The symptomatology of a glutening June 2, 2014
Posted by mareserinitatis in food/cooking.Tags: celiacs, gluten, gluten free diet, health, symptoms
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I’m going to be traveling later this week, and I realized that I am slightly terrified after having a bad ‘glutening’ over a week ago. I went to Jimmy John’s and ordered a gluten-free unwich. Then, without thinking, I asked them to add extra lettuce. The extra lettuce came from a bin into which people wearing contaminated gloves had been sticking their hands.
It was awful.
The first thing I noticed was during a run the next morning. A couple friends and I were doing an 8-miler (and that’s a good thing to have friends for because it’s a LONG run without them). My hand was really starting to hurt, and I asked them if their hands ever swell up while running. Both of them said, “Yep,” and I didn’t think much more about it…until the next morning, when I couldn’t get up. In fact, I spent three days unable to get out of bed because of crushing fatigue and horrible brain fog. I desperately wanted to get up, but even when I managed it, I would do something inconsequential, become exhausted, and not be able to focus on anything anyway. And pain all over my body. Not achiness, like the flu, but pain and swelling. GI symptoms started two days later. And then a week after that, with still swollen hands, I developed a rash (probably dermatitis herpetiformes (DH)…I still have purple marks) all over my right wrist with a couple spots on my hand. At first I thought it was poison ivy, but I hadn’t been anyplace where I would get it, and the rash was too diffuse.
I had this fantasy that maybe, once I’d been off gluten for a while, the reactions wouldn’t be so severe. I was wrong and they’re actually worse. (While I had skin problems most of my life until getting rid of the gluten, the DH is something entirely new.) I am terrified something like this will happen on a trip and I’ll be laid up the entire time.
This is me after a glutening. I don’t think this would work well at a professional conference.
On the up side, it really does make me appreciate how much better I feel the 99% of the time I have managed to avoid gluten. I like not feeling sick and exhausted and brain dead all the time.
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