Rash on neck

[Paula2407]

Hi all, 

New to the site. I just recently got a rash 3 weeks ago. Chemist told me take antihestimes thinking its a food allergy. 

I have had stomach issues for years never been tested for anything. Told IBS. When travelling abroad for a few years i had a colonoscopy done found 6 polyps. Told to change diet lose weight etc after.

Lost 40kg. Lived on natural products. Occassional meal take out where i would rush to bathroom etc. But felt great for a year and a half.

Moved back to Uk. Eat less natural and old symptoms came back tummy pain diahorea/constipation. Feeling sick all the time. I sleep every afternoon as when I eat I feel tired. 

I guess my questions is does this look like a gluten rash? I am already trying to persuade gaestro team for colonoscopy. As recommend one in 3 years. But UK say I dont need to have one. 

Can I request biopsy and have a second opinion if not.

Not a day that not bloated, foggy head, headache, feeling sick, being sick and now a rash for 3 week that isnt going.

Sorry for putting on here but its getting me down all the time. 

P

[Jmg]

Hi Paula and welcome

You do have symptoms that are consistent with coeliac / non coeliac gluten sensitivity, but obviously no-one can diagnose that on a forum!

Have you been given a coeliac blood test? That would be the first step. Then it would be an endoscopy rather than colonoscopy if coeliac were suspected. They would be looking via biopsy at the small intestine for signs of villi damage.

You may well have been given one of these already if you've been speaking to a gastroenterologist in the UK but it would be good to confirm this. The test would only be accurate if you were eating gluten every day for 8-12 weeks beforehand. If not, you could get a false negative.

See if you can find out if you had this test and request a copy of it from your GP. Note they may charge you for it, I paid a fiver for mine to be photocopied... 

 Sometimes they will proceed to endoscopy even if the test is negative. That happened in my case (also in UK). 

You may be tempted to cut gluten out. If you do this you may notice a difference but you will also make the diagnosis process much harder. So best idea is usually to stay on it till testing is completed. However if you finish with a negative result, DO TRY THE gluten-free DIET REGARDLESS... as you may be like me, test negative but react badly to gluten also known as Non Coeliac Gluten Sensitive. 

There's a forum FAQ stickied above and this topic may be useful also. Note the blood test info on that post a little out of date, these are the tests you need:

Anti-Endomysial (EMA) IgA
Anti-Tissue Transglutaminase (tTG) IgA
Deamidated Gliadin Peptide (DGP) IgA and IgG
Total Serum IgA

Good luck!

Matt