Nausea Is Back! :(

[misslexi]

I have been gluten free for almost 6 months and the nausea is coming back. I used to throw up every morning and couldn't eat for hours. Not too long after going gluten-free I was eating breakfast every morning! Until the last few weeks if I didn't eat within about an hour of waking up, I would get a stomach ache.

Now for the last two weeks the nausea is back. Along with D, stomach aches, etc. But it isn't like when I get glutened. When I accidentally eat gluten about 2 hours it hits me like a brick wall. This is constant and a lower intensity.

I think I might have other intolerances but I am dreading eliminating other foods from my diet because I'm just scared like that. But I guess it is necessary at this point. What are the most common things? How do I go about eliminate more things from my diet? Or does anyone have other thoughts on the cause?

[ravenwoodglass]

Is there anything that has changed in the last couple weeks? Are you on any meds and if you are on any are any generic? Generic meds can change binders whenever they choose so make sure they are checked at each refill. Are you taking supplements? IF you are check to make sure they don't have barley or wheat grass. Those are thought to be safe for us but many of us will react.

Is there anything new that you have added to your diet or toiletries? Not all of us react to gluten in things like shampoos, lotions and makeup and such but some are sensitive enough to react to a little bit of toiletries that might make it into our system. CC on lines with food can be an issue. My DD and I were overjoyed to see the huge list of gluten-free items Frito Lay made until we realized that we were reacting to almost all of them. The CC factor in the plant is high and about the only Frito Lay product we can safely consume is plain Lays chips.

If you are a woman is there any possiblity you could be pregger?

Some become more sensitive to CC as time goes by. Are you eating foods produced on shared lines. Have you recently added gluten-free oats to your diet? Not all react to oats but some of us do.

The most common co-intolerances are dairy and soy. Are you consuming more products that contain those? If so you might want to delete both for a bit and then add them back in after you are feeling better.

I hope you are feeling better soon.

[Marz]

  On 6/8/2010 at 12:47 PM, misslexi said:

Now for the last two weeks the nausea is back. Along with D, stomach aches, etc. ... This is constant and a lower intensity.

Nausea is a common symptom of stomach ulcers.... Does the nausea ease after you eat something, drink some milk? Or gets worse? It sounds weird, but try an antacid and see if that helps with the nausea? I had a friend who was suffering from constant nausea, turns out she was highly stressed out, and an endoscopy showed her stomach lining was completely inflamed.

If it started recently and it's been acute, you might just be suffering from a stomach bug? I've had a bug before that made me super nauseous all the time - started suddenly, lasted 2 weeks or so, and then I got better. I was having fever/shakes/d etc as well at the time, so I figured it was an illness and not a chronic problem.

Hope you feel better soon, feeling nauseous all the time is not fun

[TrillumHunter]

I had a similar situation and it was gastritis from my iron supplements and my gallbladder. When I had my gallbladder out, it improved by 80%. The gastritis took much longer to heal.

BTW, I didn't have any of the otherwise typical gallbladder symptoms. They found it on a barium swallow.

It might be a good idea to see the dr before you make any drastic changes.

[mommida]

I was gluten free for over 5 years and then these symptoms appeared again. It was my gallbladder. I had it removed in February.

There are some other disorders that present with these symptoms too. Looks like you need to go to the doctor to find out what is going on.

[dilettantesteph]

It is possible that your symptoms are the result of trace gluten exposure and that you have gotten more sensitive. You could try going on an unprocessed food diet and see if things clear up. Then add one food a week to see what was bothering you. We are in the middle of this with my son (12 years). He went from vomiting, D, grumpy and DH to perfectly fine in about 3 days. Third food we added back got him.

[Mari]

If it seems that you have a gall bladder problem - many celiacs do - don't agree to have it out until you read how other people flush them out without surgery. See the Liver Flush Support Forum at Curezone.com. I have been flushing gall stones out for years and used it as a part of a program which improved my digestive system and general health. You might want to look at the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. It was put together by a physician for Irritable Bowel Syndrome and works well for many celiacs. I have been using it and found it very helpful. I don't have nausea often but with me it usually means that food is piling up in my small intestine and not going on through me normally. I take a herbal laxative to increase peristalsis (Magnesium laxatives won't work on the small intestine), drink more fluid, sit up straight while eating and when I feel congested firmly but gently massaging the abdomen pressing downward. If your not having the urge to move your bowel within an hour after eating your intestine is congested. Taking Betaine-HCl to acidify the stomach helps and I usually eat a grapefruit - half in the morning and the other half later on.

[misslexi]

The nausea was a constant symptom before I went gluten-free. Before I went gluten-free when I was vomiting blood I got a huge run around where when the doctors couldn't find the actual cause, they went back and contradicted several things they said earlier. But I was checked for ulcers and tried treating them with no help.

Definately not pregnant, and no medication changes. No increase in dairy consumption, I don't eat much of it to begin with. But my soy intake has probably increased, I notice it on alot of ingredient lists now. And considering I ate a stir fry with soy sauce a few hours ago and about an hour after I got a tummy ache...it seems likely!

