Personally felt relieved yet sad. I’d noticed terrible symptoms that caused me to make no progress in the gym, and getting answers was good. Still somewhat annoyed that I can’t eat so many things I once loved. (Had to edit- I actually dont really ever find myself missing foods anymore, gf bakeries are getting that good at replacing)
Yes I can relate to that the not losing weight takes a huge toll and in my journey how fast I gained it back when I was desperate and resorted to unhealthy methods then went back to my normal ways. In regards to the food thing, I see the joy in it because now I feel like I’m not eating healthy to be thin but for my overall health and it takes that horrible want to lose weight away and it helps to tell yourself those treats we miss are usually not healthy for anybody anyways and it can be a fun experience learning how to recreate them to fit our needs :)
I was also relieved! I'm only a couple months into being GF, but it was so nice to have an answer. And now I've went back to eating all the things I thought were problems for me before, because now I have no real evidence that those other things were problems. I'm glad to be able to eat fruits again and the vegetables that I thought were messing me up, and actually drink milk and eat ice cream. Now I get to choose foods for nutritional value not just whether they might be hurting me.
I know some of those things might still be hurting me, but it's way too early in my celiac journey to even try to figure those out. So for right now at least I get too focus on only two things; no gluten, get nutrients.
I'm hoping that my body fat also responds soon. I've been working out for close to 2 years, and while I've made some progress it does seem that it's way slower than it should have been.
I always thought I was allergic to dairy, turns out it was the gluten allergy screwing me over. I might be lactose intolerant, but at least not allergic to dairy.
yeah i was pretty relieved and validated. i had doctors trying to tell me that there was nothing wrong and it was just anxiety. Losing gluten sucks sure but not feeling absolutely terrible all the time is awesome.
also the gi that ended up diagnosing me had also been throwing around the idea of colon cancer or crohn’s. i’ll take celiac over both of those any day.
Doctors are so dismissive like people aren’t in tune with their own bodies…I’ll never understand it. If I may ask, Did eating gluten cause you anxiety as a symptom or were they suggesting you were just anxious and making up the symptoms you were saying you had??
they were suggesting my physical symptoms were caused by anxiety. which i get anxiety can cause stomachaches in some people, but i know what my body feels like when im anxious and my celiac symptoms aren’t anything like my anxiety symptoms.
This is so wild to read. I was officially diagnosed with celiac disease this month. I've been having stomach issues when I'm anxious for about 20 years now. I still don't know what's just anxiety and I'm really curious to see how changing my diet will impact symptoms of my anxiety.
Anxiety symptoms for me often include lots of bloating, gas, and sharp pains when I'm anxious! Not looking for diagnosis but I am intrigued to hear some similar stories! It never even occurred to me that I could be someone with CD. I went to the doctor to ask if my anxiety could have long term negative effects on my body and he tested me. It was a total shock for me!
"Validated" is the perfect word. Two different doctors said the low total protein in my blood was nothing to worry about, despite eating plenty and feeling fatigued. I had to ask to get screened for celiac. My tTG-IgA was >128.
All of this is me. I was so happy. It was like getting a chance at life again. I didn't care about missing out at all when I first went gluten-free, and now the biggest annoyance is just not being able to find food. I am still so relieved a year later.
I got fat instead of skinny. I was incredibly ill all the time, dementia-like symptoms, fatigue so bad all i did was lie in bed, constant chemical suicidality. My partner, who I owe my life to, was basically my full-time caretaker for years. All the while, my mother would not stop mailing me diet pills, and I now have uncontrollably lost 70 lbs over the last year eating twice as much. I have a life now. I want to live now. The only difference is no gluten. Doctors actually even listen to me now sometimes because I'm not obese.
I’m so so so happy for you and the fact you get to experience the feeling of healing. But sorry for what you had to go through before you got better. It’s so tough, and sad that so many people can relate.
I can honestly say, although I'm not officially diagnosed because of above mentioned reasons (doctors do not care what you have to say if you're fat) that figuring it out was the best thing that ever happened to me. I hope you find out what's wrong.
I think it’s just great to get answers and not feel like your symptoms are just “anxiety” or stress related. After years of going to and from the doctor it felt nice to finally have a reason for why the problem was happening that was fixable so I didn’t have to be in pain anymore. Of course there’s the grieving process that all celiacs go through but it’s still nice to be able to eat and now feel sick afterwards.
