomfortable!!!

4. Itchy other parts aren't itchy....I won't go into detail here , but suffice it to say there is no more itch!! (I always blamed Lever 2000 soap as it started around the time their product came out and we tried the soap (my husband still uses it). Their commercials were always going on about being good for all your 500 parts....I felt like writing them and telling them it wasn't good for my parts!! However, I may have blamed them unfairly, or maybe their products isn't gluten free??? Don't know, but it seems to get bad again when eating gluten no matter what soap)

5. Dry, itchy scalp is cleared up. Used to get dry and flaky right around the hairline.

6. Foggy brain and need for 10 hours of sleep a day is gone. I have much more energy and am able to think clearer. I am sleeping about 7 - 7.5 hours /night now.

7. Moodswings have evened out. I've always been the moody one in my family. Even growing up I was always a little on the tempermental side. I used to get really bad mood swings when my blood sugar would drop and once I ate I was fine (I am assuming it was a blood sugar drop). It was even a joke a work....don't talk to me when I'm hungry!! I don't get those same swings and symptoms.

8. Fingernails are not peeling and cracking. My nails would peel up from the nail bed towards the end of the nail, and split. The were also rough with lots of vertical ridges. They are becoming smooth. I also would get really bad cracks in the skin at the corner of my nails. Those are gone!!

9. Dry skin is cleared up. I would have dry itchy skin. I had eczema as a child, and would get really itchy patches of eczema or psoriasis as a teenager. I seem to have outgrown alot of the skin issues, except that I always had really dry, chapped skin, especially on my face and hands. My skin just seems more hydrated now, maybe the oils??

10. Finally, a huge reduction in the amount of burping and other gas that would exude from me.

So, based on all these symptoms clearing up, regardless of what happens with a formal diagnosis I am pretty sure at some point I will be gluten free for good. At this point I am still leaning towards going ahead with the biopsy if that is what the GI recommends. My concern is I don't know when it will be (potentially months) and the longer I am gluten free, the more healing and then a biopsy is pointless. The other option is to be faced with an indefinite period of time of eating gluten and seeing the return of these symptoms. Maybe I'll stuff my self with gluten and when the symptoms get too bad call the GI and insist they get on with things. Who knows...all I know is I'm enjoying today gluten free!!