Wow Im In Trouble

[Canadian Karen]

Karen-hope you are feeling better today. xoxo

Thanks, Laura, little by little...... I could slap myself silly for being so careless...

Hugs.

Karen

[michellehunt]

My god this sound almost like me, my Dr. gave me belldonna, it doesn't actualy help. Only momentary relief.

I actualy went kinda crazy for awhile after loosing 100 lbs. got divorced and had many problems too. After finally finding out I was celiac disease I statred gaining weight and stregnth. I am ok now, not perfect but there is hope. When I am sickest I only eat rice and chicken. REST AND GET SOME SMART WATER it has electrolites that help prop you up.

Very best wishes

Michelle

[Canadian Karen]

Hey Stef! Tsunami..... is that the word you were looking for?

I think celiachap pushed alot of us past our point of toleration. I sincerely hope we can help MSFL get through this and give him the support and encouragement this board is famous for..... Lord knows, his initiation into the group has been controversial!!!

Hugs as always,

Karen

[stef-the-kicking-cuty]

Hi Karen,

you are still talking to me, after what I wrote just kidding. Yes, the right word for it is Tsunami, I had brain fog there for a while. Speaking of brain fog. What caused your accidentaly being glutened? The holidays??? Hope you're feeling better pretty soon!

[Canadian Karen]

Of course I am still talking you to - I am Canadian, remember?

If it gets too hot for you, you can alway plead temporary insanity after reading how MSFL was treated....

Anyway, about my glutening.... What caused it? Carelessness, stupidity........

I had a craving for Planters Dry Roasted Peanuts after reading the thread on them last week. So I bought them and had them in a dish because I hate eating them out of the stupid tall bottle that you can't get your hands into. Anyway, couple of days ago, ate the rest of the peanuts. I knew immediately something was wrong.... My face started going numb, my lips tingling, then the pains...... It turns out Terry had eaten the rest of the peanuts, and not wanting to be the inconsiderate kind, replaced them before I went to get some more, only replaced them with some no name brand, not even thinking that peanuts would contain gluten.

See how no matter how careful you are, it can still happen to the best of us, eh?

The first night, I was literally rolling around on the floor downstairs in pain, trying to get into a position where the pain wasn't excrutiating.... Through the night, run to the loo about 20 times. By morning, eased slightly, then brain fog set in. I couldn't function at all, so I kept Eileen home to look after the boys. I basically didn't move for the rest of the day except to run to the bathroom.... Today, slightly better, but I am hoping by tomorrow the worst will be over.....

I need to give myself a swift kick in the behind for being so careless!!!

Hugs.

Karen

[ianm]

Celiachap is being way out of line here. No immigrant bashing either. My girlfriend is from Norway and has lived here for 35 years working and paying taxes like the rest of us.

MSFL I have walked in your shoes. I did not have many gut problems but the brain fog nearly destroyed everything. Use this time to heal and it will get better. It takes time and effort but it gets better, MUCH better. What does not kill you will make you stronger.

[celiachap]

