Any Comments Would Help!

[yellowbird22]

I am not sure if I have celiac disease or not at this point. I have a GI appointment on Thursday so I will talk to a doctor about it (for the first time). However, I am not all together trusting of doctors for many reasons some of which I'll talk about in this post. So I was wondering if anyone could give me any comments/ideas about my story please!!!!!

First of all I am a 22 year old female. I am of normal weight for my height with a BMI of 22. As a kid I was always very happy and outgoing and had no problems ever with my stomach (except for a gallbladder problem for which I recently had to have my gallbladder removed). Then, when I was 17 years old, I still remember the FIRST time I ever felt that pain. It is like this cramping pain in the area between my belly button and the bottom part of my ribcage. It's like I'm REALLY hungry even though I have always just ate when pain begins. Looking back now, ever since that day it just all went downhill for me health wise. I had this cramping pain pretty much all the time, unless I just didn't eat much. So often times I did just that- didn't eat much. And I lost a lot of weight. I also became very depressed and began to get intense migraines. Additionally, I began to break and fracture my bones from doing absolutely nothing where a "normal" person would break a bone. For example, I severely fractured the bones in both my shins just from walking a little more than I normally did (when I went away to college.) Or I would break a toe just from stubbing it. (that happened a few times.) So I stopped doing any type of sports.

From the time I was 17 until now I had extreme problems with depression and anxiety. They went off and on. However for the past year I have actually been depression free. Other symptoms include: loose stools/constipation/D (it alternates), constantly needing to eat something (I actually thought I was hypoglycemic for a while because I can not go for more than 2 hours without eating or I feel like I

[Lisa]

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[mouse]

To me it sounds like Celiac Disease or gluten intolerance. They both require being totally gluten free. As far as going to a doctor for the test, you have to be consuming gluten for a long while. You can also get a false negative on the blood test, but never a false positive. I don't know if you want to consume gluten and make yourself really sick to satisfy your family. You might try calling a local Celiac group and ask for a doctor recommendation as some doctor's feel that the diet is a diagnosis in itself. Good luck in what ever you decide.

And welcome to the forum.

[AzSharouk]

Im in much the same boat. I was told to keep eating the gluten until a biopsy is done. I was told that Friday, and now, on Monday Im on the verge of throwing in the towel and just stopping it now. I will try to keep it up cause not only do I need to vindicate all my moaning/fatigue/illness to my friends and relatives, but I honestly dont know if I could stay committed to a gluten-free diet 100% for the rest of my life without a diagnosis. I mean really: no proper cake at my wedding? no giving in when all my friends are eating my fav veggie pizza? forever? I can see myself now going "I know I will pay dearly for this, but oh its such a special occassion and I am with my friends and how I love such and such...surely I can handle one bite or maybe two...." lol but that is me.