Cc Issues And Thank You All For Being There

[alesusy]

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

[Adalaide]

I don't use hairspray or other hair products so wouldn't know a thing about them. I am quite in the habit of touching my hair throughout the day because it is long and I keep it down. I wouldn't want to get anything, gluten or otherwise that is in hairspray or other products into my mouth accidentally. 

 

As for pet food, I will say first that I am the most paranoid person I know as a disclaimer. I wouldn't dream of touching pet food while I was cooking for myself. Pets can get feed before I eat, or after, but feeding them while cooking just seems pointlessly risky. (Our cat is an outdoor cat, and for that reason alone I have not forced him to be switched to a gluten free food.) Some pet foods contain gluten, some don't, you can find out by contacting the manufacturer. Just call the number on the bag or can (each flavor if you use cans may be different) and ask. Now, I know we're all grown ups here and we all know how to wash our hands... but when you say you wash your hands when you handle pet food while cooking do you really wash your hands or do you just "wash" your hands? There is a huge difference between a good thorough scrub under running water, and a quicky washing that takes 3-5 seconds. On top of all this with the pet, if you have an indoor pet eating gluten pet food, this by itself can be a problem. They're eating gluten, licking themselves, and putting themselves all over the house. Think about that a minute. 

 

With meat it is a simple matter of buying fresh meat that is just meat. You'll find many of us don't buy out of the case because a lot of things in the case do have gluten and aren't well separated so CC can easily happen. The hamburgers that are just plain meat may be right next to the meatballs. I'll pass thanks. You can talk to your butcher about your CC worries. If you are purchasing simply fresh ground meat, it is likely he simply grinds it all at once then works with it and bread at another work station. He'll be able to confirm this for you and maybe set some aside for you first thing. I would suspect with preformed patties that rather than just being spit out of a machine and packaged, it has to be worked with and is possibly done in the same space as the gluteny things as you suspect. Only the butcher can confirm this for you. It isn't a big deal to form your own patties, I use creme brulee dishes to make mine. 

 

Yes, it can be difficult to deal with the anxiety. Especially when it is happening. The aura migraine you are describing sounds like an ocular migraine. The only real symptom is visual disturbance with no pain. I don't have that myself exactly, but am very familiar with it. I get all sorts of anxiety, psychological and neurological issues on top of my GI and other fun stuff with my CC. Each person is different and will react different, and each person can even react differently different times.

 

My husband has been very supportive but other close family not so much. They just don't get it. I live with my MIL and I constantly get "but my hands are/were clean" from her even after 1 1/2 years. She just doesn't understand that clean and gluten free aren't the same thing. She makes me batty I swear, but all I can do is what I have to to stay healthy no matter how batty she makes me or thinks I am.

[dani nero]

Being glutened definitely messes with my head and my temperment, so I do understand where you're coming from, but I have to say that gluten was not the only culprit responsible for my psychological problems. 80% of my anxiety went away when I cut sugar and caffaine. Have you tried that?

[GottaSki]

On the pet food issue....during one of my brain fogginess eras my cat was drinking out of my water glass..she loves to play in any standing water...as in dip her paw that she also used to play with her then gluten filled food....I was so brain dead I didn't even notice her doing this....when I did I felt pretty darn stoopid...your pets can eat gluten...but not if they are spreading that gluten to you. If you cuddle with them...might want to switch their food.

[alesusy]

Too much sugar (cakes, muffins etc) is bad for me and I can only take limited quantities of caffeine. Thanks, dani nero. It's important. However the level of anxiety I have had these last few days was a MAJOR thing...

[Adalaide]

On the pet food issue....during one of my brain fogginess eras my cat was drinking out of my water glass..she loves to play in any standing water...as in dip her paw that she also used to play with her then gluten filled food....I was so brain dead I didn't even notice her doing this....when I did I felt pretty darn stoopid...your pets can eat gluten...but not if they are spreading that gluten to you. If you cuddle with them...might want to switch their food.

