The verdict is in.....

I have Celiac Disease. Diagnosed exactly two days ago.

I wish I could say that I found this really great doctor that had this really obscure thought as to what my afflictions might be. Or that I told him all my symptoms and he immediately said "Oh I know what we should do next." That all would have been to easy and everyone knows nothing about Celiac Disease is easy....right?

I've had this rash for almost 11 years. It's always been on my feet and ONLY on my feet. I've been through countless doctors telling me it's Athletes feet (really?) or ringworm (I was officially horrified/disgusted) and my personal favorite answer was (wait for it)

"I don't know."

Really?? That's your educated answer that you just charged me $150 bucks for? Thanks for that.

So I went to trusty google for help. I have numerous degrees from google university and went to work searching my symptoms (really I typed in herpes of the foot because, I assume, THAT'S what it feels like) and came up with Dermatitis Herpetiformis. Wow cool. But never in my research did I find that a gluten free diet would help this condition OR that 25% of patients with Celiac Disease have this.

Flash forward a few months and I started researching and dabbling in a gluten free diet for my wild children. I didn't think about it at the time but my feet were decent. Almost to the point that I could actually consider getting a pedicure. I of course didn't maintain a gluten free diet full time and soon my rash was back in full force. I went back to google again and this time discovered there IS a link between DH and Celiac Disease.

I made two appointments. One with an internal medicine doctor and one with a dermatologist. The dermatologist said it looks like regular eczema but went ahead and biopsied it anyway. The MD asked to see it and said hmmm. He then said well we can test you for Celiac. Seriously no problems.

So I got tested on Thursday and my results came back on Tuesday and were definitely positive. Because I have a positive biopsy for DH I, luckily, don't have to have a intestinal biopsy.

Now on to get the kids tested and work on implementing this gluten free diet!