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On my last e-mail, I asked if any one had a possible pancreatic problem
since my research doctor husband and I had been doing some reading that
my inability to digest fat and associated upper rgt. abdominal pain
(some left side concurrent pain) with fat intake could be caused by a
pancreatic problem.   A dozen listmates responded that their similar
pain or digestive problems were related to gallbladder stones and that
gallbladder problems can cause pancreatic problems like pancreatitis.
Several people mentioned that their gallbladder was inflamed from
gallstones and that either they had their gallbladder removed or that
they know other celiacs who have had their gallbladders removed.   This
is a quote from the British Medical Journal @ BMJ.com (Vol. 322,
1/13/01):  "The pain starts suddenly in the epigastrium or right upper
quadrant and may radiate round to the back in the interscapular
region....  Non-specific abdominal pain, early satiety, fat intolerance,
nausea, and bowel symptoms occur with comparable frequency in patients
with and without gall stones, and these symptoms respond poorly to
inappropriate cholescystectomy (removal of both stones and
gallbladder)....  In many of these patients symptoms are due to upper
gastrointestinal tract problems...."   And from BMJ (vol. 323,
11/17/01):  "Biliary colic is usually felt as a severe gripping or
gnawing pain in the right upper quadrant. "...many variations on this
pattern have been described, including retrosternal pain and abdominal
pain only in the epigastrium or on the left side".  If you want to read
more about pancreatitis or gallstone disease, go to www.niddk.nih.gov,
home.mdconsult.com,  bmj.com, or www.merck.com.  I wanted to comment
that just in the last couple of days, my right and left side pain has
been subsiding because I've been very watchful of my fat as well as acid
intake.  I hope that this will resolve itself as I feel that other
symptoms like chronic stomach spasms, joint pain, and weakness have been
resolving since I've been gluten free now five weeks for the first time
in my life.

Also, I wanted to remind everyone to recall the endoscopy  (EGD)  I took
in December after a 3rd gluten trial directed by my doctor - it had
revealed visual abnormalities such as scalloping of the duodenal folds,
flattening of the valvulae conniventes, stomach gastritis, and nodular
mucosa (bumps on my duodenum).  Yet, the 12 biopsies came out negative
for  blunting of the villi and negative for H-Pylori bacteria.  Well,
the shortcoming of this test was that my GI doctor could only biopsy my
stomach and the upper end of my duodenum which is a long tube leading to
the other portion of the small bowel called the jejunum.  He was
convinced that the damage he couldn't biopsy was further down the
duodenum and jejunum so he decided to put me into an Study of
Malabsorption using the current experimental "Given Capsule Endoscopy".
(He had last November confirmed that I was borderline fat malabsorption
and that was explaining my loss in weight and diarrhea).  I responded
that he may want to hurry to try and give me this capsule study before
the cells turnover and I heal because I was already gluten-free since
the December endoscopy.   In January, a month after being gluten free,
he had me swallow the new "Given Capsule", which had a tiny camera on it
as it went thru my entire digestive tract, recording images for 8 hours
of the study.  Well, my GI doctor just reported to me that those
abnormalities above which he saw in the December endoscopy were gone.
(One of our listmates just reported that her doctor thought everything
looked normal until the biopsy confirmed some villi blunting.)  However,
my Gastroenterologist was not able to take any biopsies so he could only
say that my duodenum, jejunum, and ileum appeared normal.  He couldn't
confirm for me whether the gastritis was gone though because he said the
images from the capsule study were not able to capture the stomach
because the capsule went too fast thru the stomach. I feel that I'm
getting better except that I still have some abdominal pain and abnormal
stool appearances.  Because of my residual symptoms, I asked the doctor
if he thinks that the celiac disease has affected something else.  He
responded, "Yeah, I think so - that's why we need to sit down and
talk.''  He stated that he wanted to discuss with me the possibility of
more tests.  However, my primary doctor just the other day told me that
getting well will take time and was wondering if I was having trouble
staying on the gluten free diet.  I told her that I had no problem with
the gluten free diet, just that my frustration now is how long before I
will be healthy again.  She also asked why it was important for celiacs
to get a diagnosis.  I responded that the validation will prove the
actual prevalence of celiac disease and that the public and food
companies need to be aware of celiac disease since the rates on
screening data as low as 1:111 (Gastroenterology 2001, vol. 120, pg.
640) show that many people may be suffering and not know they have celiac
disease.  I'm sure a lifelong disease would be made much easier if companies
had GF labelling or had to report whether their product contained any gluten
or possible cross-contamination of gluten.  If only that dream could become
reality.   Regards, Laura