Celiac Always Gets Blamed?

[mopsiecat]

How many of you blame every ill feeling on your celiac disease?

When I was diagnosed with celiac disease I was warned not to blame all pains on the celiac.   I forgot about that, and some time ago I had these awful pains that I usually associate with having been exposed to gluten. I searched everywhere for the source and couldn't find it.  I kept feeling ill - my doctor sent me for another scope; that was clear no celiac damage. Well, it turned out I had gallstones and they were giving me pain in the same area that celiac pain comes.  Gallbladder was taken out and now I feel fine. In hindsight I had been suffering from these gallstones for several years off and on.

Lesson learned I hope!

[bartfull]

I think most of us think gluten first whenever we get sick. We KNOW gluten isn't the source of all our evils, but because we live with it every day, that's the first thing we think of. I know one time I got sick with what turned out to be the stomach bug that was going around, but before I realized what it was, I was wracking my brain trying to figure out what I had eaten that caused it.

 

I have also noticed that whenever one of my friends get sick, I think, "They must have celiac." The sad thing is, some of them probably do but don't realize it, and they wouldn't even consider it because they don't think they could give up gluten.

[CaliSparrow]

One time I thought I had ingested gluten when I actually had a stomach virus that was going around. I'm glad you got help. Used to be I worried myself over having anything and everything, my CNS has been so impacted and anxiety through the roof. Now I sum it all up to gluten. It's not easy to be objective when you're not well. Thanks for the heads up. This probably happens a lot.

[LauraTX]

I think having to live with celiac day to day definitely makes people blame things on it and possibly not seek medical attention for serious issues, particularly anything causing GI/abdominal problems.  If something totally out of the ordinary happens, even if you think it is from the celiac, you should still go get checked out just in case.

[Cara in Boston]

My son was sick off and on for MONTHS and we were going crazy trying to find the source of gluten in our house.  Finally, his GI did more blood tests and found them to be negative so we began to consider other causes.  Turns out he had Lyme from a tick bite almost a year before.  I happened to take a picture of the rash he got because it was odd.  Since it was gone before we got home from vacation, I didn't mention it to the doctor.  Luckily I still had the photo so that was our biggest clue to solving the mystery.

 

His symptoms were almost identical to gluten ingestion:  achey joints, fatigue, headaches, just not feeling well in general . . .