LitttleBear

Hello! I posted a similar message below for one person, but thought maybe I could throw it out there to anyone that might be able to offer me some suggestions.

Very briefly, I have been living with abdominal pain - often severe - for over three years. I have had every test done known to man (seemingly)...CT scan, general X-rays, upper GI with Small Bowel, cholangiogram, DESIDA scan, liver and pancreatic function tests, ultrasounds, endoscopy, liver biopsy, stress test, holter monitor, exploratory surgery, and even had my gallbladder removed. I've been to nine different doctors (two internal med., two gastroenterologists, two surgeons, two cardioologists, and even my OB/GYN for good measure!); and have exhausted our financial resources, to say the least! All tests were normal, except gallbladder function was 31%.
NO ONE has offered me a reason for my pain. Gallbladder removal was a joke - it didn't do a thing for this pain.

I have just in the past week come across information on celiac disease, and it seems like it might be closely related to - if not the cause of - my problem.

My main symptom is abdominal pain (many times severe) in the upper abdomen (mostly towards the upper center, but also to the right). Pain occurs after eating. Also, sometimes it is accompanied by heartburn. After the initial "attack" (which lasts for hours, usually), then I have residual pain for a few days.

This all started two months after my first child was born.

I never connected the pain with a specific food until two weeks ago. Until then, I kept eliminating the wrong foods. First I thought it was nut butters, then tomato-based products, then seafood, then soy, then dairy, then sugar, then "wheat", then, then, then...!!! It never registered that the common denominator in all of those "triggers" was gluten. (And I didn't realize that gluten was in everything from vitamins to envelope seals...not just the obvious "bread" products.) If celiac disease has been my problem, there's no wonder I couldn't trace it!

But two weeks ago I had two events that clued me in (hopefully). One, I had a bowl of "plain-old" grape nuts. Couldn't even get through half of the bowl before I was doubled over in pain and breaking out in a sweat.

A few days later the same thing happened when I ate a whole wheat biscuit.

That's when I began my quest and came across celiac disease. I've tried for the past week to eliminate gluten from my diet, but I keep finding out it's in everything. So I've technically only been gluten-free for about two days.

I can't request a biopsy right now because I'm pregnant and they won't do anything like that until I have the baby. I know they could do a blood test, but I've heard they aren't always positive even in positive cases, and I can't eat anything with gluten in it just to get a positive result. The last two episodes did it for me, and I surely hope that I have at last found my trigger food! I can't keep living with these horrendous attacks of pain.

Celiac disease just makes so much sense to me with all of this. Other unexplainable problems I've dealt with for years seem to make sense with this, too. (Problems with the enamel on my teeth, mouth ulcers, heart palpitations, infertility - I know, that one sounds odd since I'm telling you I have a child and another on the way, but these are blessing babies...TOTAL answers to prayer from God!)

And through all of this, pain meds usually made my pain WORSE. EXCEPT for the time they gave me some in the ER...via a shot (probably no gluten in that one). So it just makes me wonder...you know?

By the way, just for additional information, I am not overweight, I am underweight. And I eat healthier than anyone I know. So it's not like I haven't watched my diet or sit around eating foods that are terrible for me.

So I say all that to ask...
What do you know about Celiac disease?
Am I on a wild goose chase, just desperate for answers?

I've searched for answers for three years, and this seems to be the only plausible answer that I HAVEN'T yet been tested for. You can e-mail me any web sites, too, if you know of anything that might be helpful. I found a forum the other night that I've been trying to mull through. But I'll take all the help I can get.

Hope I didn't overwhelm anyone! Thanks for "listening" - if anything!
Anna