Stomach Cramping

[Ash82]

I have been gluten free for a couple of months now, i have checked all my medications, called food companies, and been really careful about eating anything anywhere i go. for some reason after almost every time i eat, i get stomach cramps for the next couple hours. i just ate a popsicle and am having cramps now!!! this never happened before going gluten free. i know i am lactose intolerant so i stay away from it, so i know it cant be that. im not running to the bathroom like i use to and the chronic D has gone away for the most part. i just cant figure it out and sometimes the cramps are so severe, i dont wanna move. i am also always tired, which doesnt make sense because i get enough sleep, i take iron and a multivit, and the doc said my blood levels were normal. yesterday i sleep for 15 hours!! i just dont have a clue what is wrong with me, i am trying to do everything right, and i am feeling worse and worse (except i reall dont have D anymore, figure that one out). i go for my endoscope/colonoscopy in a week, but i am afraid they are going to find something bad. anybody have any ideas??????

ash

[whitball]

My immediate concern is that you have been gluten free prior to your endoscopy. You really need to have a true test result. Or did I misinterpret your information? Have you had blood work that indicated to you that you are possibly a celiac? You may need to look at the ingredients in your popsicle to see if it is truly gluten free. You may need to contact the company to get a sure answer. I was diagnosed in February 2006. I learned the hard way that you must eat very simply. Meat, veggies, fruit, dairy if possible. You must not add any other foods until your body has a chance to heal itself. I reacted to everything initially. I am just now beginning to add other food groups. I have found that Brown rice is still a problem for me and corn is just as bad. I had my 6month endoscopy on 7/31. Hopefully things are looking up. Good luck to you. Tara

[Ash82]

i had blood work done and it comfirmed celiac disease. The endoscopy/colonoscopy is to determine the extent of damage and or if there are polyps. the popsicle is gluten free, i already called the company. maybe your right, i am just trying to eat too much right now. its just odd because this cramping started about a week ago. i ate a plain turkey burger (gluten free) and fresh broccoli, cauly flower (sp), and potatos for lunch. i didnt put anything on them except for a tiny amount of butter. i had really bad cramps for about 4 hours after eating. its just very frustrating.

[Aerin328]

Ash,

I have experienced very similar symptoms. After being very sick for two months (bed-ridden for three weeks!) and then eventually cutting wheat out of my diet, I began to get the terrible cramps that lasted for a couple hours after eating. I went completely gluten-free on 7/6 and the cramps have mostly subsided since then to now. I think they were only really bad for 2 weeks, then subsided quickly on gluten-free diet. I was wondering myself if it is some sort of "healing" process - once the gluten is gone, maybe it has to hurt before it gets better? Also, I discovered one thing that helped me : Gas-Ex... seems to relieve at least some of the pain (maybe pain is caused by gas build-up). If not, I think it's just the poor intestines are inflamed and agitated as heck and they complain (via cramping) when they have to function during digestion.

So sorry to hear you're having those cramps! They're terrible, I understand! Hang on, it will pass. Have strength!

Christian

[jerseyangel]

I have been gluten free for a couple of months now, i have checked all my medications, called food companies, and been really careful about eating anything anywhere i go. for some reason after almost every time i eat, i get stomach cramps for the next couple hours. i just ate a popsicle and am having cramps now!!! this never happened before going gluten free. i know i am lactose intolerant so i stay away from it, so i know it cant be that. im not running to the bathroom like i use to and the chronic D has gone away for the most part. i just cant figure it out and sometimes the cramps are so severe, i dont wanna move. i am also always tired, which doesnt make sense because i get enough sleep, i take iron and a multivit, and the doc said my blood levels were normal. yesterday i sleep for 15 hours!! i just dont have a clue what is wrong with me, i am trying to do everything right, and i am feeling worse and worse (except i reall dont have D anymore, figure that one out). i go for my endoscope/colonoscopy in a week, but i am afraid they are going to find something bad. anybody have any ideas??????

ash

Hi Ash.

Two months is still a relatively short time. I'm a year gluten-free, and it took about 3-4 months for my cramping and fatigue to begin to subside. The intestines are healing, and I think that some of what you're feeling is due to that. The fact that your D has gone away is proof that you are healing. I would keep doing what you're doing! Just give it some more time

Good luck with the procedures next week--let us know how you do!

[Sarah8793]

I have been gluten free for a couple of months now, i have checked all my medications, called food companies, and been really careful about eating anything anywhere i go. for some reason after almost every time i eat, i get stomach cramps for the next couple hours. i just ate a popsicle and am having cramps now!!! this never happened before going gluten free. i know i am lactose intolerant so i stay away from it, so i know it cant be that. im not running to the bathroom like i use to and the chronic D has gone away for the most part. i just cant figure it out and sometimes the cramps are so severe, i dont wanna move. i am also always tired, which doesnt make sense because i get enough sleep, i take iron and a multivit, and the doc said my blood levels were normal. yesterday i sleep for 15 hours!! i just dont have a clue what is wrong with me, i am trying to do everything right, and i am feeling worse and worse (except i reall dont have D anymore, figure that one out). i go for my endoscope/colonoscopy in a week, but i am afraid they are going to find something bad. anybody have any ideas??????

ash

You mentioned that you are lactose intolerant. For me, I was lactose intolerant for years and then became casein (milk protein) intolerant before figuring out that gluten was a problem. I was still eating dairy in small amounts thinking I was only lactose intolerant. I was taking the lactase enzyme each time I ate any dairy but I would get awful stomach pain. Upon food journalling I discovered to my surprise that dairy was once again the problem. Only now, (because of casein) I couldn't have ANY amount of dairy. That includes butter. I don't know if your butter has any dairy in it, but you might consider this. Also, was your popsicle fruit juice only? Could it have had any dairy in it? Good luck with your appt. It does sound as though your body is on the healing track. You just have to start fine tuning what you eat and looking for other foods that are problems.

Sarah

[Ash82]

Thanks for the replies, it makes me feel a little better that other people have the same kinds of symptoms. Im going to start keeping a very close eye on what i eat and what causes cramps. I hope its not the casien thing, i love dairy. i will look into that more too. thanks again everyone.

Ash

[cjjolly]

Hi:

I have been gluten-free for about 11 months and I too have experienced the fatigue, more so after I stopped eating gluten than before. Working with my chiropractor/nutritionist I found that when I eliminated gluten I eliminated all my sources for B vitamins. B Vitamins give us energy! So I added some B vitamin supplements and the fatigue disappeared. I hope it can work for you and good luck.

I have long periods where I don't experience any bouts with D and then all of a sudden it hits me one day. This is baffling to me. Does anyone know if this will subside over time? I have been very careful and only got gluten'd twice in the past 11 months--once when an unscrupulous chef added pancake batter to the omelettes at the Cheesecake Factory and once when I was careless and ate the guacomole that came with the meal at El Pollo Loco--it was packaged and I should have known better. I guess I need to get better at food journaling (I don't do it) to figure out if I am sensitive to anything other than gluten.

cj