Had Blood Tests Today

[chb]

Hi,

I'm new to the forum. I turned 38 this year and have felt like I've been falling apart. The constant fatigue has been worse and my migraines that started a couple of years ago have turned into this daily bouts of flashing lights and mental dullness or brain fog. Of course the neurologist's solution was to take medicine for it--doesn't help.

I came across some info for celiac's quite accidentaly. I had no knowledge that it was an autoimmune disease. I just thought it had something to do with digestive stuff. I have also suffered in the past from unexplained rashes that last a month or two when they come on. On top of that, my DH and I have been married for 15 yrs and only have one 8 year old little blessing even though we have done our part to have more.

I tried a gluten free trial for a week and a half and felt so much better! I knew I had to start eating it again and get an appointment for a diagnosis, before I really felt so much better that I wouldn't even consider going back for a short time.

I went to see my doctor today. He didn't seem to know a lot about Celiac. Didn't seem to like the fact that I didn't have any digestive symptoms. We go to Kaiser Permanente and I really was just expecting a referral to a GI. He did listen well though and ordered the following blood work. No referral yet.

They drew blood for a celiac diesease antibody panel, CBC, Basic Metabolic Panel, Hepatic Function Panel, Amylase, Lipase, Thyroid Stimulating Hormone, and Vitamin b12.

He said he had only ordered one other antibody panel before and didn't know how long it would take to get those results back. Does anybody have a clue as to how long I might anticipate it taking? Thanks !

Christine

[KristaleeJane]

Hi,

I'm new to the forum. I turned 38 this year and have felt like I've been falling apart. The constant fatigue has been worse and my migraines that started a couple of years ago have turned into this daily bouts of flashing lights and mental dullness or brain fog. Of course the neurologist's solution was to take medicine for it--doesn't help.

I came across some info for celiac's quite accidentaly. I had no knowledge that it was an autoimmune disease. I just thought it had something to do with digestive stuff. I have also suffered in the past from unexplained rashes that last a month or two when they come on. On top of that, my DH and I have been married for 15 yrs and only have one 8 year old little blessing even though we have done our part to have more.

I tried a gluten free trial for a week and a half and felt so much better! I knew I had to start eating it again and get an appointment for a diagnosis, before I really felt so much better that I wouldn't even consider going back for a short time.

I went to see my doctor today. He didn't seem to know a lot about Celiac. Didn't seem to like the fact that I didn't have any digestive symptoms. We go to Kaiser Permanente and I really was just expecting a referral to a GI. He did listen well though and ordered the following blood work. No referral yet.

They drew blood for a celiac diesease antibody panel, CBC, Basic Metabolic Panel, Hepatic Function Panel, Amylase, Lipase, Thyroid Stimulating Hormone, and Vitamin b12.

He said he had only ordered one other antibody panel before and didn't know how long it would take to get those results back. Does anybody have a clue as to how long I might anticipate it taking? Thanks !

Christine

Mine only took 2 days, I am in Canada though, not sure if that matters. Normal range for the antibody is 20, and mine was 92. Now waiting to see the doc for the biopsy. Good luck!

[healthygirl]

I am also in Canada and had the TTG IGA only done. It took 3 weeks, reference range being <4 negative, 4 - 10 weak positive, >10 positive. It is obvious we two Canadians had different panels run (various labs will use different panels and will have different reference ranges). You may want to follow up with your doctor or the lab and see what the length of time is expected to be for results. When you get the results, find out what the reference ranges are for each test and your results (a copy of your results is helpful as it usually indicates the reference ranges on it).

Make sure you stay on gluten if anticipating a biopsy as next step. I was off and on and have ended up at the point where I would need to go on gluten for 3 - 6 months (minimum 4 slices of bread a day) before the gi will perform the endoscopy. I decided to forgo the "official diagnosis" and am just off gluten now.

Good luck!

[KristaleeJane]

I have the biopsy in one week, cannot wait to get that over and go gluten free. My doc never did any vitamin blood work on me, but I am going to ask her to because I have been so tired and a lot of headaches. The test that we had could have been the same but like you said maybe at different labs they run different ranges. I did get a copy of my test and It says:

(NEW) ANTI TISSURE TRANSGLUT AB (CELIAC SCREEN)

92 UNITS- NORMAL RANGE BEING 20 UNITS

PRESENCE OF IgA ANITBODY TO TISSUE TRANSGLUAMINASE SUGGESTS GLUTIN SENSITIVE DISEASE. SENSITIVITY SPECIFICITY FOR GLUTEN ENTEROPATHY ARE APPROXIMATELY 95%.

So that pretty much explains it, but my doc wants to do the biopsy to confirm.