The Long, Windy Road to Diagnosis

It all started with beer. Somewhere around my senior year in college, I noticed that I couldn't drink beer without getting sick (no, I'm not talking about many beers. I'm talking one beer).  It was odd--I was pretty good at drinking beer earlier in my college career and now? Now, it was off my list. Fast forward to 2004-2005 when I traveled a lot for my job which also meant I ate a lot. And when you eat too much gain weight--which I did. Now fast forward to 2006.

Celiac is a genetic disease meaning I always had the gene--it was just waiting in my body to become active. Experts say, "surgery, pregnancy, and stress" can make it active. For me it was stress. JLO and I both got new jobs, bought a house and got engaged in a matter of four months.  One morning in August, I developed a migraine headache that wouldn't quit. My entire left side became numb and we rushed to the ER. This started my four year journey to a Celiac diagnosis. Each season, each year I would add on more health problems to my list of complaints until finally in 2010 it all came together.

My symptoms were:
migraine headaches, tingling skin, throwing up a half hour after eating pretty much anything (and the "other end" issues, too), fatigue, lost 50+ pounds without doing anything specific (well, besides eating gluten!), swollen fingers, tingling teeth, a swollen left foot, unbearable joint paint, specifically in my left leg, hip pain,  overall irritability (oh, ask my family about this one sometime! Not pretty.)

As you might agree, these were pretty random symptoms, so I went to different doctors:
 ER doctors,
a neurologist,
an obgyn,
a colorectal surgeon,
a hematologist,
a podiatrist,
a rhuemotlogist,
an allergist and
a family practice doctor,

all who took many vials of blood, countless lab tests and xrays. Nothing. The only thing that was determined was that I have Ledin Factor Five (a genetic blood clotting disorder). Not the cause of all my problems.


Finally, in 2010 when I was convinced I was either absolutely crazy or going to die the next day, my cousin (who was finishing medical school at the time) wanted to help. We started emailing back and forth and what she could see, by looking at my WHOLE body, my completed history,  was that my issues pointed to autoimmune. She recommended the Celiac test (thankfully, we had moved at this point at my new doctor agreed) and the rest is Celiac history!