So, I might make it look easy now, but it definitely wasn’t easy at the beginning. In fact, it was the longest and most challenging period in my life, and it lasted for nearly a year and a half. Besides having to revamp my entire way of eating, I was dealing with full body pain and numbness that scared me to death. I kept thinking, “I haven’t had any gluten…I’m so careful…how can I feel worse than when I was consuming gluten daily?” My main symptom was lower back pain that was debilitating, and it literally came out of nowhere. One day I was fine and the next day I couldn’t even sit down because of all the pain. I had x-rays and an MRI that revealed nothing, visits with orthopedic doctors, chiropractors, physical therapists and cortisone shots that they told me always help (they didn’t…and I still regret that choice). I even had exploratory surgery to see if I had something internal causing the pain. That procedure revealed two inguinal hernias that needed to be repaired. I thought maybe…just possibly…those hernias were the cause of my pain. So, I waited 6 weeks to heal from the exploratory surgery, and then I had the procedure to repair both hernias. Sadly, after I recovered from that surgery, the pain was still there, and, unfortunately, nobody had any answers. I kept thinking that I’m going to have to learn to live with this pain forever. I began to wonder if it was all in my head…if I was somehow causing the pain. I continued to scour the internet for anything that might help, and that’s when I came across a local chiropractor with a strong focus on functional medicine. I thought it wouldn’t hurt to make an appointment just in case there was something structurally wrong with my back that he could fix…and the functional medicine part was very intriguing. I went to that appointment in October of 2014 very hopeful.
The exam was very similar to all the other appointments with chiropractors, and, like so many other chiropractors and physical therapists, he didn’t find anything structurally that needed fixing. But the appointment didn’t end there. He then started the functional medicine part of the appointment. He began to ask me questions about the food I was eating, the supplements I was taking and how I was managing stress. After many questions, he determined that my lower back pain was entirely a result of my gut that still wasn’t healed…essentially, I was going through what he called a “gluten detox”. I thought…finally, this makes sense. His “prescription” was to go on a very strict elimination diet (no sugar, no eggs, no dairy no soy, no grains etc.) and to take L-Glutamine and a probiotic daily for about 4 weeks. This concerned me because I had already eliminated a lot of things and I had lost a lot of weight that I didn’t need to lose. I had always been on the thin side, but since the celiac diagnosis, my weight had gone down significantly. I looked very unhealthy. My hair was thin, my veins and bones were very noticeable, and my nails were brittle. I basically looked awful. Eliminating even more foods scared me because I was terrified of losing even more weight. The doctor repeatedly reassured me that everything would be fine and that I would eventually get back to a healthy weight…once I healed my gut. I left his office with L-Glutamine, a probiotic and Vitamin D supplements. I had a plan, and I felt empowered.
