I woke up in a hazy fog and looked around.  I was lying on a cot behind a thick colorless curtain.  Suddenly it hit me.  I had been sleeping off the effects of the anesthesia from my endoscopy.  The endoscopy was more uncomfortable than I had expected.  The doctor told me that I will only be partially “out”  during the procedure.  I still had vague recollections of extreme discomfort in my chest and my throat was sore.  I stood up slowly and pushed back the curtain.  The nurse was standing in the next room and upon spotting me she said, “the doctor wants to speak to you in his office.”  I hobbled over to the open door of his office and he motioned for me to come in.

“Come in, I want to talk to you about your condition,” he said.

“Condition?  I have a condition?” I thought.

“Well, put it this way.  Sometimes after an endoscopy I can tell a patient with a fair degree of certainty that they do not have celiac disease.  With you I can’t say that,” he explained.

“Oh.”  The room was still spinning a bit for me and I am not sure how much I really understood.

“We’ll have to wait the two weeks to get the pathology results,” he said.  “One thing is clear, whatever you have, you have had for a long time, so we can wait two more weeks.”

“Whatever I have I have had for a long time?!”  I was starting to grow concerned.

I returned home and slept off the the rest of the anesthesia.  When I woke up the doctor’s words echoed in my head.  I went downstairs to talk it out with my husband.

“What do you think he meant by ‘whatever you have, you have had for a long time?’”  I asked him.

He rolled his eyes.

“It means we will know in two weeks.  Don’t harp on it.”  He said.

But it was too late.  I was harping.  In fact I could sense my over-developed hypochondria kicking in.  Suddenly a celiac diagnosis wasn’t looking too bad.  What else could this be?

The next day I went walking with a friend of mine who is an internist.  I asked her what she thought of the doctor’s comment.

“I wouldn’t be concerned,” she said.

I was concerned.

I am finally starting to understand all those celiacs who were thrilled to get their celiac diagnoses.  As a diagnosis, celiac disease ties up all the loose ends.  It explains all the symptoms (even the weird ones!) and it is a disease that can be controlled with proper diet.  It doesn’t involve medications, surgery or anything invasive, and the damage is reversible.  I never thought I’d say it but I’m starting to hope for a celiac diagnosis!  It’s going to be a long two weeks…