Tired Looking Eyes, Droopy Eyelids?

[woodyfly]

Are these symptoms heard of when it comes to gluten intolerance or wheat allergy? (I tested positive for wheat allergy). My eyes look super sickly. They look tired, heavy, puffy, droopy (loss of eyelid fold) and in the inside corners of the eyes, they're sunken in with veins. I EASILY get eye strain. I get a headache within 5 minutes of using the computer or watching TV. This can happen even right after I wake up from bed where my eyes supposedly should have been rested. I'll go read my email and 5 mins later.... a killer headache that lasts forever.

 

I will say that I have spent an obscene amount of time on the computer for the past 10 years (avg of 12+ hours a day without fail) but I doubt spending too much time on the computer can cause all these other symptoms.... or could it?

 

Based on these symptoms, do I have celiac disease, gluten intolerance or just wheat allergy?

 

Here are all my symptoms just for the record:

-Skin allergy test - maximum allergic reaction to wheat, medium allergy to beer, lots of mild allergy to random things

-Very tired all the time. I sleep 8-10 hours and wake up drained. 

-Eyes always feel and look strained/heavy. This one bothers me the most. I could deal with all of this if I could just look NORMAL for gods sake! I hate looking so sick and ugly every day

-Headaches. They kinda feel like tension headaches. It feels like a splitting headache between my eyebrows, near the bridge of my nose

-Sinus congestion

-Ears ringing

-TMJ (face looks even bigger on the right side due to the inflammation!)

-Lots of muscle knots / trigger points in my body that DO NOT respond to any treatment (massage, stretching, triggerpoint release)

-Skin problems like persistent adult acne around my mouth on the bottom side, seborrheic dermatitis (skin flaking/redness), dandruff

-Body/Backne. It's crazy but I even started getting a few pimples in my arm! What the hell...

-Lack of appetite , can't gain weight. I'm skinny as hell. I have all this food available to me but I look like one of those starving kids from Africa (no offense).

-Anxiety/Panic attacks. This is a biggie. In the past 4 months or so, I've been getting food-related panic attacks. It -ALWAYS- happens after eating. I'd feel a lot of gas coming up and it just gets trapped in my chest and won't come out. I went to the ER a bunch of times due to the panic attacks and they can't see anything wrong with me.

-Gastrointestinal-wise, just a lot of random burping throughout the day. Stool is loose.

[ravenwoodglass]

Welcome to the board. It isn't going to hurt to get celiac testing done as your symptoms could be celiac related. Don't go gluten free until celiac testing is done. 

I have neurological impact from celiac and at times my eyelids would droop far enough to impede my vision. This did resolve when I was finally diagnosed but does return to a lesser degree on the rare occasions that I get glutened. 

[woodyfly]

Welcome to the board. It isn't going to hurt to get celiac testing done as your symptoms could be celiac related. Don't go gluten free until celiac testing is done. 

I have neurological impact from celiac and at times my eyelids would droop far enough to impede my vision. This did resolve when I was finally diagnosed but does return to a lesser degree on the rare occasions that I get glutened. 

 

Is it a problem if I've only been gluten free for just a few days? I'm on day 4 right now. My appointment is on friday so I should be a week gluten-free when I get tested.

 

Also, I had an upper GI endoscopy done not too long ago due to persistent gas in my stomach/chest. We weren't specifically looking for celiac disease but is it safe to assume that if I did have celiac, the gastroentologist would have noticed it? The results came back all negative, there was nothing wrong with my stomach except some minor inflammation in there.

[cyclinglady]

Most celiac disease is found via biopsy. Just the endoscopy alone (visual) will not catch celiac disease. I had severe damage per the biopsy, but visually everything looked fine per my GI doctor.

If you want to get tested, get back on gluten. Four days should not make a difference. Here are all the tests. Try to get more than just the TTG. Not everyone who has celiac disease gets a positive on that one even though it is the most popular.

-tTG IgA and tTG IgG

-DGP IgA and DGP IgG

-EMA IgA

-total serum IgA and IgG (control test)

-AGA IGA and AGA IgG - older and less reliable tests largely replace by the DGP tests

-endoscopic biopsy - make sure at least 6 samples are taken

(Source: NVSMOM -- )

Welcome to the forum and let us know how it goes!