BEING GLUTEN-FREE DOESN'T ALWAYS MEAN SOMEONE HAS CELIAC'S DISEASE

Periodically, five years ago, I began waking up with severe dizziness and nausea. To even bat an eye made the nausea worse.  I had to lay extremely still with my eyes shut and barely breathe to keep from being sick all over again.  After the first episode, I put my friend, Joyce, on speed dial in my cell as each episode resulted in a trip to the E.R. for treatment.  Joyce would hold me up with one arm while keeping my small wastebasket beneath my head as the movement made me violently ill.  I was so sick that at one point, I quit breathing.  It was easier not to breathe than to be so very sick.  I was in a beautiful place ascending into a very bright light, when I heard, "Mrs. Phillips! You have to breathe!" I did not feel the slap, but Joyce was there and said they slapped me very hard because they were not getting a response from me. 

As the episodes and trips to the emergency room became more frequent, I became more worried about falling asleep as it seemed each episode came while I was sleeping.  Then the summer of 2018, I got to spend a week with some friends, Ray and Sandra, in Salt Lake City.  Their son and daughter-in-law are like my own kids.  Sandra asked me one day to share the symptoms I experienced when I got sick.  I told her of the extreme dizziness and nausea and how just batting an eye would make me even sicker.  

Sandra then shared that she went through pretty much the same thing and after much testing, her doctors determined she was allergic to wheat.  She then said, "Why don't you try giving up wheat for a week or two?  What do you have to lose?"

I thought about it but didn't commit that day to becoming wheat free, but avoided wheat anyway.  Once I returned home to Indiana, I also returned to eating the same foods and within less than two weeks got to go to the E.R. At that point, I scrutinized the last few weeks of my life and what I was eating and not eating.  Yep, I had eaten wheat the day I got sick.  I had not eaten anything breaded or a sandwich until that day.  So I kicked the wheat habit.  

I am now very careful about the ingredients in my food.  I prefer not to get sick again. I have noticed that when I eat dark chocolate salted caramels from a certain store, I get beautiful holographic rainbows in front of my eyes. After some research, I found out this is called an optical migraine. The episodes with violet nausea, dizziness, and sensitivity to light are silent migraines. I found this on my medical chart. Why didn't they tell me so that I wouldn't think I was going crazy?

At any rate, wheat is absent from my diet for the past 4 years, unless by accident I ingest some when eating out.  I always know because I get nauseated and dizzy. Staying away from wheat is the best option for me as I stay healthy and don't make trips to the E.R. 

If you experience what I have experienced, take a look at what you are eating and weed out the offensive food.  It works for me and I am very thankful to Sandra for her input and guiding me in the right direction.  My doctor was not very helpful.