Did You Have A Trigger That Started Your Symptoms?

[maile]

this is a great thread! ( although only a celiac would say that!)

I've had symptoms all my life, I can recall various moments when ingesting gluten caused problems (bloating, C alternating with D, canker sores) but due to a mother with MS I'd been gluten light most of my life. My big trigger was 2008, I'd lost 30lbs going on an elimination diet and was doing well until the summer. That summer was the 3rd year in a row of working full time and studying 25 + hours per week this on top of a family life, I failed the second level of an exam and came back from a vacation to find our associate was sucking up to and flirting with our boss so she could get my job. the celiac symptoms started in earnest in April and by October 6 I was in the hospital with unspecified pain (Thanks to a Tim Hortons donut!)

Self diagnosed by mid November and went gluten free (rather clumsily), saw the doctor in late November and he did the blood test but of course it was negative as I'd had no intentional gluten in over 2 weeks at that point. Been mostly gluten free for the past 2 years but not getting better, thryoid tanked, anemic, hair loss, adrenals struggling. This November went back on a strict elimination diet and things have gotten better health wise but I am now super sensitive to gluten (how about 1 drop of water from a pot cooking gluten pasta into my food, set me back 2 weeks)...back to the doctor and now on a wait list to see a specialist to get the endoscopy. I originally did not want to do the endoscopy but these past 6 months my anemia has gotten worse, I take iron with a gluten free vitamin C pill for 6 weeks and my iron dropped but inflammation and ferritin were up, way up.

anyway, have hopes for this specialist, he's the one that explained to my GP that if I was even gluten light the serum test was useless so there is hope!

[nerdolicious]

Pregnancy was my trigger. In the fall of 2006 I learned I was pregnant, then rapidly started loosing weight. I lost close to 40 lbs in 3 months. Oddly, I was eating enough and not vomiting. Everything just seemed to go right through me. I lost the pregnancy (probably due to being malnourished) and never gained any of the weight back. From then on I noticed my stomach was never the same. I felt sick every time I ate and developed severe anxiety, but I just thought it was stress. In May and June of last year it got really bad and I would have to run to the bathroom every time I ate. I was eating 4,000 calories a day and still losing weight. I eventually went to the doctor after losing another 10 pounds and becoming severely underweight. He told me he suspected Celiac and sent me down to the lab. After getting my blood work done I had my last gluten meal (McDonald's bacon egg and cheese bicuit, mmm!) and went gluten free that day. That was June 30th, 2010. When I went back to the doctor to get my results I already knew what he would say because I had already responded wonderfully to my gluten free diet. I am happy to say that nearly 10 months in, I am feeling stronger every day and my anxiety has disappeared.

[Februaryrich]

My intolerance seems to be triggered by a mononucleosis (without sore throat) and a food poisoning. It took a year before I knew what was actually going on.

[shadowicewolf]

I had "ibs" since i was about 12. It got to the point where i would have to take pepto to go out and about (and sometimes this wouldn't work).

If that wasn't bad enough i used to have "going" issues, i'd have to go about every half hour to an hour. It was even worse when my so called "ibs" was kicked in with it.

I used to have headaches and nosebleeds from heck (daily, big wads of papertowl ones). I had this little problem "fixed" by a ENT doc... still happened afterward.

8 years later, went off gluten... and my heckish "ibs" stopped (i've had maybe 4 instances in the past 5 months! Much better than daily!). I don't have to go to the bathroom as often (its sooo nice ). Headaches are nearly gone and i haven't had a nosebleed in months!

[BizzyBee62]

Hi,

I have not been formally diagnosed with Celiac's but I have been on a gluten-free diet for the past 11 days and my whole life is different...in the most wonderful ways! I will never go back to eating gluten containing foods again.