 

This is pretty funny. Not that you got glutened but that your cat was such an evil genius. 

[anti-soprano]

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

 Hi Alessandra,

I just read your other post on "gluten-light" as well.  Since you're certain that this is CC, I wanted to share some of my CC mishaps with you.  I'm not much further along than you are, so please forgive me if you've already heard all of it.  Cooking surfaces like grill grates have gotten me, even though the gluten items that were on the grates were there over a year before my food was cooked on them.  This got me twice- thank God I figured it out the second time.  There was also a period of 3-4 weeks when I had a cold and then several of my students were also sick (I teach voice at a university- so this type of thing is horrible for us).  I was using hand sanitizer on the door handle, the piano, and slathering it on before I ate even if my hands were clean (I had to touch the door handle to get back into my office...).  Stupid stuff had wheat amino acids in it (Bath and Body Works).  I never even thought of checking it because it's HAND SANITIZER- ugh.  Some days I would just feel fatigued, but others days there were full on gluten symptoms.  Do you work in an office?  Do you lick envelops?  Don't- some adhesives contain gluten.  

 

If you're being careful about your food, it may be something else you're putting in your mouth and not even thinking about it.  I went with a girl friend to have our makeup done for free once.  I was doing a normal thing and didn't even think about the lipstick she put on me until after it was done.  I caught it and it was fine, but little things like that escape our conscious mind.  My advice to you is to question everything you put in and around your mouth.  It looks like you've already figured out some things and I'm sure you'll figure them all out in time. If the hair spray is aerosol maybe you are even getting some in your mouth from the air. ???

 

Of course, the possibility of new and different food intolerances or allergies always seems to be looming out in the distance somewhere.  I've recently considered this for myself, although the past month has been clouded by other medical issues.  I'm waiting for those to completely subside before I dive into that seemingly bottomless pit. : )

 

Also- BTW- anxiety is one of my strongest symptoms when glutened.  If you're constantly walking around with some amount of gluten in you, it's easy to think that you're losing your mind.  Don't worry- you're not alone and you're NOT crazy.

 

Best of Luck!

[GottaSki]

This is pretty funny. Not that you got glutened but that your cat was such an evil genius. 

 

Shelby is indeed a genius that simply chooses not to communicate with the spoken word

[cyclinglady]

I'll just respond to the pet food.   Both my dog and (my old kitty!) were/are on grain free food.  My lab is very healthy for her age.  I tried several brands but now purchase grain free at Costco.  One less thing to worry about!  

[dani nero]

Too much sugar (cakes, muffins etc) is bad for me and I can only take limited quantities of caffeine. Thanks, dani nero. It's important. However the level of anxiety I have had these last few days was a MAJOR thing...

 

There are som who suffer from anxiety for weeks after even a single minor cc :-( Sorry to hear that you're suffering. Hang in there.

[dilettantesteph]

I have found contamination to be a real issue.  I have to go to crazy extremes to avoid it, but when I do all is well.  I go from a crazy person who can barely see and hardly walk but still has to constantly run to the bathroom, and often doesn't make it in time, to a highly functioning normal person.

[alesusy]

thank you all. I feel much better today. My gut is almost normal, but I have to wonder once more at the incredible things that gluten does. I mean: intestinal problems, ok. Dizziness, come with the digestive intoxication. But anxiety? How does THAT work? And the vision loss? That is really, really weird... especially when you get your vision back and wonder what the hell happened.

[cyclinglady]

thank you all. I feel much better today. My gut is almost normal, but I have to wonder once more at the incredible things that gluten does. I mean: intestinal problems, ok. Dizziness, come with the digestive intoxication. But anxiety? How does THAT work? And the vision loss? That is really, really weird... especially when you get your vision back and wonder what the hell happened.

Have issues with anxiety is weird, but it was happening to me.  I just though it was the old perimenopause thing, but it wasn't.  The anxiety has gone away along with the intestinal problems since being gluten-free for  2 months.  Now just working on the anemia and hypothyroid (not absorbing iron and thyroid meds).