More People Are Getting Tested For Celiac

[floridanative]

Had to have some bloodwork done at LabCorp instead of docs office. The lady who drew the blood asked me about my book (Dr. Green's) and I told her I had Celiac and she said that she was doing many more Celiac panels in the last month or so. I thought that was interesting and I know the old blood panel is flawed but at least it means the docs are ordering the tests more which is a step in the right direction.

[jerseyangel]

Tiffany--that's good to hear!

[erin24]

Speaking of the Celiac blood panel...you said it is no good? Why? Any other test more reliable? I had the celiac blood panel done last week and I would like to know what is included in that panel. Does anyonw know?

Also, it has been almost a week...does it really take that long? I have yet to change my diet b/c I dont want to mess up the biopsy results (if the dr orders one), so I am getting a little anxious for the results so I can begin my diet life style.

[floridanative]

Well the Celiac panel blood test is the best out there but for reasons I certainly don't understand it does miss a lot of Celiacs. In my case only 1 (tTg) of the 6 test results was high and it was barley positive for Celiac. Two of three docs told me I didn't have Celiac but the biopsy proved I did. So the new test that is being developed now is supposed to have much more of an accuracy rate than the current panel does. Only time will tell if this is really the case.

Good luck to you. I thought the diet would be impossible but I feel so good that I can't believe how bad I felt before without knowing it. I feel a good ten years younger, getting more energy all the time and it's only been six weeks for me. I have lots of yummy gluten-free food to replace those I can't have anymore. If you like pizza try Chebe crust mix or frozen crust dough. (www.chebe.com) I have no interest in the company but I wish I'd know about them before we tried no less than three nasty rice crust pizzas. Many on this board like them but I wanted a pizza that tasted like pizza and only chebe does that for me and my husband. Learning the diet is overwhelming and I certainly have much to learn still. But I am eating more diverse foods than ever before so I find that aspect of it fun. The hard part is remembering if you want a brownie, you need to take it out of the freezer a day before you intend to eat it.

[erin24]

Well the Celiac panel blood test is the best out there but for reasons I certainly don't understand it does miss a lot of Celiacs. In my case only 1 (tTg) of the 6 test results was high and it was barley positive for Celiac. Two of three docs told me I didn't have Celiac but the biopsy proved I did. So the new test that is being developed now is supposed to have much more of an accuracy rate than the current panel does. Only time will tell if this is really the case.

Good luck to you. I thought the diet would be impossible but I feel so good that I can't believe how bad I felt before without knowing it. I feel a good ten years younger, getting more energy all the time and it's only been six weeks for me. I have lots of yummy gluten-free food to replace those I can't have anymore. If you like pizza try Chebe crust mix or frozen crust dough. (www.chebe.com) I have no interest in the company but I wish I'd know about them before we tried no less than three nasty rice crust pizzas. Many on this board like them but I wanted a pizza that tasted like pizza and only chebe does that for me and my husband. Learning the diet is overwhelming and I certainly have much to learn still. But I am eating more diverse foods than ever before so I find that aspect of it fun. The hard part is remembering if you want a brownie, you need to take it out of the freezer a day before you intend to eat it.

Thanks floridanative. From what I have been reading on this site it seems that the diet is the best way to be dx'd. For the past week I have not tried to exclude all gluten from my diet just the major sources that I know contained gluten (bread, etc). I don't want to completely exclude it until I hear back from my dr, but I dont want to continue poisoning myself if I really do have it. Make sense?

Anyway, I am sure the diet is really overwhelming when you first start. Thanks for the food suggestions...will try them once I hear from the dr.

Will hopefully get the results tomorrow and will let yall know.