I'm Coming At This Backwards

[MariaOfColumbia]

I'm 48 years old, and never thought that I might have celiac disease. My father's side of the family has a reputation for having stomach troubles, so I never even considered going to a doctor for mine when they started. It's just part of life, I supposed. Eventually, though, things got so bad with acid reflux, constant burping and esophageal spasms that I went to a GI doctor last year. She told me it was likely due to being overweight and scheduled me for a upper endoscopy and put me on Rantadine. After few days and some scary side effects, I quit the drug and cancelled the appointment for endoscopy. Why pay for an expensive test when weight loss would probably fix the situation?

A few months later, a problem I've had before resurfaced. The crease of my eyelid got sore. I know this seems minor, and I put up with it for months hoping it would heal, but it didn't this time. By August, both eyelids were involved and when I blinked you could see the puffy, angry red lines in the creases. I did some reading and decided it might be eczema and found that eyelid eczema might be helped by a gluten free diet.

So, I went gluten free. Within days my GI symptoms cleared up! I was amazed. I thought I was genetically doomed to have tummy troubles my whole life- and yet here it was.... hard to ignore data like that. I kept at it in wonder, hardly daring to believe it was true (and waiting for the eyelids to clear up) when I noticed something else.

Last summer, I was diagnosed with early onset osteoarthritis. The rheumatologist literally told me, "This is who you are now, get used to it." I did my best to comply.... but after a couple of months on a gluten-free diet, the arthritis is GONE! I have pain free joints again.

I was delighted with the gluten-free diet and started considering the fact that I might actually be gluten intolerant or maybe even celiac. My eyelids didn't clear up, though, and a little more reading about eczema showed common triggers were chocolate. Since I was a chocoholic, and was making up for the lack of decent baked goods with even more chocolate- after a particularly shameful binge my eyelids started oozing plasma. Oh. Crap. It's got to be chocolate. So, I quit chocolate and my eyelids cleared up right away.

So, now it's been a few months and I've been lurking on this site while figuring all this out, and it's probably too late to get real tests done... but in reading more and more about celiac and gluten intolerance, I begin to think I've got a lot more symptoms than I thought.

Lifelong constipation

Lifelong sores in scalp if I use the "wrong" shampoo

Occasional outbreaks on my torso of teeny tiny "hives" the doctor called them

Brain fog & memory problems for the past 10 years at least

Osteoporosis

the aforementioned acid reflux, burping, and esophageal spasms

Can't sweat unless I take a lot of electrolytes beforehand

Lactose intolerance

Arthritis

A scaly spot on my nose that wouldn't heal for months, but has now gone away.

And my sense of smell comes and goes. I used to think it was due to excess sugar consumption, but it's probably tied to gluten. I haven't had any loss of smell since going gluten free.

Since going gluten free, I've had more and more severe reactions to the numerous occasions of being accidently glutened. Abdominal bloating and severe pain have joined the repertoire of GI symptoms.

My husband is very supportive of my gluten-free diet, so I don't really *need* an offcial diagnosis. However, I feel like I ought to warn my kids- and they have become very sceptical of my numerous self diagnoses over the years. I'll try every home remedy there is for something before going to a doctor, and they have a somewhat justified bad opinion of my attempts to figure out What_Is_Wrong_With_Me over the years.

I had to. Doctors were useless.

Anyway, I'm definitely gluten intolerant if not full fledged celiac, and one or both of my parents probably are too. And probably a couple of my kids as well-- if not all three.

I've told them my condition. Is there a convincing way to tell them they've probably got it too? Or will I just have to wait until they are older and experiencing significantly uncomfortable symptoms and are willing to entertain the idea?

I know I'd heard of celiac disease before, but always dismissed the notion both because I didn't fit the classic symptoms shown in most websites, and because the thought of not having baked yummy stuff was intolerable.

Now I've learned to bake gluten free, and it's not so bad anymore. I was a near expert baker before, and it was quite humiliating going through the learning curve this fall.... but I'm back to impressing people with food again. If only you could try the carrot cake I baked at Thanksgiving. Scrumptious!