Any coeliacs out there able to advise?

[babyignoramus]

I've posted on the health forum but it might be better here! - I've coped my post below - does anyone think this sounds like it could be coeliac disease...?

"Went to docs today about my stomach which has been bad for about the last 20 years...

As listed on my previous post:"My symptoms are - stomach cramps getting progressivly worse until I'm bent double, followed by diahorrhea (sp?) two or three times. This usually happens in the early evening, although it has been known to happen in the afternoon or the middle of the night. It was at it's worst when I was a teenager, went away completely while I was pregnant (bliss!), and has been back with a vengeance since DS was born 4 months ago. Nothing specific seems to set it off, and I've tried eliminating dairy, gluten and meat with varying levels of effectiveness."

Doc says it sounds more like IBS than anything else and has suggested trying to eliminate gluten completely to see if that helps as that's often the culprit. I've then got to go back in a week or two to dicuss what's happened. In the meantime I have to give them a stool sample . Are they likely to be able to pick anything up from that? I would have thought that would ony identify viruses etc, rather than chronic conditions?"

As well as the stomach stuff I also get tired quite easily and have a really itchy ras on my fingers.

when you say you've tried eliminating foods before, how long for? it takes a minimum of 2 weeks to really notice any benefits.

Does sound like IBS but could still have a food trigger, like gluten for e.g.

The stool could be used for a variety of reasons - see here for more info. One use for the sample is it will pick up any hidden blood (it's called faecal occult blood) which could indicate minor bleeding in the intestine, a symptom of more severe bowel irritation conditions such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.
It could also be used to check for parasites, and other infectious agents, including excessive fungal overgrowth. They can look at the type of cells included in the stool and also the constituents of the stool material - excessive undigested matter would indicate lack of digestion/absorption of food and nutrients, which might indicate coeliacs disease, for example.

HTH

Hi Thumbwitch - I would say about a month minimum each time I've eliminated. The gluten elimination was def the most effective but I started eating it again as I know you have to be eating for tests for Coeliac Disease to work - then it didn't have that bad an effect so I never went to back to my (then) GP as he was pretty useless anyway. I think for me it's more cumulative. Eating gluten once doesn't have an effect but if I have several days of eating lots of bread it'll hit.

well, as I'm sure you know you can still be intolerant to gluten without having coeliacs disease.
Do you need to have the diagnosis? if not, you're probably better off just coming off gluten and staying off it - if you feel better for not having it, then that has to be a plus sign.

If not to late...

You need to insist on a coeliac blood test, I know our GP's have been told they have to do them whenever someone presents with IBS symptoms.

My DD also suffered more at the times of day you mention - eventually we calculated it to be approx 2-3 hours after high gluten meals or double that during sleeping time although it took us a while to figure this out.

You would benefit greatly from having the diagnosis if you are coeliac, prescriptions, other medical care like bone density scans, knowing how careful you need to be regarding gluten, getting suitable meals in hospital etc. It could also help your children if they ever suffer from related problems. After a long period gluten free many people seem to become more sensitive to gluten making a diagnosis later much more difficult. You can find the guidelines for coeliac testing on the internet somewhere to print off and show your GP if necessary.

There are many symptoms for coeliac disease and no two people are really the same, but the basics are "bloating, diarrhoea/constipation, weight loss, anemia the list goes on. The easiest test is the blood test for IgA giving a result of positive or negative but you need to be eating gluten prior to any test. It may take quite a while before any tests may be conducted for coeliac disease but discuss with GP.
I am a coeliac with borderline wheat allergy