Could This Be Gluten/wheat Related?

[Wanda-E]

I'm new here and would love some advice from people who know more about celiac disease and gluten/wheat sensitivities.

A few weeks ago I was dealing with an earache that just wouldn't go away. I also had really bad depression, was tired all the time and had night sweats/chills.

My husband suddenly asked me whether it might be the new cereal I had started to eat, since it was all happening at the same time.

This cereal has a lot of wheat and bran in it, so I started googling about wheat sensitivity.

The symptoms seemed to match (including the food cravings), so I decided to stop eating wheat/gluten for a while.

All the symptoms (including the earache) went away in about two weeks.

However, I've always been a major gluten eater. It just doesn't make sense to me that this could be related.

So I slowly started eating some gluten again and Friday decided to even eat seitan. Seitan is basically made from pure wheat gluten.

That evening I got a really bad headache. I didn't think it was related, because we'd had a very busy evening.

At 3 in the morning though, I woke up covered with sweat, had chills and a really bad stomach ache (including stomach acid). That stomach ache + headache stayed for several days. Today, a week later, is finally an okay day again. (I'd gone of gluten again the very next day).

It seems to all match, but still doesn't really make sense to me.

Why would this cereal suddenly trigger it, when I eat seiten (pure wheat gluten) all the time? Shouldn't that have triggered it?

And if the cereal triggered it, can it just go away again? I keep reading about staying of gluten for the rest of your life. Can it really not go away as fast as it came?

This is all very new to me.

I've been reading online a lot and just found a post on this forum that links celiac with gallbladder problems.

I had my gallbladder removed about 9 years ago.

Do my symptoms sound like a wheat/gluten sensitivity? Could it even be celiac disease?

Is the next step getting tested? I read that for most tests you have to be on gluten, so they can pick up on the antibodies. I'm really not looking forward to putting gluten back in my body right now.

After a week of so much pain, I can't take that anymore.

Any advice? Any tips? Any ideas?

I would love to hear from some people who have experience with all of this.

[SLB5757]

I do not have much information for you because I myself am a "newbie" but I at least wanted to respond to you so you didn't feel like no one here cared.

I think that what you are describing could be multiple things. It could be Celiac, Gluten Sensitivity, a Wheat allergy, or just purely coincidental. It could be an allery or reaction to something else that was in your diet or a soap or other pollutant. It's just so hard to tell these days. I would suggest that you take this information to your GP and ask that e order a Celiac Panel just to be safe (if you have insurance). It would at a minimum give you peace of mind. There is a post or link on the home page of Celiac.com that specifically tells you what the doc should order. I had allergy testing done and it took all of about 20 minutes for them to deduce I had a wheat allergy. I had symptoms similar to you when I ate wheat as far as the hot flushing/sweaty episodes. as far at the Celiac Panel mine included:

Total IGE

Giladin IGA and IGG

TTG's

Anti-reticulin

and Endomysial antibodies

(again look for the post as I am sure I have missed a few words/terms here or there)

Good luck to you!!

[Wanda-E]

Thanks so much for answering! It does all feel very confusing and lonely.

Especially since I have to switch doctors now. I was never too happy with my doctor, but it didn't matter much, because I've always been healthy and hardly needed her.

Now I really feel I need a good doctor, I have to put some time into finding a good one.

I'm seeing someone next Wednesday. She was recommended by a friend and I hope she's good.

I'll ask about the Celiac Panel.

But don't I have to be eating gluten for this test to work?

[ravenwoodglass]

Thanks so much for answering! It does all feel very confusing and lonely.

Especially since I have to switch doctors now. I was never too happy with my doctor, but it didn't matter much, because I've always been healthy and hardly needed her.

Now I really feel I need a good doctor, I have to put some time into finding a good one.

I'm seeing someone next Wednesday. She was recommended by a friend and I hope she's good.

I'll ask about the Celiac Panel.

But don't I have to be eating gluten for this test to work?

Welcom to the board, read as much here as you can as there is alot of info to be found.

Yes you do need to keep eating gluten until all testing is done. What you experienced does sound like it could have been a gluten reaction. If it happens again when you add gluten back in again so you can be tested that is also an indication that you shouldn't be eating it. What you did was a gluten challenge and that first may have turned out positive.

I hope things go well with the new doctor.

[Wanda-E]

Thanks for the advice. I'm eating gluten again. Am very scared though!

My head is hurting of course, but my stomach is still doing better than I expected (knock on wood).

I hope I'm not doing too much damage to my body.

We talked to my new doctor and she's going to do a celiac test on Wednesday.