So do you think doing an unprocessed foods thing would be the best way to figure out whats up? How does that work, don't eat anything but fresh foods for how long? I'll google but if anyone has some information it would be really great. I have no idea where to start with it, but it could help right?

[ravenwoodglass]

  On 6/16/2010 at 1:24 AM, misslexi said:

But my soy intake has probably increased, I notice it on alot of ingredient lists now. And considering I ate a stir fry with soy sauce a few hours ago and about an hour after I got a tummy ache...it seems likely!

So do you think doing an unprocessed foods thing would be the best way to figure out whats up? How does that work, don't eat anything but fresh foods for how long? I'll google but if anyone has some information it would be really great. I have no idea where to start with it, but it could help right?

Just start with, as you said, fresh or single ingredient frozen veggies and fruits, fresh meats and chicken, potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc. If the issue is soy you should see results pretty quickly. Or at least I did. I had to eliminate it about five years in. I had no D from soy but the stomach pain was awful. It still is when I consume any.

It doesn't have to be boring as you can do things like bake a chicken breast with olive oil rub and fresh herbs with a baked potato, beef stew can be made with fresh or frozen veggies, I used to cut up one potato really small so it would cook and break apart to thicken it and brown the beef after rolling in rice flour to give it a good flavor and a less gray color. A steak or pork chop seasoned with herbs and salt with some Paradise brand instant potatoes (these are really good and the only thing in them is potatoes) or mashed fresh potatoes. Broiled fish with lemon and homemade frys, cut potatoes and coat with olive oil and salt and bake. I am sure others will have lots more ideas for you and do check out the recipe section as that should be helpful also.

[mommida]

Did you have the endoscopy with biopsy? What were the results of biopsies and where were they taken from? I ask because the symptoms you describe are consistent with my daughter's symptoms for Eosinophilic Esophagitus. If the biopsies were not ordered for eosinophil testing you may have to have the procedure again for diagnoses.

Eosinophils are white blood cells that destroy the host's tissue. Once triggered eosinophils are active for 12 days. Eosinophilic Esophagitus was given a standardized medical code in October of 2008. It is a "medical mystery" and my daughter's specialist admit there is no known cure. There is a marked improvement with elimination diet and careful logging of possible "triggers" for some patients. Some triggers may be airborne allergens.

At this point in time, Eosinophilic activity is being diagnosed through out the digestive tract.

It would makes sense that you would need to avoid more than gluten to feel better if this is case.

[dilettantesteph]

Personally, I would consider rice flour and olive oil to be processed. Even meat cuts are processed, they are cut up by someone, and you don't know what the conditions are. I would go for just fruits and veggies and eggs, carefully washed, or even better peeled, for a week. Better still would be ones from your own garden with no pesticides or wheat cover crops. Then you can add stuff. If that doesn't do anything, than you probably have some other problem. I hope you get things figured out. It is hard when you think that you have finally figured out your problem, and then the treatment doesn't work.

[misslexi]

I've had alot of issues with doctors and the tests I've had. I've had most of them done, but it didn't do any good.

When I had my endoscopy they decided not to take a biopsy while I was under and they were already down there. Because everything looked pink and healthy. Since then, I have read that in childhood Celiac, the damage to the small intestine may not be widespread and can occur in just parts. So it would be very possible that the area they looked at was healthy, but there was damage further on. I may have been an older teen through this, but I've had all the childhood symptoms of Celiac. Which went away when I started my diet last November. They're only coming back in a different form these last few weeks. I'm having issues with my sleeping again, and I wasn't for a while now. Feels like I am running backwards.

So long story short, I don't have an official diagnosis. Clinical maybe, but no biopsy. And if I want the biopsy, I have to drop out of school and move back in with my parents (again, had to do that once already thanks to this) and go back to hell for 6+ months until the blood work comes back properly and then have the biopsy again when everything looks fine.

I've already paid for the blood work once, because my doctor insisted that I did not need to be eating gluten to do it. So obviously it came back fine, I hadn't intentionally eaten gluten in 5-6 months at the time.

Maybe I need a new doctor who is familiar with Celiac and similar medical things. My first doctor said I couldn't have it because an allergy prick test came back with no wheat allergies.

[Marz]

  On 6/16/2010 at 4:31 PM, misslexi said:

I've already paid for the blood work once, because my doctor insisted that I did not need to be eating gluten to do it. So obviously it came back fine, I hadn't intentionally eaten gluten in 5-6 months at the time.

Maybe I need a new doctor who is familiar with Celiac and similar medical things. My first doctor said I couldn't have it because an allergy prick test came back with no wheat allergies.

Oh my word, how ignorant can doctors actually be?

If I was the doctor, and I didn't have a clue about the disease, I'd be referring to medical journals and latest pubmed articles to read up about it. Or perhaps he's using knowledge 3 decades old? I don't know... really the ignorance is criminal.

My doctor ordered an IgE test for gluten in 2007 to test if I had it... that's probably also a test for allergy to wheat, not actually Celiac disease testing.