Thursday, August 19, 2010

Could I have Celiac Disease?

Over the last three months I have been living with the feeling that something is constantly stuck in my throat. I finally decided that maybe I should have it checked out so I went to see my family doctor on Tuesday. He referred me to a Gastroenterolgist and to the hospital to have an unltrasound of my thyroid (I had the ultrasound to rule out thyroid cancer, since my mother had thyroid cancer). I had the ultrasound yesterday and they found that my thyroid looks fine. I was lucky enough to get into the gastroenterologist today and she told me that I need to have an endoscopy (which is scheduled for mid-September). They are going to take a look and do some biopsies. She told me that she thinks my problem is one of three things: allergies (which she seemed to think that I probably do not have allergies since I don't have the other symptoms related to allergies), a mass in my throat, or celiac. While I was sitting in the exam room I was looking up at the pamplets on the wall and thought, hmmm what if whatever I have could be related to celiac. In case you don't know what celiac disease is an "autoimmune disease where the lining of the small intestine is damaged from eatting gluten and other proteins found in wheat, barley, rye and possibly oats". If you are diagnosed with celiac you have to go off of all gluten to allow the intestine to heal, because not avoiding those foods could cause other issues including autoimmune disorders, intestinal cancer, fractures, infertility, miscarriage and oestoporosis. (Google Health)

Ever since J was diagnosed with food allergies over three years ago I always said, at least my children don't have allergies to soy or wheat. Well now Mr. T is allergic to soy and if I have celiac then wheat, oatmeal, barley and rye are out, which is way depressing since my favorite food is pizza and I would not be allowed to eat at any of my favorite pizza restaurants (I might as well never go back to Chicago because my FAVORITE thing to eat there is pizza- they have the best pizza on earth) and bakeries are totally out. I don't know how people handle a wheat free diet- I am totally in love with anything that is made out of bread- doughnuts, pizza, bread, etc... and I cannot imagine anything made without wheat flour could taste good. When I talked to my husband and mother today I asked them what I would eat since I am off of milk, eggs, nuts and soy and they told me that if I have celiac that I should probably stop breastfeeding since I would be restricted from eatting most foods. I want to keep breastfeeding Mr. T as long as possible. Anyway, I guess I should not dwell on that unless I have to cross that bridge.

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