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Ummm, yeah, that sounds like negligence to me, too. It's one thing for a doctor to not know enough about the disease to think about it and be able to diagnose based on non-standard symptoms and a negative "gold-standard" biopsy, but it's quite another to have a diagnosis written in your records and not tell you. It is unacceptable for a doctor to not tell you if you have a disease.

Maybe you could give him the list of potential diseases that can be caused by untreated celiac - stuff like cancer, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's, etc. There's a good list of them in the book Dangerous Grains.

Not a celiac specialist, but my GP is great if you're looking for a yearly doc who won't give you the evil eye when you mention you have celiac and will know what to look for. I go to Ronda Stellar at the Shoreview Medical Clinic. She says whenever she gets someone who's having trouble getting pregnant, she'll test them for celiac. She's also been to several talks about it so she' pretty knowledgeable and realizes there's more to it than the stereotypical symptoms.

I don't know a lot about vaccinations, but I do agree that it's probably not a good idea for someone whose immune system isn't healthy. You might want to inquire about the vaccines that she's not getting and ask about the symptoms of the diseases. You're obviously very aware of your daughter's health so knowing the symptoms will help you bring her to the doc right away if you think she's got anything. From what I can remember, most vaccines are for diseases that aren't that common but can be serious if there's an outbreak.

I also like the book "Dangerous Grains" if you want to emphasize the seriousness of the disease and all its complications.

I'm not sure about blood tests. Celiac you can do a blood test for because it's autoimmune so your body produces antibodies, but allergies are a different reaction. The other problem is that you might have an allergy or you might have an intolerance/autoimmune reaction (I can't remember which is which - one is IgA, another IgE - someone here will know). I'm not allergic to wheat so an allergy test would come up negative, but I am most certainly intolerant/autoimmune reaction to wheat. An elimination diet would be the best way to test for both of these reactions, although I know how frustrating an elimination diet can be. Sorry I can't be of more help.

I happened to catch part of The Night Show w/ Jay Leno last night, and he had that guy that does all those controversial shows like 9/11 and stuff (I can't remember his name right now). They were talking about a new movie he has out called Sicko or something. It is about the poor health care system in America. He said that the accused terrorist down at Guantanamo (sp?) in prison have EXCELLENT health care. They have done numerous dental procedures and colonoscopies and all kinds of stuff to these terrorists! It really ticks me off that I have to debate on whether I should take my sick child to the dr or get her asthma meds refilled, or buy food. I shouldn't have to choose, and no one in the world should.

Oh yeah, that's Michael Moore. I started watching Sicko a few weeks ago and couldn't watch anymore after 10minutes. It's still sitting there and I haven't gone back to it. The movie is about people who have health insurance. He doesn't even deal with people who aren't insured.

I totally get what you're saying, StrongerToday. Had the woman with cervical cancer gotten proper medical treatment right away, she probably would have recovered. Now, after two years, I wonder if she can get better. And I can't imagine it's easy to get health insurance coming out of jail. I know that jail is punishment, that it shouldn't be fun or easy, but (especially for those who are not in for life) proper medical treatment should be given to at least give a chance at being a contributing member of society when they get out. Of course, now that I say that, I realize that there's a good chunk of people not in jail who can't get good medical treatment just because the way the system is set up in the USA, but seriously, if jail is supposed to be for rehab, then you have to at least try to give people what they need to be successful when they get out.

ppm is pages per minute that your printer can print. Printers often have two ppms: a slower ppm if you're printing color and a faster one for black and white. You'll pay more for a higher ppm (i.e. faster printer), so consider the length of the documents you're printing and how fast you need it. If you can wait 30 seconds for your document to print, a lower ppm is a good way to save money without sacrificing print quality.

dpi is dots per inch, so it's how close your printer puts ink dots on the page. A higher dpi will result in higher quality printing. With a lower dpi you may start to see the dots rather than having them all blend together (think regular TV where you can see the pixels if you look closely versus high definition where you won't see any pixels). A higher dpi will cost more and will use more ink so consider if you need top-quality looking printing (which might be necessary if you're going to be making copies of a printout) or if it's just for your own use. One thing to note is that there is a setting in most printer software where you can print in lower quality to save ink and then select higher quality for the few times when you do need it.

I'd also look at ink price and how many sheets can be printed per ink cartridge to get a feel of the cost to keep the thing running.

I love HP. My first computer was an HP, I bought an HP printer (just a cheapie college one), and I now have an HP laptop. I've used two canon printers and disliked both partially because the paper-feed wasn't so good and they ate ink, but these were also pretty cheap printers. I also dont' like Lexmark, but I can't tell you why. It's more of a feeling. You could say I'm brand-loyal

So I guess in summary I should try to stay away from jail! I figured it wouldn't be easy to get gluten-free in jail, but if they are unable to accommodate gluten-free, then they're killing you. And that just doesn't seem right even for people who have committed crimes. Jail messes people up enough so they have trouble when they get out and if they end up with cancer because of the non-gluten-free food in jail, too, well, that's no good. Forget lethal injection - let's do death by gluten!

I also want to thank everyone for the replies. I often feel really nauseous for a few hours after waking. Think me sitting at my desk with a flat sprite and some apple sauce staring at my computer and wanting to throw up. Sounds like the blood sugar might be my problem. Is there any way to know for sure whether my blood sugar is low other than experimenting with eating/not eating before bed?

