Test Being Done And Worried

[whattodo]

On visiting the specialist this week he suggest that I have celiac disease. I have given blood and more tests are going to be done.

I have had a look at celiac disease on the web and it has made me very worried looking at the permanent effects of this disease.

I am experiencing constant stomach pain, alot of weight loss, tiredness and numbing of the face. Dont get me wrong but on following a high fibre diet for my diverticular disease my stomach pain did get a little better in spells.

I suppose my main worry is a risk of cancer now and in the future. Could I have got to the point where permanent damage has been done?

Sorry to sound so worried but id like to know as much about this disease as i possibly can. I suppose I need a bit of comforting for people who are going through the same as me.

[little-c]

Hello whattodo:

I'm newly diagnosed and am lucky that the doctors caught me early in the process. I suspect my disease was triggered by the increased stress I've been experiencing during the last year.

Anyway, my experience is a bit different from yours, as my symptoms weren't that severe. However I share the same fearful anxieties about what the future holds for me healthwise. Talk to your doctor about your symptoms and concerns.

Assuming that your celiac diagnosis is confirmed...here's my advice.

There is much information out there on learning how to cope and how to eat/prepare food as a celiac. It's a daunting task to learn all you need to know as a celiac, but education is your best defense. Then you'll know what you're up against. You'll also know how to deal with it and control your own destiny. The other good news is that as a celiac you won't be required to take expensive drugs or go through painful treatments. Going gluten-free will be all you need. Easier said than done, yes, but as the effects of gluten subside, so will your symptoms.

[par18]

  little_c said:

Hello whattodo:

I'm newly diagnosed and am lucky that the doctors caught me early in the process. I suspect my disease was triggered by the increased stress I've been experiencing during the last year.

Anyway, my experience is a bit different from yours, as my symptoms weren't that severe. However I share the same fearful anxieties about what the future holds for me healthwise. Talk to your doctor about your symptoms and concerns.

Assuming that your celiac diagnosis is confirmed...here's my advice.

There is much information out there on learning how to cope and how to eat/prepare food as a celiac. It's a daunting task to learn all you need to know as a celiac, but education is your best defense. Then you'll know what you're up against. You'll also know how to deal with it and control your own destiny. The other good news is that as a celiac you won't be required to take expensive drugs or go through painful treatments. Going gluten-free will be all you need. Easier said than done, yes, but as the effects of gluten subside, so will your symptoms.

I have to agree with this post. Your best chance of avoiding possible problems in the future is to allow your body to heal itself through the gluten-free diet if in fact you do have Celiac. My family doctor told me (and I believe him) that Celiac was the absolute best diagnosis I could have gotten just for the reasons mentioned in the above post. My advice is to take things one step at a time because this is the most effective way to deal with recovery. My symptoms were very severe and recovery for me started as soon as I started the diet. This was two years ago and I have not gotten so much as a cold since I became gluten-free. Hope this helps.

Tom

[Guest j_mommy]

I too am newly diagnosed and it is very scaring. Knowing this is a genetic disease and I have a two yr old(he tested Neg thank go!) and it kind of consumes you at first...it's all you can think about. Right now i'm concentrating on what I can do NOW. these days just about anything can cause cancer and I've decied to do this one step at a time. The frustarting thing for me was my DR didn't want me to research celiac disease until after my biopsy(May 15), Knowledge is power and I need to know. My best advice is to take things a day at a time and talk to your dr....express your concerns and fears..get it out and you feel better. Best of Luck!

[hathor]

The way I see it, I would be more worried about having a disease for which there is no effective treatment, just palliative drugs or treatments (like practically all other diseases). If you have celiac, you go gluten free & your body repairs itself and you can be fine. Yes, there are some who don't heal completely, but I believe they are in the minority, those whose villi have been damaged beyond repair. The body has a tremendous ability to heal itself once you give it the conditions for doing so.

Look at it this way. There is something you can do to eliminate your symptoms without side effects, periodic doctors visits, etc. Finding a complete answer should make you happy. (I feel so much more lucky than, say, my BIL who is newly diagnosed with MS.)

Try for a healthy diet & lifestyle and realize that worry isn't good for your health either.

[hathor]

Let me amend what I just said to say that I think that many diseases can be effectively helped through proper diet and exercise. But you aren't going to get many doctors to tell you about that, or that even know. Their training is all about drugs, surgery, and the like.

At least with celiac/gluten intolerance, doctors don't have any treatments to throw at you. There is just the diet. And the diet is very effective, even if you have a bit of a learning curve in the beginning.