I'm so scared and depressed....

[celiacinjupiter]

Please if anyone can help me.

I just got my blood work back.  I have been having bad diarrhea for months now.  I went through an extremely stresful situation and was diagnosed with PTSD which brought on a ton of health problems.

I have a dull pain in my stomach and the gastro diagnosed me with gastritis.  Then my blood work came back. i have elevated liver enzymes and the following blood panel testing for celiac disease

 

Antiliadin Abs, IgA (Deamidated Gliadin Abs, IgA.  12 . NEGATIVE

Antiliadin Abs, IgG (Deamidated Gliadin Abs, IgG.  5 . NEGATIVE

tTG IgA  4.  WEAK POSITIVE

tTG IgG 11. POSITIVE

EMA ENDOYSIAL ANTIBODY IgA . NEGATIVE

 

The doctor said she is confident I have celiac disease which is so odd to me because I have never felt any intolerances to food and before my PTSD had perfect health and perfect blood work.  I am waiting for the biopsy results after I had my colonoscopy / endoscopy.  It is confirmed that i do have gastritis so I am taking PPI's to reduce the inflammation.

 

i am such a food lover.  I am so sad that this is going to change my life forever.  Does this blood work confirm celiac or maybe just gluten intolerance?  

[Ennis-TX]

There is a follow up endoscope with biopsy they will need to do, where they check your intestines for damage. They will go in and take several samples and check villi blunting etc. That confirms your celiac disease. Note you need to be consuming gluten for the test so do not jump on the gluten-free diet just yet. BTW the PTSD like symptoms are one of the many things that come with celiac for some people. It actually gets much better on a gluten-free diet if that is the cause. First there might be a withdrawal which will be much harder then if this in the cause you will start clearing up and life gets much easier after a few months and progressively you will notice improvement in a few years if you stick strictly to the diet. There are also supplements you can take to help with the issue, Need to talk to your doctors more and a dietician and see about any deficiencies you might have. Celiac is a auto immune disease and one of the few we know the cause of, and it triggers different issues in different people. On the bright side you do not seem to have any other food issues so you really can just change over to gluten-free versions of everything (think of it as just having to stick to certain brands) If you love food, then now you get to become your own chef, lol. I spend a few hours cooking a day creating all kinds of things, at first it was a pain but now I enjoy mixing up all kinds of foods, seasoning, etc. You just do it with certified gluten-free ones and have to read all the labels. Today I recreated a EXACT knock off of the flavor of instant yakisoba. gluten-free, soy free, and low carb and was ecstatic to go serve it to a friend.

Life is not over even if you have celiac it might be a blessing, hell you might find life easier once your heal and the stress and depression get better as you heal. I will leave some of the newbie pages, and links to gluten-free foods for you to review. In the mean time see about getting that follow up test to confirm your diagnosis. You have a entire community here to support you along the way to make it easier and give you advice. I am sure some others will be by with more inspirational stories and testing information for you soon.

https://www.celiac.com/forums/topic/91878-newbie-info-101/

https://www.celiac.com/forums/topic/117090-gluten-free-food-alternatives-list/