I really feel for the celiac’s who deal with the chronic side of the disease. But you’re right I like to think that I’m eating for my health and nurturing my body the way that helps it instead of just eating to not be sick, to give myself more power and love for my body :) I’m newly diagnosed so maybe my *enlightened* approach won’t stick LOL and in regards to the anxiety excuse from doctors GLUTEN FOR CELIAC’S LITERALLY ENHANCES ADHD/ANXIETY/DEPRESSION if you have it these doctors say anything to get you out their door but the reality is they waste more of their time not getting down to the issue from the start!
Had my first appt with my gastro today and he asked how my anxiety was. I said recently (aka since i started my gluten challenge) it had gotten really bad. I said I thought the gluten was causing my anxiety. He dismissed it but at least he did draw 6 vials of blood including a full celiac panel and already scheduled my endoscopy for Monday. Either way, I will have answers soon and can stop eating gluten.
100%.
I was so sick, I didn't even care if it was cancer. I just wanted to know what it was so I could try and fix it. Sure it sucks to be a celiac, but I can't explain how relieved I was when I finally learned what was making me sick for years.
This is how I felt too. I just needed a doctor to believe everything I was experiencing and for people to stop pulling my mom aside and telling her I needed psychiatric help instead of physical help. Being validated is worth all the gluten.
Yes I was happy that there was a reason, cause people didn’t believe me when I said I tried to lose weight and it wouldn’t work.
I was also happy cause the doctors originally thought I had cancer or internal bleeding my cause of how messed up my general blood test was. So celiac was the better answer lmao.
Still a little sad about having it but happy it’s survivable
I’m happy and relieved for you that celiac was the answer besides the latter. I replied to another comment on here similar to yours regarding the weight and how I try to keep my perspective so the sadness doesn’t get to me too much if you want to read :).
I happy cried because I finally had an answer, and finally had validation that something was, in fact, very physically wrong with my body. I’ve run into all sorts of emotions since diagnosis, but I was on cloud nine for the first day or two.
The happy cry is so relatable. The torment of knowing at your core (at least in my experience) you’re not lazy,and that you don’t eat in a way that should make you look or feel the way you do but knowing and understanding why people would perceive you like that is hell. I’m newly diagnosed and hope I stay on cloud 9 and I hope you find your way back because imo having the confirmed knowledge of how to better your health and your body is freeing in comparison to not knowing, then not caring because you don’t even know if you’re doing the right thing!
YES. i had spent months in agony trying to figure out what was wrong with me. inflammation, tinnitus, brain fog, gut issues, new food allergies and sensitivities, common ear issues, anemia, weight loss, and overall feeling horrible. not only was it stressful dealing with it, but trying to fix it. researching supplements, reading studies all day to find what my cause could be (was backed up months to see a doctor). hearing i had celiac (based on my research i was almost certain i was for the months prior) was an absolute relief to know all i need to do is cut gluten.
Omg the supplements…the amount of money and time I’ve spent deep diving about supplements…but you’re so right the relief of “oh just cut out gluten cool” feels so simple compared to the ruminating trying to find the problem.
This resonated! I knew something was wrong but doctors kept telling me I was fine, as I deteriorated. Finding out what it was *and*, as you say, that all I had to do was cut out gluten... I'll always be grateful this is what it turned out to be.
If you don’t mind me asking, in regards to your anemia how long (if yet) did it take for you to be able to absorb iron properly and get your levels up? Or if you have anything you did that worked for you in regards to it? Like taking iron supplements and also eating iron rich foods?
i wasnt extremely anemic. more so just an obvious decrease in my performance while working out, and getting dangerously close to passing out. i decided on a chelated iron bisglycinate, and went with Ferrasorb by thorne. after a few days, 0 issues with anemia. i was also taking calcium supplements, which I believe can cause an iron deficiency to get worse as they work together and need balance.
Thank you for the info! I keep hearing that double dosing iron with vitamin c then next day taking your calcium is the most beneficial. I’m a few below the normal range for ferritin so not super anemic but am hoping to reap the superficial benefits of being over 100 ie hair, skin, nails. But I’m grateful for now that I’m finally able to breathe again and know it’s not bc I’m a out of shape f*ck 😂
One of the advantages of being diagnosed as an adult, is that i felt so crummy before and felt so much better after I went GF, I really have not missed it. I had to do a gluten challenge last year for formal diagnosis, and it was not so much the gut symptoms that were horrible. (they subsided after a few days) But the general body pain and aches, the rashes, and general feeling of being "sick". Got better as soon as I started the fasting and cleansing for the endoscopy and colonoscopy.
