Questions....

[Gen]

I wasn't going to post untill I got a definitive answer, but after reading, I don't know if I trust the doctors to go in the right direction.

FOR atleast 12 years I have had rashes and severe itiching on my legs. It would come and go. Always on both legs in exact same places. I would sometimes scratch untill I bled at night. It didn't matter what I did. Lotions, exfoliations, cortizones ect...It would itch till it hurt and scratching didn't help. Once again I brought it up to my GP when I was in for something else. In an offhanded way he mentioned cutting out wheat. That was 5 years ago.

I never really got around to it. Till I went on an extreme diet 2 or so years ago for about 6 months. Wasn't intentional, but I really only got lean plain protien and vegi's with 3 melba toasts or 2 pieces a day of light bread. Lost weight great. After I got off of it I wasn't really eating much carbs of any sort. My itching started back and husband and I noticed my itching was gone while on the diet.

The last few months with the holidays and vacation have been a gluttonous time for wheat for me and sure enough I got the rash so bad that I decided to go completely wheat free. It's been a learning experience. Gluten or wheat is everywhere. It's been 3 weeks. I have had one on purpose exposure and 2 on accidents ( soy sauce and immitation crab?!) The day after the on purpose I had the rash for about 24- 48 hours. I also quit smoking two weeks ago. I actually feel better than I have in a long time even though I was quitting. The first two days off wheat, I was ehausted and dazed, but that passed.

I do have some external contact with wheat reactions too. My head was itchy and I scratched it and it became inflamed . I also react to adheasives. The number of oral drugs I can take are decreasing fast.

Don't shoot me for saying this but I would prefer it to be wheat based problem than the other thing based on family history it could have been. Incidently there are there many autoimune issues question that always come up when dealing with my moms liver dr and my son's endocrinoligist.

I am going in for my physical and to be refered to a hemotoligist for a blood work result unrelated to this problem. What or who should I ask for referral too? Allergist or Gastro? I have no gastro symtoms to my knowledge. I just had all the other normal blood work and other than cholesterol and an elavated WBC every thing is right where it should be.

I would appreciate any suggestions comments and directions anyone can give me.

Thanks in advance!

[ravenwoodglass]

Ask for a complete celiac panel, your regular GP can order it for you. Without gastro symptoms you should also call your derm and when the rash is active ask him to biopsy looking for DH. If you have DH you have celiac and no other testing would be needed. Just make sure the derm does the biopsy correctly, he needs to biopsy the area adjacent to the lesions to find the antibodies. There are other skin problems that are associated with gluten but if this is DH it is definately celiac.