Celiac Or Not?

[Guest Robb Bates]

Hi all, let me explain my recent medical history and maybe you all could give me your thoughts.

Back in January, I went into the ER and was admitted to the hospital for severe diarrhea and dehydration. It was so bad, I started passing this blueish green slime, which the doctor told me was the mucous lining of my small intestines. I lost a lot of electrolytes and nutrients that had to be replaced with the IV fluids.

While in the hospital, I developed what we are 90% sure was viral menegitis brought on by an intestinal viral infection.

Ever since then, I've had serious medical problems. A lot of them have reduced in severity over the past months, but some are still lingering.

Every so often, I would get this hard to describe symptom. It's like a combination of the following things:

Dizzyness

Fever-like feeling without the temperature

mental-fuzziness

difficulty concentrating

fatigue

overall malaise

drunken feeling

achiness

headache

sensitivity to noise

I've also been very irritable and snap at my daughter frequently.

I don't have hardly any stomach problems like diarrhea, constipation, gas, stomach ache.

It seems to occur after I eat, but only lasts about 30 minutes to an hour. It doesn't happen every time I eat.

I just realized last night that it might be related to a particular food. We had sandwiches (with wheat bread)and I had a major onset on these symptoms. Just to test that theory, I had another sandwich for lunch just now, and I can feel those same symptoms coming on again.

I searched online and discovered that many of my symptoms match celiac's disease, but not perfectly.

I've started logging what I eat to see what foods might corrolate with my symptoms.

One thing that made me think it might be celiac's are that I understand it is sometimes triggered by a viral infection, which I had.

No one else in my family has been diagnosed with celiac's, but I know that doesn't mean they don't have it.

Of course, I'm going to make yet another appointment with my doctor to have him test for this.

What are your thoughts?

Robb

[KaitiUSA]

It is very common and can be activated by a number of things. Mine was activated by mono. Anyhow, it sounds suspicious and I think you should at least be tested to be safe. There are over 200 symptoms with celiac and some people do not get symptoms so it is impossible to tell by symptoms. I would recommend getting a complete blood test done(EMA, tTG, IgA, IgG, Total Serum IgA) and then a gene test.

[CarlaB]

It's a possibility. If you are going to get tested do the testing before going gluten-free or it can mess up the tests.

[KaitiUSA]

Yes, I forgot to add what she mentioned above....DO NOT go gluten free before testing. It can mess up the accuracy of tests.

[CarlaB]

And it's true! That's what happened to me! All my tests came out inconclusive.

[AndreaB]

I went off gluten 1 1/2 months ago after I found out I was allergic. I was trying to cure my son's eczema. I called my doctor 1 1/2 weeks ago and she agreed to run the celiac test on me but I didn't do it because I didn't want to go back on gluten. If I were to make another appointment to have it done would it more than likely end up inconclusive. I don't have any symptoms to speak of but had a few in the past which is why she agreed to test me.

[Guest Robb Bates]

Are there any self-tests that you can do? I just did a "test" during lunch today by eating a sandwich, and my symptoms most definitely asserted themselves. So it's pretty apparent that whatever is wrong with me has something to do with eating.

Here's what I had for lunch.

Sandwich

Spam lite

mustard

lettuce

american cheese

peach mango yogurt

I had some potato chips about an hour before lunch, a cup of coffee in the morning and some diet peach tea drink mix throughout the day. My symptoms didn't assert themselves until about 30 minutes after I at the sandwich and yogurt.

I'm thinking I could fast for a day and then eat a bunch of bread and see what that does.

Robb

[AndreaB]

Wheat and dairy are common allergens. Don't reintroduce both at the same time. I don't know that a total fast is necessary. A fruit/fruit juice fast will clean your system out. I've heard of people doing that for three days. That much of a fast is not necessary. From what I've read about others posts with eliminations diets is to go down to foods you know don't cause problems for a few weeks and add back in the problematic ones to nail down which one(s) are causing problems.