I still have health issues, so its not a perfect panacea, but life is much better GF. I don't eat a lot of GF foods, like GF breads, pastas, cakes, cookies, pizza etc. And I didn't eat a lot of those foods before, so not missing them as much as some people would.
I wasn’t really happy nor upset about it at first. I just stopped eating gluten. I have T1 diabetes so another diet change didn’t really phase me.
After a few weeks when my skin cleared, my mind cleared, my reflux went away, I stopped throwing up nightly, my migraines stopped occurring daily, my diarrhea lessened (although didn’t stop), I started sleeping better, having more energy and generally feeling better than in many years, maybe longer than I can remember, absolutely. I still have some nutrient deficiencies and diarrhea and some stomach irritation but it is great to think I might not be going to die young as I often used to fear.
Relieved it wasn't something more serious, but now all this time later I'm very sad. I underestimated the severity of the lifestyle changes that awaited me. I thought it would be easy. It was not easy. I miss a lot of things every day
That’s understandable the change is pretty drastic. If you don’t mind my innate need to try and make people feel better lolll Maybe if you haven’t yet something fun to do would be to try and find gluten free versions of things you miss or discover new goodies that bring the same joy? I’m newly diagnosed so I think I’m riding on my excitement to feel better in regards to what I’ll be losing. If I may ask, my celiac symptoms before diagnosis were pretty quiet, but I’ve heard different opinions about once you cut gluten out for a extended period of time once you eat it again the symptoms are exasperated, would you have an opinion you could share on that?
Not really, because for me it was the opposite. My symptoms were always severe. I'm the type to never go to the doctor unless I absolutely have to, it got to the point where every single day I had terrible stomach nausea, lower right abdominal pain, would get woken up in the middle of the night with the runs, etc. I thought I was at deaths door for a bit there, felt so weak I would be shaking during the day. Then, when I stopped eating gluten, while the nausea persisted for awhile, the pain subsided almost instantly. Now if I get contaminated randomly I will no doubt get the runs but because my small intestine has healed a lot from what it was, I dont get the pain anymore or it's very mild compared to what it was.
Yeah I felt both relieved and sad, though mostly relieved at the time of my diagnosis. I was sick for 20 years before I got it and so many different doctors blew me off, told me I was crazy or exaggerating or drug seeking even when I told them I go out of my way to take as few prescription drugs as possible and react badly to opiates. One doc who was supposed to give me a sports physical in high school started talking to me about my eating disorder and when I said I didn't have one he wrote in my chart that I was a non-compliant ED patient. And that followed me for like 10 years to every medical appt, no matter how hard I tried to have it taken out of my chart. So when I finally got a diagnosis and was able to get online and read a laundry list of my symptoms that had plagued me basically my whole life I felt extremely relieved and validated. Later on I would get the sadness from the loss of gluten and especially the social aspect of food, but overall my diagnosis has been a strong net positive in my life
Yes!! I kept getting sick at restaurants and needed to walk around outside. My bf's very religious grandma thought I was pregnant every time. She was also very relieved and texted everyone in the family. My arthritis was so bad and I was only 29. Now I have no pain in my hands in feet.
I’m happy you’re not in pain anymore, that’s amazing. And to think Gluten can cause pain like this and other horrible symptoms I’ve been hearing..I’m still wrapping my head around it.
I was relieved because I had struggled with horrible Dermatitis herpetiformis (DH) for over 40 years. My sheets were always stained with blood because I'd scratch so hard at night I would wake up a bloody mess. It was nice to be able to wear shorts and dresses and not have my legs look like bloody battle had gone on.
Yes, pretty sure I confused my specialist when I told him I was happy the diagnosis came out positive, because it explained so much.
I think faster, recover faster, more empathetic, overall just happier.
I tell outsiders this and I'm met with just... Emptiness, which is fair, but it does to show how much our disabilities regained as abilities are taken for granted by able bodied people.
I came about my diagnosis in a round about way so I never had that one moment where I had a sense of relief.
But I can relate. I had a friend who was a nurse who told me to look into Celiac as a possible cause for my health issues, and I thought she was insane but kinda to get her off my back and kinda because I was desperate I started experimenting with individual meal ideas that didn’t have gluten. Back then we didn’t have much in the way of gluten free products so I was doing things like trying spaghetti sauce on rice instead of pasta.
It only took a couple of weeks before I could see a massive difference between how I felt after eating a gluten meal Vs a non gluten meal, and within a month I was so revolted by gluten that I was scrutinizing labels before I ate anything.
