Need Opinions--i'm Going Crazy!

[spunky]

I posted about this last week and I appreciate the responses. Back then, I was sick, after having been pretty normal and well for 2 whole months. Now I'm still not back to normal again yet. This is day number 8 of being all messed up. I had soup at someone's house, and they had assured me it was gluten free: it had canned veggies and gluten free veggie broth, I was told.

I'm thinking it HAD to be the soup, because everything else I've eaten has come out of my own gluten free kitchen. Then I got so desperate I ran to the store nearest the person who made the soup, started reading labels on the cans of everything she says she used. I found two suspects...the Del Monte Italian style zucchini...which I'd seen on the net says gluten free. On the can it had "Modified food starch," but didn't say from wheat. According to info I'd found on the net, if it's made in the U.S. it has to say it's from wheat if it is...so, I just don't know what to think.

The only other possibility was the veggie broth. It had hydrolyzed vegetable protein, which I found on the net as possibly coming from wheat. But then, I have a really hard time believing I could be as sick as I was/still am, but I think it's getting better now, JUST from a tiny amount of something that may have been derived from wheat.

I feel like I'm losing my mind trying to figure out why I am back to ground zero, after having slowly gotten my health back these past several months, and then being normal and good for two whole months in a row.

I just feel scared and confused! I was self-diagnosed in the first place, so I don't even really KNOW for a fact that gluten was my problem, but when I stopped the gluten, I finally was better and better after the first 3 or 4 months, and then feeling really normal and well at 6 months' into the gluten free trial. Now everything is all messed up and it's really making me upset. I can't find any good culprit that could've set me off!!!!

[Guest nini]

it's possible that all the ingredients were gluten-free, however, your friends kitchen is probably not gluten-free, right? and subject to cross contamination issues, especially if she used a wooden spoon to stir it with that may have been used in gluten containing foods... just a few weeks ago my mom made me gluten-free pancakes at her house, I watched her make them, I approved every ingredient, I even brought my own syrup, she used a clean pan, a clean spatula, clean bowl, etc... however, she had JUST finished making gluten containing pancakes and the DUST was in the air! Within twenty minutes I was in the bathroom with severe diarrhea, and it's taken me a while to get over it too...

I hope you feel better soon.

[spunky]

Thanks, Nini. I really would feel better if I could find the source of the gluten! I think I am feeling better this morning, though, so I hope it's wearing off.

[Guest nini]

Thanks, Nini. I really would feel better if I could find the source of the gluten! I think I am feeling better this morning, though, so I hope it's wearing off.

I know, but sometimes I don't ever figure out the source of the gluten

[gabby]

Sometimes you can't find the source of the gluten....you can only have very strong suspicions. It does sound like there was a cross contamination issue at your friend's house.

Possible culprits:

-using a can opener on the green beans that was used to open some gluten-containing food

-adding pre-mixed spice mixtures

-the cook eating a piece of bread while preparing the soup (possibly getting crumbs into the pot, or touching the spoon with her gluten-covered hands)

-placing utensils on a wooden cutting board where bread was just cut

-and about a million other little things.

Hope you are feeling better soon!

[spunky]

Sometimes you can't find the source of the gluten....you can only have very strong suspicions. It does sound like there was a cross contamination issue at your friend's house.

Possible culprits:

-using a can opener on the green beans that was used to open some gluten-containing food

-adding pre-mixed spice mixtures

-the cook eating a piece of bread while preparing the soup (possibly getting crumbs into the pot, or touching the spoon with her gluten-covered hands)

-placing utensils on a wooden cutting board where bread was just cut

-and about a million other little things.

Hope you are feeling better soon!

UH-OH...I never really thought about her can opener!!!! That would make perfect sense.

I'm sure the other things would be possibilites too, but it just started driving me crazy, making me feel out of control to not be able to pinpoint this error so I could try to avoid making the same mistake in the future.

Thanks for all the thoughts and encouragement. I'm still new at this and I was really feeling GREAT there for a couple of months, then this knocked me right back down.

I think it's gradually letting up now, felt better yesterday and even better today. I hope that's the end of it.

Thanks again for all the help and encouragement everyone here always provides.

I didn't mean to quote anyone...still don't know how to use some of the features of this type forum.

[Guest cassidy]

It usually takes me 3 weeks to feel 100% again and I haven't had an actual piece of gluten, all my glutening have been from cc for the last 6 months or so.

It is frustrating when you aren't sure what exactly caused it but who knows if she was slicing bread and putting ingredients into the soup pot at the same time. There are so many things it could have been.

It would be helpful if gluten had some sort of color, taste, texture or smell - something to let us know that it is in there. Getting sick by something that seems invisible is frustrating.

Hope you feel better.