testing for coeliac disease

Well first if all it has been quite some time since my last blog entry. I’m not even sure why it’s been so long but I’m sure glad my new computer is smart enough to remember my login details ☺

Anyway so a couple of people who know me said that I should blog about my most recent experience, and with my trusty new computer I decided that would be a good idea. I don’t usually like talking about these kinds of things, but now that I’m almost at the end of it, I feel that hindsight will help me articulate the experience and reflect on what I’ve learned.

What the hell am I talking about you ask? Well the last 6 weeks of my life have been spent attempting to do build up the wheat and gluten content in my body so that I can have the genetic celiac disease blood test. This requires me to eat one wheat-based product three times a day for three to six weeks.

Well wasn’t too keen on the process at all, but I guess its one of the only ways to truly eliminate it from the possibilities and move on. So I selected the Christmas period, firstly because I would be able to eat all those great Christmas goodies my in-laws make, but secondly because most of the people at work and on my client site would be taking time off, so there would be less people to suffer from any of the symptoms that would follow.

The weeks leading up to starting on wheat and other grains again made me very nervous. I wasn’t really sure what to expect – would I be paralysed? Would I grow a third eye? Would I get covered in a horrible rash and not able to work? What if I’m not allergic to anything at all and I’ve made this whole thing up in my head?
I even wrote a list of things that I had missed eating – after all I had 126 wheat based products to eat – I may as well make the most of it right?


Week 1
The first week wasn’t that bad at all. I started with some really small portions. I started with Turkish bread and vegemite, and moved onto biscuits and flavoured chips. I seemed to have no reaction at all. No emotional rollercoaster’s, no weight gain, no stomach cramps! It was truly amazing! I actually thought, “wow, what if I’ve blown this whole thing out of proportion and I’m not really allergic to anything!” Until I remembered that I was on some very strange antibiotic’s to treat a cough I had for over 6 weeks. I think that might have had something to do with it.