I Need Your Experience And Help

[Guest hightop girl]

I am knew to this. I thought I was doing pretty well. I have been eating mostly protein smoothies and/or following the elimination diet. I eat the smoothies when I eat something that really disagrees with me because they allow my GI tract to calm back down. Then I flew out of town for a funeral. I was only gone 24 hours. Everything seemed fine Monday. On Tuesday I had gluten free (I am sure of that) cereal with strawberries and blueberries, and orange juice instead of milk, a salad with tomatos, bell pepper, carrots and turkey with my own gluten free dressing and gluten free BBQ sauce, a little potato salad and a dill pickle (the potato salad, dill pickle and turkey were catered) and a few rice crackers. Then at the airport before I flew home I had a southwest chicken salad. It had chicken, avacado, grated cheese, tomato, black olives and lettuce. I had a little salad dressing (tomato basil I think) and it had some tortilla chips with it, that I ate. Then on the drive home from the airport (I have about 1.5 hour drive and it was about 10:30) I stopped at Chix-Filet and got a small waffle fry and drink to keep me awake for the drive.

Ok... that is what I ate. About 2 hours after the salad at the airport my stomach started expanding and gurgling. I was pretty bad last night, then had the runs this morning. Now tonight my stomach still hurts, I can't even snap my jeans and I feel awful. Is this what having gluten feels like? I am so frustrated I can't even describe it. I am also retaining at least 10 gallons of water!

What do you more experienced celiac survivors think? What did I eat that is killing me, or am I just destined to be the everexpanding blueberry girl from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Will this ever get easier?

[Guest hightop girl]

I forgot to add that I feel totally run down today, and congested. This happened over Easter also, but I never figured out what I ate. Do people sometimes get those kind of allergy symptoms as well?

[misdiagnosed6yrs]

the potato salad, dill pickle and turkey were catered

I wouldn't trust anything catered unless you call ahead for a gluten-free meal and make sure they know about CC.

Where did you get this SW salad? Can you trust the place? And the tortilla chips? Were they 100% corn? I noticed you didn't say that. That's probably it right there.

I stopped at Chix-Filet and got a small waffle fry and drink to keep me awake for the drive.

This sounds scary. Are the fries gluten-free. do they have seasoning on them? Are they cooked in a fry only fryolater? Oh man, the CC that could happen there.

Let me ask, you say you eat smoothies and do an elimation diet? What are you eliminating cause the foods you had in that 24 period is not on an elimination diet. Fried foods, dressing, soda... I'm happy to pass along some advice I was given a few months back. Go see a nutritionist before trying an elimination diet. You have no idea how bad you can mess up your body. The sickness that you are feeling, I felt for narly 3 weeks for being careless.

Eating gets easier. The pain does not.

You just need to be more careful if you don't want to feel like this. Eat a ton of rice and bananas and drink lots of water.

I hope you feel better!

[mamaw]

Here could be a guess..... the shredded cheese! Some companies use flour to keep shredded,or cubed cheese from sticking together..... so you would have no clue what brand of cheese was put on the salad.

hth

mamaw

[megsylvan2]

I am knew to this. I thought I was doing pretty well. I have been eating mostly protein smoothies and/or following the elimination diet. I eat the smoothies when I eat something that really disagrees with me because they allow my GI tract to calm back down. Then I flew out of town for a funeral. I was only gone 24 hours. Everything seemed fine Monday. On Tuesday I had gluten free (I am sure of that) cereal with strawberries and blueberries, and orange juice instead of milk, a salad with tomatos, bell pepper, carrots and turkey with my own gluten free dressing and gluten free BBQ sauce, a little potato salad and a dill pickle (the potato salad, dill pickle and turkey were catered) and a few rice crackers. Then at the airport before I flew home I had a southwest chicken salad. It had chicken, avacado, grated cheese, tomato, black olives and lettuce. I had a little salad dressing (tomato basil I think) and it had some tortilla chips with it, that I ate. Then on the drive home from the airport (I have about 1.5 hour drive and it was about 10:30) I stopped at Chix-Filet and got a small waffle fry and drink to keep me awake for the drive.

