Help

[Mish-Mash]

Hi, I'm 19, and for about 6 years, I have been sick with a strep virus, knee op, umbelical hernia op, and for the past 3 years I have had terrible stomach pains, skin rash's, joint pain, memory loss and have done test for celiac disease about 2 years ago, but I was already on a gluten free diet, as the doctor told me that it would not change the results. soon after, I accidentally had a bit of gluten and got really sick. then about 6 months later, I went on a candida diet as my body was reacting to the smell and touch of gluten. Things got better after that, until I kept getting UTI's, but the doctors couldn't find any bacteria. Soon after, I was sent to a gastroenterologist and was diagnosed with mono, and suspected chrons, and she also wanted to redo the celiac testing, but after only 4 days, she told me to stop and did some more intestinal biopsies because I was reacting so strongly, and has put me on corticosteroids. And this year I've had renal colic six times, but they still can't find and kidney stones, but everytime they do a urine test, they find oxolate crystals. My specialst and GP are baffled because they think I have the symptoms for both celiac disease and kidney stones, but can't find any medical proof. Any help would be hugely appreciated, thanks.

[RollingAlong]

Well, you've given the docs a good try. They've looked and they can't find any medical proof that gluten is an issue. So, if you went gluten free and that didn't help, they could try again and it wouldn't be anything but a temporary inconvenience for you.

If you go gluten free and it does help; that would be ok, but you won't have any medical proof. Only you can decide how important that is to you, relative to your current uncomfortable symptoms. None of the celiac tests are perfect; false negatives are not uncommon. If you go gluten free without medical proof, you will be joining a rather large group of people. My spouse had all the tests (multiple rounds of bloodwork) and the biopsy - it was all negative - and yet he feels so much better on the diet.