Living with Food Intolerances: Trudy McCulloch
Living with Food Intolerances: Trudy McCulloch
I didn't know I had food intolerances until I was in my 30s.
I'd had trouble with my digestion since birth. As a baby I had a lot of gas and would often get diarrhea. My mother thought it was because I was a preemie. Those stomach problems eased by the time I was 6 months old, and I was relatively healthy as a kid. But then what appeared to be seasonal allergies kicked in. In fact, by the time I hit puberty, my symptoms were so bad that my eyes would often seal shut with crust, and I had terrible sinus pain and headaches.
Splenectomy
A splenectomy is surgery to remove the entire spleen, a delicate, fist-sized organ that sits under the left rib cage near the stomach. The spleen is an important part of the body's defense (immune) system. It contains special white blood cells that destroy bacteria and help the body fight infections when you are sick. It also makes red blood cells and helps remove, or filter, old ones from the body's circulation.If only part of the spleen is removed, the procedure is called a partial splenectomy...
Read the Splenectomy article > >
The worst part was the fatigue. I went to doctors, but no one seemed to know why I was so tired. I started to believe it was all in my head. So I worked really hard -- I was president of the student council, was on the yearbook committee, even worked 20 hours a week -- but then I would come home and crash. I did the same thing in college: worked hard, ignored the symptoms, but was exhausted all the time.
Throughout my 20s, I developed chronic chest and stomach pain, plus acid reflux. I hit bottom about six years ago, when I was 30. I developed such a sharp pain in my chest I thought I was having a heart attack. My left arm was numb and I was short of breath. I went to an urgent care center, which you should always do if you have chest pain, and the doctor told me I was just having heartburn.
When I went to a gastrointestinal specialist the next day, he told me the same thing. I was relieved it wasn't a heart problem. But the medication didn't really help.
After my family and I moved to New Hampshire in 2004, a new gastroenterologist figured out what was really wrong: I had multiple food intolerances -- to gluten, dairy, rice, most grains, monosodium glutamate, and cane sugar -- and these had caused me to develop gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), which was the source of the crushing chest pains I'd had. The GERD also triggered my sinus problems.
I'd had trouble with my digestion since birth. As a baby I had a lot of gas and would often get diarrhea. My mother thought it was because I was a preemie. Those stomach problems eased by the time I was 6 months old, and I was relatively healthy as a kid. But then what appeared to be seasonal allergies kicked in. In fact, by the time I hit puberty, my symptoms were so bad that my eyes would often seal shut with crust, and I had terrible sinus pain and headaches.
Recommended Related to Digestive Disorders
Splenectomy
A splenectomy is surgery to remove the entire spleen, a delicate, fist-sized organ that sits under the left rib cage near the stomach. The spleen is an important part of the body's defense (immune) system. It contains special white blood cells that destroy bacteria and help the body fight infections when you are sick. It also makes red blood cells and helps remove, or filter, old ones from the body's circulation.If only part of the spleen is removed, the procedure is called a partial splenectomy...
Read the Splenectomy article > >
The worst part was the fatigue. I went to doctors, but no one seemed to know why I was so tired. I started to believe it was all in my head. So I worked really hard -- I was president of the student council, was on the yearbook committee, even worked 20 hours a week -- but then I would come home and crash. I did the same thing in college: worked hard, ignored the symptoms, but was exhausted all the time.
Throughout my 20s, I developed chronic chest and stomach pain, plus acid reflux. I hit bottom about six years ago, when I was 30. I developed such a sharp pain in my chest I thought I was having a heart attack. My left arm was numb and I was short of breath. I went to an urgent care center, which you should always do if you have chest pain, and the doctor told me I was just having heartburn.
When I went to a gastrointestinal specialist the next day, he told me the same thing. I was relieved it wasn't a heart problem. But the medication didn't really help.
Food Intolerances and GERD
After my family and I moved to New Hampshire in 2004, a new gastroenterologist figured out what was really wrong: I had multiple food intolerances -- to gluten, dairy, rice, most grains, monosodium glutamate, and cane sugar -- and these had caused me to develop gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), which was the source of the crushing chest pains I'd had. The GERD also triggered my sinus problems.