Hi From New Zealand

[JT-NZ]

Hi There, 

I am a 35 year old male from New Zealand. From being a teenager I have always had bowel movement issues, cramps every now and then and depression. For as long as I can remember I have had these issues. But In the past two years I have been getting increasing pains in the right side of my body, just under my ribcage. I sometimes get small white itchy dots on my fingers, Ive read this could be Dermatitis herpetiformis. In the past in my stools I have had blood present but this is quite rare. I've had blood tests and ultrasounds and nothing has ever shown up. When I was younger I had a colonoscopy and nothing came from that and about 3 months ago I went and saw a GP and they referred me to have an ultrasound to see if I had gallstones or something wrong with my gallbladder, at this time I was super happy! I thought wow this could be over! All the symptoms I've had for all this time could stop, but this scan didn't show anything abnormal. 

In the past few weeks I have also started getting reflux almost like something is stuck in my throat. I have been given Omeprazole to help those symptoms - But today as an example I feel like I have a rubber band around my torso, with the majority of the pain I have just to the right of my stomach.  I feel super bloated, like I  have had way too much to eat. 

I went back to the doctors today and requested specially a blood test for either ruling out or confirming I have celiac. This morning I had some toast for breakfast with some spread, and for lunch I had one slice of fruit toast. So I am hoping later this afternoon when I go take these blood tests something shows up! 

The reason why I have asked for this is I have been reading about some of the symptoms, obversely Dr google and online fourms are not a place to get a diagnosis but i'm interested to see if anyone agrees with me that I could be on the right path to discovering what's wrong with me?

Love to read any of your comments or feedback; or some ideas on what I should be asking my GP

[trents]

A couple of meals with gluten in them is not enough to ensure a valid celiac antibody test result.

The guidelines for the  antibody test is the daily consumption of gluten in the amount equivalent to two slices of wheat bread for 6-8 weeks leading up to the test. So if you have been significantly cutting back on gluten in recent weeks the test results may give a negative result.

[JT-NZ]

I have not reduced or changed my diet in the past few weeks or even months. So I am still very hopeful these blood tests come back with something 

[Scott Adams]

Your symptoms could be due to untreated celiac disease and/or non-celiac gluten sensitivity, so it's good that you're getting tested for it. Interestingly the part about feeling like something was stuck in your throat reminded me of my daughter's primary symptom, and the pain in the lower-right side was a symptom I had for years before I was diagnosed.

Should the tests end up negative, you could still have NCGS and would just need to try out a gluten-free diet to determine this, however, keep eating gluten until all testing has been completed.