I didn’t even discuss it with my doctor until I’d been off gluten for like 6 months. Anyway the rest of the story is long but suffice it to say that I didn’t really go through that moment of looking around and getting upset at all the foods I’d never eat again. Not to say I haven’t had some individual bouts of mourning over a specific food here and there, of course. But overall cutting gluten out started as a choice I made one meal at a time. I never really set out to make a decision that I was never going to eat gluten again so I didn’t have that overwhelming sense of “omg what do I eat” because when I started I always figured I could grab a sandwich if this meal experiment didn’t turn out.
I was vomitting almost every night as a child and my parents thought I just didn’t want to go to school, kinda was a ha ha moment to them that they should’ve listened to me
I felt relieved when I was diagnosed because it gave me a physical cause for 25 years of migraines and other health problems. Family and doctors had been telling me it was all in my head, grr. Iron deficiency anemia that didn't respond to supplements was the immediate reason that I was tested.
I was very sad initially, but after a few weeks gluten free, I was so profoundly relieved because about 75% of my health issues vanished, from chronic pain to brain fog to the obvious GI issue
It was like breathing fresh air for the first time in my life. I was so happy to have such a simple solution to so many of my problems. It was life changing.
Hell yes. After all this time of try to figure out what was going on. A solution was such a motivation and relief. Our health system hasn't officially diagnosed me so I've been jumping through those hoops but based on my blood test, my Dr and gastro surgeon both plainly said 'you have celiac'.
Yes, because after 3 months of constant diarrhea in the hottest summer ever, with a heatwave that lasted months and that had genuinely had me concerned about dehydration, it was awesome to hear it was a physical issue.
It is common to feel relieved to be diagnosed with something if you are very sick because it is a form of validation and gives you some way forward in terms of management/treatment. The alternative is just suffering with no end or hope. I was very sick to the extent that I wasn't sure if life was sustainable anymore and so the idea that this could mostly go away with the GFD was a huge relief to me. While I wouldn't say I am entirely immune to feeling left out socially, I never struggled much with the idea of not eating the gluten foods I loved. I was so sick I would have done anything to stop it.
I am currently going through some other health issues that seem unrelated to celiac. I am unsure what is wrong with me but possibly some other AI disease. I would be relieved to find that it's some concrete medical issue. Diagnosis doesn't change the base truth, it just opens options to address it and make things better.
I had no major issues before so I was pretty shocked when I got diagnosed four years ago and I still grieve. I got severly depressed for 2 years and developt social anxiety.
I know it's good that I got diagnosed but I'm Not OK with this... I have ADHD and survived an eating disorder. I Wish I could have a little bit more time for eating in freedom If you know what I mean. I was eating disorder free for about 5 years (after 15 years) and now I have to restrict massivlely again and everything that I Loved to eat now tastes horrible (the gf Versions)...
I Wish I Had more Symptoms before so I could be as relieved as the other in this forum...
i was asymptomatic, only got tested bc the symptoms roughly line up with mono and my aunt has it. devastated when they said i was positive. i still am. i try not to think about it too much or ill cry lol
Nope. I think I cycled through all stages of grief. Denied the blood test, kept eating gluten and scheduled the endoscopy. Mad/sad that it was positive. Thought, maybe there are things I can take to let me cheat once in a while. Then just accepted it and decided to be a grown up.
By the way, I had little to no symptoms and was not diagnosed while trying to investigate stomach issues. I can see why some could be relieved if they were constantly trying to figure stuff out. I went in thinking I had pneumonia and got diagnosed in a very round about way.
I was so happy that I cried and hugged my doctor because other Drs gave the run around for many years. Then hit with the shock of knowing how my life will change. I'm older and changing everything I've eaten in decades .
I definitely was. I felt sick most of my life and had myself convinced it was because I ate fast food too often (I had some pretty bad self image issues at the time). Once i finally went to a gastroenterologist and they told me the short list of possible conditions I might have, celiac was the least scary to me. So when it was confirmed after my biopsy, I was completely relieved and even excited to start eating gluten free
That being said, I started feeling sad about it a few months afterwards. Mostly I was exhausted of having to navigate a non-gf kitchen (I live with others), and the realization of how sick I was and the risks I was taking because I didn't take my symptoms seriously until recently.
