As a lifetime carb addict, I was never interested in the Gluten Free "thing." As friends embraced it for reasons I didn't fully understand, I began to question their sanity. What were they thinking? Life without bread bowls of soup? Endless breadsticks at Olive Garden? Heaping piles of pasta? Why would they want to live like that?
In May I developed a stomach ache. It quickly escalated from a minute annoyance to the burning pain of a thousand suns. CT scans and blood work were uninteresting. The cause could not be identified. A nurse practitioner said "Maybe you should try a gluten free diet, see if it helps?" I was in so much pain, I didn't even argue.
Going gluten free wasn't helping, so I was the lucky winner of an endoscopy and colonoscopy. In one session. They start at the top, by the way. I asked.
In time my horrible abdominal pain was determined to be a failing gallbladder, but the endoscope gave a surprising result. I had a positive biopsy for Celiac.
I never had the blood tests that find most Celiac cases. A biopsy is pretty definitive, so the diagnosis was easy.
I know this is a pretty unusual way of finding Celiac. Incidental findings on a biopsy of the digestive system are probably not terribly common... And I don't recommend it. But whether you have a blood test, a biopsy, or you just give the gf diet a go and it feels good, the end result is the same.
Lots of rice.
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