That is the question.....
for those of you who don't know I have had GI troubles since early in my childhood that have increasingly gotten worse, I won't gve you TMI promise. However, that being said I broke out last year in a full body blistering rash that was the most painful, burning, itchy thing I have ever been through and I remember telling Taylor (we had just started dating) that I wouldn;'t wish this on my worst enemy and if they ever needed to find out a great biological warfare bomb to drop to put this in it. After 3 nights of it, I tried everything! Hydrocortisone cream, Claritin, benadryl, calamine lotion, baking soda/ oatmeal cold baths, hot showers, changing my detergent, covering my bed and washing everything in my apartment with anti allergen items. I drug myself to the ER in emporia bawling my eyes out and begging them to make it stop. Claritin, benadryl some IV fluids, a biopsy of one of the blisters and a very painful epinephrine shot I was sent home with no answers. 24 hours went by and I felt no improvement and thought I was going CRAZY....
I called my mom, drove to KC and went to KU med ER for another round of the same stuff and no answers, I saw my dermatologist the next day and she gave me a med that worked immediately.....a med that is used for people with celiac disease who get this rash because of GLUTEN
now noone mentioned this to me. and I had my PCP and GI docs do some investigating, tons of lab work, and colonoscopys and I was diagnosed with IBS (Irritable bowel syndrome). Which I had learned in nursing school is a nice way of getting patients to shut up when they don't know what else is causing their symptoms. It's a catch all. I was furious as my GI doc said "well if immodium is working for you....keep taking it". So I did, for a year and a half. I took anywhere from 4-6 immodium/ day. 1 is enough to stop my husband and normal people up for a week. I started buying it in bulk at costco and decided something has to change. My husband started doing some investigating and decided I should try to go gluten free to see if that helped.
Another girl at work has Chrone's disease and had a book with GI diseases and symptoms and I fell apon celiac diasea. I have 20 of the 30 or so symptoms associated with it including frequent nose bleeds. Stupid stuff like that and TA DA!!!!! THE RASH!!! I googled celiac rash and found the pictures looked exactly like what I had.....fast forward, I started eating gluten free and found every single one of my symptoms is gone.... here I am today
I have a GI appointment for a doc at KU (who I assume will be much better since they are rated #1 in that specialty among 6 others). But my research showed that you have to eat gluten for 4-8 weeks to basically prove that you antibodies and small intestine are runied by gluten for the blood work or biopsies to be accurate.....delimma
GLUTEN MAKES ME SOOOO SICK. If I eat it now, even a bite I throw up and other issues ehem ehem, not to mention the rash, swollen fingers, headache, horrid stomach aches and im grumpy. My poor husband
But I am forcing myself to do it so that I can get an accurate diagnosis. Celiac can greatly affect fertility, miscarraige, preterm and low birth weight babes and its geneitc which means my munchkins could be born with it. YIKES. This needs to be nipped in the bud ASAP.... So I guess I answered my question...
Gluten it is...for 45 more days....wish me luck and pray to god that I make it. The nurse's instructions for me with eating it is "eat it everyday as much as you can tolerate" I told her that was none and she said ok eat until you start losing weight and or have to go to the ER with the rash again" PERFECT. Thanks for the heads up.....Dr. Singh you better be worth you weight in gold.
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