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I cannot agree with the person who suggested that relatives of
celiacs go on the diet just in case. For one thing, it is *not*
an easy diet--it has a tremendous impact on one's social life,
at the very least.  What a drag it is not to be able to cheerfully
go off to restaurants with friends, to be afraid of eating anything at
a wedding, to have to arrange every simple invitation out and worry
about sounding like a fanatic.

But that aside, being in a "semi-diagnosed" condition is *extremely*
uncomfortable. I was put on the diet on the basis of blood tests and
*discouraged* from getting a biopsy.  This has come back to haunt
me in numerous ways. I now have to face deliberately eating gluten--
which truly frightens me--in order to have a biopsy. (I haven't had
it yet because I've had a case of strep throat for the past 5 months!)
The thought of having to go through the recovery process again
is extremely upsetting. I wish so much the doctor had ordered a biopsy
from the start!  Especially as, if it turns out I don't have sprue, I'll
have wasted several years towards finding out what *is* wrong with me--
as well as a great deal of money and discomfort and unhappiness
sticking to a diet that *I* find quite torturous.

Wendy Betts, [log in to unmask]