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Dear friends,
   
  I thought I would write because you would all understand!
   
  I was diagnosed end of 06. After a year of very careful GF eating, I watched my TTG number come down from 115 to 7. I think I might've had one difficulty in September 06 when I had sushi with brown rice from a Whole Foods in Orlando, FL. I called the WF to figure out what might've happened - turned out the brown rice had soy sauce in it. But my reaction (headache and bad stomachache) was mild compared to what happend last Friday. 
   
  My husband and I traveled to England last Monday. We stayed in London for the first four days, eating GF successfully at a friend's house (she was very attentive and careful in preparing her house AND we brought some foods with us to get us through) and in several restaurants (Waggamama two times and VitaOrganic once). On Friday we traveled to a conference outside of London. The caterer assured me that the dinner that night would be GF. I ate it with gusto, feeling very safe. Lo and behold, that night I was violently ill. I have never, and I mean never, felt this horrible. I was moments away from asking my husband to take me to a hospital. I stayed awake all night, tossing and turning, terrible headache, bodyaches, nausea - finally, at about 5 AM, I tossed my cookies. I'm surprised I didn't throw up earlier, but I absolutely hate throwing up, so I usually do everything I can not to. But when I finally relented control over it and got rid of everything in my stomach, I
 took some advil and then slept for a few hours. I haven't been able to eat much since then, but I have to say that today, five days later, my stomach has finally begun to feel a little less queasy. 
   
  I returned to London today to visit my daughter again. We went to the market and she showed me some Kettle brand potato chips. I looked at the label - it says suitable for Coeliacs. I bought the Sea Salt and Balsamic Vinegar variety. I didn't look at the ingredients (BIG MISTAKE!). I ate half the bag (it's small!). Within a very short period of time, headache, nausea, aches all over again. I then looked at the ingredients on the bag and they contain potato maltodextrin (not sure if that has gluten) and malted barley. 
   
  What have I learned? After a year, take no chances. Read labels religiously BEFORE I eat anthing. And I also realize that the labeling laws in other countries are different. Just because it says "Suitable for Coeliacs", it doesn't mean that it's totally GF. I don't understand how a cojmpany can say a paroduct is okay for Celiacs when it has ingredients that we wouldn't label as GF in the US.
   
  So, it feels like I'm in the same position as I was last Friday. Maybe I'll get lucky and it won't be as bad. Here, it's almost 11 PM, so hopefully I'll sleep it off. 
   
  Thanks for listening.
   
  Ellen A.
   

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