Blood Work Negative, Confused

[camsmom]

Hi There

I am new to this sight. I will give a brief history and then tell you what I have found out thus far. I started having chronic diahhrea in July after my appendix were removed. I thought it had to do with the surgery. Well, then I started having horrific pain under right rib cage. Turned out my gallbladder got infected from appendix coming out and had to be removed. No I am of normal weight. 5'5, 120. The diahrrea has never stopped since July. They thought I had dif c, did stoll culture treated me several times, nothing worked. Had a few ct scans back in September, showed nothing. Went and saw the GI doc in December, but due to hectic work scheduled, yes my fault. I travel and work in outside sales! Never got back in and did not follow up. Well, things have gotten much worse. Wait, take that back. I did get my colonoscopy done end of december, it was negative. The doc that did it said i had so much scar tissue that next time they will have to knock me out completely! History, 4 abdominal surgeries in the past year (appendix removed, gallbladder, large ovarian cyst, ruptured ectopic pg). O.k. there it goes. I am a very healthy 37 year old female. I never had diahhrea before this. i was always the later, constipated! So, just had my blood work done, see the doc in two weeks. The blood works says this

endomysial antibody iga - negative

ttg-iga 1 so that is negative

immunoglobulin a,qn serum low, 35 normal level 70-400

ttg-igg 0

so, stool samples were turned in today. Should i be pushing for a scope when i see the doc? is the immunoglobun a serum the iga? and is this the test that can scew the blood tests in the wrong way because I am so low?

Thanks for your answers and I would love to hear what everyone else's stories are. not sure if it is celiac or not, but so far nothing else!!!!! It is not chrons, colitis, ibs, or any other thing so so far I am a mystery! I am in pretty bad stomach pain and this is really embarassing! My stomach makes horrific noises even when I don't need to go!!! I need to be normal again! And, no it is not bile salt diahhrea, i tried the medicine for that as well.

[leadmeastray88]

Welcome to the board

I found your post interesting because it sounds like my story.

All of my troubles started after I had my last hernia surgery 2 years ago - I had 7 inguinal hernia surgeries total in a period of 3 years, and after the last one I was never the same. I was constipated like nobody's business (I would feel the urge to go, but nothing would happen, sorry if TMI), I was nauseous after eating, my stomach made weird noises all the time, I had bad bad cramps after I'd eat (think bad menstrual cramps), I lost 6 pounds and so on. They tested me for various things, but my GI refused to scope me because I had "already been through so much", and wrote me a prescription for IBS and sent me home.

My MD thought it might be Celiac's, like you I also had negative bloodwork (they only tested the ttG tough, I didn't know that wasn't enough at the time)

But since July 2008 I went gluten free, and all of my problems disappeared. My MD semi-diagnosed me with Celiac's because I have a family history and because of my incredible dietary response.

I'm not the best person to ask on the blood test stuff but I know you have to get a Total Serum IgA to see if you're IgA deficient, and in the case that you are your bloodwork would be false. If you're convinced that its Celiac I would absolutely push for an endoscopy if you could, it could be beneficial in that they could also see if anything else is wrong while they're in there.

It's too late for me now, being gluten-free for so long, but I don't need a biopsy to tell me that gluten was what was making me sick. I pulled a complete 180 since stopping and I'm never looking back.

I hope you feel better soon! Good luck

[camsmom]

Welcome to the board

I found your post interesting because it sounds like my story.

All of my troubles started after I had my last hernia surgery 2 years ago - I had 7 inguinal hernia surgeries total in a period of 3 years, and after the last one I was never the same. I was constipated like nobody's business (I would feel the urge to go, but nothing would happen, sorry if TMI), I was nauseous after eating, my stomach made weird noises all the time, I had bad bad cramps after I'd eat (think bad menstrual cramps), I lost 6 pounds and so on. They tested me for various things, but my GI refused to scope me because I had "already been through so much", and wrote me a prescription for IBS and sent me home.

My MD thought it might be Celiac's, like you I also had negative bloodwork (they only tested the ttG tough, I didn't know that wasn't enough at the time)

But since July 2008 I went gluten free, and all of my problems disappeared. My MD semi-diagnosed me with Celiac's because I have a family history and because of my incredible dietary response.

I'm not the best person to ask on the blood test stuff but I know you have to get a Total Serum IgA to see if you're IgA deficient, and in the case that you are your bloodwork would be false. If you're convinced that its Celiac I would absolutely push for an endoscopy if you could, it could be beneficial in that they could also see if anything else is wrong while they're in there.

It's too late for me now, being gluten-free for so long, but I don't need a biopsy to tell me that gluten was what was making me sick. I pulled a complete 180 since stopping and I'm never looking back.

I hope you feel better soon! Good luck

Thanks for your reply. I think I did have the total serum iga which is the iga serum test and mine is low at 35 which means from my research that my blood tests can come back negative. My doc is out of town this week, then I travel next week so I don't see her until next friday. She will have my stool cultures by then and i guess we will take it from there! If they show some parasite, or if she thinks it is celiac. I know I am not suppose to try gluten free until they do an endoscope so I am just staying put for now!!!!!