Anyone ever used a Personal Diagnostics test?

[Chancery]

Hi, I've been looking at using a coeliac test kit from Personal Diagnostics as I have found the NHS to be absolutely impossible to motivate - and it's not for the want of trying! But I've never done anything like this before and feel very unsure, as it is so cheap compared to getting proper blood tests.

Here's the test:

personaldiagnostics.co.uk/P...

I appreciate you may not have used this particular test before , but if you have used the firm in any capacity I'd appreciate your thoughts on the reliability of both them and their home test kits.

Many thanks!

[Jackie]

Hi Usually considered best to go gluten free for 6 weeks and see how you are as may be intolerance not true Caeliac which will not show in a test.Or an elimination diet and gradually introduce various foods.

Jackie

[Chancery in reply to Jackie]

Thanks, Jackie. I'm already in the know about the elimination diet and so forth, really need a firmer diagnosis than that - too much at stake - but thanks anyway, I appreciate you taking the time out to answer!

[judburke]

Have a look at the Boots Chemist reviews for this - there are mixed experiences. I used the test but am not sure that I managed to get enough blood to perform the test properly. See Boots comments on this issue. I did the test about 2 months ago that was negative but doctor did full coeliac panel showing huge levels of antibodies only 6 weeks later. This was possibly/probably user error.

Have a look at the Coeliac UK website who are doing an advertisement promoting going to your doctor if you have certain symptoms. I didn't have classic Coeliac symptoms but I wasn't absorbing iron and vitamins also my mother was Coeliac and they say it is genetic for this and if you have thyroid issues. Hopefully your doctor might do a full test for you

Good luck

[Chancery in reply to judburke]

Hi Jud. Thanks for the info. Unfortunately the Boots test is no good for me as it only measures IgA and I need one that measures IgG (I'm IgA deficient). I have been tested for the standard coeliac testing, which is when I found out I am IgA deficient. Unfortunately, my doc doesn't believe that will make a difference because a biochemist told him I am "not deficient enough" (!). Me, I'd like to be certain!

The Personal Diagnostics one tests for IgG, which I need tested. Can I ask, cause I'm not quite sure from what you say, did you find yourself negative when you tested with the Boots kit, but then you were found positive by the doc when you did proper blood tests?

[judburke in reply to Chancery]

Ah ok I didn't realise that there were 2 different tests. Thats my brain fog for you I haven't started my gluten free life yet as I only had the Biopsy etc done yesterday.

So with the Boots test I did find it negative but I am not sure if I did the test properly as I struggled to get enough blood from the Lancet to fill the tube which seems to be a problem that a few have experienced. My blood test from the doctor covered the whole coeliac panel and the levels were very high.

[Chancery in reply to judburke]

Hi Jud! How did you find the biopsy? I've been talking to people elsewhere on a different thread and a girl there had just had a stomach biopsy. She spent the whole time vomiting! This freaks me out as I am vomit phobic. How did yours go?

[judburke in reply to Chancery]

I was having a colonoscopy at the same time so they did full sedation so I didn't have any recollection of either procedure.

[Chancery in reply to judburke]

Ooh, wait a minute, are you saying they were going up and down simultaneously? That just sounds so wrong, as if they are violating a hygiene law or something!

[judburke in reply to Chancery]

lol I am hoping they used two different cameras!

And that they did one then the other. I hadn't thought of it that way

[Chancery in reply to judburke]

Eek! Now you've really freaked me out. I had just assumed two cameras simultaneously, one medical genius at your front and one at your back. Now, however, I am seeing them doing them one at a time and a baby wipe being used between procedures. Dear God....

Well, let's just hope that they looked in your gut first. (Shudders...)

[judburke in reply to Chancery]

Lol - You are so funny Maybe if you get offered both you just refuse one (just in case.......) I however, will never know what they did but I seem to have survived and after only 6 days trying to be Gluten Free my brain fog and extreme tiredness is lifting so I am happy enough and very optimistic that things are going to get better for me

PS I didn't have any weird taste in my mouth afterwards

[Chancery in reply to judburke]

Hah, maybe they rinsed you out with mouthwash (top end, I hasten to add!) so you'd never know.

But joking aside, very glad indeed to hear your gluten free may have made some impact. Here's hoping that's your solution. At least then you won't have to have any more indignities with teeny cameras!

[judburke in reply to Chancery]

Eeeeuuuugh

Each day I am feeling slightly brighter and today I had enough motivation to go to an exercise class. I couldn't manage much of it but at least I managed to get there and try which I have not been able to do for nearly a year due to tiredness and brain fog etc

I am gutted to be Coeliac but positive that I can get quite a bit better.

Good luck getting yourself sorted

Judith

[Chancery in reply to judburke]

Thanks Judith. If it makes you feel any better, I heartily wish I could be diagnosed coeliac - it would provide the key and I could do something to fix the problem. So there is a positive side to your diagnosis! All will be well for you now, fingers crossed. X

[judburke in reply to Chancery]

I am still in shock and a little in denial. I had a sad moment in the biscuit aisle yesterday lol. Jaffa Cakes

But I now view Wheatabix (my breakfast for 30 odd years) as poison which is weird but seems to keep me focused.

Hopefully you will get your answer soon enough. Stay strong and I am sure you will get there. Let me know by private message if you get sorted

[Chancery in reply to judburke]

Will do, but I suspect you will be long cured and running up mountain sides before I see a breakthrough!

P.S. My condolences on the Jaffa horror, but just think, there's two aisles or more now you never need to traverse. Think how much faster your shopping will be. And who would have thought you could ever suffer Slow Death By Weetabix!?

[judburke in reply to Chancery]

That would be nice! 2 years ago I did a Charity Trek in Himalayas - No way could I do that now.

My mum was a nurse and always insisted that we had a good breakfast and that is the mantra I have had with my life and passed to my teenage daughters. Every morning I had my 2 Neet Weet Beet thinking smugly, polishing my healthy halo- low fat, low sugar, high fibre, milk with Calcium........ POISON!!!!!!!!! You couldn't make it up. Lets start the day with something that is going to make you feel cr*p. Oh the irony

Good thing I can still drink wine and have a GSOH

PS Still mourning Jaffa Cakes - I dare not try the GF ones as they are not made by the McV's

PPS - Yes shopping will be quicker. Love the positives

[Chancery in reply to judburke]

Oh yes, the loss of the mighty Jaffa might take a while, but I had to live without fat - I mean ANY - for a year and a half and, of course, that meant I couldn't eat chocolate. It will amaze you to know that after a while (about 6 months in my case!) you actually don't even notice, or care. You wouldn't think it was possible, but it really does happen. I never ate cheese either and I can tell you, I missed that a LOT more. So six months down the line you might be surprised about what you do and don't miss!

The good thing about coeliac is that gluten free is a diet fad right now and so lots and LOTS of people write gluten-free cookery books. There's a gazillion baking books out there with enough sugar in them to give you diabetes (apparently being gluten-free for your health doesn't extend to killing yourself with sugar) so you can always console yourself with a gluten-free chocolate orange muffin.

There has to be some consolation to being a genuine coeliac, rather than a follower of Gwyneth Paltrow. See, there's another thing to be grateful for: you're the real thing!