Virus Or Glutened?

[anerissara]

Ooooo, this is annoying! My son (now 10) and I are sick, and I can't figure out why! I have been having symptoms for nearly 2 weeks now, with cramping and D and just feeling wiped out and tired. Then, my son started getting tummy aches after eating dairy last week, and by Friday he was having terrible cramps and D, too! Today both of us are better than we were yesterday, but I can't figure out what this is. He and I are the only ones in the family who get sick with gluten, and nobody else has had any sign of illness...usually by now *somebody* else would be sick if it were a virus, right? But it's just my son and I. However, we've been really careful about gluten and I *can't* figure out where on earth gluten would be coming from!!! We did eat a Wendy's, but I printed off a gluten-free menu and took it with me so I am confident that at least we didn't *order* any gluten (whether or not any gluten ended up in the food accidentally is another matter, I guess).

This is so frustrating! If it's a gluten reaction, this is by far the worst I've ever seen my son react. Normally he gets some gas, has behavioral changes, maybe some heartburn and maybe an extra trip to the bathroom. This time around, he's having D 7x per day and bad cramps! Poor little guy. The cheese thing is worrisome, too...he's never had a problem with that, and even when he's been glutened before he seems to tolerate dairy OK. I get lactose intolerant when I'm glutened, so maybe that's what's up with him, too?

Has anyone had a virus that did this? *Just* D and cramps, no fever or anything else? I'm going nuts trying to figure out what is going on. I guess if another family member gets it I'll know it was a virus, but in the meantime I'm wracking my brain trying to figure out what we could have gotten into that would cause a reaction this bad. I mean, I could understand it if he and I had shared a whole *Pizza* or something, but as far as I can tell there's just nothing we've eaten that should have caused this!

[CarlaB]

What did you have at Wendy's? It sounds like it must be a glutening since no one else got sick.

[anerissara]

We had a baked potato with cheese and bacon, he had a burger w/out the bun and a frosty (chocolate), and I had a chili with cheese. I guess maybe something could have gone wrong behind the scenes, like they dropped some bread crumbs on the food or something? I'm trying to remember what we both may have eaten besides that in the last week, and so far I'm coming up with nothing unusual....

[CarlaB]

The baked potato could have been cut by a contaminated knife. I don't know how they do the bacon or how close they keep it to the bread, but maybe the same person who touches the buns touched the bacon. I wouldn't get just a hamburger patty at a fast food place because of contamination issues, the patty itself is gluten-free, but it's awfully close to the bread. If they use the spatula to put the burgers on the buns, then they flip your son's burger, it's contaminated.

The only thing I eat at Wendy's is the chili, and if I could have sugar, the Frosty. I think the risk of contamination is high on everything else.

The gluten-free menus are a good idea, but really hard to put into practice at a fast food place. I only get the Wendy's chili, or the Chick-fil-a grilled chicken salad and waffle fries (verify it's a dedicated fryer).

Sorry you got sick. My guess is gluten. It's just too curious that no one else got sick. Often, as your off gluten for a longer period of time, the reactions get worse. It's similar to the smoker who gives up cigarettes ... one cigarette will bother them when a pack a day didn't before, though the pack a day was causing overall ill health.