<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>
 
My twelve year old son has had problems for several years
where he got a stomach ache and 1-2 days later developed
a cold and then stomach ache vanished. Late November, last
year, the stomach ache appeared but did not go away. The
pain is centered around the navel and the area is
sensitive to pressure. We got an X-ray done and the
diagnosis was that he had an ulcer. Several weeks of
ulcer medication (cimetidine) did nothing. A number of
blood  and stool tests were run with no problems found.
An ultrasound scan was done to see if there were any
problems with spleen, kidneys, gall bladder bile duct
etc. No problems were seen.
 
He was then referred to a gastrointestinal specialist at
Stanford Children's Hospital. This led to an endoscopy
with biopsies. The endoscopy showed an inflamed swollen
area of the duodenum. Associated testing ruled out
giardia and helicobacter pylori as causes. The biopsy
showed diffuse villi with flattening and considerable
damage in the area examined. Eosinophilic gastroenteropathy
was then considered as a possible cause. He was put
on 800mg prednisone (a cortico steroid) in an attempt
to reduce the inflammation and hopeully the pain. This
did nothing after trying it for a couple of weeks. He
was also moved to lactose-free milk at the same time.
 
Next it was found that the wrong blood test had been
run and another was done for anti-Gliadin antibodies
(IgA I believe). This returned a 90% chance positive
so the diagnosis was made for Celiac's. He has been
on a gluten free diet for a month now and still on
lactose-free milk. We have been quite careful --
avoided all manner of wheat/gluten but we have seen no
improvements whatsoever.
 
The specialist also had a CT scan done because some
of the symptoms did not fit Celiac but the scan showed
no abnormalities. We are frustrated at the lack of
progress. Can anyone tell me whether we ought to have
seen some improvement in a month of dietary change?
So far as we can tell there has been zero change.
 
Also can anyone suggest physicians in the San Francisco
Bay Area who you respect and who might be good candidates
for a second opinion given all the stuff we have
already done? Our current doctors seem to have run
out of options and we seem to be getting nowhere.
 
Thanks in advance.
Richard Ragan ([log in to unmask])