My story of how I suffered most of my life with multiple mystery ailments, discovered there was such a condition as “gluten intolerance”, and how I was eventually diagnosed with gluten intolerance is not the norm, but then again is there a norm? I have had health issues for most of my life. As a child and throughout my teen years I suffered from extreme abdominal pain, I had a resting pulse rate of 130, hair loss, shaky hands, weight loss, etc… At 18 I was no longer able to live a normal life and was quickly dwindling away. Due to my condition I would fall to the floor with chest pain. For this I saw a doctor in Sweden who had one look at me and laughed because I was 18, and what could possibly be wrong with an 18-year old? At the time my parents were living in Spain and I was forced to return to live with them in Spain due to my ill health.
My intent was to rest and regain my strength, but instead I was deteriorating further. A friend of mine took me to her doctor in hopes that he would take my condition more seriously. The Spanish doctor examined me, but was confused because my eyes told him I had a thyroid condition, but my main complaint was my heart. He ran tests for both my thyroid and my heart and it turned out that I had a severe thyroid problem. This very problem was causing my extremely elevated resting pulse rate, and it was slowly taking my life.
You may wonder what in the world this has to do with Gluten Intolerance. Well, it was the beginning of my discovery of autoimmune deficiencies and how they were affecting my health. I was put on strong drugs to combat my hyperactive thyroid and over time it eventually burned itself out. I have since become hypothyroid and depend on daily thyroid replacement pills. I had hoped that discovering this problem was going to give me the elusive health and strength I had been searching for my entire life, however my struggles with health continued.
I have spent the last 20 years not feeling well. I’ve seen doctors in just about every specialty that have tried to diagnose me with you-name-it: Lupus, Fibromyalgia, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Acid Reflux, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Anxiety Disorder, Depression, Heart Disease, etc. But even with the doctors’ best attempts to define my condition I haven’t fit into any of their categories well.
Then one day my brother, whom I hadn’t seen in 11 years, visits me from Sweden. He proceeds to tell me that he and his 2 children had been diagnosed with Gluten Intolerance. Genetic testing had been performed in Sweden and he found that he and his children all had “THE GENE”. He listened to my health complaints along with those of one of my daughters and he was pretty sure that we too must be Gluten Intolerant. I really didn’t want to be. I loved bread and pasta, and I know that there is no way I could be allergic to my favorite foods! I thought of my then 11-year-old daughter and the tests that she had gone through for abdominal pain. I realized that my own brother that had first been diagnosed with Thyroid disease was later diagnosed with Gluten Intolerance, and I realized that I owed it to my daughter to be tested for her sake.
I had already decided that I was not having an endoscopy or colonoscopy. I had already tried those, but I found that I metabolize medicine differently than most people and had come out of the anesthesia during both procedures and both were painful and traumatic. I decided I would have the “gliadin” antibody panel done, and if that came out positive that was good enough for me to make a diet change. On January 21, 2008 I received the call that the gliadin results came in and were almost certainly confirmed that I have gluten intolerance. It was at that very moment I stopped eating gluten. Or at least I started the process of becoming totally gluten free (GF). The process was way more involved than I ever thought.
I know that there are many people out there suffering from misdiagnosed ailments who are wondering why they aren’t feeling any better under their new treatments.
That was my case for so many years.
My life is still not perfect and I still suffer from different ailments, aches, and pains. Even so, I can say this: The improvements to my quality of life after going gluten free are amazing. I used to be in pain every day — that is now gone. I occasionally have pain in my body, but not as severe and not as frequently. This is a great relief. Being in pain is exhausting and it really wears on you. I am so thankful to be past that part. I still have a few lingering issues, but I also abused my body for over 40 years, so I can’t expect to completely heal in the blink of the eye. I am patient and I have seen huge improvements with time.
My daughter’s symptoms are all but gone as long as she doesn’t accidentally get gluten contamination. She is now 13 and she is my HERO. She never complains and never cheats. She goes to parties and events where everyone else eats and enjoys themselves, and she doesn’t get upset and she doesn’t complain. She has no desire to go back to how she was.
I am here to tell you that there is a life without gluten and food can still be satisfying. I want to share my experience with others in hopes to make your journey easier and maybe share some of the things that I have learned along the way.
Hopefully you can learn from some of my early mistakes and spare yourself the pain. I hope to be able to share some of my successes with you as to make your transition to your new “no gluten life”.
I hope you enjoy my website and find it helpful. Thanks for visiting, and come back often!
