Googles

Hello.

I found the temptation went away with time. Especially after my cravings started going away. For the first year and a half or though after the initial cravings went away I would have really bad cravings when I got glutened. But luckily even those are gone now when I get glutened. I did find it annoying at times having to describe what celiac was. But when I really got annoyed by questions I would shorten the explanation down to something like "I have celiac, wheat, rye, and barley make me sick, so I can't have any". Putting it very succinctly should let others know that you aren't open to questions. I try to make sure I have something I enjoy eating when I know others are going to have food, that way I don't feel deprived. I hope you feel better soon.

I use Burt's Bees for lip gloss/lip stick.

Mamaw:

Thank you for the recommendations. I went to Spaghetti Benders and it was great. The only let down was that their pasta was too al dante even after sending it back since it was rock hard on the inside the first time, but that might just be personal preference. But the other food was wonderful (especially the garlic bread) and the service was awesome. As I hardly ever go out to eat, it was really nice to have someone else cook for me.

Thank you very much!

Mamaw:

Thank you so much!

Googles.

There is a member here username "mamaw" that lives in that area. If she does not see your post you could try to PM her.

Thanks for letting me know that. I have seen her around.

What I would want from a restaurant (some are obvious or others have stated, but wanted to put it down anyway):

Pizza that has a nice crust that isn't cracker thin or so thick it is like cardboard.

Food that is flavored with seasonings (ie not plain dry chicken).

Bread sticks that are warm and fluffy.

I agree with the other on gluten free fried foods. I want yummy gluten free fried chicken (yes the fatty bad for you kind).

Cake that is light and fluffy. I can make the betty crocker type, but it is just not the same.

Corn bread (though I don't like the type with chunks of corn in it)

I would also really like some pumpkin bread/muffins. (every time I go to Starbucks I feel a little jealous seeing their pumpkin bread)

And I have to say, if this restaurant could be completely gluten free (this might be what you are thinking about), that would be best. I miss being able to go out to eat and not have to worry about getting sick. The best thing would be if the food was good enough that even our gluten eating friends would want to eat there. That way we could suggest it and not feel like we are having others have to give up what they want to go some where we can eat, that they might even suggest as a place to go out.

I grew up in Seattle, if I go back to visit and your place is in business I would totally make my parents drive me down there. (Though we would have to borrow my brother's car as my parent's car is electric and only goes about 50 miles).

Does anyone know of good restaurants that are in/around Pittsburgh PA to Indiana PA area that are good? I am visiting next week and looking for places to eat.

Thanks.

I am vising Indiana PA next week (about an hour outside Pittsburgh). I was wondering if anyone knew of any restaurants around there that has gluten free menus. I will be there multiple days so I am hoping to not have to bring my own food for the whole time.

Thanks.

Roda-

I had to do the same thing with the dietician I saw. Her list of safe foods was out of date. It just made me cry because I felt so alone, overwhelmed, and confused. I had really been hoping that the dietician would make things clearer.

Thanks, I have a walgreens close by too. I will get theirs.

I need a decongestent and I have used sudafed in the past (but before gluten free). Since it is the weekend I can't call them to find out and it doesn't say on the website and I don't know if the listed ingredients are safe. Does anyone know if the sudafed pressure and pain is gluten free. here are the ingredients:

Ingredients

Active Ingredient (in each caplet)

Naproxen sodium 220 mg

(naproxen 200 mg) (NSAID*)

Pseudoephedrine HCl 120 mg,extended-release

Inactive Ingredients

colloidal silicon dioxide, hypromellose, lactose monohydrate, magnesium stearate, microcrystalline cellulose, polyethylene glycol, polysorbate 80, povidone, talc, titanium dioxide

Or does anyone know of anything like sudafed that helps with sinus pressure that is gluten free.

Thanks.,

I hate noticed a new problems since I was diagnosed. Since then when I get a stomach illness (not glutening) I have a period where I am nauseous in the morning for a while afterwards. It happens every day in the morning. I feel nauseous and sometimes throw up. I was wondering if anyone had any insight into this. Last year when this happened it lasted for 3 mos. I was sick earlier this year and it lasted a couple of days. I was sick Tuesday and Wednesday and it happened this morning (what I first thought was a continuation of the illness). This never happened before I was diagnosed, so it seems like it has to be celiac related in some way.

