Different Reactions To Different Glutenings?

[Debbie B in MD]

My main symptoms of celiac have been muscle pain/neuropathy, gerd, and constipation. I have been gluten-free since the middle of January. It was going great until a few weeks ago when I had serious glutening issues. My reaction was a return of the muscle pain and neuropathy. That had pretty much cleared up after a week and a half when I went to eat a "gluten-free" meal at my parent's retirement place restaurant on Easter. I have had D since. I am guessing CC as the cause. It is getting better finally, I think. But D has never been an issue for me, before gluten-free or since. Is this unusual to have a different reaction? par for the course? Please share your experience. Thanks.

[dilettantesteph]

My reactions differ depending on how much gluten I ingest, whether it is a small amount over a few days, or one bigger one time dose. My reactions also differ depending on how long it is since I last had a reaction, or, how healed I am. My reactions seem worse around the time of my period, or with strenuous exercise, or if I'm under a lot of stress. There seem to be a lot of factors which contribute to differences in a gluten reaction.

[NorthernElf]

Yeah, I agree with glutenings being different - just dunno the reason why. Often I will feel light headed & just plain wrong within 20 minutes or so - and extremely tired. Usually I get wicked headaches, sinus pain, and then the stomach cramps & nausea start...and the D.

However, sometimes from a lighter CC reaction I will just feel really (& I mean really) crabby ! Oh - and I get a lot of reflux. For instance, a couple of weeks ago I missed some wheat in a salad dressing and had a small amount on my salad @ supper for 3 nights in a row. It took me that long to figure it out - I felt horrible, miserable, and had the worst reflux than I've had in years - ate a lot of antacids & they didn't seem to work - and then it hit me ! I started reading & looking at what I was eating. Interestingly, no headaches and only mild D & cramping that I didn't pay attention to (thought maybe it was from milk somewhere).

Went to the Spaghetti Factory in Nashville & had gluten free pasta and spent the whole night waking with stomach cramps & nausea and had lots of D in the morning. Got up, showered, went back & lay down for awhile again - that was truly horrible !

Dunno why it varies so much - you'd think all reactions would be the same. I joke I could hire myself out as a gluten detector because I can usually tell within half an hour if I've been zinged.

Oh - and gotta add that when I visit relatives & bring my own food and try really hard to be careful - I usually feel awful in a few days. I chalk it up to continued exposure to small amount of CC in pots, pans, cutting boards, etc. It's that milder reaction again - but can still mean bloating & joint pain/tiredness.

[Chad Sines]

I usually start to feel off and at some point from the trigger to the next morning get light nausea if it was mild all the way to a full-blown ick fest, usually at night. Those are freaky. Just had one last night.