new member

moremuscle · Post by **moremuscle** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 7:51 pm

Hi Patti and welcome - is your sister the bird lady, Jean?

Wow, Fybromyalgia - doesn't sound easy to deal with but who said it had to be easy?! LOL!!
I think it is worth trying the gluten free diet to see what happens - what can you loose? Many of us with MC have found that diet is the key to our welness and to living symptom free; my life turned around when I learned how to control my symptoms with the diet; there is no way I am going to cheat. Your sister can help you with your diet but so can many of the folks on this board - there is a wealth of info and support available. Congratulations on deciding to give the GF diet a chance.

Love,
Karen

artteacher · Post by **artteacher** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 10:21 am

Hi Patti,

These are the nicest people in the world. When I first started posting here (I think it was almost two years ago?) they were my lifeline. That sounds melodramatic, but I felt so alone with my embarassing stomach, energy, depression, and pain issues. I had seen doctors for over 10 years at that time, and been tested for everything, diagnosed with lupus, & MC, treated with standard treatments, and was worse for it. They listened to me, encouraged me, and were never judgemental about me venting, whining, being hypochondriacal, etc. And now I'm doing pretty darn well, I must say. Forever thanks, guys!

Anyway, you haven't asked for advice, but if I were to give any, I'd suggest testing, or starting a diet that is very simple: just 2 or three things that are well tolerated by most people: note any improvement in a diary, then add foods as they are tolerated, always keeping your diary. (The other way of food testing, that I wouldn't recommend, is to eliminate foods from your existing diet, one at a time, which could take forever until you notice changes in your health) And keep an open mind to other things that work for you other than diet, because it's not just all about diet, necessarily.

I'm a retired teacher from Arizona. Two Cavalier dogs, one husband, 5 kids, 4 grandkids. Just went to England and the Panama Canal. Nice to meet you! Welcome, Marsha

thedell19 · Post by **thedell19** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 10:26 am

I second the motion on getting tests done thru Enterolab.com. I found out that I am intolerant of gluten and casein (casein was a surpirse to me) but gluten was not. I went off gluten for 4 days when I started to have problems (mainly with D) and then the fourth day I had a solid BM. But then my GI said that we have to do a colonoscopy and endoscopy to see if I had celiac. Well I dont have celiac so the doc said to keep eating gluten. Make a long story short.. I will be going on a GFCF diet in May.

Jean · Post by **Jean** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 5:03 am

Well I'm a day late and a dollar short.

This is my second week back to work and it's kicking my butt (Karen and Polly I didn't stay in shape during the winter and I'm paying for it now)! I've just been working and sleeping.

Yes, Patti is my sister!

She came to visit last week. Since Dave wouldn't let me keep my Blue & Gold Macaw, Patti adopted him. Let me rephrase that, Alex fell instantly in love with her and wouldn't have anything to do with me after that. I've heard of birds picking their person, but this was amazing. I blame it on the blue sweater Patti had on (the exact color of Alex) and the spring hormones LOL. It is great that he loves her so much, but I admit I cried some when he left. He has the perfect home now.

Patti also decided to go gluten free when she was here, YEAH! I gave her all of my gluten free books including Against the Grain and all of the cook books. I saw her three days after she started the diet and she already looks better. I'm even more excited that she joined this board.

Thanks for making her feel so welcome, Love, Jean