The question you asked really got me to thinking about this, I have had symptoms my whole life, have always battled diarrhea, stomach issues, etc. but about 8 years ago I had an anaphylactic reaction to a medication I was taking and ended up in the ER, it took about three days for the acute symptoms to abate but for some reason I developed severe diarrhea after this episode...no doctor that I went to could tell me why, I even had a colonoscopy done to see if there were any abnormalities, aside from a few polyps, everything was normal. I have suffered for the past eight years with...at times...dibilitating symptoms, I lived on Immodium and limited my life to places that had good bathrooms...miserable way to live!! I don't know why this allergic reaction flipped the switch in my body, but it sure did! It's funny because I was diagnosed with Sjogren's Syndrome a couple of years ago and I flared with the symptoms after I had the H1N1 flu...maybe it is the immune response, I don't know but I really hope someday they are able to find the reason this happens, it will be interesting to finally know.

Have a wonderful day...

Jodi

[lucia]

I don't know if the original poster is still around, but this is interesting because I got really sick with what turned out to be gluten intolerance/celiac? after a trip to India. I came down suddenly with stomach cramps and nausea, painful neuropathy and excruciating PMS.

Interestingly, I had likewise come down with stomach cramps after a trip to India three years before. I even went to the ER (they found nothing). The cramps receded on their own after about a week and a half.

I had one trip to India in between these two trips in which I returned and had no GI distress.

However, backtracking I realized that I had had symptoms (at least neuropathy) as far back as five years before. The trips may have triggered more intense symptoms, but not the disease/condition itself.

India is a really harsh environment for someone with digestive issues, so I wonder if that's why the worst of my symptoms were triggered there? But Indian food also doesn't have much gluten, so I wonder too if it's possible my body was relieved by a gluten-light diet then subsequently triggered when I reintroduced a gluten-heavy diet? This second theory is supported by the first incidence since the trip was six weeks, which is a significant time to be eating a gluten-light diet.

I too worry about third world travel in the future. I have many in-laws in India. I'm not anywhere near being able to take a trip like that yet though.

[Twinklestars]

I had symptoms my whole life, but thought it was just normal. The big trigger that something was wrong was after my divorce to my first husband. The stress associated with that and working out child custody etc made me break out in what I believe was DH and a whole host of other stuff that has continued in varying degrees of severity for the last 6 years.

[pain*in*my*gut]

I had symptoms my whole life, but thought it was just normal. The big trigger that something was wrong was after my divorce to my first husband. The stress associated with that and working out child custody etc made me break out in what I believe was DH and a whole host of other stuff that has continued in varying degrees of severity for the last 6 years.

This is an interesting thread! I have had IBS my entire life, but my trigger was a bowel resection in 2007 for rectal endometriosis. This was immediately followed by a full blown yeast infection from my mouth to my other end (sorry, tmi)! I developed obstructions from scar tissue and had 3 surgeries after that to fix it, and it was downhill from there.

[Twinklestars]

This is an interesting thread! I have had IBS my entire life, but my trigger was a bowel resection in 2007 for rectal endometriosis. This was immediately followed by a full blown yeast infection from my mouth to my other end (sorry, tmi)! I developed obstructions from scar tissue and had 3 surgeries after that to fix it, and it was downhill from there.

It definitely sounds like something that causes stress to the body can make celiac symptoms surface. Whether it's emotional stress, stress caused by medications, stress caused by surgery, or an illness. Maybe at that point, especially if your body has been giving you 'signs' something is wrong your whole life, it just gets angry at you and says "Hello! Something is wrong!!! Fix me!".

[Harpgirl]

For me the trigger happened after my second pregnancy, but like others, I can look back at my "symptoms" and realize them for what they were, such as random come-and-go lactose intolerance. Within a year after my second c-section, I also had knee surgery, so I guess that did me in.

[Katrala]

What my doc assumes triggered mine:

Start of new school year (I teach Middle School) with a big change in schedule

while...

Coaching tennis after school each day (12 hour+ days)

while...

Having 2 children (and a husband, so, 3 kids?) of my own, one with special needs

while...

Taking 9 graduate hours in order to finish my Master's

Yes, I did this all at once. Yes, it was probably one of the stupidest things I've ever done.