It's been a pretty stressful , nerve-wracking few days for us. Jay has been battling lethargy for a few weeks. He thought it was due to the fact that he went off all caffeine, but that was a couple of months ago and by now his body should be well adjusted to it. He is still able to work as hard as always, but in the evenings he's sound asleep on the couch by 9pm...sometimes earlier, and that's just not normal for him.
He went into the doctor a week ago and they did blood tests and all came back normal except his hemoglobin was low. I teased him and asked if his periods had been especially heavy lately LOL. I've heard of women having this, but not men. Jay said the doctor said it's pretty unusual for that to happen unless there is something else wrong.
*this is where my stress meter started to rise*
They gave him these little cards that he is to put a small stool sample on for 3 days in a row. They will test those and if any blood shows up on them, that can indicate internal bleeding.
Yesterday I noticed Jay was scratching his elbow a lot. I asked what the problem was (assuming it was just dry skin) and he said "I don't know, but I have these bumps and they really itch". Both of us just looked at each other and knew what the other was thinking...
Celiac Disease <--- click here to find info regarding CD
*stress meter is way up there now*
It wouldn't be a huge leap for us to think that since Jay's dad has it, 2 of his cousins have it and they believe his paternal grandfather had it as well. Austin's already been scoped for it because he had many symptoms as a preschooler. Because of family genetics, we were basically told it was highly likely that Jay and his brother could inherit the disease.
I asked Jay if he has heard back from the doctor yet regarding the results of his stool sample and he said "no, because I haven't taken them in. I kinda forgot about doing them." ARGH! I then asked, is low hemoglobin (anemia) a symptom of CD? He said he didn't know, so I decided to get online.
I went to Delphi Forums, which is a place I frequent already for different things including parenting and weight loss. I looked around and sure enough they have a very active forum regarding CD. I asked a few questions including if anemia is a symptom. Guess what.....IT IS. :-/
I also asked about the elbow rashes (which is the only symptom Jays dad has ever had). Someone there posted a link to show what DH (Dermatitis Herpetiformus) looks like. If someone has DH, then that means they do have CD as well. The first picture I saw of the elbow was more severe than Jays elbow (it had so many bumps they all ran together, Jay has maybe 8-10 bumps), but they looked like the bumps he has. :-/ Everyone there said the same thing "CD is the very first thing I would suspect. He needs tested." :-(
*stress meter has completely gone through the roof!*
I've always known there was a chance, but now it appears we may be facing this new challenge a whole lot sooner than we planned for. I don't mean to be selfish, I honestly don't. I will do whatever I need to do to help my husband no matter what condition or disease he might have, but this will cause MAJOR changes in our lifestyle. Major changes for our whole family.
Both Jay and I have been talking about the possibility of this being a reality. While we both are scared and saddened that it could be CD, we are ready to head down this road together.
Since we don't know anything for sure yet, we will see about setting up a scope. Most of Jays relatives who have been blood tested for CD have come back with negative results, when in fact the scope they had done showed positive. That's why Austin was scoped when younger. The doctor said to not even waste time drawing blood.
For those of you reading this, please bear with us for the next week or so while we figure out what is going on and what direction we need to take. We're reading and researching to be ready for whatever comes. We'll update as information is made available to us.
I ask that you please keep Jay in your prayers. He is not only my husband, father of my children, and my lover, but my very best friend and I don't like seeing him hurting or suffering.
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