And not because of Amy this time – although I expect it won’t do her concentration levels any harm.
No, this time it’s Nathan. He’s been feeling progressively sicker over the last few months and standard blood tests have shown nothing. Originally we suspected Rheumatoid Arthritis, due to the increasing severity of pain in his joints, among other symptoms. We know that he has degenerative bone disease in his back, as well as osteoarthritis in the same vertebrae, but the aches in his shoulders and wrists were baffling us.
I’d wondered for a while if he might be having issues with gluten – Amy has the Coeliacs gene and I do not, therefore we know that Nathan has the Coeliacs gene – but we hadn’t really investigated it, until the stomach pain got really bad sometime last week.
So I suggested that we swap to gluten free meals for a bit and see how he feels.
Lo and behold, four days in, he’s feeling loads better. He’s not had the official tests or diagnosis at this point, but if being gluten free helps, then who are we to argue? He’ll be seeing the doctor sometime this week to have bloods drawn to test for coeliacs antibodies and we’ll go from there.
In the meantime, he’s feeling better and I’m trying to get my head around cooking gluten free again.
At least I know from last time we were gluten free as a household that it’s only the first fortnight that is difficult and then everything becomes second nature again.
Luckily, I have no problems with gluten, so I can still eat all the delicious things in the house.
Muahaaahaa.
sure you know this already but he must be eating gluten not avoiding it for the coeliacs blood test to be accurate/meaningful so as hard as it is Gluten must be reintroduced and eaten in the time leading up to the bloodtests
Blood tests will be tomorrow or the next day, so the antibodies won’t have had time to leave his system yet.
Good luck!
Glad you have found something that makes a difference.
Thank goodness you’ve found the answer!
I made damper rolls from scratch with gf flour last night, no one knew the difference and loved them, bwahahahahaha.
I cut gluten out six years ago and have to say, there are plenty of delicious gluten free things he can eat.
Gluten can cause pain in arthritic joints??
I have arthritis in many places, my knuckles are starting to develop that lumpy look, no one has ever suggested that gluten might exaggerate the pain. Maybe I’ll try cutting down on gluten and see what happens. I know I don’t have coeliac disease though.
Are you sure you don’t have coeliac disease, river? A negative blood test doesn’t rule it out, nor do normal biopsies. A positive blood test pretty much rules it in. A positive gene test along with a good clinical response to the gluten free diet may eventually be all that is needed to diagnose coeliac disease.
For those in doubt of whether coeliac disease is present, Dr Fine’s stool tests from Enterolab are quite reliable even if off gluten for a little while. I know a lot of people who had normal blood tests who had the coeliac gene who proclaimed to be non-coeliac gluten intolerant when they had elevated anti-TTG (i.e. tissue damage) antibody levels in their stool and fat malabsorption secondary to gluten sensitivity. Problem is these tests are so expensive (especially in Australia where we have to mail them back via Fed-Ex) and insurance companies probably won’t cover their value on this side of the world.
Are you saying your daughter tested positive for the coeliacs gene, but she still has gluten in her diet? Haven’t you kept the gluten free up with her? I know if my daughter has gluten for even a short period of time, she ends up so sick it isn’t funny which makes life crap for everyone around her.
Yes, she has the coeliacs gene, but she does not have coeliacs at this point. The gene, while a good indicator, does not tell you if someone has coeliacs, it merely tells you if someone can develop coeliacs. My son does not have it, therefore cannot get coeliacs. Amy does, and so we keep an eye on her diet and know that one day, she may have to be gluten free again.
It’s so amazing when you get an immediate improvement like that. Hope it doesn’t take too long to get your head around the meals.
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