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

This is in response to Patrick Meyer's e-mail regarding WENT under, but I
thought the list may be interested in my experience.

I was diagnosed celiac in November 1994.  When I complained to my general
doctor about pain in the upper abdomen, he sent me to have an upper gi
series and an ultrasound.  Both come back negative, so he sent me to a
gastroenterologist who first did an endoscopy with biopsies.  Again
negative.  Then he set me up for an abdominal cat scan.  This is where he
found the celiac.  He admitted that he did not think of celiac when I first
went to him, and when he did the endoscopy, he said he did not go down far
enough to get the positive result that he should have gotten.  He backed up
the cat scan result with two separate blood tests that both test for celiac.
They both came back positive.  This whole process took three months.  The
pain finally went away two months after diagnosis as it took that long for
me to figure out the gluten free diet and combine it with the diabetic diet
and for my gut to heal.

The gastroenterologist was surprised that I had celiac disease because the
only system I had was the pain.  I did not have the diarrhea nor did I lose
weight.  I don't know why I did not have the diarrhea, but I told him the
reason I felt that I did not lose weight is because I am also Type I
diabetic.  I had to decide whether to not eat so the pain would go away and
have to deal with the low insulin reactions OR force myself to eat and put
up with the pain.  I chose the latter because I knew what the low reactions
could do to me.

I hope this helps those who are having trouble getting a positive result.
Maybe suggest an abdominal cat scan to your doctors.

Debbie Seeley
Waterville, Maine