kevieb

are you having your Ttg levels tested on a regular basis. this would be a really good way to know whether or not you are getting cross contamination. there are 9 of us in our household, 3 of my daughters are celiacs. we cook all of our meals gluten free, but i do keep crackers, bread and cereal around for the rest of the family. i used to try and cook both a gluten free and a regular recipe of certain things, but i found that i would forget and use the same spoon to stir with, or some other brainless thing----so i finally decided the chance of cross-contamination was more important to worry about than the money i would save by trying to cook two different versions of the same thing.

i get the feeling that maybe alexis is going for a jerry springerish type of program. i am apalled at the last thing she wrote about not being sympathetic---and i probably spelled apalled wrong, but you know what i mean.

some of these things you gals are discussing sound so nice in theory, but in reality, there can be some really serious and unforseen complications during the delivery of a baby. i would hate to see anyone not take these possibilites into account and be disappointed if their delivery did not turn out how they had planned. i had 3 successful v-bac deliveries, but they were not without some worry during the labor. one of them was delivered with forcepts and one of them had a brief few minutes that were pretty tense and the doc actually ended up calling to have the surgery room ready and put me on oxygen for awhile. we delivered ok, but the doc told me later he had thought he might have to section me. my uterus did tear after my last daughter was delivered, her v-bac could have been disasterous if we had done it---but keep in mind that she was my 9th baby and i was over 40.

if i were doing it all over again, even with complications, i would still choose to attempt the v-bac deliveries.

sandy, i am so sorry!!! i'm glad that kathryn has had a week fever free!

dawn, my husband loves tomatoe sandwiches! have you seen bette hagman's book "the gluten free gourmet bakes bread"? it has a lot of recipes in it that allow for various intolerances. she gives directions for what to substitute for different allergies.

sandwich breads are a little more difficult to reproduce than other gluten free bread products. did you use a regular wheat recipe and convert it, or did you use a gluten free bread recipe? i think you might have better luck making bread if you use a recipe that was specifically created for gluten free flours.

reflux can cause that sensation in your throat----even if you don't get heartburn. i deal with this on a regular basis.

i think the only research that claims that is the research done by dr. fine of enterolab----and he just doesn't seem to be able to get around to publishing anything to prove his work.

i completely trust walmart's GV brand labeling. i THINK that they are very diligent about it and won't even list something gluten free if it is gluten free but made in a facility that uses gluten. we read the labels and love to be able to see GLUTEN FREE----but we still buy some of the Gv products that don't say gluten free as long as the ingredients look safe.

angie----i had 3 v-bacs after having 2 c-sections. we were going to do a fourth v-bac with my last one, but they could tell she was in trouble before they even started the induction, so we did an emergency c-section with her. i hope the v-bac goes well-----the recovery time is so much easier, but, we'll take those kids any way we can get them here!!LOL!!

we do most of our baking using our old betty crocker cookbook recipes. we just substitute gluten free flour blends for the wheat flour and add xanthan gum. most of our baking is very successful.

kate---this is an easy one. since your doc tested with a Ttg test, and you have now been gluten free for 4 months, ask for a repeat Ttg test. when the results come back lower, i don't know how your GI could still tell you that you don't have celiac disease. i can't believe that the gi didn't think of that one himself????

just a thought, but probably the majority of the people buying these gluten free flours would also be concerned about cross-contamination so the risk may not be too bad. personally, if we had bulk gluten free flours available to us, i would give them a try for my girls.

i've wondered why it is considered the "gold standard" also----since milk problems can also cause villi blunting.

don't know where you live, but i know the name of a regular MD in utah that has dedicated his practice to treating candida.

i have these same problems and they seem to get worse with time. are you taking any meds? how do you feel in the mornings? you could be sleeping, but it might not be the right kind of sleep.

have you had follow up blood work to be sure your diet is gluten free?

vincent-----this is wonderful news to hear.

what about you------how are you doing? didn't your doc diagnose you with celiac?

it's funny you posted this today----i have fibromyalgia and recently the fatigue is almost overwhelming. just today i have decided to try (once again) to change my diet and see if i can find some relief from the pain and fatigue. i don't have celiac (3 of my girls do) but i keep having a tendency to wonder whether or not i should avoid gluten anyway. there are wheat and chemical ingredients in so many foods!!! i wonder if maybe people would have never gotten to the point of intolerance if our diets had not been overwhelmed with these ingredients----quite often unknowingly.

