Where Did It All Begin?

[sugarlust]

i think my gluten intolerance may have started after i had bacterial pnuemonia back in mid 2004 - after recovering from that i started having mild stomach probs, always thinking i had food poisoning or it was from drinking Bad alcohol (i used to make home brew spirits and they were pretty dogdy for a while! lol) Or thought it may have been from the high dose of antibiotics i had to take when i had pnuemonia. and then a few months later i would eat maccas for example and always be holding screams in and begging to stop at a gas station for the toilet on the way home etc and then it went from a few times a week to many times a day no food was safe had cold sweats, fevers, labour-like stomach cramps, nauesu, all the regular stuff and sometimes passing out b4 i went to the bathroom or a mixture and thinking : do i get a bucket, go to the toilet or lay down incase i pass out! lol at that stage i thought i had stomach ulcers and the doctors werent intestested in doing any tests, just told me to eat 'bland foods' and hope for the best!

i have Always had Huge sinus infections and asthma my whole life, i have had glandular fever twice (once when 14 and once again just last year!) doctors tell me u can only get it once tho showed up in blood work Strongly both times i had it tho? anyways i do think my 'celiac problems' (havent been diagnosed, bloodwork was negative, not doing any biopsys) all 'started' after i got pnuemonia, stressful time on the body not to mention the mind!

~gluten free since 25th april 2007!~

[heatherlm]

Hello Everyone,

I am also a newbie. I was diagnosed with Celiacs on 3-19-07.

I have also looked back over years of feeling bad most of the time, lots of stomach unrest, tired, grumpy, depressed, anxious and strange pains at odd places in my body. I ended up in the hospital in November, 2005 with severe diarrhea and dehydration. I remember the reason we didn't go to the hospital sooner was because my husband and I were used to stomach upset in me. I have been called a hypocondriac, I have been called someone who needs attention...etc. by so many of my loved ones. Anyway, I had salmonilla poisoning and was in the hospital for 6 days. I had a colonoscopy that found several benign polyps. The official diagnosis was colotis by food poisoning.

Since then I have been sicker than ever and just blamed it on the colotis. I've had so many drs tell me to just take better care of myself. I finally had enough and the family dr told me there was nothing else she could do (all she had done was give me prevacid) and basically made me feel like I was crazy. She told me to go to the emergency room, if I really felt as bad as I was making it sound. I did just that and they referred me to my life saver, the gastro dr that in one visit spent 45 mins truly listening to me. He ordered an ultrasound and endoscopy and low and behold two weeks later I had a diagnosis.

I do think I've always had celiacs disease, but the colitis really intensified the symptoms. My greatest source of guilt is that my little boy has stomach issues and I had him "checked" 3 years ago (not knowing about celiacs) and since they said everything was fine I just assumed he and I were the type of people who had stomach issues, and nothing could be done. I know better now and have had both children tested, awaiting results to the blood tests.

Thank you for letting me ramble and get things off my chest, I just feel so relieved that I have a reason for all of this. Maybe I'm not crazy after all! Then again, maybe I am.

[foxglove]

I had various vague symptoms until my last pregnancy brought on the major "D".

I have read articles that have shown a link between QUITTING smoking and onset of Celiac symptoms.

L.

That is interesting about the quitting smoking link. I would love to read more on that if you happen to remember where you saw those articles. I just got diagnosed and really want to quit smoking, but I'm not sure if I should wait a bit or not - I have enough to stress about right now without taking away my normal stress-reliever! But I also want to do everything I can so I can heal - especially since sometimes my pain is worse when I smoke. Are there any former smokers out there who know how quitting affected celiac symptoms? Or current who feel the link between smoking and symptoms?