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Getting Re-tested?

Kimaire

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Kimaire Newbie
Kimaire
Posted

I'm 25 years old and have had "stomach problems" for most of my life. Generally it's been diarrhea with a little constipation. About 4 or 5 years ago I went to a gastroenterologist to make sure it was nothing serious. He decided to do a colonoscopy. Looking at the bloodwork beforehand, he said I showed signs of possibly having celiac disease, so threw in the endoscopy. The end result was that he couldn't find anything, so I was diagnosed with IBS and likely lactose intolerance as well.

I can't say I've really done anything diet wise to prevent symptoms since then. Generally I just limit my dairy products to times when I know I'll have easy access to a bathroom for the next few hours. My thought has been that from what information I can find, neither IBS nor lactose intolerance lead to anything more serious, so if I want to suffer for 5 minutes of good food, it's my pain.

However, in the past few months, I feel like it's been getting worse. I have a lot more frequent constipation (with sometimes intense pain). And whereas before I could go a month or so between having bouts of stomach issues, it seems like now I'm just constantly switching back and forth between diarrhea and constipation, sometimes daily. I've always questioned the IBS diagnosis, as I've had people tell me that's just the name for "we can't figure out what's wrong with you." So I started wondering recently if maybe it could be celiac after all, and the damage just wasn't there at the time to be seen with the endoscopy.

So that long history is basically me wondering if it seems worth it to go back and get tested again.

Thanks

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happygirl Collaborator
happygirl
Posted

It may first be helpful to get a copy of your bloodwork and biopsy, and see if you were properly evaluated for Celiac. Sometimes doctors don't order the right tests, or misinterpret the pathology report.

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