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Seriously thought it was appendicitis

awayoutwest

By awayoutwest
in Related Issues & Disorders

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awayoutwest Newbie
awayoutwest
Posted

Not sure if I'm posting this in the correct forum, so forgive me if not. My 15 yo daughter is about 3 years into a gluten-free lifestyle. She tested negative for celiac and was given a general IBS/gluten-intolerant diagnosis. She has been very successful managing her symptoms being gluten-free and limiting dairy. Last night she had such severe upper abdomen pain that came on over the course of a few hours, I took her to the ER. Her symptoms were so "classic" appendicitis that I honestly thought they'd tell us they were scheduling surgery. However, her CT scan and all labs were normal. They sent us home with a prescription for pepcid and zofran. She woke up this morning feeling about the same, with stabbing, crampy pain and a headache. It's bad enough that she decided to forgo the biggest game of her soccer season, so I know she feels terrible.

As we were thinking through what could be the cause if not something emergent (and of course, there's always the possibility of a stomach bug, but this doesn't really seem like that), we started to wonder about gluten exposure. We went to breakfast yesterday and she ordered what were supposed to be "gluten-friendly" pancakes. If the restaurant had accidentally served her regular pancakes, this would be a BIG dose of gluten for someone who has been almost exclusively gluten-free for 3+ years. Here are my questions: could being glutened like this cause these symptoms? If so, how long should we expect them to last before she might start to feel bettter? Thanks to anyone who has input on this. 

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trents Grand Master
trents
Posted

I have celiac disease but In my experience, when getting "glutened" the acute symptoms (cramping, vomiting and diarrhea) lasts 3-4 hr. but I am still out of sorts for a couple of weeks. I would have drilled the eatery staff down with regard to what is meant by "gluten friendly" pancakes. Even if the pancake mix contained no gluten intentionally, if the cakes were cooked on the same grill as food containing gluten there was likely some cross contamination. Also, many "lite" pancake syrups contain wheat starch as a primary ingredient. It's used as a thickener in many, many food items like chocolate syrup, most canned soups. Gluten is a primary ingredient in most soy sauces.

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