DrummerGirl231

I haven't been tested for Celiac Disease yet, but I'm highly gluten sensitive at the least.

Other conditions: IBS, lactose intolerance, prone to Gastritis, Asperger's, Misophonia, mild depression and anxiety, and Reactive Airway Disease.

My Story (symptoms in bold):

I first started noticing symptoms in the summer of 2015. I used to eat Pasta Roni all the time, and that summer I started getting headaches and feeling really full for hours after eating it. Sometimes I'd still have the headache the next day. 

Then that fall at school, on days my cafeteria had a pasta station, I'd get headaches, stomach aches, bloating, and I'd look four to even five months pregnant. So I started asking for the gluten free pasta, and I was able to eat more than just five bites of food and not go to acting class feeling like a bloated zombie.
I'd still eat breaded chicken strips a lot before rehearsals because it was a quick food, but I would have a lot of sharp gas pains and bloating. I  started taking a lot of GasX and cut the chicken strips out of my diet.

In the spring semester, I continued to cut down on gluten, but I'd still have it in things like muffins because I figured they were less processed so they wouldn't hurt me as much. Sometimes the brain fog was so bad I couldn't do homework, or do anything on Tumblr, or enjoy a Youtube video. Meanwhile, I kept getting headaches so frequently I attributed it to stress because I was busier than I'd ever been. I started popping Advils all the time - never exceeding the daily dose on the bottle, but still - my headaches were so frequent I would take an Advil "just in case," before going to class! 

Well finally as we approached tech week for Oklahoma! (I was playing Aunt Eller), I started getting horribly sharp pains in my upper abdomen. I was diagnosed at age 9 with IBS after a year and a half of testing, and was used to sharp pains in my large intestine, but this was too high up to be IBS and particularly alarming given the recently aired episode of Downton Abbey where Lord Grantham's ulcer burst at the dinner table.

The pains came and went twice, but it was two nights before opening night that I was hit with such horrible pain toward the end of rehearsal that I couldn't stand up straight anymore. I was doubled over and I wished we could just stop practicing curtain call and call it a night! 

The next morning I went to Urgent Care and the doctor said I had Gastritis. He told me I couldn't have fatty foods, acidic foods, spicy foods, caffeine, Ibuprofen, or alcohol (no problem there; hate the stuff). I knew I had to give up gluten, too. It took four months of various treatments to get the gastritis to go away. I'm 5'3", and at the start I weighed 112lbs. I dropped down to 96lbs.

My mom has been doing the gluten free thing for a few years, but she always cheats for Costco cake. It messes her up a little, but not a lot, so following her example, I cheated twice with the gluten free thing last summer. Since I'd only just given it up, my reactions weren't horrible. But now if I have so much as a little cross-contamination, I feel it. It starts with a very full feeling in my stomach while I'm eating. Then for the next three days I have sharp gas-like pains all over my abdomen, and even my left ovary. Then following the three days of abdominal symptoms, I'll experience neurological symptoms for two days - headaches, brain fog, and sometimes even migraines. 

My mom doesn't believe I can be that sensitive and she refuses to de-gluten her kitchen. I'm home for a month for Christmas break and I've already gotten myself my own non-stick pot, spatula, strainer (I likes me some gluten-free pasta), sponges, and Smart Balance butter. I already have my own ketchup and mayo. Hopefully these measures will keep me from getting glutened.