Getting diagnosed just a few questions!

[Sebastian95]

Hello all!

I have dealt with stomach issues for about the past almost 8 years. About to weeks ago I went to my doctor and bad blood tests for literally everything possible done they took 8 tubes of blood.

So I got a call from the medical assistant a few days ago that my blood results (which i have not seen yet nor has my doctor until this week) supposedly are showing strong results that indicate celiac disease. And that I have an infection somewhere in my body i don’t know if that’s connected to the celiac at all?

but for years I’ve had symptoms of, diarrhea, fatigue, like brain fog/feeling heavy, as well as muscle weakness sometimes. Are these common with celiac? For reference im 27 never had any issues and don’t take any medications. 
 

I look forward to any input and help on this if possible if anything to at least calm my nerves. I appreciate any help and information possible. Thank you!

[trents]

Welcome to the forum, Sebastian!

Essentially all of your symptoms are commonly found in the celiac community.

The infection is probably not related to celiac disease, at least not directly.

Many or most of the symptoms you describe are likely related to nutritional deficiencies which goes hand in hand with celiac disease. celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder defined by damage to the villi that line the small bowel, which is where essentially all of the nutritional elements of what we eat are absorbed. When someone with celiac disease consumes gluten, the immune system interprets it as an invader and generates inflammation in order to deal with it. However, when this inflammation is repeated meal after meal it flattens the little finger-like projections which make up the villi. This reduces the surface area for absorbing nutrients and over time results in nutritional deficiencies, even though the individual may be eating well.

There are some very specific blood tests used to diagnose celiac disease. These tests are designed to detect inflammation markers from the ongoing damage to the SB villi. Here is a primer: https://celiac.org/about-celiac-disease/screening-and-diagnosis/screening/ These tests are not a part of the standard CBC/CMP bloodwork ordered for most other things in a general checkup.

Let us know when you get the results of your bloodwork and if there were celiac antibody tests ordered we encourage you to post them online along with the reference ranges for each test as to what is negative/positive. Different labs use different values for the reference ranges so including that info is important if you want our input on the results.

Your doctor may want to order and endoscopy with biopsy of the small bowel lining to confirm the blood test results so it's very important to continue eating regular amounts of gluten until that procedure is complete, should your doctor want this. Going gluten free preliminary to testing will invalidate the results as it will allow healing and the inflammation antibody markers to subside.

[Sebastian95]

  On 7/31/2022 at 2:21 AM, trents said:

Welcome to the forum, Sebastian!

Essentially all of your symptoms are commonly found in the celiac community.

The infection is probably not related to celiac disease, at least not directly.

Many or most of the symptoms you describe are likely related to nutritional deficiencies which goes hand in hand with celiac disease. celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder defined by damage to the villi that line the small bowel, which is where essentially all of the nutritional elements of what we eat are absorbed. When someone with celiac disease consumes gluten, the immune system interprets it as an invader and generates inflammation in order to deal with it. However, when this inflammation is repeated meal after meal it flattens the little finger-like projections which make up the villi. This reduces the surface area for absorbing nutrients and over time results in nutritional deficiencies, even though the individual may be eating well.

There are some very specific blood tests used to diagnose celiac disease. These tests are designed to detect inflammation markers from the ongoing damage to the SB villi. Here is a primer: https://celiac.org/about-celiac-disease/screening-and-diagnosis/screening/ These tests are not a part of the standard CBC/CMP bloodwork ordered for most other things in a general checkup.

Let us know when you get the results of your bloodwork and if there were celiac antibody tests ordered we encourage you to post them online along with the reference ranges for each test as to what is negative/positive. Different labs use different values for the reference ranges so including that info is important if you want our input on the results.

Your doctor may want to order and endoscopy with biopsy of the small bowel lining to confirm the blood test results so it's very important to continue eating regular amounts of gluten until that procedure is complete, should your doctor want this. Going gluten free preliminary to testing will invalidate the results as it will allow healing and the inflammation antibody markers to subside.

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Happy to be here!

And awesome thank you for all the valuable info, it’s greatly appreciated! This will all be a big help

[Scott Adams]

After all testing is done and your doctor recommends that you go gluten-free, this article may be helpful:

 

[Jays911]

  On 7/31/2022 at 12:05 AM, Sebastian95 said:

Hello all!

I have dealt with stomach issues for about the past almost 8 years. About to weeks ago I went to my doctor and bad blood tests for literally everything possible done they took 8 tubes of blood.

So I got a call from the medical assistant a few days ago that my blood results (which i have not seen yet nor has my doctor until this week) supposedly are showing strong results that indicate celiac disease. And that I have an infection somewhere in my body i don’t know if that’s connected to the celiac at all?

but for years I’ve had symptoms of, diarrhea, fatigue, like brain fog/feeling heavy, as well as muscle weakness sometimes. Are these common with celiac? For reference im 27 never had any issues and don’t take any medications. 
 

I look forward to any input and help on this if possible if anything to at least calm my nerves. I appreciate any help and information possible. Thank you!

Expand Quote  

You have typical symptoms. But there are so many, over 300. Brain fog and fatigue were two of mine. Get tested. Hang in there.