What To Do Next?

[nobeer4me]

I have been gluten free for a few months now. But latley I have had some

re-occouring symptoms. I was found to be positive in a blood test in one catagory out of six. My doctor said I should have a biopsy done on my small intestine to be sure. But I understand that being on a gluten free diet may give the test a false reading.

My symptoms are not in my digestive system, but rather a condition called errosive oral Lichen Planus, which has caused my gums to recead, and sores which seem to have trouble healing. I am still on medication(from a previous doctor) which is a steroid mouth rinse, which helped for a while.

When I went gluten free. things got a lot better, although I was still taking my medication at a fraction of the amount as before.

To sum it up: I am still gluten free, can't completely shake my medication.

And wondering if I should go back on gluten to get the biopsy done?

Just wondering If I really have Celiac, or is something else causing my trouble?

[KaitiUSA]

Were you gluten free when you had your original testing done? Which test came back positive? The tTG and EMA are very specific for celiac.

If you want a biopsy you need to go back on gluten for a good 3 months, eating gluten heavily.

Could you be getting gluten in your diet somehow? Could you be getting in through products like shampoo? Or have you changed products too?

Were the symptoms getting better for a while and then started up again or have they never gone away.

Also, with celiac it may take alot of time for symptoms to go away. It took me 3 months to have significant changes and then a couple more months to get back to normal.

Hang in there and if you have any questions feel free to ask

[nobeer4me]

My dentist was the one who originally told me about Celiac disease, and changing my diet may help. So I started avoiding gluten about a week before my blood test.

My Dr. said it wouldn't affect the test. I will have to call my Dr. to find out which catagory was positive. Its possible I may have some contamination, but I'm trying my best to avoid gluten. I didn't know that shampoo may have gluten. Does it just seep into you, since you obviously don't drink it? Here is something else that came back to me the other day. As a teenager I remember having some allergy tests done because my sinuses were bothering me at the time. At that time the DR. said I was allergic to wheat, rye, corn, chocolate, dogs and cats. We have 2 cats, and I am basicly living on corn.

[KaitiUSA]

Shampoos and soaps and things like that contain gluten. What happens with shampoo is it just has a high chance of getting into your mouth while washing your hair.

With soaps...say you wash your hands with gluten containing soap and then prepare your food...now the food has gluten on it.

There are just alot of avenues that are possible with getting gluten in you.