Good Morning! I'm New To This Forum And Am Not Sure If I'm In The Right Place.

[LadyLightnen]

Hi I'm very new to celiac and am not diagnosed, I'm not certain yet if this is even what is wrong with my tummy. I've recently read some information about celiac and several posts and alot seems similar to my symptoms. I was diagnosed as having fibromyalgia since approximately 2003 shortly thereafter developed a serious case of psorisis and have suffered from constipation for many years. I'd been having severe abdominal cramps which lead me to receiving to internal ultra sounds and nothing wrong (they were checking the girly parts). I now suffer from very serious flatulation my husband can vouch for this and quite often am bloated feeling...I recently came across celiac and feel this may be where I need to be...

thanks for reading Im so tired of being tired...

[mushroom]

  On 4/3/2010 at 1:36 PM, LadyLightnen said:

Hi I'm very new to celiac and am not diagnosed, I'm not certain yet if this is even what is wrong with my tummy. I've recently read some information about celiac and several posts and alot seems similar to my symptoms. I was diagnosed as having fibromyalgia since approximately 2003 shortly thereafter developed a serious case of psorisis and have suffered from constipation for many years. I'd been having severe abdominal cramps which lead me to receiving to internal ultra sounds and nothing wrong (they were checking the girly parts). I now suffer from very serious flatulation my husband can vouch for this and quite often am bloated feeling...I recently came across celiac and feel this may be where I need to be...

thanks for reading Im so tired of being tired...

Hi, and welcome to the forum. It sounds like you have come to the right place. You will note from my signature that I have followed a similar path to you.

The first thing you need is to ask your PCP for a celiac blood test which consists of the following:

Anti-Gliadin (AGA) IgA

Anti-Gliadin (AGA) IgG

Anti-Endomysial (EMA) IgA

Anti-Tissue Transglutaminase (tTG) IgA

Total Serum IgA

The last test is important because if you are not an antibody producer the other test results will be invalid (they test for antibodies). A lot of doctors neglect to run this control test so be very specific with your doctor about what you need. Continue to eat gluten until you have been tested. Even if your tests come back negative, give the gluten free diet a good trial, because there are often false negatives on the blood test, and you could well respond to the diet even with a negative test result, so-called gluten sensitivity/intolerance, rather than celiac disease.

Stay with us and ask any other questions you think we could help with, and let us know your results.

[GFinDC]

Welcome, sounds like you do belong here!

Sounds like you may have a problem with gluten. If you search on celiac related conditions, or associated conditions, you will find lists of other autoimmune diseases that people with celiac tend to get. Fibromyalgia is one of them. Some people find there other autoimmune symptoms decrease after a while on the gluten free diet, others don't find relief. We are all different and have our own set of symptoms. Which can vary a LOT!

If you want a diagnosis, do keep eating gluten until after the testing is complete. The antibodie blood tests are often followed by an endoscopy to take several biopsy samples. They check the biopsy samples by checking for villi damage. There is also Enterolabs stool testing which may be helpful. Some of us are also lactose intolerant due to villi damage. Although that can reverse after healing sometimes.

Check out the prediagnosis forum for more info.

[LadyLightnen]

Thank you for your reply's its reassuring I may be on track. I am off to see my GP on Apr 6/10 and I am certain she will forward me onto a specialist so this process may be along one. At the end of April I am alsogoing to go and see a Naturopathic Doctor I'm hoping they will be more helpful...

Thank you again thi looks like it will be a very helpful place to come.