Hi MSFL, first I welcome you here onto the board. I'm not an American either and feel for you. I am a German citizen. I just imagined being in this situation and imagined my husband would leave me (which I hope he never does). I think I would be as good as dead.You maybe already read it on here, but celiac disease can be triggered (or worsened) by stress or an operation (which for sure is also quite a bunch of stress). And you sure had (or still have) quite a lot of stress with your ex-wife and all that other stuff. That's why I also think, in that case, it should be discussed here, cause in THAT case it kind of belongs to the celiac subject. The other thing, that might be interesting is, that I myself had also still pain here and there after one and a half years being glutenfree now. And a couple of days ago I finally tried my suggestion and cut out dairy of my diet. And I'm completely pain free. Since I couldn't live without dairy, I bought some lactose intolerance tabs, which worked, but I will post some questions later to this on another thread. Now back to the pain. The pain that I still had, was a very sharp stabbing pain in my belly about one hand underneath the stomache and it's completely gone now. First I thought, it's from the gluten, but obviously it was from the dairy... By the way, my food came out undigested to first, and I did not have Crohn's.Now to celiachap's comment (which ticked me off a little). To live and to work here (and to get it together in your words), you do not have to be an American. In fact a lot of succesful people working (and having a business over here) are non-Americans... And what I say (write) now, people (especially you other American friends here on the board), please don't take this personal. Celiachap, with what you're saying, you come across really cocky. I already meat a couple of Americans who obviously think, that Americans are the best nation ever. Again this is NOT ALL Americans, please don't take offense. I'm just telling you my experience... You think you're reality is the one that counts. Why? Is your reality more real, than a poor kid, that starves in Africa? Is your reality more real, that a woman in India, that loses all her family, because of (ah heck, brain fog, what's this whaterthingy called, that happened to them? Whatever...). Or more real, than a high-speed-train crash, like that one, that happened in my home country Germany a couple of years ago. You do it real right, because you help people in Irak? Yeah??? Well, let me tell ya something. Not the entire world thinks like you. In fact most are against your way of thinking.And you know what? In two years I get offered the test and the American citizenship. And you know, what's the only reason for me to take it? Not because I'm proud of it, or because I'm convinced of some ways of how Americans live. The only reason, and please don't throw me out of this board for this one, is, that I can qualify and participate at another world championships for the American National Kickboxing Team. I wouldn't take the citizenship, if there's another way around this for me. But kickboxing is my life. It's the sport I found for myself, the one and only. I could care less about being American and I only came over here, because I love my husband and not this country. And after these two years, that seam like endless eternity (because I can't participate in what I love so much), are over and I get my citizenship and there are some people, that think they have to be nice to me and congratulate me for the citizenship (or god forbid throw a party for me). Then these people will be the first ones, that have a round with me, even before I have the chance to fight in another world championship. I once told my husband, I'll never be an American and now I have to be, if I want to do what I love. But in my heart I will always be german. They can't make me put my hand on my heart, when I hear the American hym. Because it's not my hym, it's not what I'm standing for. Sure, the germans are not perfect, we had a lot of dirt in our past (like Hitler and all that crap) that wasn't nice either, but so does every country, but I will only be an American on paper, never with heart and that's what counts in my opinion... BTW, Hitler wasn't German, he was Austrian. Anyways...So you pushed it, that's the way to get action, hugh? Tell that the families who's father hung himselve, because somebody pushed him over the edge and he didn't find a way out. Or the kid that shot his teacher, because he was desperate. They maybe would have needed some handholding or counseling, but instead, they got pushed. You can't always push it. This comes out of the mouth of a sometimes pushing fighter and this experienced fighter can tell you, that pushing doesn't always work.

Since you brought up "fighting", how would a sock in the jaw, by a person with scarred knuckles and a lifetime of conflict, affect you? This is NOT meant as a threat, or an insult, but have you ever been in a real street fight, with blood and possibly knives, bottles, etc.? Have you ever seen anyone killed with a baseball bat in the street?

I know very well what these circumstances are like, because I've been there, and all the karate, or whatever you do, in the world isn't going to help you when your opponent is hell-bent on finishing you off.

Just some food for thought from a Brooklynite.

[Ursa Major]

Since you brought up "fighting", how would a sock in the jaw, by a person with scarred knuckles and a lifetime of conflict, affect you? This is NOT meant as a threat, or an insult, but have you ever been in a real street fight, with blood and possibly knives, bottles, etc.? Have you ever seen anyone killed with a baseball bat in the street?

I know very well what these circumstances are like, because I've been there, and all the karate, or whatever you do, in the world isn't going to help you when your opponent is hell-bent on finishing you off.

Just some food for thought from a Brooklynite.

Now what the heck is that supposed to mean? For somebody who is so set on not straying from the subject of Celiac disease, you have reeeeaaaaaaaallly come far. This is an awful lot worse than talking about an 'evil ex-wife'.

And it sure sounds like you would like Stef to encounter this kind of fight and lose. I don't like it at all.