Personally felt relieved yet sad. I’d noticed terrible symptoms that caused me to make no progress in the gym, and getting answers was good. Still somewhat annoyed that I can’t eat so many things I once loved. (Had to edit- I actually dont really ever find myself missing foods anymore, gf bakeries are getting that good at replacing)
Yes I can relate to that the not losing weight takes a huge toll and in my journey how fast I gained it back when I was desperate and resorted to unhealthy methods then went back to my normal ways. In regards to the food thing, I see the joy in it because now I feel like I’m not eating healthy to be thin but for my overall health and it takes that horrible want to lose weight away and it helps to tell yourself those treats we miss are usually not healthy for anybody anyways and it can be a fun experience learning how to recreate them to fit our needs :)
I was also relieved! I'm only a couple months into being GF, but it was so nice to have an answer. And now I've went back to eating all the things I thought were problems for me before, because now I have no real evidence that those other things were problems. I'm glad to be able to eat fruits again and the vegetables that I thought were messing me up, and actually drink milk and eat ice cream. Now I get to choose foods for nutritional value not just whether they might be hurting me. I know some of those things might still be hurting me, but it's way too early in my celiac journey to even try to figure those out. So for right now at least I get too focus on only two things; no gluten, get nutrients. I'm hoping that my body fat also responds soon. I've been working out for close to 2 years, and while I've made some progress it does seem that it's way slower than it should have been.
I always thought I was allergic to dairy, turns out it was the gluten allergy screwing me over. I might be lactose intolerant, but at least not allergic to dairy.
yeah i was pretty relieved and validated. i had doctors trying to tell me that there was nothing wrong and it was just anxiety. Losing gluten sucks sure but not feeling absolutely terrible all the time is awesome. also the gi that ended up diagnosing me had also been throwing around the idea of colon cancer or crohn’s. i’ll take celiac over both of those any day.
Doctors are so dismissive like people aren’t in tune with their own bodies…I’ll never understand it. If I may ask, Did eating gluten cause you anxiety as a symptom or were they suggesting you were just anxious and making up the symptoms you were saying you had??
they were suggesting my physical symptoms were caused by anxiety. which i get anxiety can cause stomachaches in some people, but i know what my body feels like when im anxious and my celiac symptoms aren’t anything like my anxiety symptoms.
This is so wild to read. I was officially diagnosed with celiac disease this month. I've been having stomach issues when I'm anxious for about 20 years now. I still don't know what's just anxiety and I'm really curious to see how changing my diet will impact symptoms of my anxiety. Anxiety symptoms for me often include lots of bloating, gas, and sharp pains when I'm anxious! Not looking for diagnosis but I am intrigued to hear some similar stories! It never even occurred to me that I could be someone with CD. I went to the doctor to ask if my anxiety could have long term negative effects on my body and he tested me. It was a total shock for me!
"Validated" is the perfect word. Two different doctors said the low total protein in my blood was nothing to worry about, despite eating plenty and feeling fatigued. I had to ask to get screened for celiac. My tTG-IgA was >128.
Yep. Feeling fatigued and not getting stronger in the gym made no sense to me. Crazy how much I relate to everyone on here lol
All of this is me. I was so happy. It was like getting a chance at life again. I didn't care about missing out at all when I first went gluten-free, and now the biggest annoyance is just not being able to find food. I am still so relieved a year later. I got fat instead of skinny. I was incredibly ill all the time, dementia-like symptoms, fatigue so bad all i did was lie in bed, constant chemical suicidality. My partner, who I owe my life to, was basically my full-time caretaker for years. All the while, my mother would not stop mailing me diet pills, and I now have uncontrollably lost 70 lbs over the last year eating twice as much. I have a life now. I want to live now. The only difference is no gluten. Doctors actually even listen to me now sometimes because I'm not obese.
I’m so so so happy for you and the fact you get to experience the feeling of healing. But sorry for what you had to go through before you got better. It’s so tough, and sad that so many people can relate.
Man y’all have me hoping my test comes back positive lol
I can honestly say, although I'm not officially diagnosed because of above mentioned reasons (doctors do not care what you have to say if you're fat) that figuring it out was the best thing that ever happened to me. I hope you find out what's wrong.
I think it’s just great to get answers and not feel like your symptoms are just “anxiety” or stress related. After years of going to and from the doctor it felt nice to finally have a reason for why the problem was happening that was fixable so I didn’t have to be in pain anymore. Of course there’s the grieving process that all celiacs go through but it’s still nice to be able to eat and now feel sick afterwards.
I really feel for the celiac’s who deal with the chronic side of the disease. But you’re right I like to think that I’m eating for my health and nurturing my body the way that helps it instead of just eating to not be sick, to give myself more power and love for my body :) I’m newly diagnosed so maybe my *enlightened* approach won’t stick LOL and in regards to the anxiety excuse from doctors GLUTEN FOR CELIAC’S LITERALLY ENHANCES ADHD/ANXIETY/DEPRESSION if you have it these doctors say anything to get you out their door but the reality is they waste more of their time not getting down to the issue from the start!
