Some Pre-Diagnosis Questions

[kylemachiavelli]

After living with bloating, upset-stomach, gas, and a bunch of other symptoms for probably a few years now I came across celiac disease and this site about two weeks ago. I never really thought of my symptoms as anything that could be wrong with me. I am a college student and as this semester started coming to an end I found myself really stressed out with finals and other assignments. My symptoms got A LOT worse and I realized that they have always gotten worse at certain times of the year when I find myself stressed (before i go back to school, beginning and ends of the semester, act). So I did a bunch of research online and figured I might have celiac.

After basically not going to any of my classes during the last week of school I came home and went to the doctor right away. My doctor thinks its either IBS or celiac. He ordered 4 different blood tests, gave me a prescription for ibs meds and also told me to try not eating gluten for at least a month. I am still waiting for the results from the blood test to come back but have recently learned that the blood tests aren't always reliable. Since I'm pretty sure that what I have been experiencing are symptoms of celiac disease I had a few questions.

If my blood test comes back as negative, what should be my next plan of action?

Would I be able to get a biopsy even if my blood test comes back as negative?

Any advice or insight is welcomed!

[shadowicewolf]

You shouldn't go off of gluten until all testing is done. Generally, if someones bloodtest comes back positive, then generally an endoscopy for a biopsy comes next.

Another thought is that stress can be a royal you know what when it comes to making your body feel like crud. Has it always been bad before the stress? I understand the whole finals thing (currently a college student with finals going on as well).

At any rate i'd hold off on the removing of the gluten. If the blood tests come back negative, i'd insist on the biopsy and the genetic test. If nothing comes back positive then i'd remove it for 3-6 months then add it back in.

[Celiac Mindwarp]

I would seriously consider staying on gluten until test results come back and you see if biopsy is necessary. It can be a whole lot harder to restart gluten once off a while. Unless your doctor is one of the enlightened ones who will diagnose on blood alone. Even then you might find you need more info from a biopsy, and it may be misleading if you have been gluten-free.

Confused or plain wrong doctors are sadly all too common, definitely find out more before removing gluten

Good luck