Could it be? After all these years???

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   I know a lot of you are probably tired of hearing about my medical issues, but I'm stoked that I might be honing in on the culprit! I have been having some food sensitivity issues for quite some time now (off and on) and narrowed two of them down to wheat and bananas. I haven't really eating bananas and just broke down and made the decision to cut out wheat last week. Wow! What a difference already! I am losing what I assume to be quite a bit of water weight, along with bloating that's gone down. I have had stomach issues my whole life, as long as I can remember. Lately it's been getting worse and I told DH it's like the muscles "down there" just aren't working right anymore. I brushed it off as issues from repeat tears and scar tissue from childbirth and/or spina bifida occulta. I never considered Celiacs for myself b/c I don't have issues with diarrhea - quite the opposite actually with chronic constipation - at times it feels like I am digesting glass . I do have bouts of extreme cramping followed by a full clean out, but it's rare. I went to the allergist to get the food things checked on since my reactions were getting more frequent and worse which scared me. The skin prick test was negative for all so he's doing some blood tests for sensitivities. I mentioned that my stomach was feeling better being off wheat (no more gas or bloating! yay!!) and he stopped in his tracks and ordered the Celiacs test, no questions asked. I started looking into it more and it covers every.single.thing I have - some I never even considered as symptoms (like canker sores all the stinkin' time). All the things I have been diagnosed with over the years (IBS, colitis, gastritis, GERD, suspected endometriosis, fibromyalgia, etc.) are things that coincide with it and people are often misdiagnosed with before finally discovering CD. I also read a couple places that said it takes on average 11 years to finally figure it out and I started my bouncing around from specialist to specialist in late 2001!! It all really started when I got sick in 8th grade with an unknown bug that attacked my nervous system... one study is possibly showing a link to bodily trauma and the onset of CD. WOW! I finally am getting energy, my belly isn't bloated, my moods have increased to the point I am off my meds, and the list goes on. My friend made me some brownies on Thursday so I splurged and had one... within hours I felt awful. My stomach blew up, felt nasty, and my moods tanked. With MS it explained most but not all of my symptoms, this covers it all! Fatigue, depression, irritability, joint pain, migraines, canker sores, constipation, bloating, brain fog, menstrual issues. I can't believe after all these years I could have treated myself with just a "simple" diet change! I'm excited at the prospect that I can maybe be "normal" again. I haven't felt "normal" in years! Since middle school!! I'm hoping the test is positive so I have more motivation and a "reason" to give people, but I know it's not necessary for me to do what I need to do. I'm just afraid I am going to get slack with it if I don't have a necessary reason to do it - on paper, black and white, no question. DH has read some of the information and said "that's YOU! You could have wrote that!" He's being very supportive and is 100% on board for change - especially after seeing the changes this week - before and after the brownie especially. He's a bit confused on things, but is willing to figure it all out (they gave me an Epi pen in case my reactions turn anaphalactic and he didn't understand why since I wasn't allergic to bees . To him epi pen = bee stings. He also doesn't think of foods as ingredients. Like he asked why I didn't get more crackers and I said something about the wheat factor. He really didn't put two and two together that they were made out of wheat!)

Lots of scattered thoughts in this one post... just trying to process it all at this point. In my head I already am getting a negative test b/c it always seems to end up that way, but I am also seeing this as a lifestyle change from here on out. I cleaned out the pantry today! Not an easy thing to do, but very very necessary so there wouldn't be any temptation. I'm also curious to see how the kids' bodies react. We have suspected gluten issues for DS but at the time his old doc wasn't on board with it at all which made it hard. I'm going to be talking to their ped about it on Monday at YDD's well visit to get her thoughts. She's been urging me to make some diet changes and/or keep a food journal for each of them, but I have drug my feet up until this point. 