How Long To Heal?

[eleep]

Okay -- things have really been sinking in since I got my Enterolab results and I realize suddenly that I'm going to need to rebalance my life if I'm going to heal and get through this in one piece. I'm pretty sure I've got all the hidden gluten out of my life finally

I'm in graduate school and have some savings, so I've got a little time, but I need to be careful because I really should be hunting for a full-time job over the summer. I don't want to stretch myself too thin, however.

My primary symptoms before were neurological -- brain fog, anxiety -- these have significantly alleviated since going gluten-free, but I'm now realizing exactly how much fatigue I was simply ignoring in my life. I was running 3-4 days a week for 1/2 hour, doing yoga and some weights -- I've had to scale back a lot on that stuff because I had a week after being glutened where I lost a bunch of weight.

So -- my BM's are now pretty much normal -- when I haven't been glutened and when I've avoided lactose (I'm not casein-intolerant). I still deal with the fatigue on and off and I know I really need to gain some weight to make sure that I sustain the growth towards health.

I take a good multivitamin, a probiotic, fish oil and calcium -- I've also stocked up on Immodium and extra b-complex for times when I've been glutened.

How long should I expect that I need to be careful about not stretching myself too thin? How long does it take to really heal with symptoms like mine and the rate of healing I've already seen? Anyone know?

[celiaccecilia]

Hi there,

I was diagnosed July-Aug 2005. I have been doing the gluten-free diet since then, the first few months were difficult, I didn't see a lot of improvement, but slowly I have been doing much better. In the beginning I cut out a lot of foods to see what was causing my symptoms. I really ate mostly fruits and vegetables, 3 meals a day. I think at around 6 months was when I started to realize I was feeling better, but it really is different for everyone. I now have added some things back in my diet, like dairy, and it doesn't affect me like it used to. It just took time and patience for me. I do it one day at a time, and like everyone, some days are better than others.

Best of luck to you, hang in there.

[Terrilyn]

I was just diagnosed in March of this year so i am still doing trial and error. I hope to be feeling 100% in a couple of months. I expect it will take a while before all foods are out of my system and the little villi can build back up. Good Luck

Terrilyn