Please Help! Questions About Gluten Intolerance!

[elfkin]

I know that I have probably posted a bit of our situation before, but please give me some opinion on this as we are desperate! My son is confirmed celiac and is severely sensitive. Apparantly has skin problems with it as well. My daughter was having some symptoms that have improved off of gluten - although her blood test was negative. Tonight I am asking for advice with my husband. He is so sick. I am really getting worried. The brief history is this:

He was sickly as a child. Unexplained illness a lot. As a teenager, he was told he had food allergies, although it was never properly followed through on. Fast forward till now - he is in his mid 30's. He has been chronically sick for a couple of years now. Good weeks followed by bad ones. We have spent a fortune. He has even had exploratory surgery. When our son was diagnosed with celiac, we thought it might be the answer for him. The Doc. said his blood work was negative. So we were confused. Since then, I finally convinced him to try gluten-free. His Doctor kept insisting that diet changes would not help. They said that he had viseral hypersensitivity (sp?). They have said that he had mild colitis and severe IBS. He has also had kidney stones, but the urologist insisted that his intestinal/stomach/whatever pain had nothing to do with his kidneys or stones. They have said he had a spastic colon, and through it all have insisted that diet changes would do nothing. He went gluten-free for a few weeks and then we went on a weekend trip. He ate a pastry to "challenge" the gluten thing and within hours was sick as a dog in our hotel room. He was then (at long last) convinced that gluten affected him, despite the Doctors remarks to the contrary. He is now gluten-free, but he is STILL getting sick every few weeks . We are so frustrated! He also works at Chick-fil-A as a manager. He is in the back of the store while they bread all that chicken and says that the flour flies around in the air a lot. He is wondering if he is getting gluten constantly there? Even without eating it? Does anyone know if this is possible? His stomach hurts so much of the time. Does this sound like celiac to you?

The genes for our son had to come from somewhere. His Dad(my father-in-law) is sick a lot and has been diagnosed with mild colitis. His sister has severe Krohns and colitis. They are all sick a lot. He is in bed more and more with this. I am getting scared. He has been strict gluten-free for only a month or so. Is it too soon to tell for him? Can anyone help me?

[lovegrov]

I obviously can't say absolutely that your husband has celiac disease, although it sounds like a strong possibility. But if he's working in a Chick-fil-A with all that flour and gluten, he is without question getting contaminated. The flour is all over the place and on everything. It would be absolutely impossible to avoid. If he indeed has celiac disease, I'm afraid he needs to find another job.

richard

[tiredofdoctors]

I agree with Richard. It's hard not to ingest gluten when flour is flying all around you.

[tarnalberry]

I agree. Every surface he's in contact with at work has a fine coating of (to us) poison on it. It's not helping the situation. That's not to say there isn't something else going on, but this is an issue.

[elfkin]

Thanks so much for your input. I thought maybe he could be getting sicker from his job. They are closing for a three week re-model of the restaurant. I am hoping that maybe he could try something else, even on trial. It is a good job with an excellent company, but I don't want it to make him sick! I am so tired of worrying over all of this! Will he ever get well again? I hope so! It is terrible to see who he was a few years age compared to now! He is too young to be this sick all of the time. I am almost frantic over the whole thing. We are very close and have been best friends since our college days. I am a lucky person to truly love my spouse this much, but it is awful to watch him be sick. Our children are missing their Dad. He isn't as active as he used to be and can't seem to rough house with them anymore. It makes me sad. I wish we could find the problem and just fix it.

[jenvan]

I also agree with what's been said here. Also, one month gluten-free isn't long enough to see a difference in some individuals... However, I don't think we can consider him truly gluten-free b/c of the work environment. That is hard news I'm sure...switching jobs can be such a hassel, but if it means he becomes healthy as a result, then it is worth it. Has he ever thought about management elsewhere? Your husband has many signs of Celiac, gluten intolerance, so it is definitely a route worth pursuing. I can imagine it must be discouraging watching him sick most of the time... I hope you both are able to come up with a plan soon...

[zip2play]

Is he willing to have the blood test done? I agree, watching loved ones be sick is horrible! Comfort to you all!

Monica

[Janine]

Thanks so much for your input. I thought maybe he could be getting sicker from his job. They are closing for a three week re-model of the restaurant. I am hoping that maybe he could try something else, even on trial. It is a good job with an excellent company, but I don't want it to make him sick!

Hi- I had one suggestion. If you can find a doctor to agree that he has celiac or a wheat allergy or anything, you might be able to get him covered by workmans compensation or something. My husband hurt himself on a job and could no longer work in that field, so workmans comp paid for him to have retraining in another field. I am sure Chick-fil-a would have excellent coverage. Or maybe they would be willing to move him to another job in the company office?

Good luck!

Janine

[elfkin]

I had never thought of that. It is worth looking into. It is so nice to have someone else to give ideas and opinions. Thank you. We are going to have a major "conference" this weekend over our choices. I hope we can at least make a plan of sorts.

[CMCM]

In terms of being in a work environment where there is a lot of exposure to flour, I believe it was the book Dangerous Grains that mentioned the very high incidence of celiac in industries such as flour milling etc. where the workers were continually breathing a lot of flour dust. There was a definite connection.