Life before it was Gluten Free

Commonly when I am sharing my story of how I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease, a lot of people wonder what symptoms I had prior to my diagnosis and for how long. This is an infographic designed by an awesome Celiac Blogger Gluten Dude. It shows the most common symptoms reported by Celiacs prior to their diagnosis.

From an early age I always had stomach problems. I remember complaining to my parents about a stomachache around my belly button when I was younger. I can't tell you an exact time of when my symptoms started because for as long as I could remember I always felt horrible. However I think that my Celiac went full force during high school. However, I thought the way I was feeling was completely normal and was just how the rest of my life would be.

Using the above infographic as a guide, the symptoms listed below are all the symptoms I experienced prior to my diagnosis. I will also put in parenthesis the prevalence of this symptoms on a daily,weekly, or monthly basis.


Oral Symptoms: 
- Mouth sores (Once every few months)

Female Specific:
- N/A

Intestinal: 
- Acid Reflux (Daily)
- Bloating (Daily)
- Constipation (Daily, would alternate with Diarrhea)
- Diarrhea (Daily, would alternate with constipation)
- Gas (Daily)
- Nausea (Daily)
- Stomach Pain (Daily)

Joint/Muscle: 
- Joint pain/stiffness (Daily)
- Leg cramps (Weekly)

Vitamin Deficiencies: 
- N/A

Brain: 
- ADD (Daily)
-Anxiety (Daily)
- Brain Fog (Daily)
- Depression (Only experienced one case of being severely depressed prior to my diagnosis)
- Irritability (Daily)
- Mood Swings (Daily)

Skin:
- Acne (Developed horrible acne in high school)
- Bruising (Would have bruises for no reason as a child)
- Dandruff (Weekly)
- Skin Rashes (This commonly would happen when I would visit a water park)

Miscellaneous: 
- Chronic Fatigue (Daily)
- Dizziness (This was not a constant thing but would hit me really hard)
- GERD (Daily)
- Headaches (Daily)
- Migraines (Once every 3 months)
- Seizures (Experienced during Childhood)
- Sleeping issues (Always had trouble sleeping growing up)

As you see I experienced a lot of symptoms prior to being diagnosed.  Some Celiac's have experienced more symptoms than me, others have experienced less. When I went gluten free all of these symptoms were either eliminated or greatly reduced. I even remember telling my mom a few weeks into my gluten free lifestyle that I felt awake for the first time in my whole life. There is a saying in the Celiac Community that life starts after going gluten free. For me this was incredibly true! I have felt better the past four years than I did the first twenty. So if you are experiencing any of the above symptoms think about getting tested, because you too can live life wide awake like me.

Until next time,

- Jodie

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