<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Dear Listmates,

        This summary is long overdue!  Sorry, but the demands of school do
take their toll... At any rate, the 50 or so responses ran the gamut from
allergy/asthma responses to possible heart problems.  Some said it is a
definite gluten response and others said esophageal spasms.
        Judging from the responses it seems pain and tightness in the chest
are very common.  As for me, I tend to believe that it was aspiration of
fluids AND esophageal spasm.  I remember at the time that my esophagus was
hurting and I could feel that it was spasming.
        BTW, to the one member who worried that the attending phys.
overlooked my heart... not to worry!  When I said "pain in chest and
shortness of breath" they took me in first and plugged me into a machine to
monitor my heart etc.  (under much protest from me I might add).  My heart
was just fine, but thank you very much for your concern!  :)
**************
Now as to the awful diet...
        Being a busy student who is also teaching, I find I most often just
don't have time to deal with the demands of this diet.  Yet, knowing that
the above problems can happen to me with a slip-up, well... suddenly the
diet becomes a blessing.  Who has time for the symptoms when we can avoid
them by diet compliance?
        I DO GET FRUSTRATED!  Oh don't get me wrong on that!  When I can't
simply stop anywhere I please to eat, or I have to get too creative in the
kitchen to find a palatable quick meal (emphasis on quick).....  HECK, we
all do.  But then I think about days like the above, and the misery I went
through, and I get over it.  You will forgive me, but sometimes I think :

A little gluten misery is as good as a pound of cure.

Lynda Swink
P.S.  My little quip above is NOT a recommendation - only an observation.
                           ..
 *                        >\<                           *   *              *
\|/ [log in to unmask]  \|/ \|/ So.CA \|/ _@V