Hello all! My name is Melissa, and I am new to the gluten-free lifestyle. I am 26, and I live in Mass. I also have PCOS and am insulin-resistant, and have fibromyalgia. Now for the fun, storytime!
I started having digestive issues where I would feel really nauseous, but managed to not get sick and could feel food either sitting in my stomach or my system would be going crazy with gurgling and such. It happened the first time on a trip in Aug/Sept, and I figured that I hadn't made the best food choices and so wrote it off.
But then, it started to get more frequent, and I noticed that it was mainly happening on weekends. Now, due to the insulin resistance, I tended to eat mostly low-carb especially during the week, but on weekends would often get off my diet somewhat and have things like pizza. So, I started wondering if I was reacting to not having grains and then suddenly picking them up in large amounts.
Then the problem got worse to the point where I felt awful and lay on the floor one night not moving and my husband said I had to see a doctor. I went to the clinic at school (I work at UMass) and the doctor there suggested that digestive issues could be caused by stress and maybe I was lactose intolerant. He made a point of noting that I had fibromyalgia, even though I told him that it had been fully controlled for almost a year. I think he wrote me off. I took some of his advice, I decided to finish the week without wheat or dairy.
So after a week without wheat or dairy, I felt better, and I started eating butter and cheese, and I still felt fine, and I went out for dinner and got a meal that I thought would not have wheat, but it did have some cheese, and that night I was sick again. I called the restaurant and they informed me that the sauce was made with flour. I figured that was pretty good evidence for a wheat problem.
I had already known 3 people in my life with Celiac's and was familiar enough with it to quickly adopt a gluten free lifestyle. Then I went through a long process of trying to find a doctor that wouldn't write me off (actually, she's an NP). Unfortunately, she would prefer that I am seen by a GI specialist, which took a referral, and I now have an appointment ... for March! Apparently, if you aren't dying, you have to wait.
So, for Thanksgiving my family does Disney World, and we tried it gluten-free, more or less, however, I hadn't quite caught on to how little can make me sick, and I missed the blue cheese bit, and so I got sick three times that week, but was able to trace each one to a contamination-incident (apparently it is not cool to pick a biscuit off of eggs, hand it to your husband, then eat the eggs, yes, I know, newbie). I got more serious after that, and stuck out gluten-free pretty successfully through Christmas, including a short cruise!
As of Jan, I am being strictly gluten-free, and I'm also limiting my dairy because although it doesn't make me really sick, it makes me feel funky and off, and I think it may be irritating my damaged system, and I'm also going sugar-free because as someone with insulin-resistance, sugar is like poison to my body, and it doesn't need any more trouble right now.
So, I'm assuming that I am either intolerant or have Celiac's, although I'm not sure I will find out soon since I won't see a GI until after 3 months of gluten free, and I've read that tests can be inconclusive at that stage. But not being sick makes me very, very happy right now!
Wow, that was long, sorry! Shout-out to Kazzle, I saw this group on her page!
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