My dr referred me to a nutritionist to discuss Celiac Disease and my kidneys.
First off, we discussed Celiac Disease. She asked me if I was ever diagnosed for Celiac and told her "yes", however I was gluten free so therefore the report came back as negative. I explained how this all came about as my younger sister also has Celiac Disease and was diagnosed over 21 years ago. She explained to me that gluten intolerant and Celiac Disease is not one and the same which I always thought it was. People that cannot tolerate gluten do get sick but they do not damage the gut. I can just ingest a small amount of gluten and get extremely sick and feel lousy for a few days after that. From what I had told her she said that I am definitely Celiac and have a severe case of it. I had told her that I am not going to ingest gluten and then get tested again as it is not worth getting sick and she definitely agreed with me.The good part is that I do watch it and have it mostly under control. It is like every thing else, you have to watch it very closely and hope that you do not come in contact with gluten.

Then she discussed my kidneys. I do have a kidney disease but did not realize the severity of it. The GFR (which is the filtration of the kidneys) should be 60 and my is 40 which is a Stage 3. There are five (5) stages and I forget what the fourth one but stage 5 is kidney failure and that I do not want. She has me on no more than 1500 mg of sodium a day and no more 60 mg of protein a day. She also is watching my potassium which right is now 4.2 and that is good. However if it gets to 5 she wants me back into her office immediately and the same for the GFR if gets any lower than what it is.

I am now reading labels and making sure that the sodium level is no more than 1500mg. I know that processed food is out of the question as there is a lot of sodium in them. Here I thought I was doing good as I usually never salt my food. I am now writing down every thing I put into my mouth and so far the sodium level that I am eating has not been more than 1500mg. One day it was around 1200mg but not more.

This is really an eye opener. I talked to her yesterday and she is happy in how I am doing things. I got my b/w done this past Friday and will be seeing my own Dr on the 7th of August. I doubt there will be a big change as I was watching every thing for just a week. We will see.