Lessons...

Ok, now it's time for a little science and history lesson. I would write objectives for it, but I'm not quite that big of a dork. Maybe I am for thinking of doing that in the first place. ANYWAY: What is Celiac Disease?

Celiac is NOT:

• wheat gluten attacking your GI tract
• an "allergy" to wheat

Celiac is: an autoimmune disease in which your body mounts an immune response to the presence of wheat gluten in your diet. This immune response can cause damage to the GI tract, especially the villi of the small intestine. This can cause varying, nonspecific symptoms, many from malabsorption. It's estimated that 1 in 133 people has Celiac disease, though Celiac is often overlooked or misdiagnosed. For more info, visit here.

How in the world did I find out that I have it?

I've been feeling generally "bad" for years. I'm not sure when it started, somewhat as far back as I can remember. I was really sick as a little kid with major GI issues, but I guess I "grew out of it." I've been tired all the time, no matter what the situation, just different degrees of tired according to how much sleep I get. I was anemic according to blood tests about two years ago, with no real reason as to why. I took iron supplements, and it sort of helped. I started to notice last summer that I had pressure in my chest and it was hard to swallow sometimes. It would come and go randomly. My doctor said that it was GERD and gave me a PPI to take. I stopped coffee, chocolate, tea, anything that aggravates GERD. No difference. I've had, uh, other GI symptoms as well. Although they were annoying, I just wrote it off, thinking i was a hypochondriac and it was related to anxiety.

The anxiety was a whole different monster in itself, accompanied by depression. Not exactly sure when that started, but that was the big factor that made me realize that something was indeed wrong. After my first referral to a GI doc fell through, I eventually scheduled an appointment with a different group of GI docs. It was 5 months from the time I scheduled it to when it actually happened. I considered canceling many times for various reasons. I was feeling OK. It wasn't like I was dying. It was all in my head, and I didn't want to pay money to have a doctor tell me that. Regardless, I went to the appointment.

Coincidentally, the weekend before the appointment, I went to see my family doctor about a weird sort of rash on my toes. I noticed some itchy blistering on the tops of my toes. I thought yuck, this is a pretty nasty fungus and it's in a very weird place on my toes, and started using an antifungal cream. Yeah, that made it much worse. Doc took a biopsy and put me on an antibiotic (What? I don't contribute to antibiotic resistance!). Long story short(er), the GI doc later that week asked to look at my toes. Huh?! Yes, apparently that's a pretty common inflammatory manifestation of Celiac Disease, itchy blisters. Go figure. That contributed to his idea that it just might be Celiac.

Well, the biopsy is in (I don't recommend it...), and the blood tests are to come, but I am convinced I'm Celiac. If you know anyone else that you think of after reading this- bring it up!