i have a tendency to agree with carla---if you are sure you are totally gluten free-----your symptoms could be caused by something else. what symtpoms are you having? maybe if you post them they will ring a bell with someone. i always figure that the more people you talk to, the more info you can glean.

my son has ADHD and he is bipolar ll. he gets alot of anxiety problems. the psych has told him that mixed states(from the bipolar condition) can cause the anxiety symptoms. just what you needed, one more thing to worry as a possibility---sorry.

i don't know if it could be celiac related or not, but as the mother of a teenager, i am glad to see that you are concerned about it. (don't i just sound like a mom!LOL!) my 18 yr old son does not sleep well and he is grouchy, and seems to have more aches and pains than a boy who works out on a regular basis should have. i have fibromyalgia and i know that sleep problems aggravate it. lack of sleep can even cause fibro problems in a person without fibro.

i think it would be a good idea to discuss this with your doc.

i was the one that posted about constipation raising antigliadin levels. this is something that our ped gi just recently told me when i was questioning him about test results. raised antigliadin levels are not a really accurate test to base a celiac diagnosis on. i think it is a good idea that you are going the medical route for a diagnosis---but i know that alot of people feel differently about this subject. if all of your daughter's tests come back normal, however, i think you have nothing to lose if you try her gluten free to see if it makes any difference.

i have learned that there are even other things that can raise Ttg levels besides celiac disease----but i don't think that they are particularly common. one of them is host-versus-graft disease-----but obviously you would have to be a transplant patient to have that one.

my daughter had an MRI once that showed she had multi-cystic ovaries. the MRI was being done for hip pain, but it picked up the ovary problem because it was nearby. and----the ovary problem was not a problem, we discovered, after being referred to a gyno. i agree with blue-eyed-mamma---the ultra sound is likely to show something irregular if it is in the general area of the gall bladder. you could always mention to the tech that you are concerned about this and he might be a little more thorough with his ultra sound.

carla-----i guess the way i typed that made it sound like i know i have lyme. i have not been tested, but because i have so many unexplained symptoms that fit lyme disease, i'd really like to find a doctor that will test me without giving the whole story of how it is probably not likely that i have it because........i just want a doctor to humour me and run the test.

carla, i think it was about 35 years ago for me, too.

molly, my youngest daughter, sylvia, had a lap nissen fundo done just before she turned 10 months old. she has never had a single complication from it. she will be 4 in october. when they went in to do the surgery they discovered that she had a hiatal hernia---not very common in babies---we could have medicated her till her eyeballs were swimming and she would not have gotten better without surgery. at 8 months old, when we did the scope and ph probe, her esophagus was already getting ulcerated.

kassie and tianna both had reflux but are finally off of prevacid. i think it took about a year of being gluten free before they could quit the meds. tianna never had symptoms to begin with, but they discovered esophagitis when they did her scope to check for celiac. kassie was pretty miserable with her reflux---especially because it was causing her shortness of breath for awhile and we kept telling her it was probably anxiety that was causing the trouble breathing. prevacid relieved the breathing problems for her.

sylvia and kassie both had esophageal thrush, but it was not connected to their reflux.

i am having alot of reflux trouble right now, also. i am also considering having a fundo done. i just don't want to be paying a fortune every month for meds that change the ph level of my stomach for the rest of my life. i had a scope done in october that showed damage and labeled the reflux "severe"----but i didn't think that my symptoms were that bad. i had been having problems with food getting stuck, so they clipped the esophageal ring to widen the opening.

right now i feel like i have something caught in my throat for a lot of the day, like either i never swallowed my food completely, or it just won't stay down. there are times that i want to avoid eating because i don't want to get that sensation of food that never goes down all the way. i even feel like i have something in my throat when i drink liquids. i can't even bend to make my bed without reflux coming back up. i used to get really bad chest pain that went through to my back, up my neck, and all the way up to make my teeth hurt. i am not having pain like that right now, but i am starting to get a little bit of uncomfortable sensations in my chest.

one of my sisters had the surgery years ago without complications. my brother-in-law had the surgery several years back. he said that for about 6 months that he had trouble swallowing solid foods because his esophagus was narrow, but he has not had any complications since then.

sylvia cannot throw up when she gets sick, so she wretches, which is a little un-nerving for me but doesn't seem to bother her too much. she can burp, so she doesn't seem to get problems from bloating.

by the sounds of it, it really sounds like surgery would be your best bet. i am hoping to have a fundo before the end of the year (because of insurance coverage) maybe we can compare notes. i will have to go out of town to find a surgeon---i don't trust our local one. keep me posted on what happens and what you and your parents decide.