The Fibromyalgia Pain Scale and My Celiac Suspicions

I don't know about you, but for me the numeric scale for fibromyalgia pain is exponential. Like the Richter scale for earthquakes. Even though going from an 8.5 to an 8.0 doesn't seem like much on paper, it can have a pretty dramatic impact on my actual life.

For instance, after days of barely being able to lumber to the bathroom at an 8.5 on the pain scale, yesterday I dropped to 8. That meant getting outside, doing a load of laundry, changing the sheets on my bed, and unloading the dishwasher.

Sure I'm paying the price this morning, but I was a semi-functioning member of society yesterday. That helps.

The change was just enough to improve my mood and soothe my depression. One night I thought I was going to die or else suffer for the rest of my life. The next night I pondered how nice it would be when (not if) I lost 30 pounds and could stand to wear a bra and drive myself places.

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Yesterday I finally decided to bite the bullet and go gluten free. After a blistery looking rash and canker sores showed up with my most recent flare, I can't shake the suspicion that I've got Celiac. I have an aunt who has it, and though she's not a first-degree relative, there are still studies that show a greater prevalence even among second-degree relatives.

At first I wanted to keep eating gluten. (You see, if you have Celiac and aren't eating gluten your test results may come up negative and you'll miss getting a real diagnosis.) But when I discovered I couldn't get in to see my gastroenterologist until July, doing nothing to try and end my flare didn't seem like an option.

So here I am, 24 hours gluten free.

I'll keep track of how things go. And if Celiac seems plausible, closer to July I can always do a gluten challenge for a couple of weeks prior to my appointment.