Spoken by another German, by the way.

[celiachap]

Now what the heck is that supposed to mean? For somebody who is so set on not straying from the subject of Celiac disease, you have reeeeaaaaaaaallly come far. This is an awful lot worse than talking about an 'evil ex-wife'. And it sure sounds like you would like Stef to encounter this kind of fight and lose. I don't like it at all.Spoken by another German, by the way.

I have quite a bit of German in me - not just on one side, but from many sides of my family tree. Have you ever heard of the Palatines, that came to New York State (Albany county) in the early 18th century? I have ancestry from there. How about the troops that came from Germany to fight for England in the Revolution? My 4th great grandfather was among them. He was captured, and eventually joined the American Continental Army. I have a picture of his grandson (1837-1906), my great great grandfather, and I look very much like him.

My mother's grandparents were from Germany, and my father's grandfather was also. All of these people were proud to become Americans.

Stefi has once again brought up her illustrious accomplishments in the world of Martial Arts and said that she knows something about "fighting". Unless you have had streetfighting experience, then the "martial arts" are nothing more than a type of dance. These staged "fights" that they have are no more real than wrestling matches on TV - nobody gets deliberately hurt. I wish no harm to Stefi, or anybody else, but let's not kid ourselves. A seasoned bar-bouncer could put her away in about two seconds. Lights Out, kids, lol! I know a woman that was the national women's judo champ, who had her purse snatched in Brooklyn about 30 years ago. All of this is make-believe, and I'd advise anybody that's learning it to proceed with extreme caution no matter how "good" your teachers say you are. In other words, don't brag.

It's not the fights you win that make you strong, but the ones you LOSE.

[mouse]

I don't know why all of this anger is coming into play on this thread - but stop it. This forum is suppose to be helping ALL of us. It does not matter what nationality we are, what color skin, what jobs we have, what religion we believe in, or what religion we do not believe in. We are not here to judge, but to help. We all have expierenced personal anger due to pain, our past, our present, with celiac disease, with other health issues from this disease. We have no right to take this anger out on others in this forum. May we please help this man and get beyond this. Armetta

[Guest BERNESES]

Just ignore Celiacchap. The more you engage him, the more you fuel his fire. He'll go away if he realizes he's not getting a response from us.

Karen- I hope you're feeling better. That's awful.

Stef- I AM American and you know what, I took no offense to what you said. I still respect you this morning

MSFL- keep us updated on what's going on.

[MSFL2]

Since you brought up "fighting", how would a sock in the jaw, by a person with scarred knuckles and a lifetime of conflict, affect you? This is NOT meant as a threat, or an insult, but have you ever been in a real street fight, with blood and possibly knives, bottles, etc.? Have you ever seen anyone killed with a baseball bat in the street?

I know very well what these circumstances are like, because I've been there, and all the karate, or whatever you do, in the world isn't going to help you when your opponent is hell-bent on finishing you off.

Just some food for thought from a Brooklynite.

All first of.. had to create a new account since my computer is acting up :-(

Got the same treatment last night at the hospital. They gave me IV and hydrated me and pain medication for the stomach thru IV and some nasua meds, then it was bye bye and told me to see my Doc. Did not help to explain my situation and it did not help to demand help. So i need to countinue to try to avoid all the diffrent things i cant eat and try to get back in shape again.

I have sleept this morning and trying to get hold of someone at the hospital who can help me.

Celiachap. I understand that you have liven a rough life and have scars from that. But have you thought about that others has gone thru worse ? Myself for an example survived one of the wars and i had fellow soldier dying from bullets , mortar , artillery and close combat. Have you ever seen a mad man coming against you with a knife trying to slice you open and all you can do is to use the same methods back. Have you ever needed to go down in a basement and find a whole family with slit throats .. 2 year old children burned alive ? or the 6 month baby that they cut of the head of because it was fun? and when you trying to move the bodies they are rigged with handgrenades ? The only diffrence between a NY street fight and a war is that what i was doing is legal.

