Diagnosised Ate Age 68

[Karli]

I went to the doctor because of a bad taste in my mouth. Thought it might be acid reflux. He sent me to a gastroent/specialist..... ( not on my spell list) I had an upper and lower GI and a small bowel biopsy as well as photos.... The specialist was certain that I had celiac disease but scheduled blood work for me anyway... The blood work confirmed that I do indeed have celiac disease.

I have been perplexed as to why and when and what triggered this autoimmune reaction in my body... Since I am a woman over 6 foot tall. I am pretty sure I was not effected by this as a child.

I had mono at age 17 and have joked that "I never recovered from mono"... now I am beginning to think that I was not joking.!!!!! (Mono causes extreme fatigue and mild depression.)

I have good days and bad days... my thoughts go back to a book or article I read about prisoners of war after WWII. The prisoners in the Phillipines were very malnourished when they were given a balanced diet after the war... their symptoms got worse before they got better...

New symptoms include... a loud digestive tract... I gurgle and gargle and make unusual noises at weird times... suddem nausea that passes very quickly....

After several weeks 'gluten free' I still have bad taste and dry throat which were my original symptoms.. the dry throat is much less now than before.... the bad taste seems just as often.

I read some posts by people in their 20 and 30s discovering they had celiac and wondering what took so long.... It seems there are many silent cases of celiac out there...

[kenlove]

I was diagnosed at 55. Read that 20% gets it around age 60, we were just early and late. I'm sure you'll get other detailed answers but your not alone. I never had any problems before celiac.

Ken

  Karli said:

I went to the doctor because of a bad taste in my mouth. Thought it might be acid reflux. He sent me to a gastroent/specialist..... ( not on my spell list) I had an upper and lower GI and a small bowel biopsy as well as photos.... The specialist was certain that I had celiac disease but scheduled blood work for me anyway... The blood work confirmed that I do indeed have celiac disease.

I have been perplexed as to why and when and what triggered this autoimmune reaction in my body... Since I am a woman over 6 foot tall. I am pretty sure I was not effected by this as a child.

I had mono at age 17 and have joked that "I never recovered from mono"... now I am beginning to think that I was not joking.!!!!! (Mono causes extreme fatigue and mild depression.)

I have good days and bad days... my thoughts go back to a book or article I read about prisoners of war after WWII. The prisoners in the Phillipines were very malnourished when they were given a balanced diet after the war... their symptoms got worse before they got better...

New symptoms include... a loud digestive tract... I gurgle and gargle and make unusual noises at weird times... suddem nausea that passes very quickly....

After several weeks 'gluten free' I still have bad taste and dry throat which were my original symptoms.. the dry throat is much less now than before.... the bad taste seems just as often.

I read some posts by people in their 20 and 30s discovering they had celiac and wondering what took so long.... It seems there are many silent cases of celiac out there...

[ShayFL]

From what I have read in these groups, you are lucky they caught it at all.

The bad taste could be something unrelated to Celiac. You could have an overly acidic body. The way to remedy this is to eat lots off fresh fruits and veggies (mostly raw) and cut down on too many meats, coffee and definately sugars. You can also supplement with Ph drops in your water (which you need to drink lots of).

[irish daveyboy]

Hi,

I was diagnosed at 57 yrs of age and I believe my trigger was

my cessation of smoking after 45 yrs.

.

Open Original Shared Link

.

6 months after stopping smoking, I went through 3 months of constant vomiting and diarrhoea where I lost 56 pounds.

.

I thought I was going to die, I honestly believed I had 'Cancer', thank God that was not the case.

.

David

[munkee41182]

My cousin was diagnosed at 6, my aunt at 40-something, me at 20 and my grandmother in her mid 70s. My cousin was the first diagnosed and they never thought to test her because they thought that this was something that in "older women of Irish decent." When my cousin was diagnosed (this was almost 15 years ago), that was one of the thoughts because celiac didn't seem as common as it does now. Unforunately it rears it's head at the oddest times. Mine was 3 months before I turned 21 and all I kept saying prior to that was "i want a big a$$ burger and a big a$$ beer for my birthday" and guess who couldn't eat or drink my burger and beer....that's right the girl who just got diagnosed with celiac.

But as PP had said, you should be lucky that it was caught at all....and the bast taste might be related to medication?

Keep your chin up! This just means that you get to stick around for a while longer :-)

[jerseyangel]

I wasn't diagnosed until I was 49--I did have symptoms for about 20 years (mostly anemia and nausea), but doctors never mentioned Celiac and I had never heard of it back then.

I believe my trigger was a C-section I had at 29, although I had stomach problems, anxiety and fainting as a child that went away during my teens and early 20's.

A bout with the flu in 2003 was what put me over the edge, as I felt I never really recovered --I began to have horrible GI issues, persistant anemia (hemiglobin of 8), brusing, depression, anxiety, brain fog, tingling, numbness, and nausea. I had to quit my job at that point and luckily read an article about Celiac Disease--prompting a visit to a gastroenterologist.

I often wonder what the "true" trigger was for me, actually. For you, it sounds like the mono could have been it since you don't remember anything from your childhood that may have played a role.

It gets confusing sometimes, that's for sure--glad you found us and let us know how we can help you navigate your gluten-free lifestyle Welcome!

[missy'smom]

If you feel like you never really recovered from mono, that very well may be your trigger. I can say the same about my first and only pregnancy/childbirth and my sister can say the same about the second of two surgeries that were close together. Those were our triggers and they are common ones. We can both say that we haven't been well a day since. We were both in our late 20's.

[ShayFL]

I was a sickly child and thin. But plumped up in HS. Had a lot of fatigue. But that went away over time. My trigger was the birth of my daughter 12 years ago. Never the same since. And it is exactly the reason I only have ONE child. I wanted two.

