Diagnosis At 50

[LCOBB]

I am confused.. my fiance was diagnosed with Celiac's almost 2 years ago. He never experienced any symptoms of any kind prior to the severe occurance when he turned 50. I have read countless stories of misdiagnosis, but none of which I can find where someone just gets this out of the blue. He was experiencing unreal stress, which was used as the catylst of this disease... but I just dont get it.. how does this come from nowhere ... I hope someone can shed some light in my confusion.

thanks !!

[flourgirl]

Maybe I can help, and I'm sure others will shed some light on this. For myself....I will be 50 this year, tho' that has little to do with it. I've had lots of illnesses all of my life, but symptoms came and went, some surfaced at times, other symptoms at other times. It wasn't until 2 years ago that I became totally, unrelentingly more and more ill. At first I was told that I had the flue (but I'd had it for many months at this point), and then that it was mono. I was tested for Lyme, and had tests from one end to the other. I didn't know that my doc was looking for cancer at the time. Finally, simply because of my age a colonoscopy was scheduled, and at the last minute we decided to include an endoscopy because of the terrible pain I was having, and because I was continuing to lose weight. Thank God the doc doing the proceedures knew a little bit about Celiac!

Anyway, I just wanted to get a little personal info. out of the way. A person can have Celiac and have no noticeable symptoms. That person may have sustained some intestinal damage along the way, but not enough to impede absorbtion of nutrients. He may have had symptoms that were attributed to something else. From what I've read, when it comes to auto-immune disorders, sometimes some "trauma" sets it into high gear. Stress can do it, an illness can do it (for me it very well have been the flu in the beginning). A person carries genetic material that leaves him susceptible....like so many other things. It didn't necessarily "come out of the blue", just that something caused the immune system to go "wacky".

You would do yourselves a great favor by reading all you can on the subject. There is lots of materials out there...web, or books and certainly here. Peter Green has an excellent book out. Celiac for Dummies is loaded with info. Of course, you are welcome to ask questions here....or vent when needed. I wish you luck!

[WW340]

Flourgirl explained it very well. Symptoms can wax and wane over the years, or not appear at all until later.

I too have had weird symptoms all my life. I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, ulcers, and many other things through out the years, but never celiac disease. One infectious disease doctor was sure I had HIV from blood transfusions in the early 80's, because I had candida found throughout my digestive tract during a scope.

Finally, when I was 53, I had 6 to 8 weeks of what I thought was the flu. I lost a lot of weight and had oily diarrhea. I finally figured out it was more than the flu. I did notice during that time that shredded wheat and triskets seemed to make my symptoms worse. I was tested for wheat and other allergies, and celiac disease. Celiac blood work was sky high. My GI doc said I have had active celiac all my life - hence the broken bones and severe osteoporosis found a few months earlier.

You are born with the gene and something activates it. It is not known for sure what activates the disease, but stress, trauma, surgery have been identified as possible culprits. Then again, sometimes it is diagnosed in infants. It is a weird disease, which makes it difficult to diagnose. It can masquerade for a long time.

[kenlove]

I dont recall having had any symptoms and no one in my family had celiac or stomach troubles. I woke up one January morning at age 53 and just got sick. It took 6 months for them to figure out it was celiac. Went gluten free and have not had problems in the last 4 years. I don't think it was stress or anything that triggered it, it just happened all at once, dry heaves, runs, rapid weight loss, restless legs that was so bad they thought it was Parkinsons, and a host of other problems that all went away with the gluten. It took awhile to get used to it but once I did I didnt feel scared or mad. I think there is an endless amount of speculation why it happens to some and not others. Its not something I'll ever figure out so I choose to just deal with it and try to educate others who ask me about it.

good luck

Ken

I am confused.. my fiance was diagnosed with Celiac's almost 2 years ago. He never experienced any symptoms of any kind prior to the severe occurance when he turned 50. I have read countless stories of misdiagnosis, but none of which I can find where someone just gets this out of the blue. He was experiencing unreal stress, which was used as the catylst of this disease... but I just dont get it.. how does this come from nowhere ... I hope someone can shed some light in my confusion.

thanks !!

[buzzard]

I was 62 and had some kind of a virus and went to see my doctor who decided that he wanted some blood tests because he didn't think I looked good. They found some low red blood cell counts and low iron. A colonoscopy and endoscopy provided no answers other than they put me on Omeprazole for some mild irritation in the stomach area. A year later the counts were still low and I went to a different gastro doctor who repeated the endoscopy and told me I had celiac.

I don't ever remember having any problems in 62 years of eating food with gluten so it was a shock to me but shock or no shock, I wasn't interested in it getting worse. Gluten free I went.