Im not proud of knowing i have killed people. Did it made me a better man. Probably not but it sure made me grow up quick to understand that it does not matter where you are from or how rough your life has been that i need to have a diffrent view on fellow people and environments around me. Its proven times and times over that martial arts has an effect on how you can protect yourself. Why would the 101st then train in closecombat with martial arts ?

[Guest BERNESES]

MSFL- You in no way have to defend yourself to any of us. Let's just get you better! Don't waste your energy defending what you have done or what has happened. You don't owe anyone any explanations about anything. We're here to help you get better. B

[celiachap]

All first of.. had to create a new account since my computer is acting up :-( I have sleept this morning and trying to get hold of someone at the hospital who can help me. Celiachap. I understand that you have liven a rough life and have scars from that. But have you thought about that others has gone thru worse ? Myself for an example survived one of the wars and i had fellow soldier dying from bullets , mortar , artillery and close combat. Have you ever seen a mad man coming against you with a knife trying to slice you open and all you can do is to use the same methods back. Have you ever needed to go down in a basement and find a whole family with slit throats .. 2 year old children burned alive ? or the 6 month baby that they cut of the head of because it was fun? and when you trying to move the bodies they are rigged with handgrenades ? The only diffrence between a NY street fight and a war is that what i was doing is legal. Im not proud of knowing i have killed people. Did it made me a better man. Probably not but it sure made me grow up quick to understand that it does not matter where you are from or how rough your life has been that i need to have a diffrent view on fellow people and environments around me. Its proven times and times over that martial arts has an effect on how you can protect yourself. Why would the 101st then train in closecombat with martial arts ?

Let's call it a day with this topic because it has nothing to do with celiac disease. This is my last posting about this.

First of all, being in a war as part of the military does not make anyone a "man" - nor does streetfighting. Both of these things should be avoided like the plague, but sometimes that's impossible. The first realization that I could be killed came to me at 5 years old, in the streets, and I never forgot that - and I'd rather not say any more about it.

The animals that you were doing battle against, in whatever conflict(s) you were involved in, is a just and noble cause. Unfortunatly, the United States seems to have become the target of much of the world's hatred - including people that have benefitted immensly by coming here and taking advantage of it's resources.

I know that the Army trains people in hand-to-hand combat, and other self-defense, because my father was in the 13th Airborne during WWII. But they rarely, if ever, used these skills in war - the guns were their main form of protection. I can tell you that ANY girl, and most guys, will not be in good shape after a good punch to the face - I've only been hit once there (edit correction: only once while standing up, lol), by a barefisted street punk, and it didn't even phase me. I'm NOT "big", or "tough", though. The people that think that they can fend-off a mugger with martial arts are living in a fantasy world. It CAN help, but being "crazy", as a result of previous experiences and/or injury, is the one thing that has allowed me to survive. You do not learn this in a dojo. Fortunatly, I have not had to seriously injure, much less kill, anybody - and hope that I never do. I do know one thing: the people that have been stupid enough to approach me with bad intentions do an about-face and beat it fast as soon as they see my stance, hear what I tell them, and gaze at the "look" on my face. One person, in and incident near my home a few years ago, actually fumbled for his cell-phone to call the cops on ME, lol!

People that have been injured, like myself, are the most dangerous - NOT the street-scum that prey on others that cannot defend themselves, and they recognize this instantly.

Enough!

Have a good one!

[Canadian Karen]

MSFL,

From here on out, let's concentrate on getting you back on track health wise and the rest will take care of itself.....

When I was at my lowest point, the only thing I could eat (and the same holds true when I am glutened) is potatoes. Mashed potatoes, boiled potatoes, even french fries for me were okay. That is the ONLY food that does not hurt going through for me..... Have you tried that? It's funny, even when I was a kid, I was a terrible eater. My mom had me to the doctor over and over again (also anemic, I can remember getting my finger pricked all the time checking my blood), because the only thing I would eat was potatoes. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. I look back at it now and realize that even as a child, my body was trying to tell me something, that it was Mother Nature's way of keeping me away from the stuff that hurt......

