Diarrhea/gallbladder

[MKat]

I'm 40 yrs old who has IBS Diarrhea for about 25 years. I was somewhat controlling it by mostly avoiding MSG but still I usually had a rumbly tummy and bloating. A year ago I began having gall bladder symptoms (pressure around the mid section, a ball under my ribcage and pain in the upper back). I was tested for celiac which came back negative but I did have a low functioning gall bladder. After a year of suffering I had it removed in Jan. (note - I eat a low-fat healthy diet anyway, I didn't fit the normal criteria for gall bladder problems!) I haven't been able to get my diarrhea under control since then - I'll have good days and bad. For a while taking Caltrate D w/every meal worked, but only for about 2 weeks .

In March I began food combining (eat fruit alone, don't mix proteins and carbs) and just be default I stopped eating bread/pasta and dairy (who wants bread when you can't put peanut butter and jelly or meat and cheese on it!). I felt better the first day!!! I was amazed! I felt great for 1 month then slowly by diarrhea came back, kind of after eating barley. And I really haven't recovered since.

I then began to think maybe I do have gluten intolerance and began reading this website. I did find other postings that said they felt better for about a month then went downhill perhaps because they were becoming more sensitive to gluten (I hadn't gone gluten free,just stopped eating bread and pasta....although I didn't have much gluten because I try and make everything from scratch).

I have read a lot of people have not only celiac but dairy, egg, soy, nuts, etc allergies/sensitivites. If you have sensitivity to these things and not allergies do they show up on an allergy test or is it just process of elimination....I hate doing that!!!!

Also, I'd be interested to hear other stories from people who felt great at first then went downhill and how they recovered? The good news is that despite having diarrhea, my stomach feels pretty good and OH SO MUCH LESS BLOATED!!! I heard your blood test won't come back positive if you've been going gluten free anyway - is that true?

BTW, I also have thyroid disease and have been very anemic in the past....I found that to be an interesting to celiac!

Sorry to ramble!!

[GFinDC]

Hi MKat,

Welcome to our gluten-free world! Yes, the antibody blood test depend on the antibodies being present. After you stop eating gluten, the antibody production ramps down and the blood tests won't show them. So the usual plan is to keep eating gluten and get the blood drawn for the tests before going gluten-free.

I have thyroid nodules and a cyst myself. I also felt better pretty fast but then found myself getting more sensitive to gluten after a few weeks. That seems fairly usual to happen to people.

Some of us cut out dairy at first because of lactose intolerance, but not all have that problem. You might try it and see what happens though. If you have a damaged small intestine, your ability to absorb some vitamins may be impacted. That might explain the anemia thing.

Anyway, stick around and do some reading. There are lots of threads in the pre-diagnosis forum from new people looking for answers, and old threads with answers too.

[debmidge]

Gallbladder Info I have found to be helpful at these sites:

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

I have been though gallbladder problems and removal; still have digestive problems

from the removal (diarrhea) and I take the Questran (prescription) with occasional Immodium.

[Lisa16]

Hi MKAT!

Boy, does your story sound familiar! Not only was I diagnosed with IBS-D for over 23 years, but I also had my gallbladder out at 38. I know the pain you are talking about. I once spent four days lying on my left side on the floor by the bathroom.

My "IBS" got much worse and I had exceptionally bad wracking and incapacitating multiple bouts of D every day for over 2 years--it was as if it kicked the celiac into high gear. It was unloike anything I had experienced before. I tried everything from the hideous orange C-powder (Cholestramine?-- something close to this) that you make into a tang-like drink and is supposed to "capture the cholesterol" to fancy Italian probiotics. Nothing worked.

I became very desperate because whereas I had been "living with" the IBS-D (and telling myself it was out of my hands) this was no longer live-withable. Doctors couldn't help because they were blinded by the "IBS" label. It was a very dark period for me. My serum cholesterol was so low doctors were doing double and triple takes and kept asking me if I was on statins. Even though I would say no, they would scramblle through the file looking for them. I simply wasn't able to process any fats at all-- they were just passing through. Even this did not tip them off.

My body went into "Starvation Mode."

Then I got diagnosed with celiac disease. It got so bad my body started depositing anti-bodies in my skin. In my case, this seemed to be my body's desperate last-ditch way of saying "look here!" "pay attention to this!" The funny thing is I had had a positive blood test way before any of this happened, but a negative intestinal biopsy (so they let me go.)

Since going gluten free and eventually casein free, things have gotten much better. In fact, I have many normal days and no pain (unless I eat too much corn or soy, for example.)

So I guess in the absence of tests, the best thing I can tell you to do is go absolutely gluten-free and see what happens. Even one slip with barley can set you back over a week. And as you stick with it, you will be able to figure out what else bothers you. The typical culprits are dairy, corn and soy.

Oh-- for your future consideration, I cannot do MSG, sulfites/ sulfates and nitrates/ nitrites either. You might try sticking with non-processed foods as much as possible until you figure things out.

Welcome to the club and good luck!

[MKat]

Hi MKAT!

