A Diagnosis!

I couldn't take it anymore. After another evening of multiple trips to the bathroom I called my Gastro. and pleaded to come in for my upper-endoscopy on Friday, instead of Tuesday. I am so glad I did.

The Endoscopy while easier to prep-for (no eating after midnight) is a lot more uncomfortable that the colonoscopy. You still get the same drugs so that was...relaxing, but having a tube go down your throat and pump your stomach full of air isn't the most comfortable thing in the world.

Once he got down to my small intestine, the diagnosis became clear. Based on the appearance of the villi in my intestine and combined with the results of my blood test his is 99.9% sure that I have something called Celiac Disease.

The basics are this, I can't process something called gluten. What would normally be nutrient to most people, for people with Celiac gluten causes my immune system to attack the lining of my intestines, leading to something called malabsorption, weight loss, diarrhea, abdominal discomfort, excessive gas, and osteoporosis.

Gluten is found in wheat, rye, and barley and the cornerstone of any treatment strategy is to completely cut gluten out of my diet. Since Friday afternoon I have had absolutely no gluten, and my symptoms have almost completely stopped. It has been amazing since I have had (warning too much information for some people) diarrhea everyday since the first week of September.

Here is the ironic thing. When I felt my worst I would eat things like Cream of Wheat, bread, toast, pasta, etc. The exact things that were causing my problems were the things I was turning to, to help me feel better.

So I still feel pretty good right now. It's a pretty big life style change, but I have felt like such crap almost anything is better than the past three months. Just for some perspective, I can't eat anything with flour in it! Think about all the stuff out there with flour, wheat, barley, or rye in it. I found this website that gave me a list of 49 foods I could eat right away while I got my bearings on my new diet. There are also a lot of gluten free foods that I can eat so it shouldn't be that bad.

The prognosis for me (and about 70% of Celiac patients) is really good. As long as I keep gluten out of my diet, my villi will return to normal and I should feel better than I have felt in my entire life! They don't know how or why people develop this disease, but it does seem to be genetic (although no-one I know of in my family has it). And it is most often diagnosed during early adulthood (21 - 33 years old). If you think you might have Celiac feel free to send me an e-mail and I can give you some more detailed questions to ask your doctor.