This is blog post one, hopefully of many. I'm going through a difficult time in my life right now, and I thought composing something like this might help not only me, but others going through situations similar to mine.
Hmm. This is coming out very vague. I guess I should start with some specifics.
I'm in my third year at a small college that has only one dining hall. Starting almost immediately freshman year, I began having health problems. All my life I had problems with food, undiagnosed, but it became aggravated once at college. For years we thought it was lactose intolerance, but while being treated for an unrelated matter I was tested for both this and a milk allergy, and both came back negative. The problems I had were not intense enough that I pursued getting a diagnosis at the time, so it was left alone once again as some mysterious, reoccurring cause of mild, sometimes moderate, discomfort.
Back to college, though.
Freshman year I would have awful cramping problems, horrible digestive issues that went all across the spectrum, and nothing that I bought at the local pharmacy helped. I was popping back six to eight Tums at a time to no avail, tossing back tablespoon after tablespoon of Pepto-Bismal, and even trying enzyme pills that were supposed to aid in digestion. Nothing worked. Sometimes pain would be so bad that I would have to miss class, which is what finally made me pursue a diagnosis.
While at home on winter break during my second year, my doctor suggested a gastroenterologist that his family uses, as several members of his immediate family have dietary issues as well. After an initial exam I had blood work done in order to help assess what could be wrong, as well as a *gasp* colonoscopy scheduled. The 'scope came back fine, showing no inflammation that would suggest Inflammatory Bowel Disease (such as Crohn's), which relieved me a little. The blood work was...speculative. I was told that some of my levels were low, and that my IgA (Immunoglobulin A) was not quite normal, which could throw off other levels they were looking at. Rather than re-test my blood, it was decided that I would start some treatments for IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome).
Now, IBS does not have a necessary cause, or a necessary cure, but it can be managed once you realize what aggravates you, how stress affects you, and so on. The first step was to try probiotics, and then we would go from there. For the pain, I was given anti-cramping medication.
I tried probiotic after probiotic, anti-cramping medication, low dose depression medicine to reduce the signals my brain was sending that were supposedly causing the cramps, Citrucel, and more, yet nothing worked, nothing helped. I was told to keep a food-and-pain journal for a week, though I kept one for three, just to help myself try to figure out what foods seemed to be irritating. The common denominator? Foods containing flour or wheat.
Things started to click in my head when I realized this.
Back when I thought I was lactose intolerant, I noticed I would have worse problems after eating bagels with cream cheese more than twice in a day or two, or after having pizza. I somehow did not have problems with eating as much ice cream as I wanted, however. All along I thought it was the cheese, but bagels and pizza both contain bread, which in turn means they contain gluten.
It also helped explain why my problems got worse at school.
At home, I had a fairly varied diet. Although I was raised by a single parent, meals were plentiful and certainly not just the same thing every few days. At school however, there is only one dining hall, and the menu is basically the same week to week, with variations on only two or three meals each week (not days mind you, but meals *3 a day*). Most meals were pasta, or breaded chicken, or had bread as a side to the meal. I'm a bread fiend, so I'd always eat mostly bread and only a little of the main meal. Looking back at all these things, it seems pretty clear what the issue was.
This may be way too much information all at once, but this is all the background information. As I said before, I'm just trying this blogging thing out, so I'm probably going overboard. As things go on, I'm sure posts won't be so ridiculously long.
Back to the present.
I asked my doctor to re-test my blood, so that I could ensure I ate lots of gluten-products beforehand in order to give an accurate testing of my levels. I learned that if you avoid gluten, your blood won't have the same reaction because you aren't exposing yourself to the element that is irritating you. My gastroenterologist did not want to re-test my blood, however. They told me the next step was the genetic test, which wouldn't tell me whether I had Celiac Sprue, but would tell me whether I had the POSSIBILITY for it.
Doesn't it seem like blood might be more accurate?
It did to me. So I asked for a different option, if there was anything I could do other than the genetic test.
And that's how I got to this point in my life.
Starting last Monday, under the advice of my gastroenterologist, I began a month-long gluten-free trial.
I'm nine days in and it seems to be working.
While this might be good, because it seems to be leading to an actual diagnosis, it is also bad, because this is a life long condition with no cure as of yet.
I've felt all sorts of emotions about possibly having this gluten intolerance, but I will save those for different blogs.
Right now, I'm just hoping to start a journal of sorts for not only myself, but others who might be going through something like this, or have already gone through it. I welcome any questions, though at this point I have very, very few answers :)
I would love for comments, other stories, posts to websites that could help me and others, even criticism. If you don't agree with something I've said, or if I've made a mistake, share it. I'm fumbling about this whole thing (going gluten-free AND blogging) so I will definitely take anything you'd like to share. I know forums for Celiac and gluten intolerance are out there, and I've come across a couple but have only glanced them over. The one website I have bookmarked so far, which seems to have a fantastic listing for unsafe and potentially unsafe foods is off the main address http://www.celiac.com and can be reached at http://www.celiac.com/articles/182/1/Unsafe-Gluten-Free-Food-List-Unsafe-Ingredients/Page1.html.
I hope this blog works as I would like it to, and that good things come of it for myself and others.
Until next time,
Gluten, Not Glutton
No comments:
Post a Comment