New Here, What Do You Think Of These Symptoms (Long)?

[Daniella007]

Hi! This is my first post here and I am trying to figure out what is going on with me. I am 30 years old and well I feel really off for the last 4 months or so. I think a list may be in order:

*really loud gurgly stomach after eating

*tingly hands (kind of like I have icy hot on my skin)

*nausea (no I'm not pregnant )

*weight gain (I am horrified by this. 20 pounds since September. WTH)

*bloated

*gassy

*irritable

*off and on depression

*anxiety

(the irritability and anxiety have been terrible. I have no patience. I feel like I don't know who I am anymore)

*very dry, flaky skin

*hair loss (more than normal--I would say it is comparable to postpartum hairloss that I have experienced in the past)

*always hungry even if I eat a large meal (ie: big plate of pasta and then an hour later I am hungry again, it is like I never even ate)

*eczema

*occasional diarrhea--a couple of acute instances of this where out of nowhere my midstomach cramped up and I didn't know if I was going to vomit or what. It turned out to be or what. And then I felt fine afterward.

*occasional constipation

*very smelly stools, foamy on a couple occasions, loose most of the time

*general malaise

*recurring yeast infections

*athlete's foot

*skin cracking--especially where my toes meet my feet and then my knuckles. It is like the crease will just open up and they are not even dry in those places.

*my eyelids seem irritated--like they are itchy right along my lash line, a little flaky sometimes.

*swelling of feet and hands

*dermatitis herpetiformis?

Ok so about these two. Since I was 20 I would get these little blisters all along the side of index and middle fingers on both hands. It seemed like it would flare up once a month, would take about 10 days to 2 weeks to clear up, and then would just start back up again a couple weeks later. At first my fingers would get itchy, and I would scratch them, then I would notice little blisters, and the more I would scratch them the more irritated they would get, but if I left them alone they felt like they were burning. They'd ended up with scabs on them and start healing after a few days. Occasionally I would get them on my knees or elbows. This went on for 10 years and then in the last few months I wouldn't get them as often on my fingers.

A few days before Christmas just last month I started to get the little blisters on my toes and this really surprised me. I got a couple on the last 2 toes on my right foot and a bunch on the last 2 toes on my left. I also had a crack in the crease of my little toe on my left foot that hurt like hell, and then to top it off the beginnings of a fungal infection in between those 2 toes (what a freaking mess! Ack!) We were doing some traveling for the holidays that week so we were constantly on the go meaning my shoes were constantly on my feet. On Christmas Day I discovered I was starting to get a patch of eczema on the top of my foot, another patch of eczema on my forearm, and more blisters down along my arch, and the blisters I already had were so itchy I couldn't sleep.

A few days later the blisters had spread to my other toes, and on New Year's Eve morning I woke up to all of my toes and most of my left foot swollen. Like so swollen it felt squishy and uncomfortable to walk (my foot was huge! It was nuts). So I hobbled my pathetic butt into the nearby clinic to have the doctor write me up with a case of dermatitis and a prescription for Prednisone, which did the trick after a few days. In about a week all of my blisters, the swelling, and the eczema (if that is even what it was). I have had a couple episodes of random swelling and tingling in my hands, the nausea and dull headaches are about the same.

So up until a couple days ago I did not have any blisters to speak of. During this time I saw an allergist who referred me to a dermatologist so I could have whatever that skin tissue biopsy is to screen for DH (sorry the actual name eludes me right now). But unfortunately when I went I did not have a blister to speak of for him to test, maybe the Prednisone had something to do with that. So he told me to call when I had a flare up. As of right now I have new little blisters popping up on my ankle, forearm, sacrum, hip, and hairline on my neck. And wouldn't you know, as I'm typing this my hands are tingling and hot

Sigh. So that is me in a nutshell. The irritability, swelling, weird tingly stuff, blisters, and headaches are pretty high on my list of annoyances right now. And the weight gain? OMG this is really disheartening...I have a pretty healthy diet and am an insanely busy homeschooling mom. I swear I never sit down, so I have no idea how I have gained this much weight in such a short amount of time. I might have a lobster allergy as well but I feel like that is the least of my problems. I am really worried that I'm going to go for the biopsy and blood test and they will come back negative. Then what?

Thanks for reading my novel, any feedback is greatly appreciated.

[AmyT]

Hi Daniella,

It really sounds like you have gluten sensitivity/celiac symptoms. I would get some blood work done just to be sure before you get off gluten. Then I would stop eating gluten ASAP. If you don't need a diagnosis, you won't need a biopsy.

I had many if not all of those symptoms as well. I have been off gluten for 3 weeks and I have never felt better!!

Check out some of the other forum topics about what blood tests to get, just to be sure; tTG, IGa, IGe and another one, I may be inaccurate on a couple of those. My tTG was a 3 which was negative test, but I am responding well to no gluten or dairy.

Good luck!