Yes, No, Maybe???

Some of you know that I've been undergoing tests to see if I have Celiac Disease. For those of you who haven't heard my drama, let me recap -- endoscopy, biopsy showing changes in the small intestine, bloodwork to see if I have a resistance to gluten, lots of gluten loading, doctor's appointment with mixed results.

For those who aren't familiar with Celiac Disease, it is another wonderful autoimmune disease where the body can't process gluten. As I'm sure all of you out in blogger world know, gluten is in practically EVERYTHING -- wheat, oats, bread, cake, cookies, processed meats, some cheeses, shall I go on? Anything that is really worth eating, usually contains gluten. The news that I might have this problem was absolutely devastating because let's face it, a girl of my size NEEDS gluten to maintain a healthy figure.

To eliminate gluten from my diet would be devastating. As I told the ladies at church on Wednesday when I was asking for prayer, Jason would probably be repulsed by my body were I to go on a gluten-free diet; I mean, I would lose so much weight! I kid, sort of, but you get the idea.

Anyway, at the doctor's office on Thursday, Dr. Kalathil told me that the results from my bloodwork were mixed. Mixed, you may ask, and you would be saying the same thing I did. How can the results be mixed? Well, it seems that I am definitely at a high risk for the disease. This was no big surprise since I already have one autoimmune disease (thyroid) and my grandmother is a type 1 diabetic. There are also three antibodies that the bloodwork shows. Two of these antibodies definitely indicate Celiac's. The other one they check for because it shows up in Celiac patients, but they aren't sure the implications of it.

As you might guess, the two definite indicators were low in my profile, but the ambiguous antibody was high.

Well, Alicia, what are they going to do? I'm glad you asked. In about 3 months, I'll have another endoscopy and if that biopsy shows changes, they will diagnose me with Celiac's and the fun will begin.

I guess I could consider myself in good company. Elisabeth Hasselbeck from The View has Celiac's. See what I mean about a figure-wrecker! Jason would hate for me to look like that. (A girl can dream, can't she?)

So, as for now, I'm eating gluten and enjoying being a medical mystery.