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Hi Everyone,

My mom was recently diagnosed with Celiac in early fall. At the beginning
of December she had been on a gluten free diet for about six weeks and was
starting to feel much, much better. During her follow-up barium x-ray on
December 1, they had her drink 24 oz. of a barium mixture that contained
gluten. Needless to say, she had a severe gluten reaction.

My mom has also had Meniere's disease since last December. Meniere's is an
inner ear disorder that causes severe vertigo when an attack comes on.
Unfortunately there isn't any cure. Her attacks come every few days or
weeks to every couple of months, require staying completely still in bed,
and last anywhere from 5 to 10 hours or so. When she feels an attack coming
on or any related syptom
s (e.g., she often has ringing in her ear from
Meniere's), she takes antivert and valium orally every six hours. She
usually feels some relief of the symptoms within twenty minutes, although
she still needs to ride out the attack.

On the evening of December 12, mom felt a Meniere's attack starting, took
her medications, and went to bed. However, this time she didn't feel any
relief from the symptoms. By the next day and into the 14th hour of the
attack, it was still going strong. We've never had this prolonged attack
happen before. My dad and I took her to emergency. They started medications
through her IV. By Tuesday morning she could walk, even though she still
felt lightly dizzy, so they sent her home. It seemed that the attack was
ongoing, but manageable. Once home she took her usual oral meds. By
Wednesday morning, the vertigo was again extremely severe and she was back
in emergency and
 in the hospital overnight. Our family is guessing that her
oral meds aren't helping her because of the gluten damage from December 1.
A couple of doctors agreed that this could be the case. A couple of others
however said, "Well, the pills just stay on the stomach" and they didn't
think this was a plausible explanation. When a gluten reaction occurs, does
this cause damage throughout the digestive tract or just to the villi?
Would there be a problem with absorption of oral meds afterwards (and how
would you suggest we explain this to the doctors)? Does this explanation
sound plausible or do you have any other ideas? Please provide any
information you can directly to me and I will post a summary to the list.

It's Friday and now mom is home, still feeling dizzy, and we're taking her
in two to three times a day to Kaiser Hospital's infusion center for IV
injections of the medicine until her symptoms st
art subsiding. Hopefully
she'll start feeling better soon. We'd appreciate prayers. It's been rough!

Valerie Smith
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