<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Well, we had a meeting with Dr Hill today, to go over Ben's chart. His
lactose test was off the graph! Dr Hill said he had never seen it so high!
Mostly, though, he talked about the importance of Ben having a biopsy. He
attended the conference in DC last week and was struck by the several
papers that showed how unreliable the blood tests are in this country. He
no longer feels comfortable using them! He was also concerned that if we
don't have a firm diagnosis that Ben as a teenager might make wrong
decisions and we would not really be able to enforce the GF diet. (Might
not be able to anyway, but with a proven diagnosis we would have both legs
to stand on!)

He also said that if Ben is symptomatic when eating gluten, then we would
not have to do a prolonged challenge to show damage. As we are not willing
to do any kind of a challenge while school is in session (his teacher said
she would take the day off if he came to school after eating gluten!), we
will wait until July. We will call Dr Hill and warn him that we are ready
to do a challenge. If Ben shows symptoms right away (which he usually
does), then we are to call and Dr Hill will set up the biopsy within a
couple of days. He will also do blood tests again, but send the blood to
his former lab in Maryland, as he feels confident of their work. The
symptoms would indicate that damage is happening.  He also thought that
Ben's severe lactose intolerance could have come from being celiac, if, in
fact, he is celiac. He could just be allergic to wheat, but we need to
know what he isn't before we look for other things.

So, we are on hold again, but we now feel comfortable with proceeding with
a biopsy. Dr Hill was very easy to talk with and we feel extremely lucky
to have him here in North Carolina. Thanks again to the founders of this
list for making so much information available. We have been able to
converse intelligently and ask good questions because of what we have
learned from this list and the web sites!

Anne Washburn
[log in to unmask]
Co-owner, APH - Association of Personal Historians List