In regards to the hospital stuff and getting treatment, I can't help you there. I don't know how your system works in the States. There may be lots of flaws in our health system up here (like wait lists etc.) but most of the time I am very thankful for the system we have up here......

Karen

[stef-the-kicking-cuty]

Hello MSFL,

just read what happened last night. Hope you are feeling better. One thing that has helped me to keep more liquid in my body was Gatorade or Powerade, although you might not want to try this, if you're nauseous. Maybe chamomila tea might help also...

The other thing I wanted to say was to celiachap. I was not a traffic policeman like you maybe think, I did duty in a riot platoon. A RIOT platoon. Do I have to say more??? If you see people coming at you with knifes, stones and molotov cocktails (sp?), then you feel your heart sink into your pants. And we were not allowed to use our guns, let alone take them with us. We could have hurt somebody innocent, which meant paperwork. And that much for martial arts, I'm still living...

And one martial arts school can differ from the other like day and night. There are good schools and bad schools.

With what you wrote you clearly show, that you don't know anything about me. I don't win all my fights, nor do I brag about winning big tournaments. In fact about 75% of tournaments I am NOT winning... And if you mean the thread I opened with my daily training up to the world championships. I only did this, so that people could help me get back on the right track, when I have a "lazy" moment. At the end I trained so much I hardly ever had the time to update it. If I had wanted to brag woulnd't I have been here everyday then just to do this? I just post to socialize and also get a swift kick in the behind (help), if I need it.

Unfortunatly, the United States seems to have become the target of much of the world's hatred - including people that have benefitted immensly by coming here and taking advantage of it's resources. The United States didn't become the target of much of the world's hatred. Other countries just have other opinions and we still have the right to think different, don't we? If it's right or not is written on another piece of paper. And if you can't tolerate other countries opinions, it's your problem, not ours.

If you mean the immigrants, that came here, not everybody had benefits by coming here. In fact, I lost almost everything I had. The only thing AND also the only good thing I gained is a husband. I have to get back everything I already had again. Certificates, drivers licences, diplomas, a good job.... Some things I won't even get back anymore: A good health insurance, pension and so on... So the question actually is, what did I gain? I made 10 steps back and I need more than a swift kick in the behind and lots of years to get it back. IF I ever get it back, thank you very much...

So you are from Germany, right? I believe you, but let me give you a little bit history here. Might be interesting for the rest of you guys, that have german ancestry as well, too. I love history and ironically, since I'm in the United States I spend a lot of time reading German history. Something that I found very interesting was this (short version, if you want the long one, e-mail me and I'll explain it to you):

Unlike other major European countries, Germany was not really Germany until about 1866. The British had their Island, the Italians a peninsula and so on. Their borders were already pretty much well-defined, not so "German" borders, they were "artificial". From the middle ages onward the "German" borders became wider and narrower with wars, treaties, royal marriages and so on... all the time. So before the 19th century, the people who lived in the area where there's Germany today couldn't really say: "This is Germany!" There was no Germany, no national identity. What we call Germany even in the late eighteenth century was split up among hundreds of kingdoms, duchies, principalities, bishoprics, archbishoprics, and free cities. By the time of Napoleon, Prussia was the biggest kingdom in northeastern "Germany". "Germany" barely existed. Heck, the United States is older than Germany. The years 1789 to 1815 had the French under Napoleon Bonaparte coming to reign supreme over the German people. The area where Germany is today was called the "Germanies" then, nothing more but like a "gathering" of free cities and kingdoms... Then there was the Congress of Vienna in 1814 to redraw the European map and to make sure that nothing like the Napoleonic wars should ever happen again. At this Congress for the first time different people of the "Germanies" formed some members of a "German Confederation" to represent themselves at this Congress. After 1815 "the Germanies" were more divided than ever. Then there was the Revolution of 1848 in "the Germanies", which was a nightmare for the aristocratic classes all over Europe. In May 1848 some professors, judges, lawyers, bureaucrats, clergy and businessmen met in Frankfurt at the Frankfurt Assembly. For the first time there was a talk about (among other things) an all-German Constitution. In the end however this talk came to nothing. Political liberalism of 1848 subsided, a German unification through "iron and blood" became the prevailing doctrine. By the early 1960's, the "genius" who brought around the German unification appeared: Otto von Bismarck. But Bismarck was no German nationalist and after the king chose him as chancellor in 1862, he had only one goal. Making Prussia stronger. His principle: Prussian supremacy. Again no Germany. Dream on... By 1866 Bismarck was in war with Austria and with most of the other German states a long the Rhine. Notice, that Austria was still part of the "Germanies". Later it became to be it's own country until today. So this hickhack went on for a while. Then there was the Franco-Prussian war, which started on July 19th, 1870. Later they called it the Franco-German war. With the support of the southern "German" states, Prussia crashed into France. For four months in the winter of 1870/1871, the "Germans" besieged the French capital. January 18th, 1871 at the palace of Versailles, Bismarck proclaimed the creation of the German Empire, the Second "Reich". In Frankfurt on May 10th 1871, Bismarck dictated the peace treaty. Of course there's more complicated stuff to understand with all these wars here and there and peace treaties and such, that I didn't put in here, but still would be essential to understand the whole mess.

