After Reading Here Nearly Every Spare Moment For Weeks

[Breila]

Not sure if that title got the point of my post across, LOL.

Okay, so my son was diagnosed celiac recently after 3 years of me suspecting it. He had "classic" celiac symptoms, but they were relatively mild and many were the long term variety, ie. growth issues, etc.

So I've decided that we will get the whole family the blood work done at a minimum, given the prevalence of "silent" celiac. To my knowledge, neither my husband, me, or my other two children have shown classic celiac signs.

After reading here about celiac symptoms though, I'm really starting to wonder about myself though, and I'm trying to decide if my thought process is valid or if I'm just being one of those paranoid people that diagnoses themselves on the internet, LOL.

Among my "symptoms":

-I've always had a "nervous" stomach; gas, bloating, loose stools occasionally, acid reflux, general "uncomfortable" feeling after eating. It's come and gone over the years and I've always attributed it to stress, as have my doctors.

-I have a history of migraines and severe headaches, again, always attributed to stress.

-I definitely have tendencies of ADHD, my parents were even told by teachers that I was ADD as a child, but I've never been officially diagnosed, and I performed well in school, so my parents never made an issue of it

-I have really bad teeth despite brushing well and regularly and flossing. My teeth have always tended on the yellow side of shades with lots of white spots and I have more fillings than I can calculate right now.

-I have occasional rashes, and though they don't look like the DH in the pictures I've seen (my bumps don't usually blister), they itch like crazy and seem very random.

-I do have some signs of malnutrition despite eating a relatively healthy diet, I border on anemic, my finger and toe nails split and peel horribly.

Anyway, I'm not really sure if I'm looking for input, backup, or whatever, LOL. All of the above would work, or feel free to tell me that I may be overreacting, LOL. I actually had a blood draw today for the celiac panel, I should know something from that next week or so, and I'm thinking that even if the tests aren't negative, I may give gluten-free a try for myself. Heck, I'm already buying all the stuff, it really would just be a matter of cutting out a few of my "treats" and restaurant favorites at this point.

[Lisa]

Not sure if that title got the point of my post across, LOL.

Okay, so my son was diagnosed celiac recently after 3 years of me suspecting it. He had "classic" celiac symptoms, but they were relatively mild and many were the long term variety, ie. growth issues, etc.

So I've decided that we will get the whole family the blood work done at a minimum, given the prevalence of "silent" celiac. To my knowledge, neither my husband, me, or my other two children have shown classic celiac signs.

After reading here about celiac symptoms though, I'm really starting to wonder about myself though, and I'm trying to decide if my thought process is valid or if I'm just being one of those paranoid people that diagnoses themselves on the internet, LOL.

Among my "symptoms":

-I've always had a "nervous" stomach; gas, bloating, loose stools occasionally, acid reflux, general "uncomfortable" feeling after eating. It's come and gone over the years and I've always attributed it to stress, as have my doctors.

-I have a history of migraines and severe headaches, again, always attributed to stress.

-I definitely have tendencies of ADHD, my parents were even told by teachers that I was ADD as a child, but I've never been officially diagnosed, and I performed well in school, so my parents never made an issue of it

-I have really bad teeth despite brushing well and regularly and flossing. My teeth have always tended on the yellow side of shades with lots of white spots and I have more fillings than I can calculate right now.

-I have occasional rashes, and though they don't look like the DH in the pictures I've seen (my bumps don't usually blister), they itch like crazy and seem very random.

-I do have some signs of malnutrition despite eating a relatively healthy diet, I border on anemic, my finger and toe nails split and peel horribly.

Anyway, I'm not really sure if I'm looking for input, backup, or whatever, LOL. All of the above would work, or feel free to tell me that I may be overreacting, LOL. I actually had a blood draw today for the celiac panel, I should know something from that next week or so, and I'm thinking that even if the tests aren't negative, I may give gluten-free a try for myself. Heck, I'm already buying all the stuff, it really would just be a matter of cutting out a few of my "treats" and restaurant favorites at this point.

Hi Amy,

Celiac, as you may know, can be an inherited disease. You may not have full symptomatic celiac, but celiac just the same or at least a gluten intolerance. You certainly have many of the 200 symptoms and I don't think, as you describe, your symptoms are silent and all can be attribuited to Celiac.

Many, many of us have been wrongly diagnosed over decades only to settle on Celiac. And, on the gluten free diet, other symptoms have cleared. I, as well as others, have been diagnosed with cronic colitis and IBS over thirty years.

I think that you are wise to be tested. But, please do not go gluten free until you choose no further testing.

[Ursa Major]

It seems to me that you have many obvious celiac disease symptoms, and they aren't so 'silent' in my opinion.

If you don't care about an 'official' diagnosis, you could just start eating gluten-free, and I bet most, if not all, of those symptoms will go away. But if you want to have a biopsy, you will need to eat gluten until afterwards. Otherwise it will come up negative, even if you have celiac disease.

Besides, very few people with celiac disease have classic symptoms, that is why the majority of people with celiac disease never get diagnosed, because most doctors don't recognize celiac disease these days, they all look for diarrhea and weight loss. And if somebody has more vague symptoms, like you, it is chalked up to 'stress' or IBS.

You sound exactly like me for years and years. Until finally three summers ago I tried a bowel cleanse, which put me over the edge, and I finally had the 'classic' symptom of severe, watery D for six months straight.

Still, my doctor did all kinds of tests, but didn't test for celiac disease (at that time I didn't even know what celiac disease was, so didn't ask to be tested). When finally I figured it out on my own, her excuse was that since I was overweight, she didn't think I could have celiac disease.

I had to educate her, telling her that at least 40% of people with celiac disease were overweight, and that unexplained weight gain can also be a symptom of malnutrition.

[Breila]

Yeah, I kind of meant that maybe "silent" celiac perhaps isn't as silent as we think, that maybe there are signs that even those who are aware of the condition might not recognize as possible celiac. Even after having done the basic research, I never would have considered that my issues might be related to celiac or gluten, mostly b/c they come and go and most of the time I can link symptoms to stressful events. Of course, I'm raising 3 boys, I think my life is one stressful event right now, LOL. It wasn't until reading here that I put things together that it might be an issue, yk?