The gluten challenge is supposed to make you sick.
The reason any gastroenterologist will ask anyone who has been off gluten to reintroduce it back into their system, is to get the patient sick. This way, the doctor gets to see just how sick gluten makes you and if that qualifies within the category of gluten sensitivity or celiac disease, then, you get a label!.
Personal experience:
Finally!!!
I finally got an appointment with a gastroenterologist. Well, it only took about 3-4 months, big whoop huh.
So I sat there, feeling grateful for the appointment and anxious about what is to come.
I really donโt like talking about myself, and that includes my symptoms. I must say that this is a very bad dislike for someone who has to go in and out of doctors offices, and each time have to talk about what’s been happening and how much it hurts.
Either way, I was finally there.
Doctor 1:
The first, who wasn’t my assigned doctor, seemed to be a residency doctor or student, I don’t know how the labels works. He irritated me on so many levels other than the fact that he did not know that rice does not contain gluten. Yet here we are discussing a gluten problem!
He was condescending in the way he was asking questions and follow up questions. It was as though, because I was in the patient seat and he was in the doctor seat, he knew more about what I was going through than I did. So I would say something and he would correct me, I mean, how do you correct a statement about my symptoms?!
Either way, after our little argument about rice’s gluten status, he said he would check up on it and decided to go discuss me with my assigned doctor and come back. Only he did not come back, my doctor came in instead.
Doctor 2:
I had to discuss my symptoms again, arrgggghhhhh, then we discussed my options for testing. At this point I was very irritated. I don’t like doctors offices, terrible experiences all around. I just had to defend my symptoms to a student doctor and here I am having to explain myself yet again.
Although, the second doctor was nice, rather than battle with me, she listened and chimed in with questions that helped me explain myself better. We discussed my many gut issues and she ordered a few tests, the first for SIBO(small intestine bacterial overgrowth) and the second for celiac disease.
Then she broke the news, I have to eat gluten three times a day for 6 weeks. I am sure I forgot to breathe for a little while. All I could think of was the pain. Pain. Oh, the pain. Gluten causes me a lot of pain and other negative stuff that I would rather not have in my body or life. Pain.
I was quiet for a while, lost in thought before she called me back into the room. She explained why I must eat gluten three times a day for 6 weeks, consoled me, then assured me that she would be the one doing the endoscopy and biopsy.
She said she would be taking a few samples of my insides along with seeing how everything looks in there, then we will discuss it, and see what we’ll need to do next.
Then came the second set of bad news, along with eating gluten, I need to eat everything else that I have been avoiding (I am currently allergic to fruits, vegetables, grains, and most seeds and nuts).
Me: โWait. But everything hurts.โ
Doctor: โYes, I understand, but that will allow me to see exactly what is going on.โ
As she walked out, she smiled at me and said, โlook on the bright side, now you get to eat some cookiesโ
And the gluten/all foods challenge began.
My Symptoms:
This week was the rise of the fallen. I had managed to get rid of most of these symptoms by avoiding what hurts and mostly eating soups and plain rice, but now they are back.
1. Itchy throat, aching ears, sinus and chest congestion
My first line of allergy defense has always been an overproduction of mucus. So the itchy throat, aching ears, chest congestion and a bit of sinus congestion was not surprising to me. This happened a little bit after my first serving of gluten.
2.Stomach cramping
After the first serving I was quite tired, so I took a nap. When I woke up, my stomach was in knots, accompanied by sharp pains.
The first and second night were tough as well.
The first night I woke up with blinding pains shooting from my stomach to everywhere and anywhere. The stomach was a knot and breathing was difficult and catalyzed an array of shooting pains that stretched to wherever they wanted.
I sat up, painfully and slowly coached myself into softer breaths that eased the pains, and drank the warm water I keep on the edge of my bunk next to my pillow.
The second night, I armed myself.
Before I slept, I did breathing exercises and slightly massaged my stomach, stretched the rest of my body then slept.
Yes, I woke up with cramps and sharp pains, but the second time was less intense.
To avoid the pains, I increased my water intake through the day and started doing breathing exercises along with stretching my whole body before sleeping. The cramps only come back in the middle of the night when I forget to do my breathing exercises or when I don’t drink enough water.
3.Fatigue
I am usually tired, even after removing everything from my diet, I still needed a 2 hour nap on a daily basis to manage living. Although, when I woke up in morning or after my nap, I was always refreshed and ready to live.
This week was different, I was exhausted.
I went back to fatigue and this brought back some very bad memories of extreme and chronic fatigue that I struggled with before for years before cutting foods out of my diet.
4.Moody, irritable
Sigh. I really do not like this part of my symptoms.
Yet, it is one of the things that happens to me along with many celiac and gluten sensitive patients.
5.Muscle tension
This is happening through the body, but more so in my back, around the area of the spine and nervous system that correspond to my gut.
6.The blues are back.
I have depression already, a parting gift from my narcissistic relationship. Although keeping it in check is much more difficult now that gluten is back.
This is because of the mind-gut connection. According to research, 90% of our serotonin, our happy hormone, is produced in the gut. Now, here I am messing with the factory of my happy hormones.
Along with the depression, anxiety, confusion and bouts of fear are also back. Yay me. Although… I am grateful that seizures have not joined the party.
7.Difficulty staying positive
This is no surprise, considering that I am messing with the balance of my happy hormone factory.
One of my biggest tools against depression is positive thoughts before sleeping and after waking up. I refuse to take antidepressants and have always taken the route less traveled. I do it all naturally, it definitely takes more effort and determination than the pills, but I like my odds better this way.(Stay tuned, more articles about how I deal with depression naturally coming soon).
And one of my biggest tools, staying positive, is slowly slipping away from me.
8.My skin is on fire
Alright, so one of the oddest symptoms I have developed over the years has been feeling as though patches of my skin are burning or have been recently burned.
I remember the first time it happened years ago, I thought it was because my skin was dry and I needed to keep it moisturized, so I applied plain Shea butter and coconut oil. That helped a bit, but the burning still persisted.
The burning sensations disappeared a little while after changing my diet by removing gluten and other foods that hurt.
Well… burn is back.
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