Testing In Canada

[Porcelina]

Hey Canucks.  If your blood test comes back positive, is there any good reason to go get the endoscopy done.  If I read this right, Americans can have insurance claims with regards to the disease ONLY if they have the scopy done, and some countries will not draft you into the army, but again, ONLY if the endoscopy is done.

 

I just had the blood work done and won't know my results for 1-2 weeks.  If I can stop eating gluten now, I would LOVE to, but if I have to continue for an endoscopy, I'll keep up with the challenge.

 

Thanks.

[nvsmom]

I think it depend son you and your doctor whether you go ahead with the endoscopy. I personally skipped it because the blood tests agreed with my symptoms, and my doctor didn't push for it either. Specialists (GI or other) tend to push for further testing, in my experience, but if you feel satisfied with a diagnosis of celiac disease with just blood tests, there isn't a lot of reason to keep testing.

 

Also, in my province (Alberta) the wait to see a GI for celiac is almost a year... not much point in it by then.

 

Some feel it is a good idea to do the endoscopy to get an actual visual of the damage done to the intestines because if symptoms don't improve on the gluten-free diet and they need to re-scope, then they'll have something to compare back to. It's a good point, but I personally felt if I still had symptoms after going gluten-free, then the scope would still be useful if I had it done while gluten-free - it would show if later symptoms were from celiac damage or not.

 

Of course, if you want to claim gluten-free foods as an expense on your taxes, you will need a firm diagnosis from your doctor, and some may not give one without an endoscopy. ... I have heard those who claim gluten-free food tend to get audited at a higher rate though so I'm not sure it's worth it.

[love2travel]

Another Albertan here!  I did get scoped because I did not believe the positive bloodwork (talk about denial!) and wanted to prove that I did not have celiac.  Gluten never gave me obvious symptoms (at the time).  As a serious food person I refused to have celiac.  Weird, I know, but true.  So, when my doctor told me to go back to eating gluten for the scope I was thrilled.  As mentioned above, it can take a year to see a GI doctor but I was bumped by some miracle to four months.  So, I binged on all the gluten I could in four months.  Frankly, I really enjoyed myself.  Little did I know the serious damage I could have done/did.

 

My biopsies came back positive and that finally convinced me.  From that day until now (2.5 years) I have been strictly gluten free (with about three unintentional glutenings).  In retrospect, celiac eventually made sense.  It explained my miscarriages, my poor tooth enamel, etc. 

 

My reasons were:

 

1.  Ironically, to prove I did not have celiac

2.  The surgeon wanted to rule out other possible problems

 

I am very glad to have had the biopsies done.  A few of my family members have celiac I am convinced (though they are in even worse denial than I and refuse testing).  In their eyes there is a huge difference between celiacs and those with "only" gluten intolerance so I suppose I am more "legitimate".

 

We all have our reasons for and against.  If I felt ill as so many do on the gluten challenge, my response may have been different.  But not likely - I am one of those "need to know" people.

[nvsmom]

I was a "need to know"er for the blood tests - I'm not sure I could have, or would have, gone gluten free if I did not have the positive blood work. I was pretty used to stomach aches and such so I saw no real reason to change; I thought "it is what it is"... Pretty lame, eh?  LOL

 

Most people who had a positive biopsy seem to say that it was worth it. The only people I remember not appreciating the biopsy are those few celiacs who have positive test results but a negative biopsy - for them it confuses the matter.... That is by far the minority though.

 

love2travel - that picture in your avatar has my mouth watering!

[Porcelina]

Thanks for the replies. No one in my family has been tested for celiac, just me and thats because of my "ibs", stomach aches and fatigue amongst other symptoms made me decide to finaly get tested. If the tests come back negative, i know enough from a previous year of being gluten free that i feel so much better that i feel like a biopsy doesnt matter to me. I just dont want to go gluten-free again, only to find that i bave to have a biopsy for some specific reason, thus having me do the gluten challenge all over again.