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First - thank you to those who contacted me with your support & good
wishes. And I seem to have mistakenly given the impression that I
was:(1) still gluten free or (2) on a deliberately low gluten diet.
Neither is the case. I think I may average close to the two bread slices
a day. It's just that I am frequently surprised that most of my meals
are gluten free. After all, if I have a GF breakfast & dinner, plus GF
snacks, and yet eat a sandwich for lunch I've hit the "two slice" level.
I ate at that level for four months before my biopsy, (although it was
really difficult at first - I had programmed myself very successfully to
stay away from gluten and every bite gave me a case of the guilties.)
Anyway - there were eleven responses to my Gluten Challenge Postmortem.
1. Three people are in that limbo between symptoms and diagnosis. I wish
you luck, Laurie, Valerie, and Ken.
2. Four people questioned the validity of the biopsy/diagnosis, basing
that on length of time of the gluten challenge and also whether the
pathologist and/or doctor had suffient knowledge to read the info
correctly, plus the fact that there is still so much unknown/unconfirmed
about the disease.
3. One person questioned whether there might have been a recovery from
the disease. He felt that I should have had blood tests.
4. And there were three responses sharing history, experiences & symptoms.
Again, thank you all so much. I must admit, I keep waiting for the other
shoe to drop. I would never say an unqualified "I don't have CD!". All
I can say is that so far I'm healthy & enjoying life. Something
obviously caused the severe symptoms I had for so long, and obviously my
five or six GF years helped heal my system. I wish I could have received
knowledgeable medical help when it was needed, and gotten answers instead
of a run-around.
What makes me the angriest is the hell that many people have to go
through because they do not have the opportunity to work with a
knowledgeable and caring medical professional, because of lack of money,
or insurance & HMO regulations, etc. Check with your local CD support
group - sometimes there are ways around these things, and I wish I had
tried harder to find a solution from the beginning. (Then again, at that
point I was so sick & confused it's a wonder I did anything.)
Anyway, good luck to all & have wonderful holidays. I will be away from
my computer until January 5. If anyone needs to e-mail me, please do it
directly, as I'll have to turn off my list mail for the next four weeks.
Nancy
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