Nevertheless, I find it interesting, that some people say, they are German, but in fact at the time, when their ancestors came over here, a Germany as such did not exist. The were just different kingdoms and such. By the way, my grandmother (the mother of my mother) comes from the Rhineland-Palatinate as well. And I remember having the same conversation with that other guy, that was on our message board here last year, that wasn't welcome anymore. His ancestors were from the Palatinate also. Weird... and at the same time interesting. That probably means, that we Rhineland-Palatinators must be a stubborn bunch of people, I guess

By the early 1960's, the "genius" who brought around the German unification appeared: Otto von Bismarck.

Excuse me, of course I meant 1860's. That was a typo.

[Canadian Karen]

Stef,

Just wanted to mention that I enjoyed reading your daily updates on your training. I was exercising vicariously through you!!!!

Karen

[darkangel]

I will try to go to the hospital tonight. My friend tells me i must have lost more weight, my face has become thiner and my eyes are red. so i need to go in.

Please don't go after hours to the same ER that turned you away before. I'm betting you'll get better results if you see a patient advocate or social worker during regular office hours. You need to talk to someone who has the time to hear your story - diagnosis, symptoms and dire financial situation - and get you some real help.

[celiachap]

Hello MSFL,

t That probably means, that we Rhineland-Palatinators must be a stubborn bunch of people, I guess :PExcuse me, of course I meant 1860's. That was a typo.

I have German ancestry, but not 100%. I was born in Brooklyn.

I am very well aware of the “german” states - but not an expert (more about this in the next paragraph). Some of my "recent" ancestors came, in the mid-late 19th century, from an area in, or near, Alsace-Lorraine- and places such as Frankfurt, Bavaria, Berlin, and many others. An elderly distant cousin of mine, who died in Germany in the late 1990's, left no will - and I was contacted by a firm that found relatives in the United States. I did not take my share, but it went to my sister. I would have been required to send a birth certificate to Germany, which I was not willing to do. I believe she got a thousand dollars in American money - which wasn't bad since we not only never met her; We were not even aware of her at all, or any other (living) relatives over there.

My "Hessian" (a misnomer) ancestor that came over with the British forces was born in Hildesheim, and fought with the forces of Baron Friedrich Adolph von Riedesel, working for the British army of General John Burgoyne. My ancestor's outfit was the Brunswick army that landed in Canada in 1776 and, along with many others, were captured at the Battle of Saratoga, in New York state. This was a "turning point" in the Revolution. I have a certificate to honor my ancestor - but it is equally, and even more, important to me that he later joined the American side. There were six principalities that rented their armies to Britain: Brunswick (5723 men), Hesse-Kassel (16992 men), Hesse-Hanau (2422 men), Ansbach-Bayreuth (2353 men), Waldeck (1225 men), Anhalt-Zerbst (1160 men). This was a total of 29, 875. Source: THE HESSIANS and the other GERMAN AUXILIARIES OF GREAT BRITAIN IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR by Edward J. Lowell Open Original Shared Link

This is a VERY interesting book, published in 1884 - and it is available online for free. I would recommend it to anybody interested in the American Revolution, or history in general. I believe that about 7 thousand of these men did not return to Europe, and I am glad for that - or I wouldn't be here!

