Jamie Michael

Hi Jamie, I feel your pain.  I am having a lot of the same problems you are and add to that acne.  Not great when you are a teenager, even worse when you are 30!  I stumbled on to info that said adult acne can be a symptom of gluten sensitivity.  

I am concerned with the fact of being tested if on a gluten free diet.  I started suspecting that I had a gluten sensitivity and began to change my diet.  Unfortunately I can't tolerate dairy either.  I realized that while I have been mostly off of gluten that I have been eating it hidden in stuff.  I have been having the same digestive problems as before and made a doctor appointment to establish care and get this figured out.  Thankfully I got a great doctor.  He ordered a celiac panel along with various other allergy tests.  Is there a possibility that my test can come back negative even if I have been being exposed to it in small doses?  My son also just had the test done because he was having bad stomach pains regularly.  We have to wait 10 days for the results.  Waiting is a killer!  I have to wait so long because I am in Alaska and they send it to a lab in Washington state.  

From reading things on this message board I see that it is all highly varied and anything can happen!  My doctor said that if the test comes back negative then he would have me come back in and we would talk about it.  I do not want to have to do a gluten challenge!  I am a full time student and mother of 3.  I can only imagine what my face will look like if I have to eat it again!

I hate to hear that you are having some of the same problems as myself.  I would never wish them on anyone as terrible as they are for me.  From talking with my doctor he says that you should be on a normal diet for 2 weeks before the test.  So if having gluten in small doses is normal to you then I think your test should come back accurately.  I wish you the best!

Thank you all for your input and help.  CSU Grad, do you have any other ideas of what disease this might be?  I have tried changing my diet by doing things like eating more fiber, taking probiotics, taking vitamins, not drinking caffeine. Nothing seems to work and it's just getting real old. It's to the point where I can't go out to eat without having to worry about stomach issues.

Unfortunately, yeah, it does matter.  If you need/want to get tested, you'll have to go back to eating the gluten (major controversy on this...read some of the threads about doctors who make their patients go back on gluten before testing).  

Some people immediately feel better when they go gluten-free, for others it takes a longer amount of time.  For me it literally took a day, but I've seen some people where it takes a week or longer.

Honestly you can have Celiac without having any stomach-type symptoms; it's one of those fun diseases where you just never know

I made an appointment for Thursday so I guess I will start eating gluten until then.  Does anyone know of another other possible tests the doctor could run? I just really want to figure out what is wrong with me and I'd like him to do as many tests as he needs to in order to figure this out.

Just a heads up - going gluten-free before you get tested will effect the test.  The docs can't test for antibodies if you've been off gluten for any amount of time.  

I'm pretty sure you can get tested for Celiac other places than a GI doc, so if there is a long wait for your GI doc, you can always try your GP.  Or just call your GI and tell him you want to get tested.  You might not have to wait for an appointment, just go in and get the blood drawn, especially if you're already under his care for other things.

If a blood test confirmation doesn't matter to you either way, then whether or not you try going gluten-free now is up to you.  Just wanted to let you know

Thank you.  I have been gluten free for 4 days now.  If I were to get tested this week would it make a difference? Also, I'm not feeling too much different than I did when I wasn't gluten-free. Does it take a while for the symptoms to go away?