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Hi!  Yes, I am new to this list.  But I am not new to celiac sprue.
It is appropriate that I introduce myself.

I am a computer programming consultant in the northwest Chicago region
(primarily PCs; in a few weeks I hope to have my web pages ready for
prime time with more details).

Around five and a half years ago I began dating a wonderful girl in
college.  We had met very informally a few months previously on IRC
and an internal bbs used by 5 state universities in Illinois (yes, we
are proof that a 'net friendship can become a lasting, positive
romance).

Several weeks after we began dating, Tania became extremely sick.  This
illness had an extreme amount of intensity for over a year with many
trips to specialists.  There were many times that a hospital stay was
only prevented by a lack of the ability to pay the bill and a recog-
nition that the hospital could not do anything differently than what
was being done at home.  The illness continued with less intensity for
over two more years.

To summarize, during a three year time span, Tania was suspected to have
suffered multiple infections (kidney, etc), walking pneumonia, PID, etc.
The better physicians were honest and said that they did not know what
was causing the problems and weren't sure where to begin.  A kidney
specialist in Wisconsin told her that her problems were all in her head,
that she had never had a kidney infection, and that she'd better quit
claiming that she had or she'd never get good health insurance.  Due to
intense abdominal pain, she underwent a laparoscopy for suspected
endemetriosis that proved wrong.  An eyes/ears/nose/throat doctor told
her that he suspected it might be allergy related.  When hearing this,
her personal doctor suggested that she try changing her diet to see if
it  was a food allergy.

Over two years ago, Tania's grandmother cut out a newspaper article that
contained about 4 sentences summarizing celiac sprue.  Tania did some
research of her own and began a reduced-gluten diet (it takes a lot of
education to reach the level of gluten-free).  Her illnesses immediately
subsided.  Her health improved over-night.  Obviously, she continued her
research and over a year and a half ago became truly gluten-free.

Presently, she does not have easy access to the 'net and her access to
this list is via my account.  We are working on getting her a better
account and should succeed by the end of June (probably much sooner).

We tracked down this list last weekend and have spent many hours reading
the logs (and I'm sure we'll spend many more).  We both look forward to
the future conversations with the members of this list and will do our
best to make a positive contribution.

                                        Sincerely,

                                        Larry P. Price