Many Americans of German descent are very proud of their heritage - but the 20th century wars made it very difficult to maintain organization here for obvious reasons.

A lot of your comments are your opinions, and I respect them.

Have a good one.

[jkmunchkin]

Since you brought up "fighting", how would a sock in the jaw, by a person with scarred knuckles and a lifetime of conflict, affect you? This is NOT meant as a threat, or an insult, but have you ever been in a real street fight, with blood and possibly knives, bottles, etc.? Have you ever seen anyone killed with a baseball bat in the street?

I know very well what these circumstances are like, because I've been there, and all the karate, or whatever you do, in the world isn't going to help you when your opponent is hell-bent on finishing you off.

Just some food for thought from a Brooklynite.

What the heck is wrong with you?!! You can kill the NY tough guy act. You're probably 100 pounds and would be a great contestant on that show Beauty and the Geek. It's people like you why other countries hate us and think we're jerks. You're continual trying to prove how tough you are to everyone here is just a sign of immaturity.

MSFL - I commend you on your life.

[tarnalberry]

MSFL,

I don't know if it's a language/grammar thing (and I'm not bringing nationality/ethnicity into this - plenty of native english speakers use different language/grammar online than in speaking) or just me misunderstanding, so I'm trying to clear up a couple other things related to the symptoms.

You've talked about eating bananas, citrus fruits, and water, and that you're are avoiding wheat, barley, rye, and oats at the moment. Your symptoms primarily are extreme diarreah and dehydration (possibly with the former causing the later, I presume). And you're also feeling very stressed out from other life events. With all the other random posts, I'm having trouble figuring out if this is the full picture. There's nothing else you're eating (or otherwise exposed to) or taking (like medications or vitamins), and there are no other symptoms?

If that is the extent of it, then what you are eating may be exacerbating the problem - nothing but those two fruits will not give you the vitamins and nutrients you need. I know, it's a tricky situation if other things make the problem worse. But it may be something else - I would think viral or parasitic based on what I've gathered from your posts, but I don't have the clearest picture. What tests have they run? Particularly if you don't have a steady doctor, you MUST get copies of the test results so that the doctors you see in the future can have a full picture.

It seems, at this point, there isn't much choice, you really need to see a GI. You don't have to have insurance to see a doctor - though it means you have to pay out of pocket, which of course is more. Many times, however, a doctor will be willing to set up a payment plan so that you don't have to pay right away. If you're stuck in an area where the ER or Urgent Care is crappy, you may not have a choice in the matter. And this isn't an area where "not having the money" really cuts it - you do whatever you can to find the money.

BTW, if you haven't tried an Urgent Care place (separate from the ER), you might see if you have better luck there. There are also local clinics that may charge you on a sliding scale so that it's much more affordable. But in these instances, you really need to have the documentation on other medical visits to substantiate your claims and increase the odds that doctors will take you seriously. Severe diarreah is a serious problem.

[Guest BERNESES]

Actually the Urgent care clinic is a really good idea- my local hospital has one and it's a walk-in basis from 9-5. And yes, many doctors will set up a payment plan. Good thinking tarnalberry!

[Canadian Karen]

Good advice, Tiffany. There could be other issues at hand also. Perhaps collagenous colitis. Further testing would be the only way to find out. Financial limitations I would suspect are a large part of the reason why celiac disease goes undiagnosed to such a large extent......

