Do I Have Celiacs?

[cmg1121]

hello all. I am a 35 year old female. Most of my life i have had constipation problems, and bone pain. Last year i found out i have a vitamin d deficiency. About a few months ago i was told i have irritable bowel syndrome. My doc took some blood tests. About 6 months ago i started having problems with diarrhea. I would have to go 5-8 times a day. Everyday. I have mucus in my stool, undigested food, or oil floating on the water. When i eat certain foods. My stomach swells like i am expecting a child and i get bad abdominal pain. I have lost 12lbs this week. Day before yesterday i went to the bathroom 15 times. My diarrhea is getting worse. When my doctor put me on vitamin d, i had a huge surge of severe bone pain. It slowly got better as i took vitamin d. Now my bone pain is coming back. I feel weak and fatigued. The doctors office sent me a letter in the mail saying i need to come in so we can talk about my blood test results. I go into the office in four days but it is the longest four days of my life. My mother and my sister are both having gastrointestinal issues like me. I am wondering does this sound like celiac disease to you guys? I also have polycystic ovarian syndrome. and i am insulin resistant. i also have thoracic outlet syndrome. It seems when i finally figure one out that is bothering me some new symptoms pop up. My sister has iron deficiency anemia caused by heavy menstrual flow. My mother has diverticulitis. I have read that people with these diagnosis can be misdiagnosed and actually have celiacs? Any info would be appreciated i am in the process of seeing a doctor i am just going crazy waiting for the results. thank you for responding.

[GlutenFreeManna]

Yes, it is likely you are one of us. If your doctor has not yet done a full celiac blood panel get that done when you go to your appointment. Do NOT go gluten free until all your celaic testing is done as that will risk a false negative result. If the test is positve your doctor may want to do a biopsy of your intestine to confirm. Some docotrs will diagnose based on positive blood work and a response to the diet alone, but with everything else you have going on with your digestion they will probably want to do the endoscopy to make sure you don't have anything else wrong. If the blood tests are negative you can try the gluten free diet on your own to see if it helps. Some celiacs test negative but have a positve response to the diet and are diagnosed that way. Hopefully your dr knows about celiac disease as very few drs are very knowledgable about it. When you get the test results back get a copy of them for your records and so you can read them for yourself. There have been instances on this board of people being told the result was negative when it was actually positive. Some docotros don't know how to even read the test results it seems. Good luck and I hope you find relieve from your symptoms soon.

[rosetapper23]

I agree--I think it's highly possible that your mother, sister, and you all have celiac...or at least gluten sensitivity. If your tests are positive, hooray! You'll have an answer to your health problems! However, if they are negative for celiac, please consider going on a gluten-free diet anyway, because the tests are notoriously inaccurate (especially the endoscopic biopsy).