Thanks everybody. I'm sorry I haven't replied back. I actually thought I did until I was re-reading this.
Hmmm... Brain fog much?
I'm definitely going to do whatever I can as far as diagnosis goes, because his family for some reason seems to believe that nothing bad ever happens to anybody and if you ignore something long enough it will go away. As for me, I'm 34 and both my parents have already died of cancer; my mom a little over a year after diagnosis, and my dad six months after diagnosis. So I know how fast someone can go from sick to dead. My FIL won't even go to a regular doctor and is just miserable all the time because HE has digestive symptoms too. I'm actually really worried about his health, but none of us can get him to go see a doctor. Wouldn't it be ironic if when he finally went to the doctor, they tested him for celiac and it was positive? I'm always worried for him that it will be something worse though because my dad died of stomach cancer.
It's kind of morbid, but if the worst happens and I don't get to see my kids grow up, I want to know (if I do in fact have celiac) that if they start having celiac symptoms, the fact that they have an official family history of celiac buried somewhere in their records will prompt doctors to test for it so they don't have to suffer with the symptoms for years before they even hear about it. If I leave it up to my husband and in-laws, who knows if they'd ever mention the possibility of it to the doctors or my kids. If I don't get an official diagnosis, they'd probably tell my kids that, boy I was nice, but I was a hypochondriac and thought I had some weird rare disease and went on some diet where I couldn't eat anything.
If it wasn't for their attitude about not doing anything about their own health problems, I would have probably already just gone gluten-free and considered an improvement a possible indication of celiac. Then if my kids started having problems, I would have been able to trust them to request celiac testing. Actually, I'm planning on getting the genetic testing no matter what my tests show, and if that shows anything, I'm getting my kids tested too.
But anyway... I do need to start keeping it to myself. I agree with what somebody here said that if the other people don't have anything to contribute, that it's really just thinking out loud.
I am going to go gluten-free after testing no matter what. Actually I did a diet a couple years ago, and part of it was no wheat (also no sugar, no salt, no dairy and no oil). Within the first week I lost like 7 pounds, but I looked like I had lost 15. The bloat was gone, the dark circles under my eyes were gone, my skin looked completely different, and I had so much more energy. It was also the only diet I had ever lost weight on and was able to keep it off for a long period of time.
Someone also asked about my symptoms -
- Urgent diarrhea - I've actually had to push my kids out of the way to get to the bathroom 10 feet away...
- Constipation
- Bloating
- Gas so bad that I can't go out in public
- Brain Fog / Poor memory
- Lactose intolerance
- Bad teeth - I was told as a teenager that I had almost no enamel on my teeth. My mom was going to the same dentist and he said I must have gotten that from her because she had the same thing.
- Scoliosis - found out about a year and a half ago. Not sure if it's osteoporosis-related. Need to get testing done so I can find out. It's gotten so bad at points that I have thought about asking my doctor for a handicapped placard for my car for the days that I can barely walk, but still have things that need to get done. Doing better than that now, but it was really rough for several months there.
- Hair loss
- Itching
- Exhaustion
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Sudden extreme weight loss - There have been a couple of times in my life where I've lost 25 pounds in the matter of a couple of weeks. The last time that happened was right before I met my husband.
- Sudden extreme weight GAIN - Again, a couple times. Gaining 25 pounds in the matter of a few weeks.
- Lack of appetite - I only eat a meal once a day, but I feel uncomfortably full for many hours afterward.
- Family history - Dad died of stomach cancer. Grandmother and great grandmother both had osteoporosis so bad that they were hunch-backed. Other grandmother had schizophrenia and really bad bloating.
- Started having symptoms after I got mono at age 17. It was like my body just kind of gave out on me. I've read on this board that quite a few people had the same experience after mono. Just never the same since then.
Again, thanks to everybody for being so supportive on this thread. I'm sorry I fogged out and thought I replied earlier.
Nancy