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Blood Test While On Gluten Free Diet?

yellowbird22

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yellowbird22 Newbie
yellowbird22
Posted

I just went to the doc. today. I've been eating gluten free for a month with wonderfull results. After explaining my situation, he said it sounded a lot like Celiac. He drew blood to test for antibodies even though I've been gluten free for almost a month. He said that it could still show antibodies. Has this happened for anyone else?

Anyway he told me to start eating gluten again and we'll do a biopsy in a month unless the blood test is positive in which case I'm dx celiac. I started eating it again earlier today and I've already had D twice in the past 2 hours, my stomach hurts, my body hurts, and I have a headache. I thought it would at least take a few days of eating it again that I'd feel sick! I don't know if I'll last a month....

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Lisa Mentor
Lisa
Posted
I just went to the doc. today. I've been eating gluten free for a month with wonderfull results. After explaining my situation, he said it sounded a lot like Celiac. He drew blood to test for antibodies even though I've been gluten free for almost a month. He said that it could still show antibodies. Has this happened for anyone else?

Anyway he told me to start eating gluten again and we'll do a biopsy in a month unless the blood test is positive in which case I'm dx celiac. I started eating it again earlier today and I've already had D twice in the past 2 hours, my stomach hurts, my body hurts, and I have a headache. I thought it would at least take a few days of eating it again that I'd feel sick! I don't know if I'll last a month....

Yellowbird:

It never seems to mystify me why doctors recommends that we continue to destroy our intestines.

You may have not been TOTALY gluten free for the month before testing. It is very complicated and it involves your shampoos, creams, lipstick, gloss, soy sauce, Worcester sauce and the list goes on and on. Your blood work may be positive. The blood test will rule in celiac, but it does not necessarily rule it out. It can be a false negative, due to your gluten free status.

Many people here are self diagnosed because they consider a positive dietary response a confirmation of Celiac, is not a gluten intolerance.

If the gluten diet is too much for you to handle. Tell you doctor. He wants you go eat gluten, level your villi, create damage, so he can confirm it through a scope, which it itself is not always conclusive?

If this sounds harsh, it is not my intent. I was close to being hospitalized and was sent to a GI and was diognoses with Celiac...I had no ideas what it was.

Do some reading here. The citizens here are the best in the world and we all share a commonality.

Kaycee Collaborator
Kaycee
Posted

Yellowbird, I had a blood test about a month after starting the gluten free diet, and the results came back positive, but not overly high. The doctor said there was no doubt in his mind that I had coeliac. I have since had two other blood tests at about 3 months and four monts gluten free and they were positive, but the antibody levels were going down.

I think everyone is different, and what happened to me might not happen in your case.

And like you, when I did eat gluten by accident, the reactions happened within two to three hours, as in feeling yuck, headachy and the diarhoea about a day or so later.

So hold in there and hopefully you will have your answer sooner, rather than later.

Cathy

VydorScope Proficient
VydorScope
Posted
I just went to the doc. today. I've been eating gluten free for a month with wonderfull results. After explaining my situation, he said it sounded a lot like Celiac. He drew blood to test for antibodies even though I've been gluten free for almost a month. He said that it could still show antibodies. Has this happened for anyone else?

Anyway he told me to start eating gluten again and we'll do a biopsy in a month unless the blood test is positive in which case I'm dx celiac. I started eating it again earlier today and I've already had D twice in the past 2 hours, my stomach hurts, my body hurts, and I have a headache. I thought it would at least take a few days of eating it again that I'd feel sick! I don't know if I'll last a month....

couple thoughts...

First.. only a month off the gluten, you might still get a positive blood test. So it does not hurt... well not much :) to try.

Second... skip the biopsy. Bisopy can never rule out celiac disease, only confirm a dx, so, IMO its not a real useful test and it is not with out its risks.

Third... You eat gluten, you get sick. You do not eat gluten, you do not get sick, right? So, umm, why would you want to eat gluten? Really the best test in most cases is the diet its self. You just did that and confirmed you do have a problem with gluten. What ever label they want to put on it does not matter in the end. IMO, stop eating gluten and tell the doc your content with the diet testing.

NOTE:I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on tv/internet. Just a father of a 3yr old with celiac disease.

cchhrriiss Newbie
cchhrriiss
Posted

Momma Goose, Do you think that is so important?..."".You may have not been TOTALY gluten free for the month before testing. It is very complicated and it involves your shampoos" I mean shampoo, does it matter? It's hard to find a shampoo that is wheat free, if you have dry hair. I'm not sure? :)

yellowbird22 Newbie
yellowbird22
Posted
  • Author
couple thoughts...

Third... You eat gluten, you get sick. You do not eat gluten, you do not get sick, right? So, umm, why would you want to eat gluten? Really the best test in most cases is the diet its self. You just did that and confirmed you do have a problem with gluten. What ever label they want to put on it does not matter in the end. IMO, stop eating gluten and tell the doc your content with the diet testing.

NOTE:I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on tv/internet. Just a father of a 3yr old with celiac disease.

Yes I totally agree with this. I have been thinking a lot about this today and I have talked with my family about it. It makes SO much more sense to just forget the "official" diagnosis and just do what feels right. It's just such a weird thing when your doc tells you DO THIS and you know that makes no sense. But I should be the last person to listen to docs because 90% of them have diagnosed me incorrectly in the past...

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