Lab results little low re: celiac

[nissen99]

I just received a call from my 17 year old son's doctor's office saying that the lab results for the celiac test was a little bit low. They are going to retest at his next visit in December. He has not complained to me of diarrhea or sick stomach. He does seem a little fatigued and depressed to me sometimes and at his last appt. in Sept., he was down a couple pounds (although the week before he suffered a concussion from football and wasn't eating normally.) Anyway, I just wondered if anyone has experience with this and how much I should be worried about it. Could he develop symptoms slowly and maybe just hasn't experienced the diarrhea yet?

[Scratch]

The big difficulty is that there isn't any super consistent display of symptoms across individuals. Some get diarrhea, some get constipated, the irregularity of bowel movements can go through cycles.

So if they redo the bloodwork and it shows a potential positive for antibodies, then your son will probably have to have an endoscopy done where the intestinal lining can be examined for villous atrophy which is probably the closest thing to a gold standard for diagnosis of celiac's.

Now here's the thing. Fatigue and depression can be caused by many things of course, and if he's not have any serious digestive difficulties, I'd advise that you don't do anything like deciding to gluten free as of right now. Not only is figuring out everything to avoid gluten ****ed annoying because wheat gets used in darn near everything, but if he was to begin eating gluten free and if he is gluten intolerant, the damage will begin to heal and make an endoscopy useless for diagnosis.

[nissen99]

Do you think if he's not having any digestive problems that I shouldn't be too worried about it? Or do some people have celiac disease and not display symptoms of their digestive system? I have read some things on the internet that seem to indicate that no diarrhea can be present and someone could still have the disease.