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Hi.  This is my first post.  I did search the archives some to see if it my
questions been answered, but I was confused.

I think I may be a celiac, but I’m not sure.  I have always been thin, but
not dangerously so.  I’m now 49, 5’6 ½”, and 117 pounds.  I suspected I was
a celiac about 6 years ago.  I began baking my own bread, and I liked it a
lot.  I had never been a big bread eater, but I loved this.  I was eating a
half a (small) loaf a day.  I got rashes on my fingers and toes, and other
places, that just would not go away.  I finally read this was a symptom of a
dermatological form of celiac disease.  I gave up wheat, and the rashes went
away.  I thought that was the end of it.  I have mostly been avoiding wheat,
and other sources of gluten, ever since.

About 2 years later, my family doctor ran 2 blood tests for the antigen.  I
can’t remember what they were called.  The less accurate one was positive,
and the more accurate one was inconclusive.  She wanted to set me up with a
GI doctor for a biopsy, but I declined.  My insurance is only catastrophic,
and I didn’t want to pay for it, and go on record as being a celiac, if I
was only going to avoid wheat anyway.  

Fast forward.  Now I’m not concerned about rashes.  I got a poor bone scan
result.  About -1.7.  I read that celiacs are at high risk for osteoporosis
and many other bad things, so now I don’t want to guess anymore.

I read on another list that mostly avoiding wheat, but eating some at
special celebrations about twice a year, is no good.  If I’m a celiac, I
need to TOTALLY avoid gluten.    That’s a huge sacrifice for if I’m just
going by a wild guess that I’m even a celiac.  My initial symptoms could
have been caused by many things.  I’m allergic to a lot of things, including
yeast.  Obviously, home baked bread would have lots of yeast.
 

I want to know if I’m a celiac.  Not just sensitive.  I’m sensitive to just
about everything.  I want to know if this is something that could dissolve
my bones.

The problem, I’m told, is that since I have been mostly avoiding wheat for
about 6 years, I may be untestable.  So, what should I do?  Begin eating
wheat again?  I had some cookies yesterday on that theory.  No digestive
distress at all (there never has been for wheat, I don’t think).  No rash
outbreak.  I do seem tired and irritable today, but that could be anything too.

Are those 2 blood test the only thing I can get?  What about stool tests? 
Is a biopsy at this point a waste of time?


Thanks very much for any help anyone can give me.

 

Linda

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