Well, Guys, It Looks Like I'm Here For The Long Haul :)

[Chiana]

I started a gluten-free diet shortly after Thanksgiving, and was on it for about 5 weeks. I was feeling a lot better, but decided to go off the diet for a week to see if I got ill. After four days I had to stop...I was dizzy, exhausted, nauseous, and depressed. My whole body hurt and I couldn't focus. It's been almost two weeks since I started the gluten-free diet again, and I'm feeling a whole lot better. I can get out of bed in the morning, and stay awake during the day! So, it looks like I'll be hanging around.

My name's Alis, and I'm a computer science student at the University of Michigan - Flint. I graduate in May - SCARY! I split my time between Flint and East Lansing, where my gent lives. A good number of my friends and family are in the medical profession or are chemists, which gives me the opportunity to get answers to all of the silly questions I ask while researching Celiac disease.

I'm also a bibliophile.

By the way, the Guido's in Okemos makes an amazing gluten-free pizza from scratch. The owner's mother has Celiac disease, so they are amazingly careful about contamination. I can't help myself...it will take me longer to heal because I'm a cheese addict.

[GFinDC]

Welcome to our group Chiana! If you aren't having symptoms from the dairy then it is not likely a problem for you to eat it. For some people it is hard to digest lactose i dairy at first but after a while (healing) they can digest it. Hard cheeses are mostly casein as the lactose is digested by the bacteria. If you stop all dairy for a couple weeks and then start it again, doing hard cheeses first and then lactose (milk, ice cream) a week later, it should tell you if it is a problem.

[Chiana]

I get issues from milk sometimes, but not usually cheese. I stopped having cereal with milk years ago, because I always had terrible stomach problems afterward. Now I know that it was probably a combination of the cereal and milk both irritating my stomach.

I've just gotta sit on my hands for a few more months and see if my hormonal problems go away...then I'll be a happy camper.

[GFinDC]

Happy campers are what we strive for! I had lactose intolerance for years and thot that was the cause of my problems. I even reacted to bread with little amount of dairy they put in it. So I took lactaid pills when I ate bread. Duh! It never really worked. I still can't eat dairy but I feel oodles better off gluten.

[laurelfla]

Welcome, Alis! You are so lucky to have such a great pizza place! I'm jealous. Just wanted to say hi and hope you find this forum as useful as I did when I was diagnosed (and it still helps!).