Ok... that is what I ate. About 2 hours after the salad at the airport my stomach started expanding and gurgling. I was pretty bad last night, then had the runs this morning. Now tonight my stomach still hurts, I can't even snap my jeans and I feel awful. Is this what having gluten feels like? I am so frustrated I can't even describe it. I am also retaining at least 10 gallons of water!

What do you more experienced celiac survivors think? What did I eat that is killing me, or am I just destined to be the everexpanding blueberry girl from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Will this ever get easier?

For me the problems definitely would have come fromt he waffle fries at Chick-Fil-A. They cook them in common oil which probably also fried breaded things. I was initially happy because I thought I could eat french fries from fast food restaurants - made of potatoes, so should be ok, I reasoned. But they made me sick every time. I reasoned it was because they must cook breaded things in that oil.

I would also wonder about the salad dressings. Many premade restaurant salad dressings have gluten in the ingredients. It may also be that salads prepared out could have had croutons on them that were picked off.

Just a few things I can think of.

So sorry to hear you are not feeling well. I lived off of smoothies for quite some time until my insides healed.

Good luck to you!

Meg

EDIT: Also gotta watch the tortilla chips. I assume you mean corn type taco chips, not flour tortilla chips. Even the corn tortilla chips are frequently made with wheat flour. Gotta have the restaurant check the label.

[misdiagnosed6yrs]

I forgot to add that I feel totally run down today, and congested. This happened over Easter also, but I never figured out what I ate. Do people sometimes get those kind of allergy symptoms as well?

I get run down when I am glutened.

This is also the worst cold season in the history of.. well, life.

[megsylvan2]

Here could be a guess..... the shredded cheese! Some companies use flour to keep shredded,or cubed cheese from sticking together..... so you would have no clue what brand of cheese was put on the salad.

hth

mamaw

I had no idea! -- another thing to watch for now...

[Guest hightop girl]

wow for such a long winded post, I left out a lot.

1) The elimination diet- I followed it for about 3 weeks, no milk, no fried foods, no white potatoes, grain etc. I only started adding things in last week, but when I went to the funeral I kind of had trouble figuring out what to do.

2) It is my understanding that Chix-filet fries their fries in a separate fryer, but I could be wrong. But the pain started before that but after the SW salad.

3) THe SW salad was just from the airport bar. My sister had the same thing, and she wondered about the chips, too. They seemed a little different from normal corn tortilla chips. I would say that salad is at least part of the culprit after all of your replies.

So what do I do now. I am in pain and can't fit into my clothes... I guess I pack my lunch next time I am going to an airport.

[missy'smom]

Were the rice crackers a special gluten-free brand? Regular rice crackers are not necessarily safe. Many have soy sauce in the coating or in the seaweed and that usually contains wheat.

[kbtoyssni]

orange juice

a little potato salad and a dill pickle (the potato salad, dill pickle and turkey were catered)

rice crackers

southwest chicken salad.

tortilla chips

Chix-Filet

Here's what I think are suspect:

orange juice: unlikely - depends on brand

a little potato salad and a dill pickle (the potato salad, dill pickle and turkey were catered): catered is a giant red flag! Was this buffet style - if so you never know who dropped crumbs in a gluten-free dish or double dipped a spoon? Did you confirm with the caterer that the potato salad was gluten-free? And the turkey - it may not be depending on how it was prepared.

rice crackers: depends on brand - some do have CC problems

southwest chicken salad - potential for CC, was the chicken grilled on a grill with wheat products, did the chicken contain broth, was the salad made in the same bowl as previous salads, did the server pick the crutons off, did you talk to the server about safe preparation?

tortilla chips: depends on brand. Many restaurant chips are fried in the same oil as breaded products

Chix-Filet: potential for CC

In general, I think you need to be more diligent with checking each individual brand, asking your servers questions, and educating them about CC. I'd also recommend bringing some of your own food so you won't be stuck in places like airports with nothing safe to eat.

Feel better!

[roxie]

I was so sorry to hear that you are feeling so terrible! Maybe the symptoms will go away now that you are home and eating all of the foods that you definitely know are safe. Hang in there. Roxie

[Guest hightop girl]

Well... the pain is gone, but not the rest of the "fall out". I guess I can chalk it up to live and learn. We did check with the caterer about the potato salad and turkey, but it was buffet style, and I still hate for people to even notice I am eating something different. I think the best guess is the airport. There are too many variables in that salad... there weren't any other options, and the wait staff weren't the "brightest tools in the shed". I think next time I'll just bring my own in case. The symptoms started before the fries, but I am sure that made them worse. I never eat fried food, so my system probably hit major overload. The really annoying thing was that I was really doing much better, really trying to be diligent, even asking for gluten free menus... then whamo... I feel like I am back to square one. Thanks for all of your CSI work.

