<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>
 
> If I continue to eat wheat products, I will probably suffer until the
> biopsy test.
 
> I am not asking for medical advice, I am only looking for more insight
> from people like yourselves who have had to go through this kind of
> thing.
 
Tony
 
You are faced with the exact problem why the diet is not recommended on a
trial basis.
 
We know these general things:
 
1. The villi will normally regrow after three days
 
2. The only way to diagnose a celiac is through a biopsy, which means that
the villi must be destroyed by contact with gluten.
 
3. Most people, when they start showing signs of recover from the GF diet
are not very happy with the concept of getting sick again.  The worst case
is when a parent is faced with this problem for their undiagnosed child.
 
The problem is how to time a biopsy after going on a GF diet.
 
1.  If you are lucky and very sensitive to gluten, the biopsy will show no
villi.
 
2.  But there is the possibility that you will feel bad but the damage is
inconclusive.  In this case, what do you do.  Do you go on a very rigid
gluten containing diet and perform another biopsy or do you discount
celiac and start looking at other organs as the cause of the problems.
 
3. The blood tests can give some insight into the possibility of celiac,
but they are not 100 percent accurate.
 
4. If you were being challenged with gluten to confirm the diagnosis, many
doctors use 90 days as a general rule of thumb.
 
5. Another consideration may be your health insurance, a second request
for a celiac biopsy may be very hard to justify in this age of controlled
medical expenses.
 
I did not have the choice for my first biopsy, but since it came back with
some vague terms, I was placed on a GF diet without any detailed
instructions.  So I made many mistakes and did not respond to the diet.
This resulted in two years of playing with every organ in my body until we
returned to the biopsy with the intent of proving or disproving celiac.
 
You must make your own choice, but it is easier in the long run to suffer
for a month.  Since you have been on the GF diet, the blood tests should
be used to determine if a biopsy should be performed on January 5 or
delayed.
 
 
Regards,
 
Michael Jones, [log in to unmask]
Living a wonderful, GF life in Orlando, FL USA