House Tv Show Will Feature Celiac Disease

[Guhlia]

I'm just glad that a mainstream show did an ENTIRE SHOW about the disease. If it causes just ONE doctor to go look up celiac disease, then it was worth it. It was a pretty exagerated case of celiac, but hey, isn't that what drama shows like House are all about? I'm just glad that maybe a couple more people may decide to become more educated about the disease.

[NicoleAJ]

Though they had to find some way of sensationalizing celiac for popular consumption and a good story line, I'm not sure that having a young crazy baby-drowning mother was the trick--it somehow seems like a retrospective apology for Andrea Yeats and other baby-killing mothers rather than being about celiac.

How many people get cancer that young without having other celiac symptoms? All press is good press, but my boyfriend accidentally bought me some gluten-filled ricotta today and I caught it in the nick of time--right before plunking it into my gluten free lasagne, and he, after the show said, I bet that drunk of a husband brought home the wrong ricotta one too many times. I can just picture one of my aunts calling me up and saying, now you won't try to kill your first-born right? You do have this thing under control don't you? It's definitely good to promote discussion, but this probably isn't the most effective way they could have done it for all of the misconceptions it could spur.

[Guest nini]

stressful events can TRIGGER celiac, and yes, some of us were actually a bit nutso before dx... just ask my family.

[jaten]

No. Chase came in saying the baby had "slight villous atrophy". So celiac was in it's early stages for the baby, but full blown for the mom. The mom could have been an asymptomatic celiac, there are many out there......

Karen

But they said that her lunacy was a result of a lack of niacin in the blood ....or something like that.

[penguin]

They did do a decent but very brief job of explaining the malabsorption. I'm disappointed. I really wish Celiac had not been portrayed as causing baby-killing psychosis. How often do you hear of that. And yet, what does it make the unelightened think? Celiacs are nutcases.

I'm not.

That's what I thought. When I saw the previews I was afraid it would show us as nutcases, and here ya go.

I know the symptoms she had are the extreme, and are possible, but still. People will think celiac causes just delusions and baby-killing tendancies from calcium stuff. No mention of vomiting, diarrhea, cramps,weight loss. That's not going to help raise awareness for your run of the mill person. I also know there are many asymptomatic celiacs out there, but I also can't believe the GIG had anything to do with it.

I like how they threw in the rare celiac induced cancer for good measure. Sorry, I'm pissed, that sucked.

I do give them credit for the brief illustration.

[Guest nini]

I am not talking about those symptoms, Nini. Lots of people get the anxiety and seizures but how many of us hear voices and harm other people? They shouldn't have mixed it in with her other problems.

that too... don't like to talk about it, but that is part of why I was on Paxil and Zoloft...

[MySuicidalTurtle]

Was that a symptom of you eating gluten or because of the anxiety and stress?

[Guhlia]

stressful events can TRIGGER celiac, and yes, some of us were actually a bit nutso before dx... just ask my family.

Nini, here here to that! I'm with you all the way there!

[mommida]

I think they worked the post pregnancy part into the story line because that is a trigger for the Celiac gene.

The show will bring out the more "overlooked" symptoms to make the diagnoses fit on many levels, and to keep the audience in awe and wonder.

L.

[Guest nini]

Was that a symptom of you eating gluten or because of the anxiety and stress?

I don't know, all I do know for sure is that I wasn't dx'ed until my daughter was 3, my family all thought I needed help... now I certainly wasn't extreme like the chick on House, that was certainly an extreme hypothetical of undiagnosed celiac complications...

[jerseyangel]

I wish they had told the story differently, but I expected this kind of thing from House. It's how they handle all of the medical mysteries--and I think it usually makes for an interesting show. They take everything to the extreme.

[Canadian Karen]

I agree. It is the type of show that House is and if they did just any old run of the mill story about celiac, the channel would have been changed in the first 10 minutes.......

