# Health problems...questions for GI?



## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

Are you taking any other medications that might be bothering your stomach?
I had acid reflux and some of that you are talking about ; bloating, belching like a ton, diarhea , that sour mouth and real pain in my gut at night, after falling asleep.
I took Nexium, which helped, but it took a long time to finally do any real good. I had them stick the camera down my esophogus, up the other way and do a CT scan with dye. Nothing really conclusive. 
I think the anti inflammatories I was taking then just were more than my stomach could deal with . I now can only take them for a very limited period of time, but if I avoid them, my stomach is a lot happier.
not saying this is the same as you, but this is why i ask if you have been taking other meds.


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## Wallaby (Jul 13, 2008)

I know I formerly experienced quite a bit of IBS-like symptoms, fatigue, headaches, mental fogginess, etc (just basically felt "dead" and if I ate the "wrong" thing I'd be in the bathroom for hourssss) and it turned out that gluten was my culprit. 
I've been gluten free (I was not formally "diagnosed" because the blood test isn't 100% accurate if you don't have severe celiacs and the most reasonably priced alternate was just trying a GF diet to see what happened) for a little over a month and I can safely say that I feel like an entirely new person. No more bowel "issues", SO much more energy, I've lost so much weight (I was already "skinny" at 5'9" and 145lbs but I was the heaviest of my family members - now I'm one of the skinnier ones at 130lbs), I finally feel like my mind can think, no more feeling depressed at times and really hyperactive at others...etc.

I actually accidentally ate something with gluten (like a miniscule amount - it was in the single veggie bullion cube I added to a giant pot of spaghetti sauce -10 person amount of sauce- and all I ate was about one teaspoon to taste-test the sauce!) in it Tuesday evening and I had such a bad reaction (my ability to breath was even effected!!). Apparently I'm SUPER sensitive to gluten but my body was really "used" to dealing with it prior to going GF.
And as it turns out, the things I was having IBS-like stuff about just had an unusually "high" level of gluten and that's why my body couldn't handle them even while it was used to gluten. WHO KNEW. haha

Anyway, gluten might be something to talk to the GI about. Good luck, I totally get it, stuff like this is NO fun!


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## Nickers2002 (Nov 25, 2009)

tinyliny said:


> Are you taking any other medications that might be bothering your stomach?
> I had acid reflux and some of that you are talking about ; bloating, belching like a ton, diarhea , that sour mouth and real pain in my gut at night, after falling asleep.
> I took Nexium, which helped, but it took a long time to finally do any real good. I had them stick the camera down my esophogus, up the other way and do a CT scan with dye. Nothing really conclusive.
> I think the anti inflammatories I was taking then just were more than my stomach could deal with . I now can only take them for a very limited period of time, but if I avoid them, my stomach is a lot happier.
> not saying this is the same as you, but this is why i ask if you have been taking other meds.


I take aleve off and on, but have been on vicodin, naproxen, celebrex, etc. (not all at the same time) but that was years ago and never had a problem with it.


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## Nickers2002 (Nov 25, 2009)

Wallaby said:


> I know I formerly experienced quite a bit of IBS-like symptoms, fatigue, headaches, mental fogginess, etc (just basically felt "dead" and if I ate the "wrong" thing I'd be in the bathroom for hourssss) and it turned out that gluten was my culprit.
> I've been gluten free (I was not formally "diagnosed" because the blood test isn't 100% accurate if you don't have severe celiacs and the most reasonably priced alternate was just trying a GF diet to see what happened) for a little over a month and I can safely say that I feel like an entirely new person. No more bowel "issues", SO much more energy, I've lost so much weight (I was already "skinny" at 5'9" and 145lbs but I was the heaviest of my family members - now I'm one of the skinnier ones at 130lbs), I finally feel like my mind can think, no more feeling depressed at times and really hyperactive at others...etc.
> 
> I actually accidentally ate something with gluten (like a miniscule amount - it was in the single veggie bullion cube I added to a giant pot of spaghetti sauce -10 person amount of sauce- and all I ate was about one teaspoon to taste-test the sauce!) in it Tuesday evening and I had such a bad reaction (my ability to breath was even effected!!). Apparently I'm SUPER sensitive to gluten but my body was really "used" to dealing with it prior to going GF.
> ...