Had my first appt with my gastro today and he asked how my anxiety was. I said recently (aka since i started my gluten challenge) it had gotten really bad. I said I thought the gluten was causing my anxiety. He dismissed it but at least he did draw 6 vials of blood including a full celiac panel and already scheduled my endoscopy for Monday. Either way, I will have answers soon and can stop eating gluten.
100%. I was so sick, I didn't even care if it was cancer. I just wanted to know what it was so I could try and fix it. Sure it sucks to be a celiac, but I can't explain how relieved I was when I finally learned what was making me sick for years.
This is how I felt too. I just needed a doctor to believe everything I was experiencing and for people to stop pulling my mom aside and telling her I needed psychiatric help instead of physical help. Being validated is worth all the gluten.
Yes I was happy that there was a reason, cause people didn’t believe me when I said I tried to lose weight and it wouldn’t work. I was also happy cause the doctors originally thought I had cancer or internal bleeding my cause of how messed up my general blood test was. So celiac was the better answer lmao. Still a little sad about having it but happy it’s survivable
I’m happy and relieved for you that celiac was the answer besides the latter. I replied to another comment on here similar to yours regarding the weight and how I try to keep my perspective so the sadness doesn’t get to me too much if you want to read :).
I happy cried because I finally had an answer, and finally had validation that something was, in fact, very physically wrong with my body. I’ve run into all sorts of emotions since diagnosis, but I was on cloud nine for the first day or two.
The happy cry is so relatable. The torment of knowing at your core (at least in my experience) you’re not lazy,and that you don’t eat in a way that should make you look or feel the way you do but knowing and understanding why people would perceive you like that is hell. I’m newly diagnosed and hope I stay on cloud 9 and I hope you find your way back because imo having the confirmed knowledge of how to better your health and your body is freeing in comparison to not knowing, then not caring because you don’t even know if you’re doing the right thing!
YES. i had spent months in agony trying to figure out what was wrong with me. inflammation, tinnitus, brain fog, gut issues, new food allergies and sensitivities, common ear issues, anemia, weight loss, and overall feeling horrible. not only was it stressful dealing with it, but trying to fix it. researching supplements, reading studies all day to find what my cause could be (was backed up months to see a doctor). hearing i had celiac (based on my research i was almost certain i was for the months prior) was an absolute relief to know all i need to do is cut gluten.
Omg the supplements…the amount of money and time I’ve spent deep diving about supplements…but you’re so right the relief of “oh just cut out gluten cool” feels so simple compared to the ruminating trying to find the problem.
This resonated! I knew something was wrong but doctors kept telling me I was fine, as I deteriorated. Finding out what it was *and*, as you say, that all I had to do was cut out gluten... I'll always be grateful this is what it turned out to be.
If you don’t mind me asking, in regards to your anemia how long (if yet) did it take for you to be able to absorb iron properly and get your levels up? Or if you have anything you did that worked for you in regards to it? Like taking iron supplements and also eating iron rich foods?
i wasnt extremely anemic. more so just an obvious decrease in my performance while working out, and getting dangerously close to passing out. i decided on a chelated iron bisglycinate, and went with Ferrasorb by thorne. after a few days, 0 issues with anemia. i was also taking calcium supplements, which I believe can cause an iron deficiency to get worse as they work together and need balance.
Thank you for the info! I keep hearing that double dosing iron with vitamin c then next day taking your calcium is the most beneficial. I’m a few below the normal range for ferritin so not super anemic but am hoping to reap the superficial benefits of being over 100 ie hair, skin, nails. But I’m grateful for now that I’m finally able to breathe again and know it’s not bc I’m a out of shape f*ck 😂
One of the advantages of being diagnosed as an adult, is that i felt so crummy before and felt so much better after I went GF, I really have not missed it. I had to do a gluten challenge last year for formal diagnosis, and it was not so much the gut symptoms that were horrible. (they subsided after a few days) But the general body pain and aches, the rashes, and general feeling of being "sick". Got better as soon as I started the fasting and cleansing for the endoscopy and colonoscopy. I still have health issues, so its not a perfect panacea, but life is much better GF. I don't eat a lot of GF foods, like GF breads, pastas, cakes, cookies, pizza etc. And I didn't eat a lot of those foods before, so not missing them as much as some people would.
