Horrific Stomach Pains

The fruity culprit??

Around 3 months ago I began to experience very bad, spasming pains in my stomach. I knew that the pains weren’t related to eating gluten because they were occuring on random days when I had eaten nothing but my usual breakfast and lunch which I knew did not contain any gluten. For months after being diagnosed I had been eating these same foods and suddenly they were causing me severe pains…Was it really the food or was it something more sinister? It was impossible for me to tell!

At first the pains appeared on a weekly basis which was horrible but it was when they started to come much more frequently (at one point I was in pain 4 of 5 days) that it became unbearable and I decided to go to my doctor. Unfortunately, but not too surprisingly, he said that it was difficult to pinpoint what was causing these pains and gave me a prescription for Mebeverine. He said to try these pills whenever the pains come and if they don’t work then to come back so that we can look into the problem further. Mebeverine is generally used for sufferers of  ‘IBS or similar stomach problems’ but I thought I may as well give it a try. The pains, when they sneak up on me, are so painful that I can barely function properly and I didn’t know how much more of them I could take! It was affecting my work, my running and my sleep!

The next time the pains came I took the pills. They didn’t work immediately but the pain eased within an hour or so and was gone a couple of hours later. I would continue to take the pills for a couple of days to ensure the pains were gone. This worked as far as getting rid of that particular wave of spasms but the pains would always come back, resulting in the need for more pills.

The last time I had these pains was 2 weeks ago. I had just eaten my breakfast of gluten free cornflakes with soy milk and a banana a hour earlier and this made something click in my brain. I thought back to the last few times I had the pains and to what I’d eaten….I couldn’t rememeber every time but I could definitely remember eating bananas on at least 2 or 3 other occasions before the pains came…could bananas really be the culprit?

I still can’t be sure if I’m right because it’s only been 2 weeks but I haven’t eaten a banana since and this is the longest I’ve gone in months without pain. I googled stomach pains after eating bananas and came across an interesting article on banana allergy

I like bananas and it sucks if I can never eat one again without suffering but at least knowing for sure would stop me worrying that the pains are due to something else…it’s been 2 weeks and counting since the spams so I’ll keep you updated on living banana and gluten free!

(UPDATE: June 2012) I have now been banana free for over two years and those horrific stomach pains never returned. I miss bananas but I certainly don’t miss the nasty pains I suffered from eating them!

Are there any other celiacs who have experienced something similar? It seems ridiculous that bananas were what were causing me all those horrific stomach pains! Do they do the same to you? Share your experiences of evil banana pains or other foods that do something similar to you…