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My Symptoms- Could It Be Celiac

smitchell

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smitchell Newbie
smitchell
Posted

Here is my story.

Overweight, family hx of colon cancer. I had a terrible flu in December and haven't been the same since.

I have been diagnosed with:

Thyroiditis

Arthritis

GERD

severe joint pain

costochondritis

Vitamin D defiency

PCOS

Depression

I recently had a biopsy of my nodule on thryoid and it was benign. I had a colonscopy and endoscopy on Friday. I begged for the endoscopy since I constantly feel like something is in my throat and I have gas all the time. I fasted for a day for the colonscopy and felt great? I now have been off Gluten the entire week. I haven't had 80% of the joint pain I was experiencing at all.

I asked to be tested for celiac since my GP suggested it. The doctor and nurse looked at me like I was crazy since I am overweight.

Question, if I fasted would that affect biopsy results? He said he took several biopsies of my stomach and esophagus. He said they are inflammed. It just seems my entire body has inflammation- joints, stomach, esophagus, thryoid. Any relation or should I take a different route? My next appt if this goes nowhere is with a rheumatologist.

Thanks.

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katrinacara Rookie
katrinacara
Posted

This is really scary, but your case sounds almost identical to mine.

My main issues were arthritis and inflammation all over...especially the stomach, bowels, esophagus.

The way I found that I have celiac is just by the diet. I really got the run around from doctors and just gave up on all the meds and tests. I've never done the biopsy, I just know I have celiac by the diet because I'm 100% better.

For your question about the biopsy...It depends how long you fasted. Since gluten causes damage to the small intestine for a celiac, if you're not eating it, your intestines start to heal. If you feel completely healthy, I wouldn't do the biopsy since it takes a week or two to heal completely. Normally you have to be consuming gluten for 6-8 wks on a daily basis to get positive results if you do have celiac. Even then...the results could come back negative.

I would say that if the results come back negative you should still go gluten free. It has definitely worked for me...except for the GERD...I'm still working on that one

Hope everything works out for you :)

ang1e0251 Contributor
ang1e0251
Posted

Sounds to me that you just fasted for a few hours for your test. That won't be a problem. But the other poster is correct. Going gluten-free is a good trial for you. Your tests could prove negative that's not uncommon. You could still be gluten intolerant and no test will prove that. But a solid dietary response will. No matter your test results, give the diet a try.

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      Okay well the info about TTG-A actually makes a lot of sense and I wish the PA had explained that to me. But yes, I would assume I would have intestinal damage from eating a lot of gluten for 32 years while having all these symptoms. As far as avoiding gluten foods - I was definitely not doing that. Bread, pasta, quesadillas (with flour tortillas) and crackers are my 4 favorite foods and I ate at least one of those things multiple times a day e.g. breakfast with eggs and toast, a cheese quesadilla for lunch, and pasta for dinner, and crackers and cheese as a before bed snack. I'm not even kidding.  I'm not really big on sugar, so I don't really do sweets. I don't have any of those conditions.  I am not sure if I have the genes or not. When the geneticist did my genetic testing for EDS this year, I didn't think to ask for him to request the celiac genes so they didn't test for them, unfortunately.  I guess another expectation I had is  that if gluten was the issue, the gluten-free diet would make me feel better, and I'm 3 months in and that hasn't been the case. I am being very careful and reading every label because I didn't want to screw this up and have to do gluten-free for longer than necessary if I end up not having celiac. I'm literally checking everything, even tea and anything else prepacked like caramel dip. Honestly its making me anxious 😅
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      I was tested for celiac at the same time, so I wasn't taking naltrexone yet. I say that, because I don't. The endoscopy showed some mild inflammation but was inconclusive as to celiac disease. They took several biopsies and that's all that was shown. I was not given a Marsh score.
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