Hi All,
Here is an article that better explains Celiac. University of Maryland is the largest researcher of the disease. We are lucky to have Patrick receiving the most up to date information possible. Someone is watching over us! We will see you all soon.
Barbara
Hi All,
If anyone is going for back to school physicals, have the doctor add the blood tests for celiac disease. I took Patrick in for his soccer physical and because of his small size the doctor checked him for a bunch of problems that sometimes cause short growth and he came up strongly positive for celiac disease. We have an appointment with a specialist to confirm. They do an intestinal biopsy. In a nutshell celiac disease is "allergy" to wheat,rye, oats and soy. Imagine that, another allergy in the family. Celiac disease causes a flattening of the intestinal wall and nutrients are not absorbed into the system Once he stops eating foods that contain these he should start to grow, but will have to be on this diet all his life, because later in life it causes more problems. Many people who have celiac are not short. Its just one of the side effects.
As with many of these things, it tends to be hereditary. Mike was tested and he is negative. My test results have not come back as of yet. The only problem is that it can skip a generation so I may still be negative. I'm alerting everyone because many of the side effects seem to run in our side of the family. Of course there's no reason to rush out and have the tests done, but the next time you're at the doctor, tell him its in your family history and want the blood screening done. Actually I'm hoping I'm positive because one side effects can be unexplained rashes!!! Maybe after all this time I can stop itching!!! (Anne mom said you were allergic to wheat when you were little. Another side effect is hypothyroidism, osteoporosis because you're intestines are not absorbing the calcium, and aptheous ulcers).
We all seem to have some of the side effects, which may be coincidental but since there are simple blood tests to screen and it has now been linked to our family everyone should be checked. To learn more first go to www.celiac.org , also good is www.celiac.com .
We still have three boys here from England and I think world war three has started in my basement so I'll be off. I'll keep everyone posted on Pat's progress. Get yourself and your kids tested. Talk to you soon.
- Barbara
