What Are Your Symptoms After Being "glutened"?

[GFJen97]

Hi- first time posting here so hopefully I'm in the right place. After about 10 years of no answers and supposed acid reflux disease, I decided to take steps into my own hands and stop trying new A/R medications (if there are any more left to try) and began a gluten-free diet about 3 1/2 weeks ago. After a rough detox, I've been feeling amazing. I used to be bloated every day, had reflux, joint pain, fogginess, and a constant tiredness I liken to the first trimester of pregnancy- too exhausting to handle. All of these are gone. I don't even need coffee anymore! I haven't reintroduced gluten as my doctor and I agreed I'd stay gluten-free for a month and then we MIGHT reintroduce if I still have symptoms, which I don't.

 

But I may have accidentally been glutened. I went to a restaurant and even though they said the food had no flour in it, I realized about halfway through, my "corn-only" tortillas had powder all over the bottom ones, which look and felt like flour. Probably my fault and shouldn't have eaten since we had a language barrier. Figured I'd be fine but about 30 minutes later, I started to get so tired I had to lay down, my stomach was aching and spasming, and a few hours later my joints and head were aching, too. Two days later, I feel foggy, am having digestion issues, joints aching so badly, reflux, restless limbs, and so tired but have insomnia. Does this sound like your experience with being glutened? I definitely feel I have intolerance, but my friend seemed to think that the symptoms are too serious to just be intolerance so I must have just eaten something that doesn't agree with me. Can anyone share their experiences? Not looking for a diagnosis. Just looking for any hint to whether I'm crazy or not. Everyone seems to think I'm overreacting and its probably not the "gluten thing".

 

Thanks!

[GF Lover]

Hi GFJen and welcome to the forum.  Your symptoms are quite common for a glutening.  I get all those and more and it usually last for up to three weeks to fully recover.   Celiacs as well as Intolerant can both have severe reactions.

 

You are definitely not crazy.   Hope you feel better soon.

 

Colleen 

[notme]

that sounds like glutening to me, too - mine takes about 2 days to come up to full on headache, fatigue, joint pain, the big D, etc, and mine hangs around for 2 weeks.  gluten intolerance is so hard to diagnose    i hope you feel better - it's amazing what clears up when gluten is removed, isn't it?  i was really a non-believer when i started the diet, but quickly changed my tune!  after 3 years, i have noticed my hair is getting so thick.    yay!  i really never believed my hair would be anything but thin ever again, but the other day i was absent-mindedly thinking of how heavy my hair was lolz - what?! 

[GFJen97]

Great, thanks! We live in a small town and so even my doctor is not super familiar with intolerance. I call the doctor's office today and they said they aren't super familiar with it, so they can only speculate and said it could be a virus, too. Originally, I wanted a Celiac test but she said I would have to go back to eating gluten for a week first, and I don't think that's worth it. I know I feel better gluten-free, why would I make myself so sick again just for someone to confirm it? No thanks!