Seeking Advice

[murraysmom]

Hello, I am new to this forum and have just spent quite some time reading other posts which I found very informative. Judging by what I have read the symptoms to this disease are extremely varied. For the past 6 years I have suffered from stomach pains after eating. I tried keeping a food diary and found that I could eat the exact same thing 2 days in a row and only experience pain on one of the days. Nothing seemed consistent. The pain got to be so bad that I went to the emergency room. Test after test (blood, stool, urine, xrays, ultra-sound, barium test) with no answers. The pain slowly became less and less frequent so I thought I was miraculously cured. Well for the past 4 months it has returned. Recent tests show my thyroid is under active and I continue to have blood tests once per month to monitor it. I also experience constipation, fatigue, mood swings, gas, and low iron. I eat healthy, exercise and I am only 23 years old! So my question is if anyone out there has experienced similar symptoms that proved to be Celiac. I live in a city with no specialists only general family Doc's so I am wondering if it is necessary to make the 5 hour drive to the "city" for an appointment with a specialist?

[Mari]

The general rule for eating foods is not to eat the same food twice in one day or for two days in a row as repeated eating raises the level of the antibodies. It's best to do an elimination diet and the Specific Carbohydrate Diet works very well as at first most of the highly allergenic foods are banned. One of the forums here has the SCD in the title for people like me who use that diet.

[Coinkey]

Hello, I am new to this forum and have just spent quite some time reading other posts which I found very informative. Judging by what I have read the symptoms to this disease are extremely varied. For the past 6 years I have suffered from stomach pains after eating. I tried keeping a food diary and found that I could eat the exact same thing 2 days in a row and only experience pain on one of the days. Nothing seemed consistent. The pain got to be so bad that I went to the emergency room. Test after test (blood, stool, urine, xrays, ultra-sound, barium test) with no answers. The pain slowly became less and less frequent so I thought I was miraculously cured. Well for the past 4 months it has returned. Recent tests show my thyroid is under active and I continue to have blood tests once per month to monitor it. I also experience constipation, fatigue, mood swings, gas, and low iron. I eat healthy, exercise and I am only 23 years old! So my question is if anyone out there has experienced similar symptoms that proved to be Celiac. I live in a city with no specialists only general family Doc's so I am wondering if it is necessary to make the 5 hour drive to the "city" for an appointment with a specialist?

I have had trouble with my food intake for the past year and a half. My stomach always twinged, cramped or was outright painful after eating. After trying to eliminate dairy with little success, processed food with little success and just ignoring it. I finally ran out of pasta and bread at the beginning of June and as a student I had no money to buy more. So I was stuck eating rice for a week. Much as the rice was boring, I began to feel so much better. Things I didn't even realise were there started to disappear. I was able to concentrate on school work, I began to be more socialable, I stopped being unreasonably anxious when I had to go to bed without my fiancee present, I had more energy, my BM's became regular (they used to flop between diarrhea and constipation), I felt internally at peace like something that had been bothering me forever and constantly just stopped. I have not spoken to the doctor about it. My sister thinks I should get diagnosed properly because in Canada the government allows the extra money spent on gluten free food to be claimed against the taxes as a medical expense. I don't think the horrors of eating gluten intentionally again are worth it, especially when I don't buy much in the way of specialty foods. So yes, I've had similar symptoms as you that went away with a gluten free diet.

I'd suggest simply cutting out the gluten products for a week and see how you feel. If you feel improvement (it might take a couple weeks), then decide if it's worth going 5 hours to a doctor is worth it. The only thing they can do is confirm you aren't crazy in thinking gluten is causing you loads of problems, which is something you can do for yourself and we can help. From what I've read on here, much of the time people get negative results anyway so have a non-celiac gluten sensitivity- which there are no tests for except for a change in diet.

[sb2178]

If you're already getting monthly bloodwork, why don't you have your GP draw the celiac blood panel, and then go from there?

If it's clearly positive, you can just try the diet and see if it improves. If it's negative or questionable, you can decide if you want to follow-up with a specialist for a biopsy or consult or just try the diet. It definitely can't harm you to do the diet, but having a diagnosis could be helpful. It could be something else, and you don't want to follow the wrong treatment! (Fructose malabsorption, other food intolerances, Crohn's, etc)

You must be eating gluten regularly to test positive. 3-4 slices of bread/day regularly.