Negative biopsy and seeking doctor recs in Los Angeles

[englishbunny]

I'm upset & confused and really need help finding a new gastro who specializes in celiac in California.  Also will welcome any insights on my results.

I tested with an isolated positive for deamidated IGA a few months ago (it was 124.3, all other values on celiac panel <1.0), I also have low ferritin and Hashimotos. Mild gastro symptoms which don't seem to get significantly worse with gluten but I can't really tell... my main issues being extreme fatigue and joint pain. The celiac panel was done by my endocrinologist to try and get to the bottom of my fatigue and I was shocked to have a positive result.

Just got negative biposy result from endoscopy. Doctor only took two biopsies from small intestine (from an area that appeared red), and both are normal.

Problem is his Physician's Assistant can't give me an answer whether I have celiac or not, or what possible reason I might have for having positive antibodies if I don't have it. She wants me to retest bloods in a month and says in the meantime to either "eat gluten or not, it's up to you, but your bloodwork won't be accurate if you don't"

I asked if it could be I have early stage celiac so the damage is patchy and missed by only having two samples taken, and she said doctor would've seen damaged areas when performing endoscopy (?) and that it's a good sign if my whole intestine isn't damaged all over, so even if there is spotty damage I am fine.  This doesn't exactly seem satisfactory, and seems to be contrary to so much of the reading and research I have done.

I haven't seen the doctor except at my endoscopy, and he was pretty arrogant and didn't take much time to talk. I can't see him or even talk to him for another month.

I'm really confused about what I should do. I don't want to just "wait and see" if I have celiac and do real damage in the meantime. Because I know celiac is more that just 'not eating bread' and if I am going to make such a huge lifestyle adjustment I need an actual diagnosis.

So in summary I want to find another doctor in CA, preferably Los Angeles but I don't care at this stage if they can do telehealth! I just need some real answers from someone who doesn't talk in riddles. So recommendations would be highly welcomed.

I have Blue Shield CA insurance, loads of gastros in LA don’t take insurance at all 😣

[trents]

Welcome to the forum, @englishbunny!

Did your celiac panel include a test for "Total IGA"? That is a test for IGA deficiency. If you are IGA deficient, other IGA test resultls will likely be falsely low.

Were you by any chance already practicing a reduced gluten free diet when the blood draw was done?

[englishbunny]

5 minutes ago, trents said:

Welcome to the forum, @englishbunny!

Did your celiac panel include a test for "Total IGA"? That is a test for IGA deficiency. If you are IGA deficient, other IGA test resultls will likely be falsely low.

Were you by any chance already practicing a reduced gluten free diet when the blood draw was done?

it did include Total Immunoglobin A which was 135, and said to be in normal range.

when i did the blood test in January I would say I was on a "light' gluten diet, but def not gluten free.  I didn't have any clue about the celiac thing then.  Since then I have been eating a tonne of gluten for the purpose of the endoscopy....so I'm debating just getting my blood test redone right away to see if it has changed so I'm not waiting another month...

[trents]

If you have been eating the gluten equivalent of 4-6 slices of wheat bread daily for say, 4 weeks, I think a repeat blood test would be valid.