Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Gluten Free.....No way, not me!

Tomorrow marks 8 weeks that I have had some sort of rash.  It is mostly on my lower back (upper buttocks), on my sides, around my chest, on my lower stomach, behind my ears and all over my scalp.  It is so itchy and drives me nuts.

I have been unable to see my family doctor as they are booked about 3 months out, so I have visited the urgent care 3 times and the emergency room once.  On all 4 visits I was diagnosed with contact dermatitis.  Meaning, I am coming into contact with something that I am having an allergic reaction to.

I've been prescribed mass amounts of prednisone, topical steroid cream and scalp wash....but, it continually keeps coming back.  We have gone through every item in our home (indoors and out) to see if there is something out of the ordinary that I have used and to this day we have thought of nothing.

Thankfully, I had an appointment with my regular physician yesterday for my annual and we were able to discuss my rash.  She made a phone call to a dermatology office and explained my situation and they were able to get me in yesterday afternoon.  Miracles do happen!!

A biopsy was taken off my lower back and will be sent out for testing and I also had some blood work drawn.  The specialist is thinking that I have Duhrings disease (aka dermatitis herpetaformis) and celiac disease.

Unfortunately, if this is the case, I will be on a strict gluten free diet and this will be a lifelong requirement (along with medication).  I've been wanting answers for weeks now as to what is causing all of this....but THIS is not the answer I would have hoped for.  I love food way too much to even "think" about having to go gluten free!

As much as I want this chronic itching to end.....I just never imagined this would be my answer.

Do any of you have to avoid gluten?  If so, what tips do you have.

3 comments:

Hannah@Eriesistibull said...

Yikes! I'm not sure I'd be able to do it either. I lived in Argentina for 3 months and it is SO celiac friendly - restaurants and shops everywhere!

Non Sequitur Chica said...

Yikes I hope that you don't have to go on a gluten-free diet, but at least nowadays there are tons of things you can eat. It think it's weird that all of a sudden you got this rash. I mean, how did you not have problems with gluten before this if you were intolerant??

Emily @ Our Waldo Bungie said...

Eesh! That's no fun! If it helps, Daniel and I recently started doing Paleo (extremely celiac friendly), and I hardly miss carbs (where most gluten comes from) at all. There are lots of gluten-free options for making breads and whatnot, like coconut flour or almond flour... you'll figure it out!