<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>
OK, I guess I should have said something of the fact that beside celiac he is
also looking for colitis, which is included in my first diagnosis.
So here I am:
original diagnosis by old doc
Non-spacific Colitis by biopsy : currently on Asacol.
Blood testing, 3 months after Asacol didn't help completely, showed Celiac. He
didn't do biopsy, that doc really knows nothing. He printed off a physicians
guide and sent me to the internet. Been GF since Nov 17 07. GREATLY
improved most symptoms, even symptoms i didn't know were symptoms.
3 months later blood work "normal"
Have been having bm & nausia problems lately so I am trying also lactose free
the next two weeks.
New Doc did Bone densometry, still awaiting the results.
New Doc wants to go in and see about a definitive colitis & look at my
stomach & smalls since that was not done before.
I'm still in the air about cancelling, just don't know. would you do it?
Here's what y'all had to say:
***Prometheus is recognized as a really good lab. If you have been GF for
any length of time, no amount of scoping and blood testing can give you a
positive diagnosis. The only thing the blood tests can measure is how you are
reacting to gluten; no gluten, no reaction. If your intestine has healed, no
endoscopy can find damaged tissue.
I've been diagnosed a little over five years. The two blood tests I've had
since then have come back negative. No doctor, without consulting my
record, could diagnose my CD now. When I had my first blood test after being
GF for an entire year, the doctor's office called back and
said, "Congratulations. You don't have celiacs (sic) anymore." Of course, I
knew better. Never went back to that office, either.
If I were you, I would go to the second doc, get the diagnosis 'reversed'
thereby giving insurance companies one less reason to deny you coverage in
the future. You'd still have CD, but you can manage that on your own.
***If you have a diagnosis of CD, why do you need to repeat the tests?
First, if your new doc wants to do a colonoscopy to determine if you have CD,
he is looking at the wrong end. CD affects the small intestine - there are no
villi in the colon. If you are GF, the tests should be negative. I have met a few
people who were diagnosed with CD and the new doctor repeated the tests.
The new tests showed healed villi and negative blood test so the new doctor
declares that the person should eat gluten as they don't have CD even though
these people tell their doctors the slightest amount of gluten makes them ill.
I don't know why Prometheus requires precertification from your insurance.
prometheus is considered to be one of the more reliable labs by the celiac
doctors.
***can't answer your first question but....
why do you need another diagnosis? you are lucky you found a doctor who
actually knows anything about celiac in the first place.
none of us *wants* to have this disease, and i've had plenty of doctors tell
me i don't have it. But guess what? My entire family has it and we are lucky to
know, as much as the diet is difficult.
Go through Enterolab and you'll get the whole deal for 369 online.
***If your initial diagnosis was correct, then eliminating the gluten from your
diet cured your problem. After 4-6 months on a strict g.f. diet, antibody
levels should return to normal and damage in the small intestine should at the
very least improve and can actually resolve completely.
Once that happens, tests for celiac becomes tests for dietary compliance
rather than diagnosis.
Doctor to wants to rediagnosis your celiac with blood tests after your have
been on a gluten-free diet doesn't understand celiac. And if the doctor is
doing a colonoscopy to look for celiac damage, he's entering the body from
the wrong end. Celiac damage happem at the top of the system in the small
intestine where gluten leaves the stomach.
The preferred labs, usually the largest ones, provide more accurate test
results because they do moe tests on the rare conditions. With more
experience technicianss, tests results should be more consistently accurate.
Having access to a great lab, however, won't help if the doctor doesn't know
what tests to order & how to intrepret them....
*Support summarization of posts, reply to the SENDER not the CELIAC List*
Archives are at: Http://Listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?LIST=CELIAC
|