No Celiac For My Mom

We just got my mom's celiac results back and she does not have it!  Her scores are actually very low- mine were in the hundreds and she had 4's and 5's.  This came as a surprise because when she ate gluten, she complained of stomach pains.  My dad had low gluten scores on the other test (the first one I took that tested for lots of different foods) and my mom does not have celiac, so we suspect that one of them had the gene but it was never triggered.  Or, both of them had it which could expain why my scores are so high.  Because there are two different genes that cause celiac, we don't know if i have dq8 or dq2.  Maye I have both! 

My Sister Joins the Gluten-free Club

My sister's test results came back, and to everyone's surprise she is also gluten-free!  No one suspected my sister because she weighs as much as I do and seems taller (though she is only a tiny bit taller than I was at her age.)   She is also allergic to dairy and eggs, but she is not allergic to soy or corn.  She does not like the gluten free diet because she has had more headaches in the past three weeks than she has had in the past 3 years.  I suspect it is because her body is getting rid of all the glutens, so she is feeling bad.  Now we are going to test her for celiac disease.  I hope she doesn't have it!

Also, my dad just finished reading a book called The Immune System Recovery Plan  by Susan Blum.  He said it was really helpful and explanative about the immune system and gluten-free stuff.  It is not a recipe book, it is an information book.  I recommend it!

Dietitian

Doctor, allergist, pediatrician, and now a dietitian!  We met with a dietitian for advice on how to keep up calories and prepare meals.  The dietitian had information that was very useful.

First, the dietitian said that we should have fat at every meal.  Whole milk used to be a major part of my diet, and it had a lot of fat.  Now that that has been eliminated, we need to keep the fat intake the same.  The dietitian gave us a list of fatty and caloric foods that we should use, and how much per meal (about.  You don't need to use everything on the list.). 

Food                    Amount

Almond Butter     1 tablespoon

Coconut Oil         1 tablespoon

Olive oil               1/2 tablespoon

Sunflower Seed  1 tablespoon

Pistachios           12-16 nuts

Pecans                8-10 nuts

 The dietitian also gave us an idea of what our plate should look like.  We should eat 2-3 fruits per day.  Half of our plate should be vegetables.   A fourth should be starch, but watch out for high portions of rice products because they are fast sugar (which means that it doesn't give you energy for very long.  It also makes your blood sugar go up, and then down very quickly.)   The last fourth of your plate is, of course, protein.  Beans, nut butter, hummus, are all things she mentioned.  You should have 1-2 oz. of meat twice a day to be healthy.  You should also have milk or yogurt, but we have to cut that out of our diet for a year.  

I recommend seeing a dietitian, because ours was very helpful.  We will meet with the dietitian again in a few weeks so she can see how I am doing.   The dietitian also liked the food log I have been keeping.  Unfortunately, she said I had the highest celiac test levels she has ever seen.  Also,  my dad and sister's test results still have not come back.  They should be here soon!

Celiac Disease

One of the tests the pediatrician ran was a celiac disease test, and the results came back positive.   So my gluten-free diet is a definite yes because I actually have this disease.  I don't know if anyone has celiac in my family, but if they did I would only have a 10% chance of getting it.  I must have bad luck.

Now we are making an appointment to see a gastrologist in Salem.  They will probably recommend a scope for me.  A scope is one of those cameras on a tube that they send inside you to see how bad your reaction.  If my  reaction is horrible then any gluten is really bad for me.  The doctor thinks that having celiac disease is affecting my low weight.  

As for my height, he thinks that I am just going to grow later than anyone else.  My hormone levels are normal, so I won't need growth hormones or anything like that.  I am just naturally short!

2 More Opinions

A couple of days ago we saw 2 more doctors, and both had different opinions than doctor 1!  One doctor was an allergist and one was a pediatrician.   Now I'm not sure what to think!

The allergist's main diagnosis was:  You can eat everything you want except for beef.  When we got the test, all the bars that showed how much I was allergic to something were gray except beef (something about IgE or IgG)  which was black.  The allergist said that beef, being IgE, was my only true allergy.  The others were just the foods I eat most.  So, no gluten-free or anything for me!  That night I noticed that when I had a biscuit I felt bloated, so I don't know if that means it was bad.  

The next day we saw a pediatrician.  His diagnosis was:  Don't go everything-free, just try one thing at a time.  Right now we are still gluten-free and we eat everything else only moderately.  I think this is a good idea because I had more reaction to gluten than any other allergy.  The pediatrician also tested me for IgA, which is the intestines reacting to the allergens.  This tests specifically for gluten.  When the results come back, we will know for sure whether or not I am allergic to gluten. 

My dad and my sister's tests still have not come back.  Our diet could get really hard if they are allergic to different things!

The Doctor

Today we went to the doctor and got some really good information.  The doctor told us a lot about what I can eat, can't eat, eating programs, and stuff about guts.  He said that  for 6 months I have to go completely gluten-free, dairy-free, and egg-free.  Apparently, if you eat things that you have allergies to your intestines get inflamed.  Small proteins, like gluten, can get through the intestine and into the bloodstream.  This makes you weaker, so dairy might slip through.  All the things that "get through" are new things so your body makes antibodies and treats it like a virus.  Then, you get these intolerances...
  
It takes 6 months for the intestines to heal.  So in 6 months I should be pretty healthy again! Until then, I have to have a super strict diet so I heal as fast as possible.  In six months I will have the test again to see if the levels go down.  If they do, we know we are eating right!

Another thing:  The whole eat-rice-every-day thing that we were doing is bad, because if you eat so much of something then you develop an allergy to it.  You try not to eat things in the same food group for 4 days, in a rotational diet.  Our ancestors ate things when they were in season, so they did not eat the same thing every day.  That prevented them from getting allergies, so it will work for us too.

Now we have our questions answered, and my dad & sister are also getting tested.  That could complicate things.