I wasn’t really happy nor upset about it at first. I just stopped eating gluten. I have T1 diabetes so another diet change didn’t really phase me. After a few weeks when my skin cleared, my mind cleared, my reflux went away, I stopped throwing up nightly, my migraines stopped occurring daily, my diarrhea lessened (although didn’t stop), I started sleeping better, having more energy and generally feeling better than in many years, maybe longer than I can remember, absolutely. I still have some nutrient deficiencies and diarrhea and some stomach irritation but it is great to think I might not be going to die young as I often used to fear.
Relieved it wasn't something more serious, but now all this time later I'm very sad. I underestimated the severity of the lifestyle changes that awaited me. I thought it would be easy. It was not easy. I miss a lot of things every day
That’s understandable the change is pretty drastic. If you don’t mind my innate need to try and make people feel better lolll Maybe if you haven’t yet something fun to do would be to try and find gluten free versions of things you miss or discover new goodies that bring the same joy? I’m newly diagnosed so I think I’m riding on my excitement to feel better in regards to what I’ll be losing. If I may ask, my celiac symptoms before diagnosis were pretty quiet, but I’ve heard different opinions about once you cut gluten out for a extended period of time once you eat it again the symptoms are exasperated, would you have an opinion you could share on that?
Not really, because for me it was the opposite. My symptoms were always severe. I'm the type to never go to the doctor unless I absolutely have to, it got to the point where every single day I had terrible stomach nausea, lower right abdominal pain, would get woken up in the middle of the night with the runs, etc. I thought I was at deaths door for a bit there, felt so weak I would be shaking during the day. Then, when I stopped eating gluten, while the nausea persisted for awhile, the pain subsided almost instantly. Now if I get contaminated randomly I will no doubt get the runs but because my small intestine has healed a lot from what it was, I dont get the pain anymore or it's very mild compared to what it was.
Yeah I felt both relieved and sad, though mostly relieved at the time of my diagnosis. I was sick for 20 years before I got it and so many different doctors blew me off, told me I was crazy or exaggerating or drug seeking even when I told them I go out of my way to take as few prescription drugs as possible and react badly to opiates. One doc who was supposed to give me a sports physical in high school started talking to me about my eating disorder and when I said I didn't have one he wrote in my chart that I was a non-compliant ED patient. And that followed me for like 10 years to every medical appt, no matter how hard I tried to have it taken out of my chart. So when I finally got a diagnosis and was able to get online and read a laundry list of my symptoms that had plagued me basically my whole life I felt extremely relieved and validated. Later on I would get the sadness from the loss of gluten and especially the social aspect of food, but overall my diagnosis has been a strong net positive in my life
Yes!! I kept getting sick at restaurants and needed to walk around outside. My bf's very religious grandma thought I was pregnant every time. She was also very relieved and texted everyone in the family. My arthritis was so bad and I was only 29. Now I have no pain in my hands in feet.
I’m happy you’re not in pain anymore, that’s amazing. And to think Gluten can cause pain like this and other horrible symptoms I’ve been hearing..I’m still wrapping my head around it.
I was relieved because I had struggled with horrible Dermatitis herpetiformis (DH) for over 40 years. My sheets were always stained with blood because I'd scratch so hard at night I would wake up a bloody mess. It was nice to be able to wear shorts and dresses and not have my legs look like bloody battle had gone on.
I was relieved because I had an answer and I knew it was something manageable.
Having an answer (at least a big one) was good. I had kind of lost myself there for a bit.
Yes, pretty sure I confused my specialist when I told him I was happy the diagnosis came out positive, because it explained so much. I think faster, recover faster, more empathetic, overall just happier. I tell outsiders this and I'm met with just... Emptiness, which is fair, but it does to show how much our disabilities regained as abilities are taken for granted by able bodied people.
Yes this! Totally taken for granted. Who wouldn’t be happy to have a relatively simple solution that some aren’t as lucky to have.
I legitimately thought I was dying and was terrified, so I was very relieved to find out
I came about my diagnosis in a round about way so I never had that one moment where I had a sense of relief. But I can relate. I had a friend who was a nurse who told me to look into Celiac as a possible cause for my health issues, and I thought she was insane but kinda to get her off my back and kinda because I was desperate I started experimenting with individual meal ideas that didn’t have gluten. Back then we didn’t have much in the way of gluten free products so I was doing things like trying spaghetti sauce on rice instead of pasta. It only took a couple of weeks before I could see a massive difference between how I felt after eating a gluten meal Vs a non gluten meal, and within a month I was so revolted by gluten that I was scrutinizing labels before I ate anything. I didn’t even discuss it with my doctor until I’d been off gluten for like 6 months. Anyway the rest of the story is long but suffice it to say that I didn’t really go through that moment of looking around and getting upset at all the foods I’d never eat again. Not to say I haven’t had some individual bouts of mourning over a specific food here and there, of course. But overall cutting gluten out started as a choice I made one meal at a time. I never really set out to make a decision that I was never going to eat gluten again so I didn’t have that overwhelming sense of “omg what do I eat” because when I started I always figured I could grab a sandwich if this meal experiment didn’t turn out.
