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I couldn't agree more with Jim Lyles and Nancy Lilly's views on adult
gluten challenges. I just had one, and I wouldn't want to do it
again, but I'm very glad I did it once. On Monday, I got  the biopsy
diagnosis. Oddly enough, it was not the diagnosis I expected.

Yes, Nancy, there is indeed another illness that has much the same
symptoms and is associated with a lot of the same other conditions
(asthma, arthritis, etc.) in its sufferers and their kin as celiac
disease. If wheat and other grains are a trigger, going on a gluten
free diet can make someone with this condition feel like a new
person. It is called "eosinophilic gastroenteritis". I'm 53, and
likely have had this condition since childhood: gas, bloating,
abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhea, skinniness and short stature
in childhood, fatigue, frequent illnesses, anemia, etc. Sometimes
it's been worse and sometimes better; I felt much better in my teens
until I got the arthritis. The underlying causes are different (it's
a more conventionally allergic reaction, and the allergens can change
over time), as is the course of the disease, and the treatment may
need to  be different too. I'm still learning about it.

So go for the diagnosis if you can. You may be missing the treatment
you need. This too is chronic, and has some very different
complications, like thickening and hardening of the bowel walls,
intestinal obstruction, stenosis of the gastric opening, etc. Some of
these could need surgery down the line, even colostomy. So catching it
before it gets to that stage could save a lot of grief. What the
long-term outlook is *with* treatment, I don't know yet. Wish I did.
My dr wants me to go through a colonoscopy next, and sit down to
discuss treatment.

Needless to say, I'm back on a gluten free diet now, and am having
practically no diarrhea, and much less gas and bloating. But there
are still other triggers out there that I haven't yet identified, and
I have no idea what damage the years have done to my gut.

Bobbi in Baltimore