Gastritis & Ulcer Vs Celiac

[Jessica5]

Hi! (I'm new to this by the way, but I'm in desperate need of other people's input who are/have been in similar situations).

So after I became vegetarian for a year I realized I was getting extremely sick from any meals I was eating. Of course, I was eating a lot more wheat because of the transition. After a whole bunch of trial and error, I realized that I wasn't reacting well to flour/wheat so I cut it out of my diet. (At this time, I had no health insurance, so I was unable to go to a doctor. I asked my mom, who works for a doctor, to ask him about my problem and he recommended going gluten-free and seeing if that helped).

Going gluten-free did work, but then I still didn't have a diagnosis as to what was causing this problem. I was gluten-free for about a year (I kept trying to attempt bread again, and I still got a horrible reaction;dizzy/headache, extreme cramping, bloating) until I got health insurance again, and was able to go to the doctor.

My primary doctor gave me a blood test, which came up positive for iron deficiency, but negative for celiac/wheat allergy. (I think she tested for spru? Something along those lines). However, she still suggested that I see a gastro. So, I went to the gastro, who knew I was already completely gluten free for quite some time, and he ordered another blood test, which he said would test more accurately than the previous blood test. Tests still came back negative, but he was alarmed with how anemic I was (I know anemia is a cause/symptom of Celiac. I was also anemic before I became a vegetarian, by the way).

Anyways, so then I went for an endoscopy and it came up negative for celiac, but positive for chronic gastritis, esophageal reflux, and a stomach ulcer. He was alarmed because I said I had no pain in my stomach with the ulcer (other than when eating certain foods--wheat, obviously) and I had no evidence of bacteria/ H.pylori, so we aren't sure what caused the ulcer.

Now I've been on dexilant every day for a little over 6 months. My only concern is honestly the biopsy. The medicine is working, so I don't get *as* sick, but I do get nauseous from random things (like drinking water, =/?). Even with the medicine I'm still gluten free, but I have been being a little more lenient-- like eating things with a small trace of wheat, but with other food. I've been reading that celiac and gastritis sometimes get misdiagnosed which each other, and that being gluten free before a test will make the test negative (I was way too chicken to eat wheat before the test, the pain! haha). Therefore, I don't want to be essentially making myself more unhealthy by being a little more careless with my diet knowing that it's gastritis and not celiac.

Also, a lot of the foods that are supposed to bother people with gastritis don't seem to bother me. I only get a reaction from wheat, and maybe I get really acidic with alcohol, but that's very rare that I even drink it (maybe wine, etc). I know people with gastritis aren't supposed to have spicy food, coffee, etc, but all of those things don't bother me.

Of course I was happy to know it wasn't celiac, since it is a very serious disease, but for me I'm more concerned with things "making sense." The anemia, ulcer, and wheat thing all fall under celiac and gastritis seems more obscure.

Sorry that this is so long! I appreciate any help/input that anyone can offer me, I would very much like to learn more about this!

[kareng]

If you were gluten-free for a year, none of the blood tests or the endo would show Celiac. It's possible you have that, but healed it in the year gluten-free.