Need for an endoscopy?

[shamroc628]

I'm sure this question has been asked before, but alas, I'm new. I had a blood panel done a week ago and showed up positive for celiac for all 3 panels that they did, so my Primary care was comfortable with the celiac diagnosis. But this is where I am stuck. I need to go to a gastroenterologist but I can't seem to get an appointment until April. Is it worth eating gluten until them? Or can I just go off the blood diagnosis? 

[cyclinglady]

All the leading celiac experts still say that an endoscopy is needed to confirm a celiac diagnosis.  Why?  The antibodies testing is good but not perfect.  You can have more than one issue going on (SIBO, IBD, Autoimmune Gastritis, cancer....rare and if left undiagnosed for years) and that first endoscopy acts as a benchmark.  For example, my last endoscopy revealed healthy villi (I had moderate to severe patches of damage upon diagnosis).  I have personally found that antibodies for me do not even correlate with my intestinal damage.  

You can first try to get an appointment from another patient who has cancelled.   Call the GI’s office yourself.  Consider going gluten free but do a two week challenge with gluten prior.  This unfortunately is hard, hard to do if you do have celiac disease.  But you might not have symptoms.  I was only anemic and it took seven weeks to get my endoscopy due to work constraints.  

It is up to you, but I would go for a cancellation or find another GI.  Be nice and persistent.  My favorite — go outside your network if this is the issue and get a second opinion.  Nothing like a potential lawsuit to get things going and well worth paying out of pocket.