<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> Thanks for all the responses, both public and private to my rant. I am just back from a 2-day business trip to Dallas and will have more to say about that in a minute. In answer to the question: have I had (or do I plan to have) a biopsy, the answer is, not at this time, no. They are prohibitively expensive, I am prohibitively broke, and if I could have one (1) done, I'd probably have my son Ted done first, since at age two, this is going to affect him for more years than it will me. If my healthcare or financial situation changes, I would like to have an official diagnosis -- and I know it is the position of this List to encourage a biopsy-proven diagnosis, and I agree with that in principal. But my life is not that simple. Anyway, I will try a few more challenges on myself, with wheat and rye and barley, and oats too, and see what response I get. I have yet to hear of any celiac-like disease that mimics sprue to the degree that it also responds to a gf-diet. To Julie Thomas I say, yes ma'am it sure does feel like hypochondria. When I started with this list I saw celiac disease =everywhere= at first. However, before I started on this list -- back in December, when I still had a decent healthcare plan <ahem> -- I saw my GP because I'd just been feeling generally poorly. She ran lots of tests and blamed it on my sinuses, but my sinuses have cleared up and I was still feeling lousy. Maybe, as someone privately suggested, I can thank my son for saving my life or if not that at least my quality of life. (By the way, I suspect I have not been a life-long celiac but probably sometime during my two pregnancies/major surgery [cesareans] the genetic factor got triggered in me. I certainly had two feel-lousy pregnancies when I had thought I'd be one of those glowing Earth Mother types!) We will see. I am not in the least tempted to cheat but should I ever decide to go off the diet I would vow to get a workup for celiac disease a year after I returned to eating gluten. As for travel: I left feeling scared to travel for the first time in my life (I claim gypsy blood) and was very nervous about eating out. I love Indian food and found a bread-like appetizer made with chickpea flour (and onion and curry powder) that was excellent. Even La Madeleine, Dallas' premier bakery, had GF macaroons, so now I feel there =is= hope for this food-a-holic. However, I ask: how do you cope with people who act like you're being obsessive-compulsive when you, for example, panic at the thought of them putting croutons on your chef's salad? I don't want to go on at length (which, obviously, I do...;) about the potential damage, but neither do I want to be perceived as crazy. Especially by my manager. Also, what's the clearest way to describe what you can't have. I say "no wheat" and then get offered foods which have flour as their primary ingredient. "But there's no wheat in [pancakes, bread, pasta]!" I think these people are thinking =whole= wheat is wheat but white flour is not...? Linda [log in to unmask] Midland TX