Complications To Celiac

[silversilence]

Hello, I just joined this forum and I am hoping to find a few answers.

I actually have a few questions.

I want to know if these symptomes make sense, these were what I had before I started the gluten-free diet.

- red hot itchy skin (usually happened right after eating, I looked like a walking tomato)

- red itchy scalp (I had a doctor look at it but he said it was from the sun...seems to get worse when I am stressed though so it may not be related)

- Dizzy spells that would literally knock me over

- I wouldn't actually get sick but I also was addicted to drinking a LOT of milk (I would drink about 2-3 liters a day)

- I would fall asleep everywhere and anywhere (it was impossible to stay awake even ten minutes into a class)

- Everyonce in a while I would feel sick to my stomach and have sharp shooting pains in my stomach.

- Before I got a blood test I also was bloating and suffered with weakness in my hands after meals.

These are all really weird symptoms and stumped all of my doctors even the naturapath who gave me an allergy blood test. On the test the gluten levels were elevated but not high enough, however my lactose levels were through the roof. She put me on an illimination diet and then later told me to reintroduce wheat, this is what happened ( and happens now to this day).

- Redness and hotness occured seconds after touching it (I couldn't even touch the flour without my hands getting hot and stiff from swelling)

- At first it took three or four hours before I got sick, now its only as long as it takes for it to reach my stomach, and it would last at times all day.

- I would get pains in my stomach that are strong enough that I can't move around well (these are sharp shooting pains in my intestines not my stomach, I know my digestive tract very very well because of these pains.

- I actually get these weird tremmors (they worry me and I hope someone can tell me what that is). basically I lose all the strength in my arms and legs and get these really severe tremors, stronger than the smaller shakes I had before. The last one scared me enough that I talked to my doctor about it but he still never believed that wheat was the culprit (not sure how he based that since I know it was the soya sauce I accidently ate since everything else I had before). They are bad enough that I can't walk, my speach started to slur a bit and I have so little control that I can't even write coherently with a pen.

I appologize for this long email but I felt it would be best to describe the issue as best I can so that I might get an answer. These are my main questions:

1. What I need to know is if these tremors are realted at all to shock and if I should talk to someone about an epipen...if that is even useful for someone with celiac and if there is a doctor in Winnipeg Canada that would listen to me (I tried even with my endocrinologist and he told me that if I wasn't getting sick or having diariah when the symptoms started five years ago that it wouldn't have been celiac ( I doubt that honestly). I have also had a doctor tell me I would be over it by now. (I am not sure if I am willing to take that risk)

2. Additionally I was just diagnosed this last January with graves disease, a genetic thyroid contition. My mother also has graves diease, and she also not has cut gluten out of her diet because like me she suffered with strange dizzy spells, once the gluten was gone they disappeared. Are there any more conditions that appear in celiac people that I should watch out for.

luckily I have not had an attack in a long time and I hope to keep it that way, however these are the things I am still working out.

Thanks in advance for the replies, and so sorry for the really long read.

[cassP]

omg these docs.... let me and many others on here tell you right now-> you do NOT have to be having Diarreaha and wasting away to have Celiac or Gluten Intolerance! 95% of the time i get ROYAL CONSTIPATION and other BM issues that i will politely not discuss on here :/

um what else- Thyroid issues are VERY common with Gluten Intolerance!

and gluten can cause nerve damage- and does cause neuropathy for some.

that's all my answers for now, good luck with your testing

[Skylark]

You are allergic to wheat! Instant redness, itching, and swelling isn't celiac. It's allergy. Stay away from wheat and absolutely stop eating it. Yes, talk to your doctor about getting an epi-pen. It could save your life because you will desensitize on the wheat-free diet you require. You need to talk about the speed of the reaction, the overall itching, redness and swelling (doctors call swelling edema), and the rapid GI trouble. They should have no problems finding a reaction with a skin prick test if they feel like they need to test you in order to prescribe it. You may also be having celiac-type autoimmune reactions to gluten with the graves; that will resolve gluten-free.