I went to the doctor in February with all sorts of niggly symptoms, I thought maybe early menopause so she ordered blood tests for hormones and thyroid and vitamin and mineral levels. Most came back normal except very anaemic and low levels of a couple of other minerals. She wanted to find the reason for the anaemia, I mentioned that I had had an issue with wheat as an infant. She ordered ceoliac seriology and a test to check for bleeding in the bowel. The blood test came back clearly positive and obviously she hadn’t done her research because she told me to go gluten free straight away. So the next week I had most of my children have the blood test. My 8 year old daughters antibodies were through the roof, so she went gluten free straight away. I asked for a referral to a dietician to make sure I got things right for my daughter. One sons came back inconclusive. A couple of weeks later I get a call from the doctor saying the local hospital wants a complete diagnosis before my daughter could see the dietician. The doctor wrote a referral for my daughter to see the paediatric consult at the hospital, for my son who is 17 and myself to see a gastroenterologist , also at the hospital, my daughter and son both got appointments about 6 weeks after referral. My son has already had his biopsy and came back clear, my daughter had to go back on gluten for 6 weeks before the biopsy, after 9 weeks gluten and celiac symptoms she has her biopsy this week.
When I checked with the hospital about my referral I was told it would be a year before I even saw a Doctor. I have stayed of gluten for now. Having just gone through it with my daughter I’ m not keen to wait a year and be mostly healed before I go back on gluten for a couple of horrible months to confirm the diagnoses. So how long did other people wait after blood tests before biopsy? Did you go through your local hospital or through a private gastroenterologist?