If You Look You'll Find Something

 Last month I was having problems with my eyes. They were red, a little painful to blink and upon the doctor examining them he said they were inflamed. Doctor prescribed me eye drops and instructions to come back in about a week. When I went for the followup he said that he didn't know why they were inflamed. He said that sometimes things in the body can cause the inflammation so he'd like to run blood tests and see if there's something that can be found that's causing my eye problems. I said ok. I went a few days later for the blood draw. There was a lot more blood drawn than I realized would be. Even the phlebotomist was surprised how much. I thought, well if you're checking this many things in my blood there's going to be something that pops up. 

Sure enough, on December 16th Dr. Barney called me. He seemed to stammer over what to say. I knew it wasn't good. He said the antibody levels of one antibody are extremely high. Normal is 0-19. Positive high is 20-30. I'm at a 60. What?! He said that he'd done some reading and talking to a doctor and what this generally is is Celiac disease. The disease I've always been so grateful that we haven't had to deal with in our lives with children or Jaime or I. Eating gluten kills the villi in the small intestine making it so that your body doesn't absorb nutrients. I haven't had symptoms until the last year and a half I have been able to pinpoint a few things that could be that but for the most part it sounds like I have silent celiac disease. 

From what I've read I'm not supposed to eat gluten even if I don't have symptoms because damage is still being done to the intestine and if I don't change what I eat then it'll get worse with time. So because Dr. Barney is a optometrist he sent my test results to my doctor and I'll go see him on January 3rd. Needless to say I've been stressed and can hardly wait to hear what he has to say. Jaime read that there are two scales on which to read the test results so according to one I'm ok. I've also read that the tests are 90-95% correct so as much as I'm praying the results are wrong I feel like it probably isn't. 

I've read more than I should. Just causes stress and worry but I feel like it's all I can do in the mean time. I've tried cutting out most gluten foods to see if I'm feeling any different. I'm not. If I really have celiac disease then this will be a big change in my life. I hate the thought of having an incurable disease that I'll have to try and manage the rest of my life. Turning 40 does suck. I feel like everything is downhill from there. 

Once I turned 40 it seems like I get more tired easier, my workouts are harder to push myself in, and now I'm celiac!? Just add that to my heart issues. A couple years ago I found out that I have a coarctation of the aorta, a narrowing in the aorta, and a bicuspid heart valve instead of a Tri-cuspid. There's most likely heart surgery in my future. At least it's not a severe narrowing but it's another hit to my health. Someone who loves to be healthy, eat healthy, workout regularly....has heart issues and now celiac disease. blah. Makes me sad. I feel like Monday can't come soon enough. I just want to get more information from the doctor. Maybe have another test.