No title, no problem
I don’t know why, but the title is the hardest part of blogging for me. Most of my updates are not really worthy of any specific title. There have been multiple times that I’ve thought about blogging only to give up because I can’t think of a title. That’s not optimal though. I’m going to start just saying something like “untitled” or whatever going forward … assuming I can’t think of a good title. I guess most of my blog posts are kind of piecemeal bits of info anyway.
Last week I took a trip to Costa Rica to meet with some people in our office. It was pretty miserable. I was feeling really sick for the few days before the trip and basically through the entire trip itself. But not cold/flu sort of sick. I just had a really bad stomach ache and felt very bloated the whole time. I couldn’t stop burping to try to feel better (didn’t work) and I was also having trouble eating because almost everything I ate made me feel worse. I got some tests done at the hospital there and everything came back pretty normal. No tumors or life-threatening problems. Not that I expected to find something like that but I figured I needed to be checked out just in case. I’d rather not chance it if I can catch something as early as possible. I researched a bunch of my symptoms and I theorized that it was possible that gluten was causing my problems. I’d been eating more gluten-containing foods and many of the symptoms lined up. So about a week ago I stopped eating gluten and within about 24 hours I was starting to feel a little better. And 48 hours later I felt almost normal … although I still didn’t feel great because I’d eaten so little for the last 7-10 days.
Now, a week later (and zero gluten), I feel normal. I am still not 100% sure if it’s a gluten problem. And there’s a large range of gluten problems. Anywhere from a moderate intolerance (and maybe I went over the edge) all the way to Celiac disease. For those who don’t know, Celiac disease is an auto-immune disease where your body attacks itself when you eat gluten. It destroys nutrient-receptors in the small intestine and causes a lot of discomfort and stomach pain (even if the pain isn’t necessarily coming from the stomach). Anyway, I got some followup blood tests yesterday to check for Celiac. The blood test isn’t conclusive for a Celiac diagnosis but it’s a pretty standard first step to check for the antibodies that the immune system produces when gluten is being consumed. I’m also getting some other things checked out because there are some other problems that overlap with a lot of my symptoms (such as thyroid problems). I am not 100% sure it’s a gluten thing, but I would say I’m about 85% sure it is related to my recent stomach problems. Either way, the important thing is that I feel significantly better and I don’t appear to have any serious life-threatening problem.
In other news, Jeff Williams (aka, yellowsub86) and his girlfriend are coming to visit (again!). Regular blog readers will recall that they came to visit me in Costa Rica in January. Now they’re coming to visit Grand Cayman this weekend. A week ago I was pretty worried that I would be a miserable host because I would have to lie in bed in pain the whole trip but now I am pretty excited for it. I’ll be sure to take some pics and post them on the blog.
Lastly, I’ve really been enjoying the NBA playoffs. Obviously some series’ have been better than others, but it’s a real pleasure to watch LeBron do his thing. He’s an incredible athlete and the Cavs are a really sick team. I’m also really excited to see how these LA-Houston and Boston-Orlando series turn out. I don’t always follow sports as closely as I once did (ie, in the mid and late 90s) but I really enjoy the NBA playoffs and this year’s have been great.
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Comments
Thanks Nancy. Actually seeing her on TV (I can’t remember which show but it was part of her book tour) was one of the things that made me think about gluten as a possible source of the problem. I’ve gotten a gluten-free diet book already but I will take a look at her book next time I’m in a book store. If it has some good additional info I will definitely pick it up.
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Nat — Elisabeth Hasselbeck just had her new book come out this week titled The G-Free Diet. She had similar problems as yours which went away when she was on Survivor and eating basically rice and fish. When she came home, she found out she had celiac disease which prompted her search for all things gluten free. You might want to pick up the book.
Now addressing your other problem of “titles”…..sometimes it takes me days to post a book review because I’m trying to come up with a clever title for the review so I feel your pain there. Have fun this weekend.