Testing Tomorrow - Questions?

[KayCe234]

I talked to my doctor today via email and he's sending me in tomorrow for a test of serum transgluatminase level - is this the test everyone has mentioned? My question also is what should I eat for dinner tonight? On Saturday night I had dinner at Bugaboo Creek and paid for it that night with very bad stomach pains and many bathroom trips - I had Salmon Marinated with pineapple, soy, ginger and a little kick of bourbon! Served with decadent Charlie's Smashed Potatoes and fresh, steamed vegetables. (got description from their website) and I ate the bread on the table.

I know people have said testing can be hard when you've been staying away from Gluten so I'm wondering if I should purposely eat pasta tonight or not.

Thanks - I'm somewhat nervous, I don't want it to be Gluten because I'm having a very difficult time figuring the diet out, but I do want it to be Gluten so at least I'll know after all these years.

[lizard00]

If you have been gluten free up until Sat, there's no point in glutening yourself tonight. The amount that you ingest today will not matter tomorrow if you have been gluten free for any length of time. I made that mistake myself, paid for it, only to later realize that the whole wheat sandwich, beer and bread for dinner did nothing but made me feel awful.

How long have you been gluten-free?

[psawyer]

I agree that tonight's dinner will make no difference to tomorrow's tests. For testing to be accurate, you need to eat gluten on a regular basis over a prolonged period.

It sounds like you were doing fine at Bugaboo Creek until it came to the bread.

[KayCe234]

I guess my problem is I don't know if I've actually been truly Gluten Free. The only thing I've cut out is bread and pasta - is that enough?

[psawyer]

Well, pasta and bread are too very significant sources of gluten in the diet. But flour shows up as a thickener in sauces and the like. Cakes and cookies, and just about all "normal" baked goods are loaded with gluten. Barley hides in prepared cereal (and of course many cereals are made all or partly from wheat). Even without bread and pasta you are likely to be ingesting enough gluten to cause problems.

Being completely gluten-free takes effort and care all the time. Without continual vigilance, you would be what some call "gluten light."

So, if the test is positive, you will know that (1) you have been ingesting gluten, and (2) you need to stop completely. But a false negative is quite possible if you haven't been eating enough gluten often enough of the past two to three months.

[jerseyangel]

I talked to my doctor today via email and he's sending me in tomorrow for a test of serum transgluatminase level - is this the test everyone has mentioned? My question also is what should I eat for dinner tonight? On Saturday night I had dinner at Bugaboo Creek and paid for it that night with very bad stomach pains and many bathroom trips - I had Salmon Marinated with pineapple, soy, ginger and a little kick of bourbon! Served with decadent Charlie's Smashed Potatoes and fresh, steamed vegetables. (got description from their website) and I ate the bread on the table.

I know people have said testing can be hard when you've been staying away from Gluten so I'm wondering if I should purposely eat pasta tonight or not.

Thanks - I'm somewhat nervous, I don't want it to be Gluten because I'm having a very difficult time figuring the diet out, but I do want it to be Gluten so at least I'll know after all these years.

Sounds like you are gluten-lite at the moment? To get the most accurate results, you should be eating a good amount of gluten (the equivilant of 3-4 slices of bread a day) for at least 3-4 months prior to testing, longer is better. Eating gluten just the night before won't affect the test at all.

Ask that they run the full Celiac panel:

Anti-Gliadin (AGA) IgA

Anti-Gliadin (AGA) IgG

Anti-Endomysial (EMA) IgA

Anti-Tissue Transglutaminase (tTG) IgA

Total Serum IgA

Good luck