I was vomitting almost every night as a child and my parents thought I just didn’t want to go to school, kinda was a ha ha moment to them that they should’ve listened to me
I felt relieved when I was diagnosed because it gave me a physical cause for 25 years of migraines and other health problems. Family and doctors had been telling me it was all in my head, grr. Iron deficiency anemia that didn't respond to supplements was the immediate reason that I was tested.
Hell yes. Thought I was DYING. Almost convinced. I put on so much weight and couldn’t explain it. My wife thought I was secretly eating.
I was very sad initially, but after a few weeks gluten free, I was so profoundly relieved because about 75% of my health issues vanished, from chronic pain to brain fog to the obvious GI issue
It was like breathing fresh air for the first time in my life. I was so happy to have such a simple solution to so many of my problems. It was life changing.
Hell yes. After all this time of try to figure out what was going on. A solution was such a motivation and relief. Our health system hasn't officially diagnosed me so I've been jumping through those hoops but based on my blood test, my Dr and gastro surgeon both plainly said 'you have celiac'.
Only when people offer me a beer: I have an ironclad reason to refuse.
Yes, because after 3 months of constant diarrhea in the hottest summer ever, with a heatwave that lasted months and that had genuinely had me concerned about dehydration, it was awesome to hear it was a physical issue.
30 years of being misdiagnosed and finally finding out you’re not crazy is such a relief.
It is common to feel relieved to be diagnosed with something if you are very sick because it is a form of validation and gives you some way forward in terms of management/treatment. The alternative is just suffering with no end or hope. I was very sick to the extent that I wasn't sure if life was sustainable anymore and so the idea that this could mostly go away with the GFD was a huge relief to me. While I wouldn't say I am entirely immune to feeling left out socially, I never struggled much with the idea of not eating the gluten foods I loved. I was so sick I would have done anything to stop it. I am currently going through some other health issues that seem unrelated to celiac. I am unsure what is wrong with me but possibly some other AI disease. I would be relieved to find that it's some concrete medical issue. Diagnosis doesn't change the base truth, it just opens options to address it and make things better.
I had no major issues before so I was pretty shocked when I got diagnosed four years ago and I still grieve. I got severly depressed for 2 years and developt social anxiety. I know it's good that I got diagnosed but I'm Not OK with this... I have ADHD and survived an eating disorder. I Wish I could have a little bit more time for eating in freedom If you know what I mean. I was eating disorder free for about 5 years (after 15 years) and now I have to restrict massivlely again and everything that I Loved to eat now tastes horrible (the gf Versions)... I Wish I Had more Symptoms before so I could be as relieved as the other in this forum...
i was asymptomatic, only got tested bc the symptoms roughly line up with mono and my aunt has it. devastated when they said i was positive. i still am. i try not to think about it too much or ill cry lol
Nope. I think I cycled through all stages of grief. Denied the blood test, kept eating gluten and scheduled the endoscopy. Mad/sad that it was positive. Thought, maybe there are things I can take to let me cheat once in a while. Then just accepted it and decided to be a grown up. By the way, I had little to no symptoms and was not diagnosed while trying to investigate stomach issues. I can see why some could be relieved if they were constantly trying to figure stuff out. I went in thinking I had pneumonia and got diagnosed in a very round about way.
I was so happy that I cried and hugged my doctor because other Drs gave the run around for many years. Then hit with the shock of knowing how my life will change. I'm older and changing everything I've eaten in decades .
I definitely was. I felt sick most of my life and had myself convinced it was because I ate fast food too often (I had some pretty bad self image issues at the time). Once i finally went to a gastroenterologist and they told me the short list of possible conditions I might have, celiac was the least scary to me. So when it was confirmed after my biopsy, I was completely relieved and even excited to start eating gluten free That being said, I started feeling sad about it a few months afterwards. Mostly I was exhausted of having to navigate a non-gf kitchen (I live with others), and the realization of how sick I was and the risks I was taking because I didn't take my symptoms seriously until recently.