Boy, does your story sound familiar! Not only was I diagnosed with IBS-D for over 23 years, but I also had my gallbladder out at 38. I know the pain you are talking about. I once spent four days lying on my left side on the floor by the bathroom.

My "IBS" got much worse and I had exceptionally bad wracking and incapacitating multiple bouts of D every day for over 2 years--it was as if it kicked the celiac into high gear. It was unloike anything I had experienced before. I tried everything from the hideous orange C-powder (Cholestramine?-- something close to this) that you make into a tang-like drink and is supposed to "capture the cholesterol" to fancy Italian probiotics. Nothing worked.

I became very desperate because whereas I had been "living with" the IBS-D (and telling myself it was out of my hands) this was no longer live-withable. Doctors couldn't help because they were blinded by the "IBS" label. It was a very dark period for me. My serum cholesterol was so low doctors were doing double and triple takes and kept asking me if I was on statins. Even though I would say no, they would scramblle through the file looking for them. I simply wasn't able to process any fats at all-- they were just passing through. Even this did not tip them off.

My body went into "Starvation Mode."

Then I got diagnosed with celiac disease. It got so bad my body started depositing anti-bodies in my skin. In my case, this seemed to be my body's desperate last-ditch way of saying "look here!" "pay attention to this!" The funny thing is I had had a positive blood test way before any of this happened, but a negative intestinal biopsy (so they let me go.)

Since going gluten free and eventually casein free, things have gotten much better. In fact, I have many normal days and no pain (unless I eat too much corn or soy, for example.)

So I guess in the absence of tests, the best thing I can tell you to do is go absolutely gluten-free and see what happens. Even one slip with barley can set you back over a week. And as you stick with it, you will be able to figure out what else bothers you. The typical culprits are dairy, corn and soy.

Oh-- for your future consideration, I cannot do MSG, sulfites/ sulfates and nitrates/ nitrites either. You might try sticking with non-processed foods as much as possible until you figure things out.

Welcome to the club and good luck!

[Lisa16]

Hi MKAT!

I see that you tried to answer my post. The quote feature is a little tricky and takes some time to figure out. But if you just hit "reply" and type in the box and then hit "post", you should be okay. Right now, nobody can see what you wanted to say. Don't worry and don't give up-- this happens a lot around here.

I would add that, like you, I experienced an initial period of feeling much better. Most notably, the pain that had been waking me up in the middle of the night disappeared almost immediately.

Then I noticed that eating dairy wouold cause an almost celiac-like reaction. And certain other things (like sulfites, for ex.) started to become more obvious too. Once you eliminate gluten the other stuff is easier to figure out because gluten masks a lot of things.

If you have celiac, you went for a very long time without being diagnosed and you can expect that it will take a long time for you to heal. Some books (like the Peter Green book) say it can take up to five years. I am still healing myself (I am not yet two years out). And sometimes when it has been really bad people never recover 100%. But you will be infinitely better off than you were.

And the sad thing (the infuriating thing) is that if it is celiac, you may not have needed to lose the gallbladder at all. I think about this sometimes and it makes me mad because if they had known how to interpret the celiac panel (the telling test in my case was 68 units above normal) I might have been spared a lot of pain and suffering.

So MKAT, hang in there. Know that you are not alone and that you have come to the right place.

[MKat]

Hi MKAT!

I see that you tried to answer my post. The quote feature is a little tricky and takes some time to figure out. But if you just hit "reply" and type in the box and then hit "post", you should be okay. Right now, nobody can see what you wanted to say. Don't worry and don't give up-- this happens a lot around here.

I would add that, like you, I experienced an initial period of feeling much better. Most notably, the pain that had been waking me up in the middle of the night disappeared almost immediately.

Then I noticed that eating dairy wouold cause an almost celiac-like reaction. And certain other things (like sulfites, for ex.) started to become more obvious too. Once you eliminate gluten the other stuff is easier to figure out because gluten masks a lot of things.

If you have celiac, you went for a very long time without being diagnosed and you can expect that it will take a long time for you to heal. Some books (like the Peter Green book) say it can take up to five years. I am still healing myself (I am not yet two years out). And sometimes when it has been really bad people never recover 100%. But you will be infinitely better off than you were.

And the sad thing (the infuriating thing) is that if it is celiac, you may not have needed to lose the gallbladder at all. I think about this sometimes and it makes me mad because if they had known how to interpret the celiac panel (the telling test in my case was 68 units above normal) I might have been spared a lot of pain and suffering.

So MKAT, hang in there. Know that you are not alone and that you have come to the right place.

Thanks for sharing. And, yes, I did begin to think about how my gall bladder would have felt if I had done this before I had it removed. I'm so bummed I had it taken out! I was tested for Celiac about 6 months before I had it removed, but I thought since it was negative it meant just that....negative.

I have decided to start eating some gluten again (not that I was totally ever off) and have a celiac test done again (just in case having my gallbladder out would have changed something). I almost hope it's positive then at least I would have an answer. I will then go back on gluten free either way though because I felt so much better. I hate trial and error stuff