Hey all-

I just stopped gluten about two months ago after I figured out I had Celiac and was making progress. I also stopped soy, corn, nightshades, chocolate, anything high in fat, red meat, eggs, and have been off dairy for two years. I am 41 and have had Celiac all my life without knowing it. Unfortunately, I have many diseases like Fibromyalgia, Graves, and a few more, because this went undiagnosed.

Anywho- I was making so much progress that I fell off the wagon- not with gluten but with a little diary, a little bit of sugar, some gluten free cookies with soy and potato flour.

Now I am a mess, my fibromyalgia has flared up beyond recogntion, I am suffering so much, so much pain and fatigue AND have abdominal pain without bloating and not to be too graphic, my hips are hurting in the place where they hurt when I am constipated.


So- here are some questions:

1. Did I jump back in too quickly and I just haven't healed enough yet? I think I know the answer to this question!!!
2. How do I know what is the culprit for which symptom? So, for instance is abdominal pain a quicker reaction time verses all over inflammation that could take 12 hours? Do some foods take up to 48 hours for us to have a reaction?
3. Or was it the same offender, let's say, dairy, just reeking havoc on my stomach, then my immune system and my colon?
4. Or was it something totally new like plant cellulose or xantham gum or something I don't even know about?

AND

4. How will I ever know what caused the reaction if I don't know reaction times? HOW WILL I EVER BE ABLE TO REINTRODUCE SOME NEW FOODS IF I DON'T KNOW WHAT CAUSED WHAT?

i am basically eating 6 or 7 foods right now and don't know how I will ever be able to reintroduce. i am keeping a food diary, but keep getting stumped. I am so afraid that it could be a digestive enzyme or maybe there was gluten in something by mistake, but I have never had a direct reaction so who the heck knows!!!

Any help would be obviously appreciated. I read some posts about a woman who ate tuna and mayo and had a reaction and that was extremely helpful and comforting to know that we are all in this together.

Thanks -

Nancy

I'm not an expert, but I can give you a couple tips.

First thing's first- get feeling better. You want to have 10 symptom-free days in a row before you reintroduce a food.

a- Test one food at a time by introducing one food at a time. To test potato, eat a plain potato, not a product with potato flour in it. Then there's no confusion about the other ingredients.

b- Wait a full 5 days to see if there will be a reaction. If you haven't had a reaction in 5 days, the food should be safe.

c- If you do have a reaction from anything, eliminate it and wait until you have 10 symptom-free days in a row before reintroducing the next food. This gives your body time to get over the reaction, so you'll have less confusion.

d- Test the "easy" stuff first, one at a time. A plain baked potato, or a plain hardboiled egg, etc. When you finish with those things, it should be easier to test the hard stuff like xanthan gum. I say that's harder, because you can't really eat some plain xanthan gum to test it. That would probably make anyone sick. You have to find a product that has all safe ingredients, plus one unknown.

You introduced 4 things at once that you had eliminated, so no wonder you're confused! There really is no way to know which food(s) made you sick (although if I had to guess, I'd bet on dairy.)

Rest up, get to feeling better (((hugs))) and then tackle one new thing at a time.

Hope this helped.