Endoscopy Before Blood Test?

[mitty102]

Sorry for the long post ahead of time. From the past few months I've been plagued with left and right upper abdominal pain, joint pain, dizziness, and bloating.  Am not able to sit up for long periods at a time because of pain.  In January, I said enough is enough and went to see my primary care doctor.  I told him about my symptoms and he said he would go ahead run some labs.  I went to see him a few weeks later, still in pain and he said the only thing he noticed was that my iron levels was low.  He prescribe me an iron supplement and colace then sent me on my way.

 

I took the iron and colace religiously and  went back to him in March to check my iron levels and he said it had only gone up .2 which to him is not great he wanted to see numbers up some more.  Meanwhile am complaining to him that I still had abdominal pain and bloating he said he will order an ultrasound of my gallbladder and abdominal organs. I did the ultrasound and went to see him for the results the following month. He told me that there was nothing significant in the ultrasound, I was crush, I couldn't believe that I was in so much pain and nothing.  I told me to continue with the iron and take some motrin for the pain.  

 

At this point I thought well maybe if it's not structural then maybe it must be a parasite causing me pain.  My symptoms continued to get worse, I'll eat breakfast and felt bloating all day. I look 8 months pregnant by this time. I went back to see him and he said I will refer me to a GI doctor in two week if a prescription for prilosec don't ease my symptoms.  I medication worked for two days, I gave it the two week and it still didn't ease my pain.  

 

In June, I went to see the GI doctor and told him all my symptoms and that I think I may have a parasite or and ulcer.  He said to me ulcer maybe, and that i my have a disease called Celiac disease. He said it may be slim for my ethnicity seeing that am African American, but it is possible.  He asked about my family history and I told him that my mom had diabetes and my father did at the age of 38 from GI distress and septicemia. He said he will do an upper endoscopy to test for Celiac, because of my abdominal pain and low iron.  I left his office so confused. I went home and read all I can about the disease. And usually the run a blood test first before doing an endoscopy.  Why will he test for Celiac without doing a blood test first?

[kareng]

I left his office so confused. I went home and read all I can about the disease. And usually the run a blood test first before doing an endoscopy.  Why will he test for Celiac without doing a blood test first?

 

 

Might be a good question to ask him.  I suspect it is because he really thinks you have an ulcer or something else that he will see on endoscopy.  Rather than spend the $300+ on blood work....because he needs to do the endo anyway.

[mitty102]

Might be a good question to ask him.  I suspect it is because he really thinks you have an ulcer or something else that he will see on endoscopy.  Rather than spend the $300+ on blood work....because he needs to do the endo anyway.

Thank you! That makes sense.

[Wi11ow]

I ended up with an upper GI because of symptoms without any blood tests done. I had severe nausea, stomach pain, D, migraines, fatigue and throat pain, I think from the acid reflux. I have had many tests done over the last couple of years but nothing helped.

The GI wouldn't diagnose C, even though there was mild villa flattening, so at that point I asked my doc to do the blood tests. My doc also called the lab and disagreed with the GI. He said he was sure it was C but waited until the blood tests came back.

So I did the scope first and should have been diagnosed then....