New Member

[Dangerkitten]

Hi,

I'm new here and decided it's time to post. I've been lurking and reading for a few months now.

I have multiple forms of arthritis, fibromyalgia, multiple chemical sensitivity, severe fibroid issues which has had me anemic for the past couple of years (so I'm on perscription iron supplementation). I also have restless leg syndrome (take Carnitore for that and Ultram when it's bad). I have healing issues because of the autoimmune problems so I fear surgery greatly. Generally, I've been a pretty sick puppy for the past 25+ years.

A little over three months ago I read a book called "The Inflammation Syndrome" which led me to cut wheat out of my diet. Some searching on the net brought me to this site and I decided to go gluten free just to see if it helped. Realizing that I've had explosive diarreah for most of my life, with rashes on my hands since childhood I decided to bring up gluten intollerance to my rheumatologist. She had such a look of shock on her face and said, "Why haven't we tested you for this?" Unfortunately, before I was tested, I cut out all gluten 2 months before, which seems to have skewed some of the celiac panel. But one of the test showed I had quite a bit of gluten antibodies still circulating my system. She concluded that I should remain on the diet and further testing was unneccesary.

One month after starting the diet, most of my pain went away. My RLS disapeared. The horrible intestinal cramping and explosions ceased ...gone! Now that it's been a full 3 months without any pain I started to feel pretty confident that I could keep this thing controlled. Well.....Until I had dinner at my sister-in-laws on Easter. Sigh....I don't know what had gluten in it. I tried so hard to be vigilant; without success. I got home and steadilly declined. The explosive "D" returned for hours. The next day I slept 16hours and had to take Ultram every 5 hours just to control the pain. Used my heating pad on my legs just so I could stand it till I got unconscious. It's calming down again, but I swear, I'm not going to take any chances on food anymore. After 3 months of peace in my life, returning to gluten hell was very unwelcome.

I'm still in shock that all these years gluten was my problem. My general practitioner now thinks the arthritis is secondary to the celiac. I'm starting to wonder about that myself.

Anyway, thanks for this board. You helped me to figure things out and go ahead with the diet on a hunch.

[doordb]

[i too have just become a member. I have been sick for also 25+ years maybe even double that and just didn't know it. I have been gluten free since Nov 2004 or at least tried to be. I have now eaten something wrong twice and could not believe the reaction of what I thought used to be normal...

[KaitiUSA]

Welcome to the board both of you

This is a great place for support and to ask any questions

Look forward to talking with both of you

[Canadian Karen]

Hi and welcome to both of you!!

There are a bunch of really great people on this board who are always willing to answer any questions you might have. Our motto here is "No question is too stupid to ask....." We've all been there...

Glad you found us!

Karen