Celiac + Antibiotics + Food Poisoning

[Kansas Bowling]

Hi - found out I had celiac disease almost a year ago (but think I’ve had it for about a year and a half). My blood test came back negative but I hadn’t eaten ANYTHING four days prior cause my body was rejecting it. I didn’t do the endoscopy at the time because I wasn’t informed enough. I had to pretty much find out on my own I had it, because no doctors would believe me cause of my negative blood test. 
 

I haven’t done the endoscopy yet because 1. I have thousands$ in hospital bills I haven’t paid yet and 2. I am EXTREMELY sensitive to gluten and the gluten test would be really awful for me... I’ve asked if I could get one anyways to see if there’s any scarring without eating gluten and they said there would only maybe be results that way...

I’m definitely not all the way recovered - I’m still always fatigued. Recently I found out I had a really bad UTI and had to go on antibiotics but that made my gut feel HORRIBLE and I was basically bed ridden for 10 days. Then two days after I was finished with them (last week), I got food poisoning. 
 

now I don’t know what to do because it’s been five days since I got the food poisoning and I still can’t eat anything without throwing up or having diarrhea or just feeling really painfully bloated. I’m so nervous I just did so much more damage on my gut than was previously done

 

i scheduled an endoscopy for tomorrow morning just In case - hope it shows something. 
 

anyone have an idea what I should do? Or what is going on?

 

[Scott Adams]

If you've been gluten-free for a while, and it sounds like you have been, the endoscopy would give a false negative result, because in order to see any damage to your intestine caused by gluten you'd need to be eating gluten daily for ~2 months before testing for it.

You may want this done for your other health issues, and in that case you can ignore my first comment.

Also, if you're certain about your gluten intolerance and can stay gluten-free without having a formal diagnosis, then there is no real benefit to getting that diagnosis. It sounds like you're against the idea of a gluten challenge, so in that case just stay gluten-free.

[Kansas Bowling]

40 minutes ago, Scott Adams said:

If you've been gluten-free for a while, and it sounds like you have been, the endoscopy would give a false negative result, because in order to see any damage to your intestine caused by gluten you'd need to be eating gluten daily for ~2 months before testing for it.

You may want this done for your other health issues, and in that case you can ignore my first comment.

Also, if you're certain about your gluten intolerance and can stay gluten-free without having a formal diagnosis, then there is no real benefit to getting that diagnosis. It sounds like you're against the idea of a gluten challenge, so in that case just stay gluten-free.

That’s been my thought this whole time but no nutritionists or celiac specialists will bother talking to me unless I have the diagnosis... it’s really tough because it’s taking me a long time to recover and I don’t have anyone to talk to... I know there could possibly be scarring on my intestines so hopefully they’ll see any of that??

[Scott Adams]

If you did have celiac disease that caused intestinal damage, that damage would begin healing as soon as you went gluten-free. If the damage was severe enough it might not be healed, and there could still be signs of it. However, if your goal here is to get an official diagnosis, it's doubtful it will be possible now, due to the fact that you've been gluten-free for a while. The standard advice from a doctor would likely be to postpone the endoscopy for a couple months, and start eating gluten daily until then. Your call whether or not you can or want to do that.

In any case, given your continued symptoms, be sure to consult with your doctor.

[Atep]

Before you subject yourself to a gluten challenge, keep in mind that the vast majority of doctors know little or nothing about celiac. So you are not missing much be not having doctors to discuss it with.  You will be much. Enter off doing internet research on your own, and if possible finding a support group near where you live.  Try confining yourself to whole foods, very heavy on vegetables, seeds and nuts (nothing processed or manufactured) for several months and see if you feel better.  Remember that gluten-free processed foods, while they don’t contain gluten, are relatively devoid of nutrients and are NOT good for you.