The Long Awaited Appointment Is Near

[GEF]

After about a 2 month wait, my appointment with the highly recommended celiac specialist is on Friday (10/8). Yeah!! I met him during a local GIG meeting and spoke with him for a few. He's a GI spec and is head of nutrition at one of our leading hospitals. He'll be running the HLA tests (gene typing) and will probably repeat the endoscopy (since I got it 2 years ago and only 3 samples were taken). I've been in gluten limbo for all this time, so it will be nice to get all these tests done and possibly get some answers. I've been reading much and feel well-prepared by the forum community.. so my thanks.

PS... anyone in doubt of whether they should change their current doctor should request a copy of their medical records. My previous doctor totally lied about continuing tests and made it out like I didn't want to do them... he's the one that suggested I not.

[Happycat]

Good Luck and I hope all goes well. Please let us know how it goes on friday.

Lisa

[GEF]

I must say that I'm very pleased with my visit to the doctor... he was extremely thorough. I spent over an hour in his office speaking with him about everything I knew and why I was there... I didn't leave out a thing! I even mentioned my recent vertigo spells (which haven't occured in a while). They drew about 4 vials of blood and he is re-running the thyroid (because I'm very cold intolerant), a complete metabolic panel w/ sed rate, will check for b12 & some other common deficiency which I can't remember, he'll also re-check my liver (because my ind. bilirubin is always high), re-run some celiac tests, check for intestinal inflamation and here's my favorite and the most anticipated... the HLA (gene typing)!! It will be a couple of weeks before these results come back. In the meantime, he gave me his card with his e-mail address and told me if I had any questions or concerns that he'd be sure to get back with me asap.

My anti-gliadin antibodies are positive, but low-positive... he's wanting to make sure that celiac is not down the road for me.

I like this doctor and the downtown trip was certainly a pain in the butt... but so worth it.

Gretchen

[GEF]

I received a call from my doctor today (less than a week from the test date!!). Anyway, it's good news! He performed the HLA (gene typing) and I'm negative for both DQ2 & DQ8. Apparently I will never develop full blown celiac.

After the wedding sometime (which is 11/6), he might want to perform the ELISA testing to see if that's where the cause of my symptoms are coming from.

Gretchen