You Can't Hurry It.

[bartfull]

Lately I have seen a lot of posts from newbies looking for a way to go quickly. Some want to get past the withdrawal phase, some want to eliminate other foods that they may potentially have intolerances to, even though at first we can get sick from eating just about anything. Some are impatient and want to feel better immediately. Some want to start eating in restaurants right away even though the chance of CC is so much greater when we let others prepare our food. Some want to get back to feeling "normal" in a matter of days.  

 

It doesn't work that way. We need to eliminate gluten, wait for the withdrawal to pass, take probiotics and possibly digestive enzymes, and WAIT. After a while (perhaps three months or so), if we aren't feeling better, we need to do an elimination diet. Skin prick tests are not all that reliable and besides, they are for ALLERGIES, not intolerances. As far as I know, there ARE no tests for intolerances.

 

An elimination diet seems to take forever, but what else do we have if not time? And an elimination diet WILL eventually ferret out our other problem foods if we have them. If we try to take shortcuts all we are doing is prolonging the agony and increasing the confusion.

 

It took us a long time to get as sick as we were and it will take a long time to heal. But if we're patient and keep in mind that we are on the right track we can celebrate every little positive, and give ourselves the time we need to truly get better.

[Renegade]

Pretty much,

 

Oh yes I am guilty of this as well, from now I am just taking it one day at a time and taking probiotics,vitamins and adding things slowly to see what works and what doesn't while making sure I have very good food and lots of vegetable, I also started making sure what I take is not cross contaminated and stared calling companies.

[Adalaide]

Very good advice and reminding. Especially about not needlessly avoiding healthy foods that are not necessarily a problem. I personally think it is positively silly and possibly dangerous to start eliminating healthy foods from a diet without first giving your body time to begin to heal. This can lead to deficiencies that are completely unnecessary and could lead to additional symptoms that you didn't previously have. (This happened to me, although in my case the removal of certain foods from my diet was based on sound medical advice and must be strictly adhered to.) 

 

It can also take those first months to work out how to avoid CC in your own kitchen. Yes, I know you think you have a handle on avoiding CC and reading labels and no one is saying that anyone is doing anything wrong. Just... it takes time to adjust and hindsight is 20/20. Many of us thought we had a perfectly good handle on things in the beginning only to look back a year later and realize that if we went back to how we were doing things those first months we would be horridly sick again. Plus, even if you are doing everything 100% right, your body will take time to adjust. One day you'll be up, the next you may be down. You may bounce between being regular, some C and some D for absolutely no apparent reason. These things are normal and expected. 

 

I think more people should think about things in the context of what is actually going on with their bodies rather than setting unrealistic timelines. When considering the sheer amount of physical damage to your intestines, think about what it takes for your body to heal from serious injury. We aren't talking bumps, bruises and scrapes. We're talking major trauma. And the damage is rarely limited just to the intestines for those who had to fight for a diagnosis. The damage has spread to many other parts of the body, and only time will allow us to heal.

[Gemini]

Good post, Bartie!  Very, very true and I couldn't have said it better. There is no fast track to wellness with this disease so you have to go about your regular life as best you can and deal with it.  At some point, down the road, you will realize that things are getting much, much better. 

[notme]

good point, barty  i like this thread - 

 

in the beginning, *everything* is going to be new - lolz i probably would cringe reading some of my first posts!  i really see it as more of a "congratulations, you've got (celiac, ngci) so just eat gluten-free!  viola!  you're cured - see ya!" doctors' failure to be educated/educate their patients with gluten problems.  

 

when i first explained to my husband about cc, i thought he was going to have me committed

[notme]

lolz, gem, great minds!  

[Adalaide]

when i first explained to my husband about cc, i thought he was going to have me committed

 

There could still be plenty of reasons to do so. 

[Gemini]

 

when i first explained to my husband about cc, i thought he was going to have me committed

 

I still get that look when I try to go into too much detail with anyone about this diet and how to stay well. Get the white coat, people...and the large net! 

[GottaSki]

I still get that look when I try to go into too much detail with anyone about this diet and how to stay well. Get the white coat, people...and the large net! 

 

Part of what makes us such great advocates....by the time we have "the speech" down....we usually know more than 99.9% of the health care folks we encounter.  Very much hope to see the day when every MD is as familiar as us regarding the details of Celiac Disease and NCGS. 

 

Ever hopeful...but prepared to continue educating until that day comes.

[Adalaide]

I still get that look when I try to go into too much detail with anyone about this diet and how to stay well. Get the white coat, people...and the large net! 

 

I get that look too. I call it the self-hugging coat though. It sounds nicer. 

[Renegade]

Part of what makes us such great advocates....by the time we have "the speech" down....we usually know more than 99.9% of the health care folks we encounter.  Very much hope to see the day when every MD is as familiar as us regarding the details of Celiac Disease and NCGS. 

 

Ever hopeful...but prepared to continue educating until that day comes.

So true, I had a big wart that would impair my hand completely has it was incredibly painful and when I went to get a medical paper to prove that I couldnt use it (because in our medical field, you arent sick unless a doctor says so) she siad she coudlnt do it. I told her I was using apple cider vinegar to treat it and she look at me like i was retarded, asking me where I got my idea from, and I said the internet.

 

So i didnt liste to her advices where she wanted me to stop doing what i was doing and take an appointment to get it burned and it would take months, so 2 months later i came for something else and showed her how completley gone it was, and she was surprised, she didn't believe it would have work but it did.

[1desperateladysaved]

Yes, we do want to heal last week!  Who can blame us?

 

I do think there are ways to optimize healing which of coarse many of us would like to use.  This could just be avoiding junk foods to consuming more vegetables.  I also use sunshine, exercise, and supplements.  One can never know how much good they do perhaps.  I have stories though.

 

Sometimes I think I am a little strange, but who could blame me?

[dilettantesteph]

In hindsight, I wish that I had known about the possibility of super sensitivity being an issue.  I would have to liked to heal faster by having a diet heavy in fruit, vegetables and unprocessed meats.  I would have rather left processed foods and restaurants to try after healing.  I think that would have speeded things up.  Anyone could benefit from fewer junk foods, in my opinion.

[AlwaysLearning]

Big thanks to everyone who posts on this forum. It was a huge help to me, not just to point me in the right direction of gluten as a problem that doctors all missed, but also in helping me to avoid making mistakes in the beginning ... though the first few months were still an accidental glutening mine field. 

[nvsmom]

Good post. You know, one year in and I still want to feel better right now. LOL

I really is hard to be patient at first. Once you know what is wrong, I think most of us want to feel better fast, with any edge that will help. Most of us settle in for the long haul within a few weeks or months though.

[IrishHeart]

Ah yes,....the healing process. It’s the mother of all exercises in patience.

It is so damn slow sometimes and it is not always a straight line and we all (understandably) become frustrated and discouraged. Believe me, I get it. I’ve cried enough tears to float the Queen Mary. I was so sick that I thought death would be easier, but I refused to believe I could never get well.

I would ask my hubs every night the first year:  "it will be better tomorrow, right?" and every night he would say "yes babe".

and I would ask Gemini the same thing ...often!....and she would say "just hang in there, Irish". She was right.

I have been at this “healing” for 2 years and 9 months. Trying to reverse a lifetime of malabsorption and what it does to the bones, muscles, joints, brain, the other organs, even the spirit….well, it takes time.

This is what my doctor tells me: "Every year is a healing year". He speaks the truth. I am not the sick woman I was

just 3 years ago. I may actually be the healthiest I have ever been in my life (even if I still have pain issues)

Patience and time. Healing happens, I promise.

Great idea for a post, Barty!! xx