Just had a thought. I wonder if money is so limited, would it be worth his while to use Enterolab to see if there are any other food allergens that are causing his symptoms to worsen?

Karen

[stef-the-kicking-cuty]

It's people like you why other countries hate us and think we're jerks.

This is quite true

I did not say, that you are lying. In fact, I said, I believe, that you have German ancestors. You said, you're not an expert, which is ok. I'm not an expert either. I just read a lot of books about German history. And the things I said here are by no means my opinions, these are facts that I learnt in the German school I went to and I read some other things in a few books. My point was, that Germany as such, did not exist before 1871. This does not mean, that the ancestors of the later peoples of Germany and the later emigrants that sailed for the New World (your ancestors) didn't live there and therefore you could call them Germans, if you want. Like Hessia for example, which by the way is no misnomer, at least not in the english language. The German word for 'Hessia' is 'Hessen' and in 1871 they called it 'Hesse'. In fact, I was born in the German state Hessia, in Frankfurt. Frankfurt was a free city around the time of 1871, when Germany was founded. And back then like today, Frankfurt and Hildesheim are very close together. Hildesheim is something like a suburb of Frankfurt. And today it is still called Hessia or in german 'Hessen', like it was a couple of hundred years ago. My dad originally came from the Rhine area. I once visited a very old castle there with him (when I still came pretty good along with him) in really good shape. It is so impressive what they did those times. I don't know the english word for it, but when you translate it literal from the german language, you would call it a "knight-hall" probably. Well, it was a big hall, where the knights met either to hold gatherings, talk about problems, eat or use it as a ballroom for festivities and other things. And in those halls they had their family crests hanging from the ceiling or at one side on the wall. Well, today, they gathered all those crests in small emblems for visitors to look at and sometimes with the name of the family underneath (if they still could trace it back). And my dad showed me our family crest there. I was about 15 or so and unfortunately I can't remember anymore. It doesn't really matter anyway, but it's really impressive. And I grew up in another German state, called Bavaria, which were the 'Kingdom of Bavaria' once, before the actual Germany.

Some of the areas, where your ancestors came from are actually mentioned as part of the members in the German Confederation. The German Confederation was set up by the statesmen at the Congress of Vienna in 1814, because nobody wanted Prussia to gain more power. Members of the german confederation were: the Kingdom of Bavaria, the Kingdom of Saxony (btw, next time you watch 'A nights Tale', listen to what Williams Herold says, when he announces him, you will here 'saxony'. Well, actually Ulrich von Lichtenstein also really lived, but that's another story), the Kingdom of Württemberg, the Kingdom of Hanover, the Grand Duchies of Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt (Darmstadt is east of Frankfurt), Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Strelitz, Saxe-Weimar, Oldenburg, the Electorat of Hesse-Cassel, the Duchies of Brunswick (your ancestors say hi ), Nassau, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Meiningen and Hildburghausen, Anhalt-Dessau, Bernburg, Cöthen, the free city of Lübeck, the free city of Bremen, the free city of Hamburg and the free city of Frankfurt-am-Main and several smaller principalities. Your Hessian ancestor that was born in Hildesheim, was pretty much my neighbor. I read part of the link that you provided and I found it very interesting, because some of it says the same thing that I learnt and what I gave here with my own words. Now one thing that caught my eye were several "german" rulers, dukes, kings, earls and what-not-so, they mentioned in the text you provided as well as in the books I read. Now in one country, there can only be one ruler, one king (maybe several earls, dukes and what-not-so, but only ONE king) and therefore a country in terms of "Germany" did not exists, because there was more than one king. The area of all these Kingdoms, Duchies and so on however was called "The Germanies", just like the different colonies were called "the Americas". Somebody had to found the United States of America, same thing with Germany. And until then such a country did actually not exist. And if you look at the dates when both countries were founded, you find, that "Germany" was founded later than "America".

[Canadian Karen]

And I remember having the same conversation with that other guy, that was on our message board here last year, that wasn't welcome anymore. His ancestors were from the Palatinate also.

Well I find THAT interesting.....

Karen