Someone asked me this week if my celiac effected my ability to heal from other illnesses (there are some nasty bugs going around where I live and I caught one of them). I was wondering if celiac effects our bodies ability to heal from things like colds and sinus infections etc.

Hello,

If you are not already registered with your school's dissability office you should register with them. It is their job to help you with situations like this. With providing the staff with the training they will need to feed you safely. This is especially true if you are forced to buy a meal plan. They will be able to help you contact the right people to get things done. They are there to help you navigate this stuff. Get the help you are entitled to. They will know the ins and outs of this stuff.

I don't know how long you have been gluten free. For the first two years or so I would have cravings for bread. Especially when glutened. Over time they decreased and I hardly ever have cravings anymore, even when I get glutened. I would try to find something that filled the void when it was really bad. I found that Udi's muffins worked really well. They are expensive, but I found good and when I just couldn't stand it I would get some. I also like Udi's bread when I want a sandwich. I know people on the board have good recipes for homemade bread. You might want to look into that if you are up to doing the baking. Good luck.

I would say that maybe it was insomnia, but her being able to go to sleep when she is in your bed doesn't suggest that. (I get really bad insomnia when I get glutened.) You might want to learn some relaxation strategies to teach your daughter so that she can use them to get back to sleep at night. Some good ones are deep breathing and progressive muscle relaxation. Are there any other behavioral changes lately that might be influencing this besides the gluten?

Sometimes while you don't get the sleep you want when you have to parent, sometimes it just means biting the bullet and putting her back to bed when she wants to sleep with you. Letting this go on for longer will not make getting her back in bed any easier. Sit down with her during the day to find out what happens when she wakes up at night and comes into your room. Is she anxious, or having nightmares, or missing you? These things can be dealt with directly but you need to talk about them during the day. If she is able to describe what is happening, that is half the way to being able to fix the problem. Good luck.

Thanks everyone! We've decided to go to my sisters house and I am going to bring my own food. She said that she didn't invite us at first because she feels bad eating in front of me. Thats awful.

Anyway..thanks!!

I had the same problems with friends. I met new friends when I moved shortly after being diagnosed. They didn't invite me to hang out when they knew they were going to eat because they didn't want to eat in front of me. I had to address it with them since I knew that they were going out and not inviting me. I think a lot of people do this because they are afraid of offending us by eating in front of us, but then don't invite us which actually hurts more. They think they are sparing us when really they are making us feel left out.

Hello,

The doctors could detect Crohn's disease if it is in the area of the endoscopy. However, Crohn's disease can happen anywhere along the digestive track. My brother has Crohn's disease so they did a colonoscopy at the same time as the endoscopy to check and make sure there was nothing else going on in addition to the Ceilac. I have GERD symptoms that are like what you describe. I didn't know that it was GERD before going to the doctor as I had never thought about something like that.

When I was first diagnosed things that were acidic made my GERD react (ie tomatos, orange juice etc). Now I get it really bad when I get glutened. It can take weeks for it to go away. If you have recently gone gluten free you should do a food journal and see if there is anything that connects when you have it. Good luck.

Since I went gluten free I have never knowingly eaten gluten. I've only gotten exposed to gluten through cc, until Sunday. I ate something the family I work with offered me. They have never before given me something that would make me sick. It was my fault because I forgot to ask what type of chocolate to make it. But OMG. I have been so sick. I thought it was bad with cc. But this is 1000x worse. I hate my life.

I threw up a lot as a kid. All the way through elementary and middle school (maybe once a month some more some less). I wasn't diagnosed until I was 26. I never thought that the throwing up could be connected. I always thought it was stress (there was a lot of stress in my family). My parents never took me to the doctor for it. My family only went to the doctor for "major" things. My brother had crohn's and was in and out of the hospital, so a little throwing up was not considered something to sweat about. I never thought this might be connected. I also had a lot of the other things like when I get glutened now. I had really bad anxiety, and cried at the drop of the hat. I would become emotionally overwhelmed at the drop of the hat. I didn't have any other major physical symptoms that caused problems (that i know of, though I am much shorter than everyone else in my immediate family). I wonder now....

