The Many Symptoms Of Celiac.

Turning 30 should be celebrated, you are about to enter the best years of your life, so they say. But when I turned 30 all I could think was, how come everyone else isn’t complaining about how exhausting aging is? My health hadn’t even got to its worst at this point.

I often wonder what triggered my celiac. Was I gluten intolerant first? Was it a virus? Maybe the mumps, the measles, phenomena? Maybe the flu? Or maybe childbirth was the final straw.

My Grandads niece is the only family memeber I know of who has an autoimmune disease, so it’s just me in my immediate family.

When I left home at 19, my diet changed, and not for the better. I worked a lot of jobs, 70 hour weeks were normal, I was also studying and partying pretty hard. Ironically, the first major change in my health I can remember, is when I worked in a bakery. All of a sudden my asthma wasn’t seasonal or if I had a cold, it was an everyday battle.

Burning the candle at both ends, my Mum would say. I soon started to become constipated and even more err gassy than usual. I went to the doctor, he said, “you work too much Lisa, keep a food diary” (hmm, that could of been useful) and take this fibre and mix it in water. Which I never did.

My eyes always felt scratchy and dry so I had some special eye drops. Optometrists couldn’t understand an inflammation ring behind one eye.  We put it down to my seasonal allergies, my sinus problems or maybe my migraines I got when I had over committed myself.

Once, I had a big lump in my stomach, the doctor took an X-ray. We looked at the X-ray together and I said “wow, I’m literally full of..#%*¥” and he laughed with me and sent me off with some strong laxatives.

I started to noticed I was excessively thirsty. I got tested for diabetes but we thought, maybe it’s because I’m constipated.

Not long after, my teeth started to become discoloured, sensitive and I had enamel wear. I felt like I constantly had a sore throat, which the dentist and I decided must be my wisdom teeth.

I started to become overly energetic, I was going a hundred miles an hour all the time and sometimes I couldn’t sleep. When I could fall sleep I would twitch so aggressively I would wake my husband up.

I started to suffer from anxiety and panic attacks in certain situations, but some how managed to put on a happy face. At 27 we had a beautiful baby girl and relocated a lot for my husbands work.

After our daughter was born I was no longer hyperactive, but tired all the time and would nap most days. We put it down to the lack of sleep with a new born.

I got a really sore knee and sometimes it would give way. My joints ached constantly, I felt like I was living in a 70 year olds body. I was taking glucosamine because X-rays and blood tests were not showing arthritis as suspected.

One year I got a terrible virus, I went to the doctors who thought I had pancreatitis and I was booked for emergency surgery while my bloods came through. But it wasn’t, they said I was showing inflammation in my blood tests. Like all my other “issues” no one thought too much of it, including myself.

Then things really went down hill. I was exhausted all the time, I couldn’t drive long distances or walk up stairs because my knees both hurt so much. I was so constipated I can’t even explain what I did to poop! When I did go, my poo was covered in bile. I had migraines so crippling I would rock on my bed in the dark holding my head. I was using codeine daily and would space out.

I started to get stabbing pains in my stomach and would rush to the bathroom. My husband would push on a pain I would get in my back, and I would let out gas! (So attractive!).  I had rashes on my palms and soles that would itch uncontrollably. I started to realise bread and apples (think fodmap) made me want to sleep, if I had a walk with the dog I would sleep for an hour straight after.

Brain fog was in full swing but I started to google. Autoimmune dieseases would come up but I still didn’t quite fit anyone fully. It was becoming obvious something wasn’t quite right!

Then in 2013, at 32, I got a phone call and found out my Mum had Cancer and it was terminal.

I wanted to go home and be with her, but how could I do that when I was barely making it through each day? I went to the doctor, but not my normal clinic because we were relocated for work.

After all the required tests, I found out I had Celiac. I  learnt how to be gluten free while grieving for my Mum. While I felt crippling sadness from losing my Mum at the same time all my symptoms disappeared (except my asthma).

I can remember coming out of the dark cloud of grief thinking, this is why no one my age is complaining all the time, being in your 30s really are the best years of your life after all.