I Think I Have Celiac But Not Sure. Help Please?

[Nichole2018]

I am a fourteen y/o girl and i am concerned that i might have a gluten sensitivity. My half sister on my dads side has severe celiac disease that she didn’t find until after having her second child. I don’t have any severely prominent symptoms but a lot of them are there. My symptoms include off and on headaches throughout the day ( I drink 64oz of water a day), bad gas after most meals, minor bloating, minor nausea after some meals, traveling joint pain without injury. Since i was really small i have had trouble with cavities, I have had quite a few fillings and when i was nine i had two teeth pulled because of the cavities even though i brush, floss, and use mouthwash every day like the dentist says. When I was twelve I woke up in the middle of the night with excruciating pain in my lower right abdomen, so bad i couldn’t move. My dad took me to the ER and the Doctor had a CT scan done and i had an emergency appendectomy that morning because they believed my appendix had ruptured. during the surgery the realized that it wasn't my appendix but an ovarian cyst that had ruptured. I was in the hospital again with the same type of pain six months later but it was brushed off as scar tissue, every month i have the same pain of lesser intensity. My periods have also never been regular, they span from five days to two weeks and are always heavy and can come as early or as late as a week before or after they are due. At times i am very irritable and I have mood swings very often and i don’t know why (I know as a teen that I have mood swings because of hormonal changes, but mine are more often and of a slightly greater intensity of my other friends). When I was twelve and I had my appendix out My parents were at the end of a second horrible divorce that was called off soon after my surgery. My mother has also has M.S for the past 35 years and has been diagnosed with breast cancer and Most likely has Bipolar disorder as well. She denies that she needs to take any sort of medication for her various illness therefore she makes life extremely difficult for my father who has congestive heart failure and myself with her daily outbursts. During Puberty I gained a great deal of weight. in elementary school i was never overweight i was tall and was always in a healthy weight zone i went from around 100 lb to 147 in a little less than two years with no actual cause, and it was never a concern. I also have has carpal tunnel.

Thank you for taking the time to help me with this.

 

-Nichole

 

 

[Solandra]

Well, you could start with a blood test from your doctor if your parents will take you. If they won't, you could try a gluten free diet for a few months and see if that helps some of your symptoms.

[Fenrir]

I would talk to your parents and get an appointment with your doctor. Be sure to ask for celiac testing:

Make sure you get  a TTG IgA, Deaminated Gliadin IgG & IgA at the minimum.  The deaminated tests are the best. My TTG was borderline positive, the Deaminated tests were 3x higher than the upper limit for positive.

If those come up positive you'll have to get an EGD to get a biopsy to confirm it. You might talk your GI specialist into doing an EGD even if the blood tests are negative. It doesn't happen a lot but there have been cases of people showing up negative on blood tests but positive on the biopsy.

 

A lot of the stuff you say is happening to you COULD be celiac but could also be any number of things. Definitely worth getting checked for celiac, worst case is you eliminate one posibility.