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

I wanted to first thank everybody for your responses to my questions.  My
summary will be very short since almost all of the responses I received (over
30) stated that the blood tests are not reliable at all.

Among the other responses I received were those stating that sometimes when
your IgA levels are below normal, this may cause your blood test to come back
negative for celiac, even though you may, in fact, have the disease.

Everybody else who responded state that their tests did come back negative for
celiac, but that they had been biopsy-diagnosed, just like my mom.

For those of you asking me to share with you the information regarding
tropical sprue, I did not receive much information about this at all except
that you can get it while visiting the tropics.  I had one question about
this.  My mom lived in Hawaii about 25 - 30 years ago.  Is Hawaii considered
to be the "tropics"?  May sound stupid, but I am grasping here, and I guess it
would be considered a tropical climate.

Thanks again!

Sonja