Be forewarned, this post is just writing, and it is the compilation of all the testing, research, and decisions that I have had to make about my health in the past 6 months. This post answers the questions about why I started eating paleo and why I have all of a sudden started posting all this stuff on my blog.
This is going to be several posts, so we will call this one - Point 1, because this was my starting point. I am at a point that I just want answers. And writing it out is kind of a release for me as well, so you don't have to read if you do not want to.
Point 1: Digestive Issues
I have always had them. I cannot remember a time that I haven't. And it is weird and I cannot seem to be able to link them to anything. I could have pizza one day and be fine, then have pizza another day and just have cramps and gurgling for an hour. The main thing is a pressure/pain in my stomach that wakes me up almost every morning. During times when my digestive issues are under control, it is only a pressure, at least that is the only way I can describe it. Like I know where my intestines are exactly, but it is not painful. When my digestive issues are not under control, I wake up to pain where the pressure is, basically intestinal cramps. This morning ritual occurs sometime between 4-6am, so I have never been good at sleeping in. The cause of this pain and/or pressure is a back up in my stomach. If you don't realize what this means, then go here, I really don't want to write about it.
I kept food journals, I tried specific diets, but nothing seemed to correlate. I would go off dairy or gluten or meat and feel better, but still not ever 100%. I tried fiber supplements, anti-spasmodic medication, natural herbs, you name it. Skin prick tests showed allergies to dairy and eggs, and of course all animal dander or feathers, grass, pollen, etc. Other blood allergy tests said nuts, corn, pork, wheat and gluten were what I was allergic too. So basically everything was always constantly changing and we could never really figure out what was going on.
All of this information accumulated from the time I was 18 months old, when my mom finally took me in to the doctor because I coughed all the time and had so much drainage (from environmental allergies we think) that I could barely eat without choking. My parents found out later that I was anaphylactic to nuts when I was three, and my dad gave me a cashew, which ended in a trip to the ER. So I have had some allergy type issues since I was a small child.
My digestive symptoms followed me through high school as well. In high school, I started trying to eat differently, to see if that helped. I tried dairy free, gluten free, vegetarianism, and veganism. I thought at one time my problem was digesting meat. I think I ended up eating a mix of all of those diets throughout high school.
When I got into college, I tried to start medical routes again, just because I really wanted to know what was going on! But I soon stopped because I couldn't afford it. In the process, I did realize that I had to give up on my vegetarian/vegan preferences (I was still mainly eating this way) because my body needed to more protein and fat (according to the doctors). Fast forward to today. I feel like now is the first time in my life I am really able to approach the digestive issues. I finally had good insurance and we were in a stable place financially to begin diving into this.
The first step every doctor took when I went in with any digestive issue in mind, was to check for celiac's disease, which is an intolerance to gluten, the protein found in most grains. I usually never did any of the tests, because they were so expensive. This time, I just decided to follow through with them.
My doctor's recently did a blood test for celiac's disease which I think I wrote about back in February last year, which freaked me out honestly. This test showed that I had an allergy to corn, pork, soy, wheat and gluten, and nuts and that some of my blood antibodies were too high. The test was "inconclusive" for celiac's disease because one antibody in my blood was normal and the other was high. They both needed to be high for a positive result of celiac, through the blood test alone. My doctor said to disregard the other "supposed" allergies because blood testing for those has a very high error rate (then why were we testing for celiac that way? I still don't know).
The next step was an upper endoscopy to look at my small intestine for damage. Celiac's disease causes inflammation and damage to the cilia of the small intestine when the person eats gluten containing foods. I balked at that test. That would be a very pricey test when it was all said and done. That was money we wanted to spend elsewhere. So I decided to try gluten free again and see if I really felt a difference. I felt good for awhile, and then realized that allow the issues (ie, no pain), I still was having problems. And staying away from gluten is a huge pain. In this time I was going to several other doctors for some other issues, and a one of them really wanted an official diagnosis of celiac before they would really move forward with anything. So I decided to just do the endoscopy, which means that I had to begin eating gluten again and eat it consistently for at least three months before the test.
So I did. And for the most part, noticed that my digestive issues were blatantly worse. I felt generally not as good. I still don't know if that was the increased consumption of more processed foods and sugar again, or what. My upper endoscopy was scheduled January 10th, 2013, and the results showed damage in my small intestine. But not damage to the cilia, so my diagnosis for celiac was again "inconclusive." Further blood tests and gene typing finally gave my doctor enough information for him to feel comfortable declaring me, "not celiac", but he still doesn't know what is causing the inflammation. I am supposed to go back and discuss this with him, but I have not yet, because I am somewhat burned out of all the testing that I have had done. I will probably follow up in the future.
So why am I still eating gluten free? Because I do a little better when I do, and I have done some of my own research on the subject. And for other reasons which will make more sense after point 2, whenever I get around to writing that. So, now you know what I know, which unfortunately is not much. But at least I feel like it is one step closer to figuring out what is going on.
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