Now What?

[Marlene]

Hey,

I am really discouraged. I have been doing so good but the last few days have had a lot of pain in the area under my ribs, and weird bathroom visits. Yesterday afternoon after work I went grocery shopping when suddenly I got this pain across my upper abdomen, followed by cramping, gas and a strong urge to go to the bathroom. I just kept walking kind of slowly, hoping things would pass. They did calm down to the point where I could finish my grocery shopping (forgot to get half of what I needed because I was so pre-occupied with how lousy I felt), got home and headed for the bathroom. It was not D but I did pass a lot of stool. This morning at work the same thing happened again. I don't think it has to do with the last thing I ate because yesterday it was just a handful of gluten/casein free pretzels and this morning I had a gluten/casein free English muffin with apple butter (also gluten and dairy free). Sometimes I think all this started 3 days ago when I ate some chili/stew (homemade) for lunch -- even though I checked and all ingredients were gluten free. About 2 hours later I started to get a lot of pain under my ribs and this continued all evening. The pain is very much related to bowel movements. I should also mention that I had my gall bladder removed this past May a few weeks before I figured out it was gluten intolerance. Not having a gall bladder has really complicated things for me and sometimes I wonder if the fact that bile is now constantly running into my small intestine rather than being stored in my gall bladder could be an irritating factor. I have been gluten free for about 3 1/2 months. I should also tell you that I have been eating more processed gluten/casein free food in the last few weeks since I just haven't had time to prepare my own. (Hoping to quit my job soon so I can deal with all this but that's for another thread).

Any help or suggestions I could get would be greatly appreciated!

Marlene

[LKelly8]

Not having a gall bladder has really complicated things for me and sometimes I wonder if the fact that bile is now constantly running into my small intestine rather than being stored in my gall bladder could be an irritating factor. Marlene

The short answer is yes. Here's a link for you Open Original Shared Link Sometimes internal scarring from the surgery can cause problems also.

Or it was the stew afterall. Or hidden gluten somewhere else in your diet?

I hope you feel better soon whatever the troublemaker!

[daffadilly]

I cannot eat any of theose gluten-free pretzels etc.

[plantime]

A couple of questions: Were your gluten-free pretzels made with soy? Did you have beans of any kind in your chili?

The pain your are describing sounds a lot like mine. It started after my gallbladder was removed. When I have that pain under the lower part of my ribs, I know that I have 5 minutes to find a toilet, then I am pooping no matter where I am. If you ate soy pretzels or beans in your chili, well, beans beans the magical fruit, the more you eat, the more you toot! Beans make me poop, so I am sure they do that to someone else, as well!

LKelly, thanks for the link. I'm going to go read there now.

[Marlene]

Thanks for the replies. I went to see a Naturopathic Doctor on Saturday and asked her the same questions. She was great!! She really knows what she is talking about it and gave me a tons of hope. Anyway, she said all the problems I am having is because of a leaky gut/intestinal damage. So, it doesn't necessarily mean that I ate something that I am reacting to. Other factors such as stress can cause my symptoms to get worse again. I am under a lot of stress (who isn't, especially when we are always trying to figure out what is going on with our health??) She suggested I look at it from the standpoint that my gut needs to heal and until it does, I will have bad days. It takes a lot of pressure off me in terms of always trying to figure out if it's something I have eaten -- especially since I can eat the same thing on 2 different occasions, one time I will get sick and the other time I won't. So as long as I am eating gluten/casein free, if I have a bad day I will chock it up to not being completely healed yet. BTW, I have been eating beans for ages and have never had a problem with them before.

Thanks again,

Marlene