Posted 7/17/2009 6:56 PM (GMT -7)
Mary, I am sorry to hear that your husband has lung cancer. I pray that his treatments will bring a remission!
When my youngest was 16, she started having female troubles. With a trip to the gyn and having to be referred to an endocrinologist, we found out that she was going through menopause with me. I had started with menopause symptoms at 28 and had never heard of Celiac disease.
All of my DD's life, she had 6 bowel movements a day. I had asked each pediatrician on each base we were assigned about this. They all brushed the 'nervous mother' away and said it was 'normal for her'. I knew it wasn't normal, but in those days, you did not have the internet at your fingertips to research medical issues.
My DD got so sick, she was not able to do her homeschool classes. We were afraid that she was going to fail her senior year. She was sleeping around 23 hours a day and had not energy to get out of bed. She was gaining weight, but not eating. Her stomach was running off more than usual.
Our PC dr. was afraid she was going to die before we found out what was wrong with her. I only found help online from another celiac forum that I found to ask questions about. After I read the symptoms after praying for God to show me the answer, I called my husband and read to him the symptoms of celiac. We made an appt. with our PC dr. and he said the diet could not hurt anything to try, so that is what I did. My DD was too sick to do a gluten challenge after we went gf. At week 2, she was up out of bed and able to do her school work. Within a month, it was like a miracle.
We never did the gluten challenge for biopsy purposes. We had our answer and there is no going back. She can not even touch anything with gluten on it without breaking out in burn marks now. The burn marks will stay on her hands for 2 weeks or more.
My other DD also has contact troubles and her 1 yr old son also has trouble with gluten. He has never eaten gluten, but while my mother was here visiting after my sister's death this year, she got gluten on the furniture where my grandson touched it and he turned into a demon child. He is only 1 and he had horrible intestinal reactions and he cried and pitched a fit for several days as he worked through the contamination issues.
My husband has developed further food issues and we avoid corn, peanuts, citrus, sulfites, pineapple and beans. His reactions have become so threatening that he is disabled and can not be out amongst people because he can't be around perfumes, chemicals and his immune system is a shambles.
My sisters will not listen to me about first degree relatives needing to be checked. My oldest sister was a nurse and she contracted colon cancer last Oct/Nov time frame and she passed away on Easter. I wonder if gluten was the cause. She and our younger sister all complained of IBS symptoms for years.