Endo Done, Spoke To Gi After Procedures

[Mommabearof3]

I see a NP for my regular appointments for GI stuff, but had an actual real honest to goodness GI DR or my endo and colonoscopy yesterday, so I got to pick her brain a bit before and after the procedures.

 

They took a large number of biopsies from everywhere, so I'm satisfied with that.  The only visual evidence she saw of anything wrong is damage to my esophagus from acid reflux.  I spoke to her about doing an elimination diet to try to pinpoint what is causing all my distress and she said she fully agrees that that would be the next step.  I'm also going to ask for food allergy testing from the NP.  If she won't order it, I'll ask my GP to order it.

 

This weekend will be the big clean out and shopping for my new diet.  I have two sick kids at home today, and can't do what I need to do to get started as I had originally planned.

 

Liz

[ravenwoodglass]

Glad the procedures are finished and it sounds like all went well with the GI. 

If you want to do an elimination diet you may want to ask for a referral to an allergist. They can test you for true allergies and set you up with a starting point for the elimination diet that will give you proper nutrition and enough calories. When you call for the appointment make sure the allergist deals with intolerances. That is what you are looking for with the elimination as there is no testing for those. Be aware that the elimination diet will be started with only a very few foods and they will likely be foods you rarely eat. There is also the chance that your problems have a root cause in celiac so you might want to go on the gluten-free diet for a while before you go through the tedious process of the elimination. Many of us drop dairy at first and some also drop soy as both of those can be a problem for us. Maybe just eliminate the gluten, dairy and soy to start to make it easier on yourself and stay away from the processed gluten-free foods till you have healed a bit. 

I hope you are soon feeling much better.

[Mommabearof3]

Glad the procedures are finished and it sounds like all went well with the GI. 

If you want to do an elimination diet you may want to ask for a referral to an allergist. They can test you for true allergies and set you up with a starting point for the elimination diet that will give you proper nutrition and enough calories. When you call for the appointment make sure the allergist deals with intolerances. That is what you are looking for with the elimination as there is no testing for those. Be aware that the elimination diet will be started with only a very few foods and they will likely be foods you rarely eat. There is also the chance that your problems have a root cause in celiac so you might want to go on the gluten-free diet for a while before you go through the tedious process of the elimination. Many of us drop dairy at first and some also drop soy as both of those can be a problem for us. Maybe just eliminate the gluten, dairy and soy to start to make it easier on yourself and stay away from the processed gluten-free foods till you have healed a bit. 

I hope you are soon feeling much better.

Thanks.  That is what I'm debating -  Just going gluten and dairy free, see if I get improvements, and go from there or full out elimination diet.  I'm thinking I could do a good 6 to 8 weeks gluten free and see if I get any improvement, if not then try an elimination diet.  I think gluten free would be the easier option to try first, with little to no prepackaged gluten free products - meat, fish, veggies and fruits with home made salad dressing, etc and no dairy or soy.  I've been thinking on this all day, and I really don't want to deal with more doctors at this point.  It takes so long to get in with a specialist, 2+ months most of the time, and by that point I'm going to be even more miserable then I already am.  

 

Liz

[ravenwoodglass]

   I think gluten free would be the easier option to try first, with little to no prepackaged gluten free products - meat, fish, veggies and fruits with home made salad dressing, etc and no dairy or soy.  I've been thinking on this all day, and I really don't want to deal with more doctors at this point.  It takes so long to get in with a specialist, 2+ months most of the time, and by that point I'm going to be even more miserable then I already am.  

 

Liz

Sounds like a good plan and by the time your appointment with the specialist comes around you may be able to cancel it.

I hope you see results quickly but full healing can take some time. 

[Mommabearof3]

I got some preliminary results from my endoscopy in my digital health account.  The pathology isn't back yet, but the doctor's report is in.  I was foggy, but I don't remember her mentioning the duodenal diverticulum, just the reflux esophagitis.  

 

A medium-sized diverticulum was found in the first part of the duodenum.

 

Impression:      - LA Grade A reflux esophagitis. Biopsied.

                 - No gross lesions in the stomach.

                 - Normal examined duodenum. Biopsied.

                 - Duodenal diverticulum.

 

So apparently there is something causing damage to my duodenum and my esophagus is being damaged by reflux, with no known cause as of yet.  I started cutting gluten out as of today, but by no means am I gluten free yet.  I'm also going to start the zantac the GI prescribed at my appointment last month, to try to cut back the acid reflux.  My heart burn has been outrageous since the endoscopy.   

 

Has anyone else had duodenal diverticulum?  I can't seem to find much information on it except it is rare to have a problem from it, but when there is a problem it can rupture o_O.

 

Liz

[Mommabearof3]

Just got a message from the Dr. who did the scopes and she said all the pathology came back negative for celiac, chrohn's etc.  Only the reflux damage was confirmed, and they told me to continue on the acid reflux meds.  I don't have a copy of the pathology yet, but I'll be getting it just to double check.

 

Back to square one.

 

Liz

[ravenwoodglass]

How many biopsies did they do looking for celiac? Did they biopsy more than just the duodenum? You might want to get the rest of the report and post it. We have some folks that are good at reading those reports.

Now you give the diet a strict trial. Acid reflux is not an unusual finding for folks with celiac. In my case I decided to just go gluten free and figured if the reflux wasn't better I would try the meds after a week or so. I got real strict with the diet and was lucky and never needed them  I do sometimes need a dose of pepto bismal liquid if I accidently get some soy though.