trixiesirisheyes

Two week will not be long enough. You should be eating *lots and lots* of gluten for at least 3 months, as you were told earlier in this thread. Also, if you really are celiac or gluten intolerant, eating gluten will NOT be pleasurable....it will be torture after the symptoms hit!

My advice would be to either re-schedule the tests for March, or just cancel the testing altogether. Why even bother to go through that pain and suffering if your testing will yield false negatives because you weren't on gluten long enough???

Anything worth doing is worth doing right!!

Of course, you don't have to take my advice.....but I hate to see you waste time and money if the project is doomed to failure from the start.

Good luck!

JoAnn

OMGosh! After the misery of the last few days, I can't bear the thought of doing this for 3 months, and even more of it, to boot. I have to work - I'm self-employed - and I can't work and feel THAT crappy. It was like my body has been seriously punishing me for going back on gluten. "You want to go back on gluten, do you? Well, here's what I think of THAT!" "OW, Ow! Oh, my belly, oh, my chest, OH, my aching head!!! I'm sorry, I'm SORRY!!!" The worst it's ever been!

Does the fact that I've only been gluten-free for about 3 weeks count, and before that, I was seriously gluteny? I'm having other immunological testing at the same time that has nothing to do with the celiac panel. I'm already immunocompromised. Should I just not care what the results are? This can't go on. I don't even care now if the GI doc believes me. It's been horrible. Today was a gluten-free Christmas with my gluten-free sisters, and the worst feeling I had was being stuffed from all their delicious cooking.

The only money being wasted is the insurance company's - I'm on an HMO. I'm already having follow-up testing on my pneumonia vaccine, which is probably not going to be effective because of my IgG2 deficiency. I'll have to get another kind of pneumonia vaccine.

I have done the Enterolabs testing. I'm waiting for the results.

Well, I'm glutening up for my testing in two weeks, and I was just salivating in the store. Oooh, bread! Oooh, pasta! Oooh, candy I can't ever eat again. As excited as I am, I'm not looking forward to the bellyache, esophageal spasms, and bloating. I think I will be very mindful of what I'm eating, so I can say good-bye after the testing with a bit of a smile, because regardless, I WILL say goodbye. I will also take notes on how I'm feeling, as someone here recommended. Excellent idea!!

It's been a few years since the first bloodwork, so we'll see. Immune issues and autoimmune issues are cropping up now, so maybe the end of head-scratching is near. Thank goodness the doctor doing the testing is my very perceptive, very receptive immunologist, not the wretched, evil GI doctor. The immunologist told me to go for it with the Enterolabs testing, because my insurance company sure wasn't going to cover anything, including genetic testing. He also recommended I try to gluten-free diet and see how I do.

AND, he doesn't think I'm a psych case at all, especially after he got my family history. Such bliss. It's like medical care in a parallel universe from where I've been living.

I hope two weeks is enough. I did a loaf of bread and mainly frozen dinners, so I wouldn't be stocking up on gluten flour and all, and so I don't have to rescrub the cupboards. After this, my treat to myself shall be a new toaster.

I think your IGA deficiency may impact the blood tests even on a full gluten diet. Be sure to talk to your doctor about that. Also note your reactions to adding gluten back into your diet and share them with your GP. If your feeling better gluten free and get sick when you add gluten back in with celiac in your family that is pretty diagnostic also. In addition if it takes care of your issues you won't need to see that jerk of a GI doctor again.

It's a specific IgG subclass deficiency specific to upper and lower respiratory infections, of which I have many, not IgA. Thank goodness the doctor doing the testing is an immunologist, so he already knows.

One of my big reasons for getting the diagnosis, besides not feeling like crap anymore, is to be able to tell Medco, who provides my prescriptions, not to send me medication with gluten in it. I think an actual diagnosis will help me more than a "Since I went off gluten, I feel so much better." They're going to want a note from the doctor.

