Lingering Symptoms?

[healthyagain]

i am new to this blog, and looking for answers. i spent the better part of last week hospitalized with abdominal pain and fever, and was finally released with no answers as to the cause of my pain. and the pain has not diminished, although i no longer have the fever. i have not been diagnosed with celiac (i finally have an appt on monday), but have been told i have a sensitivity to gluten. my question is-can symptoms remain even after i have removed gluten from my diet? i would appreciate any information anyone has that may help me. thank you.

[The Fluffy Assassin]

i am new to this blog, and looking for answers. i spent the better part of last week hospitalized with abdominal pain and fever, and was finally released with no answers as to the cause of my pain. and the pain has not diminished, although i no longer have the fever. i have not been diagnosed with celiac (i finally have an appt on monday), but have been told i have a sensitivity to gluten. my question is-can symptoms remain even after i have removed gluten from my diet? i would appreciate any information anyone has that may help me. thank you.

The short answer is yes. Some people take months or years to heal. The big thing to know is that to be diagnosed formally with celiac disease, you have to keep eating gluten. As you have already been told that you are sensitive to gluten, this would probably be a bad idea. It would be best to go gluten-free now, and perhaps spend your Monday appointment exploring other possible sensitivities or possible explanations for your abdominal pain. Or you can try the Mayo Clinic's Symptom Checker: Open Original Shared Link (You don't have to put checks under Caused by or Relieved by; I checked since you clearly indicated that the doctors hadn't found a cause and the pain hasn't been relieved.)

[burdee]

i am new to this blog, and looking for answers. i spent the better part of last week hospitalized with abdominal pain and fever, and was finally released with no answers as to the cause of my pain. and the pain has not diminished, although i no longer have the fever. i have not been diagnosed with celiac (i finally have an appt on monday), but have been told i have a sensitivity to gluten. my question is-can symptoms remain even after i have removed gluten from my diet? i would appreciate any information anyone has that may help me. thank you.

I agree that you can have lingering intestinal/abdominal symptoms after being diagnosed with celiac disease and abstaining from gluten. After I abstained from gluten, my lingering symptoms motivated me to get the ELISA (blood) test for delayed reaction food allergies. That test diagnosed my 6 other food alergies. However, I still had lingering symptoms, whcih I later learned were caused by bacterial infectioins. If you ever took antibiotics, but did not follow that treatment with probiotics, you could have bacterial imbalance or infection. I've had 3 bacterial infections, a parasite and candida (fungus). My last infection was from clostridium difficile or 'c-diff' which is very common (and very contagious) in hospitals.

I suspect your 'fever' is more indicative of a bacterial infection, than food intolerance or allergy. Ask your doctor to give you a stool test for bacterial imbalance. If you do have a bacteria and treat that with an antibacterial drug, be sure to take probiotics afterwards to restore the good bacteria, which the antibacterial drug destroys.

[healthyagain]

The short answer is yes. Some people take months or years to heal. The big thing to know is that to be diagnosed formally with celiac disease, you have to keep eating gluten. As you have already been told that you are sensitive to gluten, this would probably be a bad idea. It would be best to go gluten-free now, and perhaps spend your Monday appointment exploring other possible sensitivities or possible explanations for your abdominal pain. Or you can try the Mayo Clinic's Symptom Checker: Open Original Shared Link (You don't have to put checks under Caused by or Relieved by; I checked since you clearly indicated that the doctors hadn't found a cause and the pain hasn't been relieved.)

thank you for replying to my original post. i had my appt this morning and the doctor ordered an endoscopy and a colonoscopy. he said he doesn't think i present with celiac symptoms, but also ordered a blood test to be sure. i asked if certain foods could be causing my problems. he said it could be food, but that there are no tests to check for food sensitivities. just wondering if that is true, and if so, how do i know if food is causing my distress? also, is a blood test the way to test for celiac? thanks so much.

[The Fluffy Assassin]

thank you for replying to my original post. i had my appt this morning and the doctor ordered an endoscopy and a colonoscopy. he said he doesn't think i present with celiac symptoms, but also ordered a blood test to be sure. i asked if certain foods could be causing my problems. he said it could be food, but that there are no tests to check for food sensitivities. just wondering if that is true, and if so, how do i know if food is causing my distress? also, is a blood test the way to test for celiac? thanks so much.

If he's a gastroenterologist, he could give you the hydrogen breath test for fructose malabsorption or for lactose intolerance. You might also consider consulting an allergist to see if you have any food allergies (or other allergies) that might be causing problems. He's right that there aren't tests that will detect most food sensitivities. The main way you find them is by keeping a food diary and running a series of elimination diets. Most of us find that the first thing to eliminate is milk, with soy running second.

Just curious: how did he determine you had a sensitivity to gluten, or did somebody else tell you that you're sensitive?