<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>
 
Warning - long post follows. Sorry to start out so long-winded.
 
I'm glad this list is here. I just got the biopsy results yesterday
confirming Celiac. :-( Of course, I'm full of questions (and frustration.)
 
I've read all the wonderful introductory material. I also did some searching
of the archives, but wasn't satisfied with the results. I have 4 questions
to start.
 
I smoked for 15 years, and had NO stomach/intestinal difficulties. Every
time I quit smoking, after about 3 days without cigs I'd get *terrible* gas,
bloating, pain and diarrhea if I ate anything but rice. Within a day or two
of smoking again it would all go away. I repeated this pattern several
times, quitting once for 6 months. Dr. called it irritable bowel brought on
by stress, and sent me to counseling. Grrrr. I started smoking again.
 
I quit 3+ years ago, (and stayed quit) and have been symptomatic ever since,
though fortunately the severity of symptoms has decreased somewhat. I was
only diagnosed because I became anemic. I saw very little discussion of this
in my archive search. I know smoking has been shown to cover up symptoms of
Crohns and/or UC, but my gastro person hadn't heard of the same with Celiac.
There's no question in my case that smoking either kept the CD under control
or at least covered the symptoms entirely.
 
Secondly, I have continual vaginal yeast infections. Any connection to CD?
 
Thirdly, I developed almost daily migrainous-type symptoms - sick headaches,
dizzy, nausea, out-of-it, can't concentrate, living in a fog, head exploding
type of feeling sometimes with severe headache, sometimes minor pain,
sometimes no headache. This has been going on for over 2 years now. I'm
wondering if there's a connection and if it might improve once I'm GF. The
info I received from the list said 21% report migraine-like headaches, which
doesn't seem much higher than the general population.
 
Finally, everything I've read says "zero-tolerance" GF diet forever.
Eeeeek!!! Yet I've spoken with people who say you can introduce things
gradually and see how you react once you're GF and symptom-free for a period
of time. That doesn't make sense to me, as I've also read that damage can
occur even when there are no symptoms, so how could you know (without
repeated biopsies) if you can tolerate certain gluten-containing foods?
 
Thanks for any and all feedback, and I promise future posts will be much
shorter!