I think gluten is the cause of all my problems

[Pandora]

Hi everyone! So I have a few questions, but first I am going to tell a little bit about my situation. I have been experiencing digestives problems for a really long time, approximately 5-6 years. When they started I was suffering great distress and anxiety and I didn't give them much importance. The thing is that since then the symptoms didn't go away so I decided to go to the doctor. I went to different doctors, some of them gave me pills for the stomach, some made me some tests, an another doctor made me a biopsy of the stomach (not intestines), and he could see that the stomach was a little bit irritated, an he didn't give it much importance. He just said it was all due to the nerves and that I just should try to relax. At that moment all of that made perfect sense for me since I had really bad anxiety, and had problems of bullying at high school. Moreover, after reading about anxiety a lot of the symptoms were exactly the same as the ones I had so I just kept living, but I had that constant discomfort in my belly. After that a lot of other symptoms have been appearing along the years, like problems with my eyes, I feel extremely tired all the time till the point that I don't even want to leave home, I get exhausted with minimum effort and my heart starts beating really hard, dizziness, to name some.

These late months I have reached a point in which I am worst than ever. I some way noticed that when I eat more bread than usually I get even worse, and decided to try some days without gluten. Yesterday was my first day without eating it and I felt better, but this morning when I woke up it was like a miracle, I felt best than ever! My symptoms were almost gone and I didn't feel anxiety. So as I felt so good I decided to eliminate it for ever, but after making a bit of research I found out that it is necessary to be checked for Celiac disease and make the necessary tests. I totally understand the reason why but as I have been feeling so well for two days I am scared to start eating gluten again till all the tests are done. I don't know how much long they take but I guess it is more than two months. Could I just introduce the gluten days or weeks before the tests, or that could actually give a misleading result? And what about just reducing the quantity of gluten and eating a little bit every day?

I am scared they don't find anything and that tell me everything is fine when I have been definitely feeling really well without gluten. I have read that this is a really difficult illness to diagnose and sometimes people are not given the Celiac diagnose when they should.

What can I do? I am at a lost in this topic. I hope you can give me some insight!!! Thank you so much in advance for your response and reading this really long post.

[Ennis-TX]

Um if you only off it for a few days go get the blood test NOW. The endoscope can take weeks to months to book
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[tessa25]

If you really are in a hurry and you are in the US you can order the blood test yourself and take it tomorrow. But I recommend going the doctor route if you can. Below is my testing spiel.

The full celiac panel includes:

TTG IGA
TTG IGG
DGP IGA
DGP IGG
EMA
IGA

You can either have a gastroenterologist order the full celiac panel plus whatever else they typically test for, or you can order your own test at a site like walkinlab.com. At walkinlab.com it's called the celiac comprehensive test and costs $298.00 (not covered by insurance). Then if any one test comes up high you
can give it to your gastroenterologist so they can do an endoscopy. The blood draw is done at your nearest Labcorp. You get your results in less than a week at walkinlab.com .

 

You have to be eating gluten for 12 weeks for valid results.

[JaneTX2]

I've given up on waiting for doctors to wave a magic wand and bless me with a diagnosis.  If I suspect a problem, I read up on it, try suggestions, and if they work and I feel better, I use them and get on with my life.  I don't try to explain or apologize or justify anything to anybody any more.  I work with doctors that are willing to work with me, and I've fired a number of them who can't think out of their books (I'm on endo #4).  Apologies for my bad attitude, celiac was only the first diagnosis and 3 years later we're still trying to solve other autoimmune problems.

[Jackie Busch]

I too have been struggling for years with intestinal problems and then developed eczema to the point of an itchy rash that I have had off & on for 20 years.  I would just go to my dermatologist and get a steroid shot and some prednisone and be on my way.  My Dr. retired 2 years ago so no more steroids, the rash is back with a vengeance and has been extremely bad for 1 1/2 years.  In our search for a way to heal myself we came across Dr. Amy Meyers. I found out that I not only have a gluten allergy but I'm also allergic to dairy products.  Leaky Gut is the problem.  I urge you to look into Dr. Meyers Autoimmune Solution.  I started the program 2 weeks ago, my gut feels better already my skin not some much yet but to get the gluten & dairy out of my system will take some time.  Good Luck to you and God Speed.