No Matter What I Eat, I Am Always Sick

[sillyakshell]

I have been on the gluten-free diet for over 6 months. I have been very careful because I am tired of being sick. I started taking cymbalta-and that has helped with the constant pain in the right side of my tummy.

I am going to cut back on dairy and see if that helps.

I also take protonix for acid, but it seems like it is not helping with the acid like it used to.

I am hoping someone has some ideas for me (cuz if I go back to the doc soon, I will have to don a ton of tests, i am sure)

I am so glad I found this forum. Since being dx'ed I have done alot of searching for help like this!

[Dyan]

My daughter was the same way. Then we realized that quaker rice cakes are cross contaminated. She's feeling a lot better now after cutting those out. You might be getting gluten from some place you didn't know has gluten, like a stamp or envelope.

I want my daughter to keep a food dairy so we can see if any patterns occur, like corn or tomatoes bother her but she won't do it. She's 12 and it is somehow to much trouble to write down your food and your pain level.

Good luck, I hope you figure out what's still bothering you.

[SEAliac]

I have been on the gluten-free diet for over 6 months. I have been very careful because I am tired of being sick. I started taking cymbalta-and that has helped with the constant pain in the right side of my tummy.

I am going to cut back on dairy and see if that helps.

I also take protonix for acid, but it seems like it is not helping with the acid like it used to.

I am hoping someone has some ideas for me (cuz if I go back to the doc soon, I will have to don a ton of tests, i am sure)

I am so glad I found this forum. Since being dx'ed I have done alot of searching for help like this!

Hi, there! I've been gluten-free for about 4 1/2 months, so I know how you feel. It seems like by now things would be a bit better. It's just so hard to tell how long it will take for your body to heal after the damage from the inflammation of celiac disease. My first follow-up with the doctor is in 10 days, so I'm hoping for a lower anti-TTG result showing that I'm successfully gluten-free, plus I'm hoping for advice on how long it will take my small intestine to heal. My biopsy showed near-total villous atrophy. I picture my gut now as having small and very fragile, brand-new villi growing. Of course, I have no way to know that is the case, but it makes me feel better to think that I'm healing.

I've found that if I also avoid lactose entirely (including anything that includes "whey" in the label), cook veggies thoroughly (not just by steaming), and eat smaller, low-fat, low-fiber meals, I'm OK. Just cutting back on dairy didn't help -- I had to go off it cold-turkey or the pain wouldn't go away. I don't know anything about protonix, but keep in mind that your medicines need to be gluten-free, too. Off and on for the last few months I've kept a food and symptom diary. If I even suspected something was causing trouble, I stopped eating it. I'm relying heavily on my gluten-free multivitamin to pick up the slack in my diet. I hope in the next few months to add back more variety and healthy veggies. I've tried V8 which is gluten-free, but it causes me the same trouble that any raw veggies give. It's still trial-and-error for me. I'm fairly certain that I haven't eaten gluten. I have had two very bad episodes after a restaurant meal, but I blame raw and steamed veggies for those and not gluten.

Good luck to you in tracking down the cause of your symptoms!

[ericjourney]

Sillyakshell--

Good work on keeping strictly gluten-free! It can be hard work, I know!

I agree with the others that a food diary is an important step. When you have symptoms, you might need to look back as far as 4-5 days to identify the food that's giving you trouble.

Yes, for many celiacs dairy continues to be a problem, so eliminating that would be a good first step.

Have you spoken with your doctor about adding a digestive enzyme supplement when you eat? Something like Enzymedica Digest Gold, 1-2 pills at the start of every meal. Many have had great success controlling GERD and acid reflux this way, and some even get better results than they did with prescription acid blockers.

[curlyfries]

I had to eliminate dairy. Hopefully it is only temporary....after I heal. I also had to eliminate sugar......including fruit. These seem to bring the GERD back. Some people also have to eliminate soy. The food diary is a good idea. That is how I discovered my problems.

[sillyakshell]

Sillyakshell--

Good work on keeping strictly gluten-free! It can be hard work, I know!

I agree with the others that a food diary is an important step. When you have symptoms, you might need to look back as far as 4-5 days to identify the food that's giving you trouble.

Yes, for many celiacs dairy continues to be a problem, so eliminating that would be a good first step.

Have you spoken with your doctor about adding a digestive enzyme supplement when you eat? Something like Enzymedica Digest Gold, 1-2 pills at the start of every meal. Many have had great success controlling GERD and acid reflux this way, and some even get better results than they did with prescription acid blockers.

Thank you so much for all of your advice. It sounds like I better start keeping a food journal and give up dairy. It jsut seems like that is all I can eat that is soothing (until after the fact that I eat it) I am to the point that I am going to eat small veggies and friut and give up the rest. I do take supplements from my place of employment...Young Living Essential Oils. Sometime the ones that we make for digestion even does not do good for me and they are gluten-free. I am going to try and start walking and riding my bike...it can't hurt.

I am so happy for this site, I love all the help and feed back.

Thanks....