Help!

[lawmonkey]

Hi. I'm 24. Two years ago, I was having a lot of problems with my stomach (nausea, diarrhea) and became anemic. I was told that I was allergic to wheat, yeast, and milk. I went on an elimination diet, but cheated every once in a while. My symptoms seemed to improve, but not entirely. I recently switched allergists and, randomly, all of my food allergy testing turned up negative. My doctor did a blood test to check for celiac disease, but it also came back "within normal range." I was told to start eating wheat products again.

Now, I'm trying to eat bread. But every time I do, my stomach swells, I get really hot and nauseas and within an hour or so I'm in the bathroom. I still have anemia and my iron pills aren't doing anything for my blood count. Everything seemed to add up to celiac disease. But now that I've tested negative I'm not sure what to do next.

I'm miserable. I don't want a disease, but I do want to figure out what's wrong with me and why I get sick almost every time I eat anything other than fruits and vegetables. Can a blood test be incorrect? Can anyone help?

[plantime]

Your tests came back negative because you had not been eating wheat for a long time. With your stomach problems when eating wheat, you either have celiac disease, or you have gluten intolerance. Try sticking to a gluten-free diet without cheating for 6-8 weeks, see if your symptoms all start to go away.

[mamabear]

Another way to approach this is to wait ~3 weeks from the time you went back on gluten and retest the blood work. With your symptoms as they exist now, it would seem possible to get an antibody spike. If you are still negative, I'd agree with going gluten free and see if the symptoms don't resolve. Of course, I really don't argue with just going gluten free now. ...getting well is the main objective! Caution! The insurance companies may not cover a retest!!