Celiac Diagnosis

On October 14th, the Dr. confirmed that I had Celiac Disease, that gluten and wheat were not my friend and I needed to radically alter my diet. I had a colonoscopy and an endoscope done on October 1st to look for polyps - family history of them on my Dad's side was the reason for colonoscopy. I had blood tests done earlier that indicated I had Celiac Disease, but the only way to confirm the diagnosis was to have the endoscope, but you have to eat gluten in the weeks preceding the endoscope so your small intestine shows the damage the gluten is causing. I think it is a lousy system, but it is the standard operating procedure.

A couple things about the actual diagnosis. 1) The blood test diagnosis was left via a voice mail, which I would love to include if I could figure out how. 2) When I was done with the whole scope process, I am a bit groggy (as they feed me crackers!!), I asked the Dr. " Should I avoid gluten?" He responds "No, go ahead, you're fine," which was the wrong thing to tell me. 3) After speaking with him on the phone and getting the diagnosis, he tells me that gluten free is "a miserable diet". Seriously?? India, Thailand, Japan, Vietnam and many other countries are pretty much wheat free or gluten doesn't play a huge role in their diet, unlike western countries. 

I find avoiding gluten isn't that hard, especially since I feel much better when I don't eat gluten.

Emotionally, now that is a different story.