Hi - New Member - Can Someone Help Me

[welshgirl]

Hi, I am 27 years old and have been sick now since last November. I've had a alot of different health problems. The list goes like this:

stomach and intestinal pains

bloated stomach almost all the time(would get worse after I ate, esp. if I ate things with wheat)

constipation and diarrhea

headaches

always feeling tired

lost appetite (but sometimes I would be really hungry, so even after I ate I would still feel hungry)

I've seen my doctor alot, had 2 blood tests and a ultascan, which did show up small packages of blood in my liver! So now I am having a ct scan and a camera up my bowels as well. Could this be Celiac??

[nikki-uk]

Hi, I am 27 years old and have been sick now since last November. I've had a alot of different health problems. The list goes like this:

stomach and intestinal pains

bloated stomach almost all the time(would get worse after I ate, esp. if I ate things with wheat)

constipation and diarrhea

headaches

always feeling tired

lost appetite (but sometimes I would be really hungry, so even after I ate I would still feel hungry)

I've seen my doctor alot, had 2 blood tests and a ultascan, which did show up small packages of blood in my liver! So now I am having a ct scan and a camera up my bowels as well. Could this be Celiac??

YES!!!!!!!!!There are many,many symptoms of celiac disease - it can affect other organs so it is possible.

Just so you're clear - for your doctor to diagnose coeliac he needs to do the blood test and an Endoscopy (down the throat) to take biopsies of the small bowel. It cannot be diagnosed through a colonoscopy (other end!)

You also need to be eating a diet that is high in gluten until all tests are done.

Good Luck

[Tiffy]

Hi Welshgirl, your symptoms sound just like mine before I started a gluten free diet. I hope you find out what is wrong and that you get better soon.

-Tiffy

[happygirl]

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Anti-gliadin antibodies (AGA) both IgA and IgG

Anti-endomysial antibodies (EMA) - IgA

Anti-tissue transglutaminase antibodies (tTG) - IgA

Total IgA level.

Ask your doctor to run the Celiac bloodwork, which consists of the five tests listed above.

[AliB]

Hi, I am 27 years old and have been sick now since last November. I've had a alot of different health problems. The list goes like this:

stomach and intestinal pains

bloated stomach almost all the time(would get worse after I ate, esp. if I ate things with wheat)

constipation and diarrhea

headaches

always feeling tired

lost appetite (but sometimes I would be really hungry, so even after I ate I would still feel hungry)

I've seen my doctor alot, had 2 blood tests and a ultascan, which did show up small packages of blood in my liver! So now I am having a ct scan and a camera up my bowels as well. Could this be Celiac??

Hi Welshgirl from another hailing from Wales.

I am having very similar symptoms and have just been this morning to the doctor for a blood test. Because I feel so ill she has suggested I start the gluten-free diet immediately and we will see what benefit if any there is in a fortnight after the results come back.

I am desperate to start the diet as I am in so much pain every time I eat, probably with a hernia and gastritis, and am getting such bad diarrhea that I cannot carry on like this. My Mum was Type 1 Diabetic which I have discovered is a big marker - apparently all children (and presumably grandchildren) of Coeliacs should be tested automatically (according to a paper written in 2000). They can often present for years with 'silent coeliac disease'. How I now regret not chasing the IBS up - I suppose part of me always expected to be fobbed of with excuses. If only I had known then what I know now.....

I am angry. I have been living with this and the insidious symptoms for over 35 years. I now know that the change I experienced when 15 was most likely due to Coeliac and not teenage hormones as diagnosed at the time. I have been tired all my life and I am sick of being tired. I am sick that all that fatigue and stomach problems and now latterly diabetes could quite likely have been completely avoided. The Medical Profession likes to think it is God, unfortunately, unlike the real one, this God continuously lets you down.

There was not one poster or piece of information in my doctors' surgery about Coeliac. The conservative estimate is 1 in 100 people diagnosed or undiagnosed. I would not be at all surprised if Coeliac isn't behind a lot of misdiagnosed illnesses because it is never considered - Migraines, Arthritis, Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia - you name it. A far more accurate estimate in my estimation is likely to be much nearer 1 in 30 or even less.

There are an awful lot of people out there following the gluten free route and benefitting from it who have never been diagnosed, or whose tests have come back negative. Thinking about the information I have absorbed, I am quite certain that the true diagnosis will not show up until the disease has got past the 'gluten Intolerance' stage and has degenerated into something more sinister. Let's face it, how many of us go bothering the doctor about those annoying niggling but vague symptoms, dicky tums, IBS, headaches, etc. Sadly, those vague symptoms are often the precursor to and are masking the progression of something far more insidious.

Wouldn't it be far less damaging if 'gluten Intolerance' was taken far more seriously and Gluten Free was encouraged to be adopted at a much earlier stage, to prevent one's health from degenerating into the chaos that ensues when Coeliac finally hits with a vengeance.

I am going to educate my children and grandchildren about this and encourage them too to be tested. I am sure my husband would benefit from this and may even find that he is no longer suffering with his Fibromyalgia. From now on this house will be a gluten-free zone!