And as far as the GI doctor is concerned, heck, he already thought I was a hypochondriac even though a psychiatrist said I wasn't. When I told him that going gluten-free had really helped get rid of my esophageal spasms (I believe I was having nutcracker spasms), he just rolled his eyes at me. He won't believe anything but results in black and white, and something tells me he might even be iffy with that. Stupid doctor.

I appreciate your thoughts!

Three slices of bread (or the equivalent) every day for three months.

Do you *need* a medical diagnosis?

Hmmm, my testing is in two weeks, not three months. It's being done while I have some other immune testing done. I've been on the gluten-free diet for about 3 weeks. For reasons I won't belabor, yeah, I sure would like to have a diagnosis, especially if I have to go back to the horrible gastroenterologist in our medical group again, so he takes me seriously this time. It might wipe the smug, arrogant look off his face, so he can work on helping me out, instead of putting me down.

I have gone on a gluten-free diet. My sister is celiac, my other sister is gluten-intolerant, and I've had belly issues since I was a little girl, Hashimoto's thyroiditis - new - beginning stages, fibromyalgia, a freak heart attack at the age of 47, and moderate-to-severe osteoporosis (I have to do DexaScans every year now, and lost 3/4 of an inch in height in 2 years). I also have an IgG2 deficiency, and several of my other Ig results are low normal. I've had the gluten antibody tests (once) in the past and two endoscopies - all negative for celiac. But, since I've been on the gluten-free diet (because of constipation and bloating for 2+ months), I'm feeling better every day.

Unfortunately (and fortunately), I'm having the celiac panel done on January 5. I know I should be on gluten before the test is done, but for how long?

If I'm celiac or GI, I darn well want to make sure the doctors know it. I'd kind of like to slap them about the head and shoulders with it. The last GI doctor I saw (because of esophageal spasms that felt like a heart attack) told me he thought my issues were psychiatric - wink, wink, nudge, nudge, hypochondria. I told him I'd seen one, who said no, I was not a hypochondriac. The GI doc suggested I get a second opinion (what an arrogant jerk), so I did. Second psychiatrist said, um, no, no hypochondria. They just haven't figured out what's wrong yet. Now they're beginning to figure out what's wrong. Finally.

Can anyone enlighten me on the time frame? Thanks!

This makes me so happy! I LOVE their whole line! I was wondering if they were gluten-free.

I can't wait to try this bread...I really, really miss bread. My favorite snack in the whole world was a loaf of sourdough or French bread and some butter...I've been making bread since I was 10 years old - that's 41 years. Now, no bread. My sister recommended some Glutino Flax seed bread, and it was so foul. I spit it into the trash and dumped my plate. It was like chewing on a spoonful of seeds (and I love whole grain bread!). That is not bread. I had tried Udi's whole grain bread (pretty yummy), but now my health food store says it's out of stock and they can't get it in. I need bread. I need toast. I need breakfast. I need a PB&J sandwich. I need to make some bread.

I am so excited to read about this!!!

I hope i hear from some of you out there with this issue of sleep apena?

I know with so many people on this board there must be alot of us out there with sleep apena

Thanks for your time

Judy

I am pre-diagnosis (negative biopsy in the past), but I have a sister with celiac and another with gluten-sensitivity (negative biopsy - Enterolabs results point to gluten sensitivity), I've had baaaadddd belly probs since I was a little girl. I'm 51 and have severe osteoporosis - so bad that in the last two years, I've lost 3/4 of an inch in height. That said, I have bad sinus problems and I "forget to breathe."

I also have moderate sleep apnea, but I refuse to do CPAP. Claustrophobic...23yo son also has mild sleep apnea, and considering how my ex snored like a freight train, I wouldn't be shocked if he had it too.

Recent immunological tests show I have an IgG2 (subclass 2) deficiency and Hashimoto's thyroiditis (the beginning stages) - both parents and three of four sisters have it. IgG2 deficiency can result in a predisposition to upper and lower respiratory infections. That could possibly be contributing to breathing issues while you're sleeping, too. Might be worth checking out.