Is Lower Abdominal Discomfort Normal Post-Diagnosis?

[Blue Roan]

If there’s already a thread on this, I apologize. 
 

I was just diagnosed with celiac two weeks ago after an upper endoscopy + biopsy confirmed everything. I have been healthy with no intolerances until a couple months ago. I’d had a sudden onset of severe abdominal pain, constipation and decrease in appetite that landed me in the ER a few times. I currently have some damage to the villi in my small intestines from celiac. Everything I’ve read indicates that upper abdominal discomfort is normal as the intestines heal. However, I haven’t found much regarding lower abdominal issues, which is why I’m posting here. 
 

The total duration of my illness has been 2.5 months. I’ve experiencing soreness in the lower belly area (the patch between the pelvis bones above the crotch) for the past month. Sometimes it feels like muscle soreness and other times it’s the same biting irritation feeling that I get in my small intestines. In the last few weeks, I’ve had a CT scan of my abdomen and several rounds of blood work (organ function tests, glucose, iron, tests for lymphoma, thyroid, cholesterol, A1C, etc.) and an ultrasound. The only thing abnormal was my celiac panel. I have been healthy up until this point. Overall, I’m feeling a lot better since going gluten free a couple weeks ago and nothing warrants pain meds. I’m just a bit concerned. 

So I’m asking if any of you had lower abdominal pain. How did it feel? Did it go away? I would love any tips. Is there a list of known celiac symptoms on this site that I can look at?

I see my GI doctor for a follow up next week but wanted to also hear from the celiac community as well. Thank you. 

 

[Scott Adams]

I'm not sure what your Marsh scores were for your villi damage, however, healing your villi/gut damage can take time, and for some people it takes at least a year.

Many people with celiac disease, especially those who are in the 0-2 year range of their recovery, have additional food intolerance issues which could be temporary. To figure this out you may need to keep a food diary and do an elimination diet over a few months.

Some common food intolerance issues are dairy/casein, eggs, corn, oats, and soy. The good news is that after your gut heals (for most people who are 100% gluten-free this will take several months to two years) you may be able to slowly add some these items back into your diet after the damaged villi heal.

This article may be helpful:

 

 

[Blue Roan]

Closing the loop on this in case it's helpful to anyone else:

I had my GI doctor visit, and he determined that the lower abdominal pains I experienced were associated with a celiac flare-up. Thankfully, the symptoms subsided a few days later. I noticed that drinking a lot of water helped. I think I was accidentally exposed via cross-contamination. I stopped using the same toaster as my non-celiac household members, and that also seemed to be helpful! I will probably also try using personal jars of peanut butter and jelly to avoid any exposure via double-dipping with spreading utensils. So much to keep track of...🙄

[Scott Adams]

Thanks for the update, and I'm glad to hear that you are doing better now.