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

Recap:  I posted a little while ago with a question about a red itchy
blotch that appears on my hip whenever I accidentally ingest gluten.  I
had decided to schedule an appointment with an allergist to look into
other food allergies and to see if I have a wheat allergy and not
necessarily CD (my gastro never saw a reason to do a biopsy since my
symptoms resolved on the GF diet).  I had several e-mails from people
asking me to summarize what the allergist said, so here goes:

I had my appointment with the allergist this morning and she did a full
exam plus 20 skin tests.  I tested very positive for allergies to milk,
shellfish, peas, and mango.  Importantly, I tested negative to wheat,
oats and rye.  The allergist explained that a wheat *allergy* is
completely separate from a gluten intolerance and its very common for
celiacs to test negative to the *allergy* but continue to react to
gluten.  See feels that this test excluded the possibility of a wheat
allergy and further backs up the presumption of CD in my case.  She
suspects that my itchy skin blotch is most likely either a "precursor"
to DH or part of the reaction to milk.  In addition, I suffer from
frequent sinusitis and ear infections and she said this is frequently
how a milk allergic reaction presents itself - she expects my sinuses to
improve within the next 6 weeks provided that I remain dairy-free.  So
now I will further restrict my diet to exclude all dairy and will see if
my symptoms improve.

If anyone has questions, I will happily answer as many as I can via e-
mail.  No lectures, please.

Thanks as always for all of your help!

Stefanie
(Virginia, USA)