Karen

[NicoleAJ]

I went 24 years undiagnosed and the only voices I hear are through an ipod. And I may have had internal bleeding, but it was coming out the other end.

[Guhlia]

Was that a symptom of you eating gluten or because of the anxiety and stress?

Malabsorption can cause extreme psychosis (as well as depression and anxiety). I'm certainly not alluding that anyone on this board has had that problem, I just know that in extreme cases it can be very in depth. Vitamin B6 and B12 deficiencies (please correct me someone if I'm wrong on these) can cause mental disorder. Deficiencies in other vitamins as well as these can cause extreme situations, even as extreme as they demonstrated on House. I'm not saying that I thought this was a good representation of celiac disease, just that it's possible.

[Guest nini]

my hubby still jokes about the voices I hear...

[mommida]

Maybe they told the story from too much of a doctor's perspective, because haven't we complained on here for years that the doctors we've been to keep blowing us off like we're crazy?

L.

[MySuicidalTurtle]

They could of had it like we thought and had a main character have Celiacs. That way they could have done it not so extreme. They didn't even do just straight Celiacs but mixed in other things. I just don't want someone to say, "oh, I saw that on house. Do you hear voices right now?"

[NicoleAJ]

I was impressed by the graphics of the villi though--that was pretty cool. I doubt they actually turn black, but it did illustrate the point nicely.

[jenvan]

Flippin' great! Whether it was crazy or not, I'm just glad Celiac made it onto the show! I yelled loudly though when they mentioned villious atrophy and dh told me to be quiet, and I was like "I'm excited! Don't boss me around!!"

[jaten]

Yeah, it made the story interesting. But, if you didn't know anything about Celiac before tonight. And you saw the show....then a month from now you meet someone who says "I have Celiac" What would your thoughts be???

I don't know, I just wish they had concentrated on the weight loss or something. I lost 5 lbs/wk no matter what I ate, for 8 straight wks. Fortunately, I was overweight to begin with. But evenso, if the proper diagnosis hadn't been made at the 8th wk, I wonder how much longer I would have been around. That was the most scared I'd ever been.

[mommida]

They could of had it like we thought and had a main character have Celiacs. That way they could have done it not so extreme. They didn't even do just straight Celiacs but mixed in other things. I just don't want someone to say, "oh, I saw that on house. Do you hear voices right now?"

"Why yes, yes I do! They are telling me to feed you gluten. Right now.

L.

[penguin]

Aside from the fact that the storyline was hastily run together, there are huge flaws.

When did they give her gastritis meds? She complained of stomach pain once, seconds before vomiting blood. As one with celiac and gastritis, I know the meds don't work as well on gluten, but it further confused the issue.

As long as they were throwing random things into her chart, couldn't they have tossed in some gastro stuff to balance the crazies out?

I understand going to extremes, sure, whatever you need to do for good television, but this does anything BUT raise positive awareness for celiac.

DH said that if he knew nothing about celiac and saw that, he would think that it was a psychological disease caused by gluten. Not that they really explained what gluten was.

[Guest nini]

They could of had it like we thought and had a main character have Celiacs. That way they could have done it not so extreme. They didn't even do just straight Celiacs but mixed in other things. I just don't want someone to say, "oh, I saw that on house. Do you hear voices right now?"

I've been a huge House fan since the beginning, so I have to say that I did expect this storyline like this from House... when I saw the previews I saw an extreme version of myself in the story... so to me it's not SOOOOOOO bad that they are representing Celiac as crazy nutso mothers... I don't think my case would have ever progressed to that extreme, but I do expect that from House...

[jaten]

I went 24 years undiagnosed and the only voices I hear are through an ipod.

Ditto! ....well, I don't know exactly when mine developed, but as a child no doubt. I hear voices through an IRiver

And I may have had internal bleeding, but it was coming out the other end.

Ditto! Which is what put me in the hospital, where a dr. finally said, "Gluten!"

[Guhlia]

Has anyone looked down to see how many people are reading this thread right now?