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Dear Listmates,

Let me introduce myself again.  I am the 50 year old wife, mother,
grandmother, mother-in-law and self-diagnosed celiac after 50 years.  I
have been gluten free for 7 months.  I went gluten free before realizing
that the testing must be done on those that have been eaten gluten
regularly.  There was no way I could back on gluten so...I am
self-diagnosed I guess (and actually very blessed to be so).

My weight started out at 110 (5'2") and currently is around 90 lbs.  When
going gluten free my body began making changes I thought were impossible at
my age.  I thought I was dying slowly and would not live very long at
all.  My dear husband and family had about given up hope that anyone would
find out what was wrong with me.  The Lord has carried my heart every day
and given me eternal hope so the earthly time for me was becoming less and
less important.

In December a Dr. e-mailed our daughter a response to my history that she
had sent him via a posting in a Christian mothers forum.  He said "Celiac
Sprue".  My earthly world began changing.  I typed celiac into the search
engine on our computer and what I read told me that God's mercy was at hand
for me in finally bringing a name to what I had been sick for years
with.  I could hardy believe what I read as the tears streamed down my
face.  I immediately went gluten free (there must be a prize for the speed
at which I achieved this astronomical feat).  My body began calming almost
instantly.  My waist went down to a size that I didn't know existed while
my son-in-law commented on how my "pooch" was gone (didn't even know I
really had one that others could see).  The diarrhea ceased, the bloating
let up but for those times that we all know about when we "thought" what
went into our mouth was gluten free, only to find out by personal
experience that it was "not".

I thought that eating gluten free was the end to my troubles but soon I
discovered that I couldn't eat any sugars, vegetables (except for a few
green beans), fruits or carbohydrates.  All I could eat was red meat and a
little fish.  I posted and asked all of you what to do...your responses
were great!  Leaky Gut, a good share of you said!  Some of you said that I
just needed to be patient and let my gut heal and then I could eat
again.  And a few of you said I needed digestive enzymes.

I finally decided to go see a G.I. He was encouraging at first but when I
told him I could not do his hydrogen peroxide breath test because I would
have to drink a glass of glucose that would make me very ill, he said he
had never heard of anyone like me that couldn't eat foods after going
gluten free.  I did tell him that I had received many posts from others
telling me that they too could not eat sugars or fruits.  He was a nice man
but was very unable to help me.

Since I had already tried digestive enzymes and didn't find much relief I
began researching more and more into digestive problems in hopes of finding
myself a way to eat.  Steaks, roasts and hamburgers are great for
breakfast, lunch and supper and all the time in between.  I knew I needed
to be more patient to give my gut time to heal as so many of you said that
it was probably leaking my food into my blood stream (leaky gut) from all
the damage from years of celiac.  But, it kept coming back up to me that I
could eat the red meat.  Why was my stomach able to digest that and not
anything else?

The G.I. said maybe I had a genetic disorder where I was missing
sucrase.  I read all I could on it and found that what that meant was that
he would give me a prescription for sucrase.  I looked it up and found that
it cost over $600.00 for a tiny little bottle!!  Sounds to me like that is
an insurance companies nightmare and our insurance company wouldn't pay for
it.  So, I went looking for the natural counterpart to it to see if maybe
that would help me.  A friend said that "Ness Enzymes" were the best so I
called the company to see if they were gluten free and had sucrase.  They
let me talk to one of their staff doctors.  She listened as I told her my
story.  She said that regular enzymes that I would buy at a natural food
store would not do what my stomach needed they would have to be very strong
ones that were "live" enzymes (store ones apparently are dead).  She said
their company manufacturers a very strong line called "Advanced Enzyme
Formula".  She also told me, after me telling her what I can not eat
(everything but red meat actually) that what I needed were the
"Carbohydrase Enzyme Supplement".  They have to be ordered by a
practitioner, in other words, I could not order them myself.  I have a
friend that is a clinical nutritionist that has been trying to help me for
years and she ordered it for me.

Yesterday afternoon I tried the first one.  I ate my regular roast but
tried more green beans than usual.  No stomach ache. I ate some more....no
stomach ache.  I ate some gravy and potatoes....no stomach ache.  A little
later my husband was eating some Sorbet and it looked so very good.  It is
gluten free and dairy free (I am also allergic to dairy).  I knew that it
had oodles of high fructose corn syrup in it and several weeks ago I had
tried just a tiny bit...HUGE stomach ache for hours, so I was not exactly
over zealous about trying it but............I knew that would be the real
test, what would my gut do with the new digestive enzyme with corn syrup?!
I ate a "bowl" of it.  It tasted so good!   :)   As I waited expecting a
terrible reaction I soon realized that what I was experiencing was what
"normal" people do when they eat.  I could hardly believe it, "no stomach
ache at all!!!".  I then made broccoli with some roast, no stomach
ache!!  Now, I went to bed knowing that there was a possibility that I
would wake up with terribly swollen intestines or even worse.

I woke up at 4 and rolled to the left, then to the right.......then I woke
my husband up and told him that I didn't have a stomach ache and didn't
have anything at all!!!  I was so excited that I got up and made myself a
big glass of protein drink (remembering that just a few months ago I
coudn't even have 1/4 tsp of it).  I put both scoops into the soy milk
(couldn't have that either) and took the digestive enzyme............NO
stomach ache at all!!!

I went in and asked my husband if he would like sausage and eggs for
breakfast, he smiled such a big, wide smile at me!!  Then our married
daughter came down from upstairs with our grandbaby and when I asked her
the same question she got so excited that she called our other daughter
that lives about 500 feet away in their little house!  They all wanted to
put me on I.V.'s last week because I had lost so much weight and they
didn't know what to do.  On with breakfast I went....eggs, gluten free
toast with gf jelly and gf turkey sausage....all no'no's for me for sure
before!    I ate all of it and.......no stomach ache!!!!   I decided that I
am not wild about eggs but my stomach had tollerated them fine with the new
enzymes.  I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is God's mercy that has
been poured out upon me.  Without His blessing this little bottle would
have done me no good at all!

You all have been so very friendly and helpful and I thought that if my
posting helps anyone that I should tell you all about these enzymes.  I did
not know that there were dead ones and live ones.

I know this has been long, I am sorry if it offends anyone.  I owe you all
so many summary's but I was not feeling well enough to actually do
them.  More than approx. 40 people told me about Leaky Gut...and that I
should be on L-Glutamine.  Many of you said just be patient and time will
heal my gut to where I could eat.  I felt I was running out of that time so
that is why I kept looking.  My natural doctor told me to make teas out of
echenacia (sp?) (and most of you said celiacs should not use it), licorice
root, siberian ginsing, and comfrey.  I did that for a few weeks and it did
seem to give me additional strength.  But, for me the best help has come in
the Digestive enzymes that are live.

If anyone else needs to try these, please do let me know if you do not have
anyone that can order them for you.  I have no interest in the company at
all (have seen this posted in many posts so I know I need to say that) but
I do have an interest in helping others.  I will gladly give you my friends
name.

Blessings to all of you as you struggle in your own journey through life
looking to Christ for your strength and direction in
everything.  Sincerely, Nancy in Texas