Usually when I've been glutened, it's something pretty straightforward. I itch and my stomach hurts. Sometimes I'm pretty irritable. Pretty simple, even if it's subtle enough that I don't always notice it. But this time has been different. I got hives. I got angry. My muscles, with a kink put into the delivery of their nutrients, tensed up and impinged my nerves, primarily on the right side. I was left with a hand I had trouble using comfortably and a shoulder that's hard as a rock. What got me?

A shampoo/conditioner set and my daughter's vitamins. Needless to say, she was worse off, having directly ingested the stuff. She was a bear, had a rash, and some muscle tension in her shoulders that bothered her.

We got lazy, clearly. I didn't check the shampoo and conditioner because the others from that brand were OK. We used it for, what? A week, probably, before we noticed. The vitamins were being used for about three weeks before we noticed. My child has suffered because I wasn't paying attention. She's not old enough to tell us, so we have to be better about reading the signs. My muscles are angry at me and I'm going to the doctor to-morrow to see about getting therapy to help them recover. On my own, I'm taking the same vitamins I've been taking (prenatal, omega-3s, and B12) plus I've reintroduced (GF) creatine to help them recover. I started that yesterday and they feel better already, which is just fantastic.

One of the worst things, of course, is my mental reaction to this. I feel like I've spiraled back down to where I was, sometimes. I can't do anything. There's a heavy fog over my mind. I'm tired. I can't think. I get lost in conversations and even when I don't it takes a great deal of effort. I get songs stuck in my head for days and I can't get them out--something I'd forgotten I had trouble with while I was still eating gluten. I obsessed over things for hours, keeping myself up late and miserable for it. My brain got stuck in a loop from time to time and it was truly awful.

I'm slowly healing, again. I can feel it. But I will be checking labels obsessively from now on and I will not be tempted to cheat. How can I be? This is the worst reaction I've ever had (unless you count the one that caused a miscarriage), and it's not worth it. Not to me. Not any more.