If you do end up going gluten-free, consider swapping Cream of Rice for your beloved hot cereal. Tastes pretty similar, if you ask me, especially once it’s topped with butter, milk and sugar.

Uh-oh. I’m hungry.

To give up wheat… I love Cream of Wheat. I only have it about once a month or so because I also love it with butter, sugar, and cream. Yes, I could probably leave out the Cream of Wheat…

Still more blood tests and diagnostics to come. I may have to give up cream of wheat. We’ll see after the hernia repair is done. A frickin’ hernia causing most of my stomach pain… can you believe it?

After having researched the side-effects of bariatric surgery, why yes, I can believe it. I’m just grateful it’s merely a hernia.

As I contemplate going back for a gastric bypass, I will certainly take into consideration a gluten free diet. Anything is better than a knife.

Congrats on the weight loss

Im 99.9 percent gluten free as well!

I LOVE Kays Naturals.

seen em?

@SarahK - Yep, the new doc is a young family practitioner. I liked her attitude of “let’s first try to see if it’s something that can be treated by simple dietary changes” instead of prescribing me pill after pill, like my body is some kind of a dart board and we’re shooting for a prescription that works.

And you’re right: the symptoms started clearing up almost the very next day. Likewise, they return almost instantaneously if I’m “glutenated”.

Now, if you happen to have a great GF baking mix that doesn’t involve potato starch (the one thing I forgot to buy at Whole Foods), I’d love to take a gander at it.

I’m really glad for you (on the relief/diagnosis side). As you know, I was never diagnosed with fibro (or celiac for that matter), but our symptoms were so similar, so it was probably only a matter of time before the fibro diagnosis. And all of my fibro-ish symptoms disappeared the day after I stopped eating gluten (the first time — the second time, it took cutting out gluten and dairy and now corn and eggs for the most part. If I have to give up potatoes, y’all can just kill me). It’s amazing how sudden you start to feel better, right? You were the only other person I knew who had the horrible foot pain that I had, and I remember what a relief it was when I could wear something other than flip-flops again. I’m so glad you’re getting un-inflamed (exflamed?). My symptoms quit the very next day, and I can definitely tell when I’ve been glutened (only it’s a little murkier now, because I have to try to figure out if it was gluten or dairy or eggs or corn or something new…).

And knowing how much you cook and love doing it, I know it will be no time at all before you don’t miss gluten a single bit (except for the convenience of it). The only thing I miss now is cheese, and thank goodness you don’t have the dairy problem so far.

And thanks, you’ve inspired me to get off my butt and do a series I’ve been wanting to do for a long time.

Re: doctors screening earlier. Some are finally recognizing it, but not usually the older doctors who are nearing retirement. Is your new doctor younger? I’m trying to collect only recent grads for my new doctors, because they tend to be more in tune with the gut stuff.

And of course, you know if you need any celiac advice or recommendations, I’m all about over-helping.

My new MD suggested it as one of the first possibilities based on nothing more than listening to the various physical problems I’ve been having. The same problems, incidentally, which I’d been describing to my old MD. You know, the one who prescribed me an anti-depressant to which I was allergic… then didn’t diagnose that allergic reaction for nearly 3 months.

Glad you’re feeling better, welcome to the journey, and I never mentioned that I love the new design. You’re on a roll!