It looks like you're still new to celiac and it's hard to transition to being able to get food anywhere to having to bring your own all the time. Hopefully this will inspire you to think ahead and always bring something to eat with you. And sorry you feel badly - get better soon!

Looks like you've got the chemical stuff taken care of! I also use Seventh Generation or vinegar/water.

What about getting all your vitamin levels checked if you go to the doc? Maybe you're missing something.

I have no idea what forum to post this in. I was wondering if anyone knew if you can get gluten-free food in jail? No, I am not planning on going to jail anytime soon. It's just that every time I turn on the news it's about Paris Hilton in jail and they had a story on jail food and how it cost $.18 per meal. The stuff looked like slop. And then I wondered if they can accommodate people on special diets. And then I wondered about CC in the jail kitchen. And then I figured I'd ask all of you for your opinions

I think you can pass on gluten to a baby. My mother had to go casein-free when she was nursing my brother because he was intolerant.

I would also guess another food intolerance or issue other than celiac since you've been gluten-free for a while and probably have the diet down to the point where you're not making many mistakes. I found out I was intolerant to peanuts nine months after going gluten-free and I get the same symptoms as gluten so it was hard to track down.

You might also have a minor intolerance. I find I feel sick if I eat too much dairy (like more than three servings in a day which I really shouldn't be doing anyway). It's hard to track down things like that because you eat it one day and feel fine, eat it the next day and feel yucky. Intolerances based on quantity are a pain.

You could also consider things like chemicals. Did you get new carpet or change cleaning products? Chemical exposure often makes me feel glutened (probably because gluten affects EVERYTHING in my body so if I feel sick at all it feels like gluten...) Or what about mold exposure?

I still can't believe Americans can take peanut butter to school . Our school "discourages" peanuts. If there are not epi-pen peanut allergic kids in a class then students can take peanut butter but are supposed to wash hands really well afterward, and their desks also. The kids eat at their desks in the classroom and sometimes if it's a split class, say grades 3 & 4, then sometimes the grade 3s go next door and the grade 4s from next door come in and the desks have to be clean in case one of them is allergic.

It would make my life a he!! of a lot easier if I could send pb sandwiches.

School ends here on Wednesday, and I dread the summer because I find lunch is the hardest thing to make gluten-free.

Have you tried sunflower seed butter? It tastes almost the same as PB (I can't tell the difference when it's in a sandwich) and I can get it at the local grocery store.

I love summer lunches. We eat tortillas a lot (melt cheese on a corn tortilla and top with lettuce, tomato, salsa, etc) and beans on toast (heated baked beans on toast) or hotdogs.

Good for you! A lot of my unopened gluten food went to the food drive upon diagnosis, too.

Good to know, thanks for sharing! I live in Minneapolis so not too far. It did cross my mind the other day whether B&Bs were out, but I guess not.

Chronically inflamed intestines? I wonder what causes that. Certainly it could be celiac or another food allergy. About the dairy: do you think it's lactose or casein? Casein can be in a lot of lactose-free products so if you're just lactose-free, you might want to consider going casein-free. Testing for celiac is also unreliable, especially in younger children, so if it were my child, I wouldn't be completely confident in the not-celiac diagnosis. Have you tried going gluten-free? I feel dietary response can be the best method of testing. If she has celiac, you'll know soon enough.

EDIT: Ok, never mind the casein stuff, I just read your signature and I guess you're already CF!

Congrats to your son and also to you for letting him go! What events is he participating in?

If you have a positive biopsy, that's all you need to diagnose celiac. I don't see a reason why you should continue getting testing - just go gluten-free! It's going to be a huge challenge at first, but things get much easier as you figure out safe brands. It's scary at first, but you're lucky that you've got a very treatable disease here. BTW - I also had joint/muscle pain and depression which completely disappeared after going gluten-free.

The fact that you responded well to a gluten-free diet for a few days is promising. Your villi will be very damaged so it's likely that you'll still feel pretty rotten for a while until they heal. You could also try cutting out dairy temporarily. Lactose is digested by the tips of your villi so if they're damaged you may have trouble digesting that for a bit.

Keeping a food journal is an excellent idea. My one worry is that it's hard to test for celiac once you go gluten-free. The blood tests show antibodies to gluten which disappear once you stop eating it and a biopsy isn't always accurate because damage can be patchy. Plus you will start to heal as you go gluten-free. These are the traditional ways of testing for celiac so it's very possible your doc will want you to go back on gluten to do the testing. Whether you want to do that or not is a very personal decision. Many people start eating gluten and feel so awful that they have to stop. Dietary response is enough for them to maintain a gluten-free diet. Others need "doctor's proof" that they have it to make themselves stay gluten-free. One method or testing you could try is enterolab (enterolab.com). You mail in a stool sample and they can test for gluten intolerance even if you're gluten-free. It's not super accepted in mainstream medicine, though, so it's probably something you'd have to do on your own. This is not necessarily a bad thing. I have read some stories about people with "official" diagnoses having trouble with health insurance later in life so I'm a bit nervous about having that diagnosis on my record.

No, I never cheat. Going gluten free gave me my life back. There's no food that is so delicious to make me want to eat it and return to my brain-fogged, in pain state in which I cannot get off the couch. I like my current lifestyle too much to want to give it up for a piece of cake.

I also do a lot of gluten-free cooking and baking so there are very few things that I do not have a tasty gluten-free substitute for.

Sounds safe to me. But, as always, I'd call the company to be 100% sure. I always buy icing sugar from a regular grocery store without any problems.