[mushroom]

I was self-diagnosed at 67. Had always had some symptoms but they became much worse after a head-on auto accident at 49. People kept asking me if I had recovered from my accident and I said yes, but I wanted to say no because I didnt really feel that I ever did, and then I suffered a mycoplasma infection which made me really ill. By that time I had quit talking to my docs about my digestive problems because of the way they reacted and because I had other things to deal with. So it just took me a long while to come to grips with it.

My niece was diagnosed as celiac in her 20's after a bout of mono. It seems like there is usually a trigger which throws us over the edge.

[Karli]

  irish daveyboy said:

Hi,

I was diagnosed at 57 yrs of age and I believe my trigger was

my cessation of smoking after 45 yrs.

.

Open Original Shared Link

.

6 months after stopping smoking, I went through 3 months of constant vomiting and diarrhoea where I lost 56 pounds.

.

I thought I was going to die, I honestly believed I had 'Cancer', thank God that was not the case.

.

David

interesting!? I was a smoker too but did not have similar problems when I finally was able to quite after umpteen tries... I did have drastic stomach problems the summer that I tried to quit using nicotine gum.... Then it was about 6 months before my system settled down...

[jerseyangel]

The years that I smoked (age 16-25) were the most symptom-free of my whole life.

[Karli]

  mushroom said:

I was self-diagnosed at 67. Had always had some symptoms but they became much worse after a head-on auto accident at 49. People kept asking me if I had recovered from my accident and I said yes, but I wanted to say no because I didnt really feel that I ever did, and then I suffered a mycoplasma infection which made me really ill. By that time I had quit talking to my docs about my digestive problems because of the way they reacted and because I had other things to deal with. So it just took me a long while to come to grips with it.

My niece was diagnosed as celiac in her 20's after a bout of mono. It seems like there is usually a trigger which throws us over the edge.

When the doctors asked me about foods that bothered me ... possible allergies... my list was 3 pages long.... 3 pages of foods and ( products ) that I avoided... when I look at the list now.... I can see that some of my "allegeries " were reaction to gluten... the oily after taste and digestive turmoil after eating baked goods was probably not reaction to oil but to gluten... like wise I can now trace my avoidance of fake dairy products to gluten... so in a sense... I had self-diagnosed too... but I did not have a name for it... I just kept adding " things" to the list.... in a way that makes it easier for me now... because I have spent the last 30 years being a "food dective"/

[mushroom]

  jerseyangel said:

The years that I smoked (age 16-25) were the most symptom-free of my whole life.

Me too (age 17-29)--well except for the chronic bronchitis and shortness of breath

[PeggyV]

Has anyone else had symptoms, only have them to disapear after several years? Then come back a few years later (often after triggers, birth of daugher, divorce, etc.) Also very small and thin until 16 then I finally grew.

[Fiddle-Faddle]

Could the bad taste in your mouth come from mercury amalgams (the silver-colored fillings)? They can leak mercury, which is a horrible toxin, and can cause all kinds of bad things in your body, including (drum roll) gluten intolerance.

Another possibility is that the bad taste is acid reflux--which might improve on a gluten-free diet, but also might be a sign of a common bacterial infection called helicobacter pylori.

[flourgirl]

As I look back I see many, many times that Celiac raised it's ugly head. Problem was, no one knew anything about the disease back then...at least in my corner of the world. I had chronic infections from infancy....kidney, bladder, ear, sinus. Until I was in my late 30's I could expect to have ear infections. I was tested for allergies as a child and reacted to every single thing. My otolaryngologist told me that my body was reacting to allergens by attacking itself!!! So close.....but still so far. Many times I had anemia (most of my life), and it was just considered to be normal for me...except when it got so bad I was one giant bruise head to toe. I had migraines and ulcers in high school....doctors advise was to learn to deal with stress and basically get over it! When I was pregnant with my son I was sick for 8 months. I actually lost weight for the first 5 months. I thought it was because I was working so many hours, and because of the severe nausea.

Through my 30's and 40's I was having a terrible time with inflammation of my joints and tendons (which since going gluten-free I have not had one incidence of tendonitis), on top of everything else. What finally caused the search for answers was a case of the flu that not only didn't go away but got worse. My doctor (a new one for me) thought I had cancer. Just when I reached a point that I could not function at all, I had a colonoscopy; and because I had such severe pain in my upper abdoman it was decided to do a endoscopy at the same time. Thank God, because I FIANLLY got a diagnosis....almost by accident, if you will.

I'll soon be 50, and for the first time in my memory, I'm feeling fairly healthy. I look forward to good health and peace in this stage of my life. If only I could get my family members to all be tested and get their own health issues under control.

[Puddy]

  PeggyV said:

Has anyone else had symptoms, only have them to disapear after several years? Then come back a few years later (often after triggers, birth of daugher, divorce, etc.) Also very small and thin until 16 then I finally grew.

I was always told I had a 'nervous stomach' as a child. Remember alot of mouth sores, 10-12 cavities everytime I went to the dentist, always covered in black & blue marks. I had 2 really bad years at 16 and 22 with diarrhea and huge weight loss. At 22 I discovered I was lactose intolerant and that's what I attributed the diarrhea to at that point. I stayed away from milk and used Lactaid and seemed to be fine. Fast forward 30 years later and at 51 I went for my bone density test and physical and doctors discovered I had osteoporosis and severe anemia. After further testing my GI doctor diagnosed me with celiac disease - positive blood test, positive biopsy, positive gene test. So yes, my gastrointestinal symptoms disappeared for 30 years, but the disease was still doing it's 'work' on me.