I was e mailed yesterday by a lady in my state also. She has been gluten free for 3 weeks. This was my reply to her. I’m posting it b/c hopefully it can be helpful to others.

Okay, here’s the deal about why taking all that vitamin d did not help u….u couldnt absorb it bc of the celiac. BUT now that u are on the gluten free diet, u will begin to absorb it. I cannot tell u how sick i was from no vitamin D! I was so sick! I had my short term disability papers ready to go, i was being diagnosed with lupus, i couldnt care for my son, it was horrible! Then i went to the rheumatologist and he discovered that i had NO vit D in my body. My level was 9 and they consider u severely deficient at 30! I had been on the gluten free diet about 3 or 4 weeks at that point and i started taking the vit D. After 4 weeks we re-took my bloodwork and my level was up to 25. So that meant i was finally absorbing. All that severe boin pain i was having went away, my hair is now down to the middle of my back. I am no longer losing enormous amts of my hair, and my spiral curls i thought were fading with age (33) are now back in full force. Also my hair is no longer course, it is soft. All my friends and co workers are like, what on earth did u do to ur hair! And im like, well, im not sick anymore! Who knew how important vitamin d was!!!! I didnt! So now u should be able to begin to absorb it. Begin taking some over the counter (check ingredients). I took 3 pills 3 times a day. The rheumatologist had recommended only one pill a day but i needed to feel better asap so i took more! And it worked! I just bought some gf vit d last night at whole foods bc i had stopped taking it and should probably still be. So that’s the deal on vit d! I can make a long story LONG

Also, your bones are thin bc u havent been able to absorb anything bc of ur sick intestines from the celiac. Start taking calcium (again, check ingredients). Now that u are gluten free u should begin to absorb it. They have gf vitamins at whole foods. Oh! Also start taking probiotics (acidopholous and some other ones i cant pronounce). U must make sure they are gf and milk free (if needed) but they help so much. They must be refrigerated. But replacing the good bacteria is a must and it helps!

Also, i use activated charcoal (gluten free and from whole foods) to absorb the gas and yuck when i make a mistake. It helps! It will also absorb any meds u are tking so u only tk it as needed and two hrs a part from any other meds.

Its great that u are proactive! Thats what it takes! That and a good attitude! And as u start to feel better and better ( i seriously didnt think it was possible) ur attitude about this will improve.

So i wouldnt expect the docs to be too helpful. They dont know what its like to have this. So continue to educate yourself and visit the messageboards and ask me questions. It will get easier i promise. I was so scared to shop anywhere or eat when i was diagnosed! I ate the same things daily! Bc i felt better and i kept making mistakes in the beginning. Never thought i would get it down but i did. And then u will still make mistakes or get cross contaminated but it will be fewer and fewer times.

I never knew how bloated i was from celiac until i went gluen free! My six month pregnant belly that never ever went away….well it went away! Now,its the perfect tool to know i ate something wrong bc it will swell right back up and i look pregnant again! At least i now know what to do about it!

Also, people around u are just “not going to get it.” Its just a fact. So i filter out the comments. I was real sick this week bc i used taco seasoning i thought was safe and it wasnt and my mom and my best friend were like, “cant u go to the doctor”, “there has to be medicine u can take” “maybe u just have a bug”, “this just doesnt make any sense”…well ur right it doesnt make sense but its the truth!Hope this helps! Its a lot of information i know! But it will all come together and start to make sense to u in the next couple of months.

So i stayed hm sick AGAIN today! i hate being sick! Not sure what i ate this time. The only thing i have had with gluten in it is Sunday i had one spoon full of baked beans. Turns out they had barbque sauce in them. And i have been sick ever since! I went over to M’s today and met Attie. She is so adorable. She is sweet and cuddly and yet soooo curious and adventurous at the same time.