Tested Negative

[sick&tired]

I'm new to the board. I've read articles about CS here but I guess not enough. After years of agony and endless tests with no answers, I finally read about Ciliac Sprue and put myself on a gluten-free diet. I was elated when my pain, bloating, mental fuzziness, and fatigue suddenly went away. I stayed well for about 5 months and then had a bad relapse after eating in a Chinese restaurant. I think I had several things to eat I shouldn't have, including soy sauce.

So I started investigating more and realized I could really only eat things that were whole foods or prepared items that were already deemed OK. I can deal with it. Anything is better than my quality of life before. As I read more, I realized my grown children and grandchlidren could be at risk. I wanted to get diagnosed so my family would have some definite results in hand if I tested positive.

I went to my GP Doc and asked him for the test for antibodies to endomysium and tissue transglutaminase. He is not at all familiar with this disease and asked me why I would want the test if I tried the gluten-free diet and felt better. I answered I was especially concerned about my grandbabies having it and possibly becoming malnourished.

He is also not at all familiar with the blood tests and after calling the lab to see if they could accomodate the tests, he was told they were esentially the same test. (Are they?) So I only had the tissue transglutaminase, I think.

Anyway, the office called me today and told me the test was negative. I was crushed because if it wasn't CS I must be crazy! Then I read here how one must be "active" to test positive. I can't live like that. I was so, so, so sick last summer. I felt my life was over.

Any other options? And any Docs in the Metro Detroit area who are in the know?

I do have other auto-immune and connective tissue diseases. For me, they pale in comparison to the pain and agony of my Celiac Sprue symptoms.

Thanks so much for your time and sharing.

[KayJay]

If you have been gluten-free for that long the test would show up neg. I think you have to be eating Gulten for a while to show up pos. You may want to try the Enterolab you can e-mail Dr. fine and ask if it would work for you. You can do the genetic test and that would tell you if you have the gene.

--Good luck,

Kayla