Glutened...?

Sunday, Oct 17, 2010


Last night, I made a lovely meal of citrus-marinated tilapia, jasmine rice, and broccoli. A great, carefully-checked gluten-free meal. Just before dinner was ready, I took a CVS-brand version of Excedrin because I had had a headache all day. Not sure what caused it, but within 15 minutes after eating, I felt funny. My belly gurgled, I felt bloated, and I got nervous. Could I have had gluten?


In the Celiac world, they call this "getting glutened". Basically, if you have Celiac, gluten is treated like poison in your body, so it's the equivalent to food poisoning if you have enough of it. I've read that as you eliminate gluten from your diet, you become more and more sensitive to any amount of it. Well I'm not sure if I'm already that sensitive or what, but I was up sick till 5 am. The pain was quite surprising, and different than my past symptoms. All of this is consistent with what I've heard "getting glutened" can be like. I looked up remedies, and basically they say to drink lots of water and green tea. But between the pain and the caffeine in the tea, I was wide awake all night watching bad TV to distract myself. This sucks. 


I'm trying to remember that it will only get better from here, but it's tough. I got almost no sleep and feel completely wiped today. The best thing I can figure is that maybe the medicine I took had gluten in it. Apparently CVS generics cannot guarantee being gluten-free as they change depending on the batch. Ick. So just to be safe, I think I'll have to go out and buy more reliable, brand-name (and unfortunately more expensive) meds. Awesome. 

I'm trying to keep looking for the silver lining in this whole experience. At least I know the cause of being sick and am in control of getting better. I just have to work hard to educate myself. It's nearly 24 hours after the start of this first episode, and I'm just looking forward to recovering and trying again. I read that gluten in your system is sort of like falling down and scraping your knee. If you keep falling down, your knee will never heal, but if you stay away from the pavement for a few days, it starts to heal quickly. I think this week, I'll need to try to be extra careful and basic with my diet. Maybe the memory of this weekend will help motivate me.