Knowing 'No' is Knowing No More?

[drwex]

More un-wellness stuff. We cut because we care.


The blood test for celiac came back negative. That's totally unsurprising, and something of a relief as I've watched the sucktasticness of this disease in several of my friends. However, my doc doesn't have any other explanation for the oddities seen in my small intestine on the last round of X rays.


Sorry for the nasty mental image, but giardiasis has a symptomatology that matches to a good degree and the doc agreed that some people do have histamine reactions to this kind of infestation. Anyway, it's not a parasite.


The next step is definitely a GI specialist, which is currently scheduled for June something. Neither my doc nor I like that answer so we're going to try to get them to make it sooner. I give them until Friday to improve the situation, then I unleash Pygment on them.


Meanwhile I'm thinking a couple steps ahead. My current theory is a food allergy, possibly nightshades. Two questions for the assembled knowledge base. Google isn't giving me clear answers.
1. Is it possible to be allergic to wheat or gluten without having celiac disease?
2. Are some nightshades worse than others? Like, could I be allergic to eggplant but not tomatoes? Or might one nightshade provoke a worse reaction than others?

Comments

[tamidon.livejournal.com]

I didn't know celiac had a blood test,I thought a biopsy was required for a definitive answer

[catya.livejournal.com]

yeah, i got tested for it...

[(Anonymous)]

it's also the case that the blood test will sometimes give a false negative (confirmed by a celiac i know).
--desrt born, posting from work

[drwex]

All tests have some chance of a false negative. In this case I have observational evidence that would tend to disagree with a diagnosis of celiac, and my symptoms aren't well-matched to the disease profile. So I'm likely to take the negative blood test as a good result, though I'm sure the GI guy is going to order a retest.

[drwex]

I'm not familiar with the biopsy. The blood test has been around for a couple years. The Mayo Clinic page <http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/celiac-disease/ds00319/dsection=6> suggests the blood test for initial screen and biopsy for confirmation.

[aelf.livejournal.com]

When my daughter was failure-to-thriving, the bloodtest was explained to me just as the Mayo Clinic page explains it, you start there. Only do the (more invasive) biopsy if necessary.