Digestive Disorders Community

Hi, Cal Gal and Trudy - I couldn't complete this message on my iPad had to go to laptop.

Here is the news. If you remember, we corresponded re my having exteme chest pain, breathing difficulty etc after gall bladder surgery. All docs (multiple testing) mostly gastro but some pulmonary and cardiac as well - labeled me neurotic and/or ppi worthy. Many expensive and painful tests proved nothing.

So finally, lactose intolerance was discovered and I went dairy free. Except one day I tried my daughter's Lactaid. Twelve hrs later I was flooding out with diarrhea. I went back to check the food intolerance results and sure enough casein, egg whites and eggs yolks were in the high moderate range.

The short of it is I have Gerd. Oh yes! Only when I eat milk sugar - lactose, casein milk protein, eggs. The casein sets up an allergic reaction that mimics lactose - bloating, diarrhea, chest pain. I have had QRS low voltage in the left ventrical since this all began and I will swear it is a result of the inflammatory process from my gut.

It took three yrs to reach this level of education about my body. The medical community did not encourage me to seek a food intolerance test. So therefore, I implore everyone on this board who complains of all these mystery symptoms to get food intolerance ruled out. That includes antegens for celiac disease as well. It is only a blood test. The blood is sent off to the lab and the lab reports back the results.

I had so many mystery symptoms - didn't leave the house - thought about suicide - almost destroyed my marriage. It took six months of abstinance from the substances my body can't tolerate before I began to feel better. However, unless I screw up and eat the wrong thing - I do feel better.

One caveat I learned this wk. I had considered myself ok because I was off the lactose - then the illness with Lactaid. Researching the web I learn that casein is used as an emulsifier in processed foods under many different labels. Eggs as well. So, I am only half way through recovery.

My son, G-d help us was diagnosed with lactose intolerance a few yrs ago continued to have diarrhea. When I researched the genetic aspect of casein allergy his eczema, so called seasonal allergies, and most upsetting of all two instances of anaphylactic shock all fell into place. He is finally getting tested this wk. He couldn't understand why he still had diarrhea lactose free. He never had Gerd.

I had to find an internist who believed in alternative medicine. Alternative is the operant word. It doesn't mean weird diets or sham practices. They just think outside the ppi box and are willing to test for conditions that won't necessarily make the pharmaceutical companies wealthy.

So once again, thank you for helping steer me in the right direction when I thought I was losing my mind. Gerd is real - some people have true Gerd and lifetstyle changes will help. Others have underlying causes that make Gerd secondary to the real deal. I have never found a dr. who wasn't an alternative medicine practitioner who did anything other than give me a ppi and imply I was neurotic so please go away. Thanks again - my life is almost turned around.