What’s Wrong With Me ?

Waiting To Find Out If I Have Coeliac Disease.

I am writing this blog today just to tell you my thoughts, feelings and experiences I have felt over the last few months trying to find out what has been wrong with me and why am I feeling this way.I am in my thirties and I am one of your run of the mill blokes who liked to keep fit by taking part in various sporting activities and hobbies, who ate what he wanted when he wanted too and who also had the odd beer down the local without any problems at all.

Over the last few years come to think about it for a long time I have had problems with my bowels whether picking up infections or finding I suffer from constipation and when I do go to the toilet I can pass blood afterwards on occasions, also I was mainly feeling really bloated and tired constantly, in fact I have felt this way for as long as I can remember. I have trod my familiar path to the doctors, where I lived previously and where I live now to find out what’s wrong? To be told don’t worry it is just a bug or told to take some constipation relief.

As my partner suffers from food allergies I have started to think more about what I eat but didn’t think about the connection of what I eat daily to symptoms I have been suffering from, I have started to be more careful recently of which foods I have been eating for example wholemeal bread instead of white bread, not as much crisps as I used to take and also reducing the amount of beer that I have had as well as eating healthier more rice and vegetables.

I have started to use gluten free products in my diet now such as gluten free Estrella Dam beer, gluten free pasta and even having some home- made gluten free cakes and meals cooked for me by my partner. Actually on the main they have really tasted nice which for me was surprising as I have been pretty negative about changing foods from what I have been used to eating.

Unfortunately over the last few weeks I have been feeling continually worse, I do suffer from asthma but this hasn’t bothered me much over the last few years, but it seems after most meals I have been eating recently I have started to feel a lot more bloated than I have felt previously, being out of breath and felling rotten continuously.

Things came to a head this weekend, I was at a wedding but didn’t eat loads but had some chicken for the main course with some gravy and also a glass of wine and a couple of beers but not much. I felt a little bloated not bad as I have felt a lot worse on previous occasions.

I drove home and on the next day I went to a Greek restaurant for a friend’s birthday. I had a bottle of Greek beer and a starter of meatballs, then I had a main course of rice and chicken with garlic and ouzo sauce with onions and peppers. The thing was I really enjoyed the meal, afterwards myself and my friends went into Nottingham city centre where I live, I just had half a pint of Beck’s beer then I started to feel really bloated and struggling for breath, I felt guilty but said to myself if I don’t feel any better I am going to go home and sure enough I stayed for another 20 minutes then I had to make my apologies and go home due to feeling so bad.

I ended being in bed for a couple of days feeling breathless I used my inhaler for asthma but it didn’t make a difference, I still felt really bloated I said to myself this can’t continue I need to go to my familiar path to my local doctor.

Hence I went to the doctors today to try and get some answers, to find out that I have a new doctor who was really helpful and he listened to what I had to say, after listening to me intently and checking my breathing etc, he felt that I could be suffering from coeliac disease which made sense to me or at the least that I have a gluten intolerance of some sort. Therefore I have had some blood tests taken today so hopefully I will find out in a few days what has been happening with me and get to the bottom of this riddle once and for all.

I will keep you informed through the Foods You Can website via the blog page, it has been a great help to me obviously being a part of the Foods You Can team , through reading the blogs and reader’s stories I now know that I am not alone and there is a community out there who are going through what I am on a daily basis.

Many Thanks

Mark From The Foods You Can Team