This is the route I didn't want to go down lol. Hopefully I can see the GI next week!


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## Lockwood (Nov 8, 2011)

Yep, I second the gluten intolerence, and figured by your first post that is what you were hoping to avoid.
I've been there too with a story similar to Wallaby, but without the weightloss... darn it all!
My son is a true celiac, so it was something I just could not avoid leaning about anyway. He has been gluten free for 6 years and I'm going on about 4 years myself.

It may seem really daunting at first, and yes.. you will miss your favorite foods, but only for a little while. The more you learn about it and the more you get involved (change the way you cook instead of trying to buy an alternative replacement food) the easier it is. Really.
While it took a while, I can make breads now that even my regular friends rave over and I have become the muffin queen! 
Holidays coming? I can whip up a meal with the best of them.

Some celiacs/gluten intolerant people have problems with dairy too until after they are gluten free for a while and the gut is healed. 
My son has a true milk allergy and it is waaayyyy harder to deal with than gluten!

I second (again) asking the GI about gluten. More than likely he/she will bring it up anyway.


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

it was Celebrex and Aleve that chewed up my gut. 

But, I have always wondered about the gluten thing. i haven't tried going gluten free, though I always feel better when I reduce or eliminate bread, even though I eat super multigrain bread.


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## Nickers2002 (Nov 25, 2009)

You're killing me here lol.

Once we move and me/fiance have our own kitchen I'll have room to buy what I want and can do the gluten free diet if I need to. Right now it's hard because we have one small kitchen with 4 people so my mom just shops and cooks for everyone still. 

Trying to get into a GI for an appointment...first one I tried has nothing open until December O.O


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## Lockwood (Nov 8, 2011)

tinyliny said:


> it was Celebrex and Aleve that chewed up my gut.
> 
> But, I have always wondered about the gluten thing. i haven't tried going gluten free, though I always feel better when I reduce or eliminate bread, even though I eat super multigrain bread.


Celiac or gluten intolerance is one of the most missed and misdiagnosed diseases there is. It can look like many other things and there are many levels of insensitivity and severety of symptoms.
Like me- I did have some of the above listed GI issues that doctors never made the connection on, but the clencher was the huge rashes I started having after my son was born, which only a small percentage of people have.
And pregnancy, which if one already has the genetic marker, is one of the most comon "traumas/life changes" to set it off in women.
Another kicker is, you can be chugging along in life just fine and it doesn't show up until later because something finally/really set it off.

Thankfully it is realatively easy to fix. And many many people choose to just go gluten free because it makes them feel so good.
Going gluten free (and dairy too) has also been shown to really help spectrum kids as well and has been linked to their gut issues.

And like a few of you guys, I have to be careful with Naproxyn, Ibuprophen, and some other products as well. Some is because of the medicine itself, and others because of hidden gluten in the tablet.


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## beau159 (Oct 4, 2010)

Before I even read the other posts, I thought of Celiac Disease. 

My dad and my aunt and a neighbor and a close friend of mine have it, so I've well-versed. 

If it's a road you have to go down, you'll have to travel on it sooner or later. 

In all honesty, Celiac Disease isn't as "bad" of a diagnosis as it used to be. In the respect that gluten free foods are SO much more accessable now and CD is actually more commonly known now. When my dad was diagnosed in 1991 (after 5 years of not knowing why he was sick), it was horrible back then. Nothing was pre-packaged as gluten free and no one had ever heard of CD. 

Still not something one would choose to have, but at least your options are much better nowadays.


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