Any ideas how to speed up the recovery?

[aikiducky]

Don't worry, you're not back in square one. You might feel like it for a while (in the beginning it took me two-three weeks to get over a glutening) but the longer you stay on the diet, the stronger and healthier you get and that helps with recovery from the occasional glutening.

There really isn't much you can do to speed the process, eat things that you know you've been doing well with, drink enough, get enough rest, wear loose clothes . But it'll calm down eventually.

Pauliina

[ksymonds84]

Well... the pain is gone, but not the rest of the "fall out". I guess I can chalk it up to live and learn. We did check with the caterer about the potato salad and turkey, but it was buffet style, and I still hate for people to even notice I am eating something different. I think the best guess is the airport. There are too many variables in that salad... there weren't any other options, and the wait staff weren't the "brightest tools in the shed". I think next time I'll just bring my own in case. The symptoms started before the fries, but I am sure that made them worse. I never eat fried food, so my system probably hit major overload. The really annoying thing was that I was really doing much better, really trying to be diligent, even asking for gluten free menus... then whamo... I feel like I am back to square one. Thanks for all of your CSI work.

Any ideas how to speed up the recovery?

So sorry your going through this. I too learned the hard way that airport food is a big no no. This last time, I was prepared with my own gluten free stuff and did much better. Don't beat yourself up so much, we all make mistakes, especially in the beginning. I used to also not want to look different when eating out but after several miserable mishaps with cc I decided it wasn't worth my health. Either people don't notice or if they do I explain that I have severe food allergies and that usually takes care of it. Hope you get better soon!

[marclay]

Hello my name is Marclay Richardson and i have started a website about celiac that you can see in my profile. I think it will help everyone out with recipes for some great food, and letting everyone know were are not alone because there are many people who have this disease.

[mftnchn]

Ｙｏｕ＇ｖｅ　ｈａｄ　ｓｏｍｅ　ｇｏｏｄ　ａｄｖｉｃｅ　ｈｅｒｅ　ａｎｄ　ｔｈｅ　ｏｎｌｙ　ｔｈｉｎｇ　Ｉ　ｗｏｕｌｄ　ａｄｄ　ｉｓ　ｔｈａｔ　ａｎｏｔｈｅｒ　ｓｏｕｒｃｅ　ｏｆ　ｇｌｕｔｅｎ　ｉｓ　ｉｎ　ｔｈｅ　ｍａｒｉｎａｄｅ　ｏｒ　ｓｐｉｃｅｓ　ｕｓｅｄ　ｔｏ　ｃｏｏｋ　ｔｈｅ　ｍｅａｔ，　ｅｓｐｅｃｉａｌｌｙ　ｔｈｅ　ＳＷ　ｃｈｉｃｋｅｎ　ｃｏｍｅｓ　ｔｏ　ｍｉｎｄ．

Ｍｙ　ｇｕｅｓｓ　ｉｓ　ｔｈａｔ　ｙｏｕ　ｈａｄ　ｓｅｖｅｒａｌ　ｓｏｕｒｃｅｓ　ｏｆ　ｃｏｎｔａｍｉｎａｔｉｏｎ．　　Ｉｔ　ｉｓ　ｖｅｒｙ　ｈａｒｄ　ｔｏ　ｍａｋｅ　ｔｈｅ　ａｄｊｕｓｔｍｅｎｔ　ｆｏｒ　ｔｒａｖｅｌ　ａｎｄ　ｓｏｃｉａｌ　ｅｖｅｎｔｓ．　

Ｉdon't know anything to suggest about recovery other than wait it out, and go back to your smoothies and most easily digested food for awhile.

[Fiddle-Faddle]

Potato salad could also be an additional culprit: most deli-made mayo-based salads have bread crumbs in them to absorb the excess moisture from the mayo.

I would also suspect the chips, as others mentioned.