jenarella

Hi,

About me....Well I am 29 years old and am getting married to the most wonderful guy I have ever met. I love to do anything outdoors, as long as its above freezing outside. I am from minnesota and love it here. I like to play pool and am on numerous pool leagues. I was jujst diagnosed with Celiacs about a month ago, and a week before that diabetes. So this has been a big transition for me.

My celiac story begins I guess about 15 years ago, when I was in junior high. I started getting severe migrains and my stomache was always upset. My mom drug me all over to all kinds of doctors trying to figure out why I was getting these massive, black out migraines. The doctors could never really come up with a reason. I learned to maske the migraines with alot of tylenol and ibuprophen. The stomache upset got worse and worse, I dropped alot of weight. At the time I did not really care about the weight loss or think much of becuase I was modeling and thin was the norm.

I am going to spare the details but as years went on I got sicker and sicker. I would be in the bathroom on average of 5-20 times a day, and often sick to my stomache, with heart burn so bad I bet I could have blown fire. Dr's labeled me with a multitude of diagnosis such IBS, gastritous, esphagitous, and just plain lying about everything. I have been on a multitude of meds that never really helped. I have had more colonoscopys than most 80 year olds, and still no real relief.

In my mid 20's my symptoms got worse, my stomache was constantly bloated, and hard as a rock. I had extreme cramping in my stomach and lower back. My stomach bloats out so much, i have had numerous people come up to me and rub my stomach saying things such as "wow you musy be do anyday now" among other things. This I think is the worst part of it. I couldn't wear button up pants becuase by the end of the day they would not fit me, so elastic waste bands became my best friend. I bought all my cloths two sizes too big to hide my bloated belly.

In 2008 I had some MRI's done and found out I have white matter brain lesions. My neuraologist suspected MS. Soon after this, I lost my health insurance. So for the next 3 1/2 years dealt with the issues free of doctors care.

Daily activities also got hard, such as taking my dog for a walk, I was too afraid to go far due to being too far from a bathroom. Public outings were stressful because I did not want to have to run to a bathroom and bring attention to myself.

As time went on I found that I was constintently hungry...Wanting to eat all the time. Along with this came a incline in weight, slowly at first and then climaxing when I quit smoking last year. About two months ago, I felt the worse I have in my entire life, I was tired all the time, had painful diareah constantly,racing heart with irregular rythems, sick to my stomache, having issues with my balance, horrible hotflashes, and constant state of feeling weak.

Thankfully through the grace of God I think, I managed to get health insurance. I also stumbled upon a couple great doctors who thankfully found me to be a puzzle they wanted to put back together. I found out that I was anemic, had almost no Vit D, Iron deficent, elevated liver enzimes, High blood pressure, a heart athymia. This led to a unsluaght of tests that revealed I have diabetes and Celiacs disease.

I have also read up a little that Celiacs can cause white matter brain lesions that mimick MS. So we will see where all that goes.

Since being starting the treatment plans for my defiencies, diabetic care, and going gluten free, I feel like a whole new person. I don't ever remember feeling this well my entire life.

No more racing to the bathroom, no more pain, no more bloating. It's amazing. I have regained my life back and am more able to be the best future wife for my fiance I can.

Gluten free and a diabetic diet is a pain in the butt, knowing how great I feel when I stick to the diet makes it worth all the effort!