I was thinking more about your post. When I was first diagnosed I was so mad. I felt like my body had betrayed me, again. While I had come to accept that I suffered from depression and ptsd, I had accepted that my mental health was screwed up. But accepting that my physical body was damaged and had something wrong with it was a hard thing to accept. I was so angry with my body. I hated it. I wanted to punish it for what it had brought me to. That I would have to change my life because it couldn't keep itself healthy. It couldn't do it's simple job of being able to move me around and make it so I could do things. If it couldn't do those basic things, why should I care about it? It took me time to be able to forgive it, and myself for the new challenges I was going to have to face. I was wondering if you were feeling anything similar with your liver problems and possible celiac. When I was able to realize this it was easier to deal with. It was still hard, but easier.

If you want to do the biopsy, do it now. If you doctor will give you the dx without it, then you don't necessarily need to do it. However, if you want to have accommodations you will need the dx. When I got my endoscopy everyone told me that I would not remember the procedure at all. I remember the whole thing. I could feel weird sensations when they took the biopsies (kind of like a pinch-pressure). But no pain. If you are scared about being put out you might be able to talk to the GI about how much medicine they took. My GI didn't believe that I could feel what was going on until I told her when she was taking the biopsies (that might have been during the colonoscopy that happened at the same time). So being all the way out for the endoscopy isn't necessary, if your doctor is willing to work with you about it. They didn't intend for me to be aware, but it ended up happening.

I am so sorry you are going through this. I know that whenever I got glutened for the first year and a half after going gluten free I would have cravings for bread. Going to the store would make my mouth water. I can't say if you do have celiac or not. It is up to you to decide if you want to go gluten free or not. The only thing that made it so I could make through the transition from getting the diagnosis and going gluten free is that I was already in therapy. I talked about my celiac diagnosis with anyone who would listen. (not about the diagnosis so much as the food that I could no longer eat). Every time I found out a new food that I couldn't eat (for example that most soy sauce had gluten), I was telling everyone around me. I was telling my therapist, and my office roommate, and my house roommates. They were all supportive and allowed me to blather on about it. I don't know how many of them really listened to what I had to say after a while (besides my therapist), but they allowed me to get out my anxiety and frustration about the diagnosis and the life changes. I spent months of therapy session talking about my diagnosis and what was going on. I pretty much spent the first part of every session talking about what I had learned since the last session (and I was going twice a week). This lasted for at least 9 months before I moved and then when I started with a new therapist after I moved (I have other issues besides just the celiac diagnosis) it comes up from time to time again.

Everything below is about finding a therapist and advice on how to go about doing it if you want to.

As to finding a therapist if you want to my suggestion is to check out this resource: Open Original Shared Link and in the upper right hand corner you can put in your zip code and it will bring up a list of therapists in the area. Then you can go to the left side of the screen and select under Issues, chronic pain or illness. This will provide you with a starting place for therapists in your area that have this experience. You can limit the search to specific insurance also. If you live in a small area, this might not be as helpful, but it is a place to start. Then just check with your insurance list to make sure they are still covered by your insurance and the specific policy you have. Your insurance will have a list of covered providers and all you have to do is call and ask for it and they will provide you with it. You may be able to get this list from on-line if your insurance has a website.

Other ideas for fining a therapist if you don't want to use the site above are: contact your doctor and find out if your doctor has any recommendations for therapists. They might have names of people they refer people to when diagnosed with chronic illness. If you work at a business that has an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) contact them. This is how I eventually found my therapist and psychiatrist. They will have lists of people. I met with the EAP person and told them what I was looking for and they did the leg work for me. If this isn't an option, whenever you do make contact with a therapist who does not fit what you need (they don't have the right experience or they aren't taking new patients) ask them for referrals. Tell them what you are looking for and ask them if they know of anyone who might be taking clients. The world of therapists is small. They often know other therapists in the area and refer people to others when they can't provide the services needed. If you live in a city with a hospital contact their psychiatry department. Tell them what you are looking for. If they don't have anyone with the experience you are looking for, they should be able to refer you. Just like looking for a new doctor in a city, looking for a therapist takes time and energy. If you live in a city with a university you can look and see if the psychology department at the university has their own therapy clinic. Often they do and provide low cost therapy. There are therapists who work specifically with people with chronic illness. Even if you don't want to talk about the celiac, it seems like dealing with the liver issue would be a good idea.

If you want to find a therapist and want/need more help let me know and I can provide you with more resources if these do not work out.