[...], did the doc test your blood for any autoantibodies? What was your diagnosis for your autoimmune peripheral neuropathy?
The skin punch biopsy showed "small fiber neuropathy" which means the small nerve fibers are deteriorating. They didn't know why. They tested me for a lot things and said everything came back negative, so they called it "idiopathic."
Years later I met a woman who told me she had the same thing, and it was caused by Celiac disease. So I went off gluten and improved
tremendously. She gave me the name of her neurologist who did a quick exam and asked some questions and told me I had gluten-sensitive autoimmune neuropathy. He couldn't tell what kind of gluten sensitivity without more tests. Once a person is off gluten, they can no longer be tested for Celiac disease. I would have had to eat gluten for a week to run the tests the previous neurologist should have run before but didn't. My symptoms on gluten were disabling. One crumb caused a week-log flare up. The neurologist saw no need to put me through that. He just said to stop eating gluten. Period. So I was never tested for Celiac. I just don't eat gluten, don't eat outside of my house, and have no gluten in my house. That keeps my symptoms under control.
