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No E Mass / So Nh - Support Groups ?


lpjourney

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lpjourney Rookie

I'm in Chelmsford - I'm wondering if there are any support groups in this area?

Just officially diagnosed with Celiac, have wondered if I might be for a while - no real major symptons - just accaisonal ones, my mother has been dealing with it for about 17 years. I also was started on Type 2 Diabetes oral medication to help keep the blood sugar down and not progress to higher levels. My research has only shown links to Type 1. I requested that my PC doctor run the antibody tests to rule out Celiac - which lead me to be further tested by endoscopy biopsy. So this is my new journey for life.


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munkee41182 Explorer

Hey neighbor!!!! I'm actually in Lowell. As far as I know there really aren't any support groups in this area...but there are some in Newton I believe. I have to go digging through old emails to find it though :-)

lpjourney Rookie

Hi Jami - I'm Liisa - I know there are more people in the area that are dealing with Celiac - maybe it's time to start one around here. But I wouldn't know the first thing about how to go about doing so.

I'd like to get an idea of those that might be interested in participating.

If anyone has any ideas, suggestions, where to get material to share, etc.....

thanks in advance

Laurossi Newbie

Hi

I am in Bedford. Diagnosed with Celiac 4 years ago by Dr Catherine Cheney of Beth Israel. I am interested in starting a local group.

Lets all put our heads together,

Laura

  • 9 years later...
John B. Newbie

hello everyone I am john and I was just diagnosed with celiac. Is there any local support groups in or around the Billerica area I can join and find out more about it.

GFinDC Veteran
7 hours ago, John B. said:

hello everyone I am john and I was just diagnosed with celiac. Is there any local support groups in or around the Billerica area I can join and find out more about it.

Welcome to the forum John! :)

Try this search:

Open Original Shared Link

Also, we have a "newbie 101" thread for getting started in the Coping With forum section.  This forum is a great place to get information on what to eat and other things that can help.  Think whole foods rather than processed foods.  Foods you cook from scratch yourself are best.  That way you know what's in the food.  Dairy can cause problems for the first several months until some healing happens.  There are lots of gluten-free foods and restaurants now.  But it's best to stick with meats, veggies, nuts and fruits for awhile.  No eating out for 6 months or so.  For a bread sub Mission brand corn tortillas are good and Aldi makes some good gluten-free wraps.  Some people like rice cakes also.  Gluten-free breads are available but should be avoided until you have got some months under your belt.

Cross-contamination can happen when somebody uses a knife or spoon to get peanut butter or some condiment out and then you use the same jar of peanut butter.  Little crumbs do matter to the immune system and it will react, sometimes for months.  So if you are sharing such items with others who aren't gluten-free you need to stop.  Wooden spoons and dishes are too difficult to clean adequately.  Metal is usually fine though.

It's all a steep learning curve at first but it gets easier in time.  We can help you over the rough spots.  We've hit a few of them ourselves.

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    • trents
      This may help you get off onto the right foot:  There usually is quite a learning curve involved in attaining to consistency in gluten free eating. Attaining a "low gluten" diet is easy because you simply cut out the obvious things like bread and pasta. It's the places gluten is found in the food industry that you would never expect that trips up newbies and also the whole area of cross contamination, which involves things that would be naturally gluten free but come into contact with gluten things and thereby pick up gluten incidentally. So, you order a fried egg and sausage but forget that it will be cooked on the same grill that was used to cook someone else's French toast. Or you go to a spaghetti place and order gluten free pasta but they cook it in the same pot with wheat noodles. That kind of thing. Or you buy cough drops and find out that after sucking on several of them and getting an upset tummy that they contained wheat. Wheat can be used as filler and a texturing agent in pills and meds. And would you ever have thought that soy sauce and Campbells tomato soup would have wheat in them. Read the labels sometime.   
    • kim91380
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    • trents
      Welcome to the forum, @kim91380! A little education perhaps is in order here. I hope you aren't offended. The tests don't measure blood levels of gluten but the blood levels of the antibodies produced by the immune system as it attacks the gluten that comes in contact with the cells that line the small bowel. So, as we eliminate gluten from the diet, the levels of the antibodies begins to drop. New antibody production ceases very quickly upon discontinuing gluten consumption but it can take awhile for the body to eliminate those already in circulation, probably several weeks to see much of a noticeable drop. And unless all gluten has been removed from the diet, the antibody drop will be slower and may not reach normal levels. Do the test scores you refer to reflect a new diagnosis of celiac disease or is this repeat testing from an existing diagnosis and if the latter, how long ago was the initial diagnosis made?
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