Should I Get Tested

[sunshinehid]

Hi Everyone,

I was having a conversation with a friend of mine who told me his sister was diagnosed with something called celiac disease. The more he talked the more it sounded just like me. So I started researching, and reading and thought this might be me. I started a small experiment. On January 2, I started phasing out gluten from my diet. It was really hard for the first couple of days trying to figure out what not to eat. I by no means was pure, I know there were some dinners with some cream soups, and a sneaks of things I should not have been eating but overall the amount was way down or none. Overall I was starting to feel a bit better. I promised myself to try it for 10 days.

On January 11, we went for a pizza. That night I had so much gas and next day I had the diarehha. Duh why did'nt I think of this, I had gotten so much better and lost weight on a low carb diet years ago. So I went off again and continued to feel much much better. I continued staying as off until Tuesday February 12. When I scheduled an appt for my annual exam at which point I planned to ask for the test. I have read over and over that you have to be eating gluten to be properly diagnosed. So went back to gluten on Tuesday the 12th.

I ate a few cookies and stuff. On the 13th we went for Pizza, on the 14th I had pasta. Boy am I sorry. It took a few days for the symptoms to return but I am all around feeling awful now.

So let me outline the symptoms I have when eating gluten:

Tons of Gas,

Foul smelling, and violent diarehha with cramping.

Stools that are frothy, light in color

Belly bloating and distension

Wheat craving

Mouth sores when I am sick

Back pain

Muscle soreness and weakness

Weight gain

fatigue

easy to bruise

dark circles under my eyes

acne, cyst like acne

During my 6 weeks off of gluten all of these cleared up or were on there way to resolving. I almost did not what to do with myself by having to have a hard stool, it was almost scary to have to actually make an effort to have a bowel movement.

Not all of these symptoms have returned yet after 3 days but many have. I am convinced that this is the problem. As soon as I get the blood test I will go back to gluten-free living. I need to get this test over with. I feel terrible. During the 6 weeks, I tried to broach the subject with my mother who also has all these symptoms and she was not receptive. She outright told me she would not believe me till there was medical proof. She said I was wasting the doctors time and I am just being a hypocondriac because people who have celiac are underweight not big like us.

On an interesting note I started on Jan2 at 165 lbs. Down from 177 in October. During the 6 weeks I got down to 163. Today after 3 days on the gluten I am 167. This is madness.

Am I crazy, and hypocondriac-ish, or could this really be what has been dragging me down for so long. Any thoughts from you all would be very nice.

Thanks in advance for finding time to answer,

H. W.

[happygirl]

Present your symptoms to your doctor, and ask to be tested for Celiac. The five blood tests in the panel are:

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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.

A common misconception about Celiac is that Celiacs are underweight, not overweight. Read this information. https://www.celiac.com/articles/1077/1/39-o...bese/Page1.html

Celiac Disease prevalence in the USA is 1 in 133. However, 97% of Americans that have it are not diagnosed.

Good luck!

[RiceGuy]

Sounds like you already have your answer. Plus, if the tests come back negative, I'm sure you aren't going to celebrate with a pizza. No, you aren't a hypochondriac.

So glad you found this site!