Dh Question For My Mom

[julie5914]

Hi guys,

My mom has diabetes T1, and I have celiac. She has had a celiac blood test, but she was told it was negative (it was really more inconclusive). She's always had these itchy spots esp. on her shins and hands and forearms which she attributed to wheat a long time ago because they were less itchy when she avoided it. She would still have some every now and then though and stay "under the radar." However, lately it has come in full force and she says it's hard for her to live in her skin.

She itches and breaks the skin almost immediately, going deep down and getting large sores that take a while to heal. She says it's like her bones itch. I asked if they were blisters. She said she itches so much and so fast that they are sores more than blisters but start out as kind of pin-pricks, like small blisters maybe. She went to a care clinic out of town it was so bad and they loaded her up on strong anti-biotic to fight staph and other infection. Can you tell me if this is similar to what you have and if we can be 99% it is in fact DH?

I am worried about her because I don't want her to think it is just gluten-caused because of me if it is really something else that needs a different treatment. She went to the doc again when she was back in town and has a lot of medicine and told them she thinks it's wheat, but no one biopsied. I've encouraged her to do this, but she says if she gets off all gluten again and it goes away that will be confirmation enough for her.

[ravenwoodglass]

Hi guys,

My mom has diabetes T1, and I have celiac. She has had a celiac blood test, but she was told it was negative (it was really more inconclusive). She's always had these itchy spots esp. on her shins and hands and forearms which she attributed to wheat a long time ago because they were less itchy when she avoided it. She would still have some every now and then though and stay "under the radar." However, lately it has come in full force and she says it's hard for her to live in her skin.

She itches and breaks the skin almost immediately, going deep down and getting large sores that take a while to heal. She says it's like her bones itch. I asked if they were blisters. She said she itches so much and so fast that they are sores more than blisters but start out as kind of pin-pricks, like small blisters maybe. She went to a care clinic out of town it was so bad and they loaded her up on strong anti-biotic to fight staph and other infection. Can you tell me if this is similar to what you have and if we can be 99% it is in fact DH?

I am worried about her because I don't want her to think it is just gluten-caused because of me if it is really something else that needs a different treatment. She went to the doc again when she was back in town and has a lot of medicine and told them she thinks it's wheat, but no one biopsied. I've encouraged her to do this, but she says if she gets off all gluten again and it goes away that will be confirmation enough for her.

This sounds like what I had for years. It was misdiagnosed as poison ivy but the doctors could never tell us why I still had it with snow on the ground. The only thing that would clear it up was a month or so on very strong steroids and it would return within another months time. For me this was gluten, clearly gluten. As someone who suffered for years because blood work for celiac was negative and the diet was never mentioned I would IMHO tend to agree with her. If the gluten free diet does away with this problem then she should stay gluten-free. Blood testing result accuracy can vary even within a family. It wasn't until after I was finnally diagnosed that they blood tested both my children and they both showed positive. Unfortunately they were not tested until both had permanent damage. Also celiac is very common with diabetics but unfortunately our doctors often choose to ignore the possibility.