Feeling Worse

[mangomagic]

So I've been gluten free now for a little over 3 weeks and I'm really sick, in fact I am worse than before. Every day I have nausea (generally in the morning), pain in my stomach area, and diarrhea. I also get these sharp pain behind my right eye every few days/ I've been really careful and mostly eating at home. The doctor did say that I also have reflux which is caused by a small valve or something but i'm been taking medication to help it. I also tried switching my stomach medication and that still didn't help. I don't understand how I'm worse, i've never been this sick before, before the symptons were every now and then not every day. I've tried paying attention to what I eat because I am eating more rice, corn and soy but it seemed to happen regardless of what I eat.

[horsegirl]

I'm sorry to hear you're not feeling well! Many of us have found, either through trial & error, or testing, that we cannot tolerate soy, dairy, or other foods. Try sticking with a very simple diet, with meats, veggies (cook them if raw aren't tolerated), fruits. Other people will probably have ideas too, but that's what helped me at first. I've had very similar symptoms lately, & some on here think it may be corn, or lectins, so unfortunately this journey sometimes seems never-ending!

Good luck, & keep coming here for support & advice. It helps.

[horsegirl]

Oh - and did you make sure the medications you're on are also gluten-free? That could be a source of hidden gluten you may not know about.

[AmyT]

I felt great at for the first couple of weeks too. Now it is much harder for me to string together a few good days in a row. My new issue is dairy products. Ugh, here I sit now, it a fog, feeling literally hungover. Had a great gluten free (home made) pizza with a small amount of cheese. And I can barely function right now. Feels like I have been glutened but now it is the dairy!!!

I hope I don't get more sensitive to other things too.

I would suggest cutting out dairy too. Good luck!

[T.H.]

I'd second what everyone else has said: it could be other foods.

Celiac folk are more likely to have other food issues, and be more sensitive to dyes and additives in our foods.

I was horribly ill after I went gluten free, too. Nausea, headaches, earaches, etc...

One thing that helped me was this:

1 - cut my diet to the bone. Fresh fruits and veggies and meats and a couple whole grains like rice, so I knew I wasn't having anything 'contaminated.'

2 - wrote down what I ate, and what i was feeling, at what times.

And that helped me figure out what was causing me problems, because suddenly, I was only getting sick every few days, and I could track it to specific foods.

One thing that might help, as well?

Most newly diagnosed celiacs are lactose intolerant, at least a little bit, until they heal up. So knocking dairy off your diet might help.

Some newly diagnosed celiacs start reacting to other grains that are related to wheat, like rice, corn, etc... (amaranth, quinoa, and buckwheat aren't closely related, by the way). So if there is a grain you eat everyday, you might want to space it out to see if that might be causing the problem.

Hope you feel better soon!

So I've been gluten free now for a little over 3 weeks and I'm really sick, in fact I am worse than before. Every day I have nausea (generally in the morning), pain in my stomach area, and diarrhea. I also get these sharp pain behind my right eye every few days/ I've been really careful and mostly eating at home. The doctor did say that I also have reflux which is caused by a small valve or something but i'm been taking medication to help it. I also tried switching my stomach medication and that still didn't help. I don't understand how I'm worse, i've never been this sick before, before the symptons were every now and then not every day. I've tried paying attention to what I eat because I am eating more rice, corn and soy but it seemed to happen regardless of what I eat.

[mangomagic]

Thanks for all of your suggestions!

I gave up dairy years ago because it was making me sick. I'm going to see my specialist tomorrow and will ask if I can be tested for other allergies.