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We Need To Start A Thread On Stupid Stuff Doctors Say!


mushroom

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AlwaysLearning Collaborator

This was years ago, but the only thing off during the testing at a yearly physical was extremely low cholesterol levels. Despite that my doctor asked me if I was a vegetarian and my answer was no, and that I had never been, his treatment recommendation was "Eat more steak." and he sent me on my way.

For years I complained that I had abdominal pain. I can't tell you how many times I've been tested for the same three STDs without the doctors telling me that they are going to run the tests, if I've been tested before, or if I've done anything to acquire an STD. Most of the time, I find out that they've run the test when I get the bill for the lab work! Of course, that is better than the doctor who insisted that I must have been raped.

I have dozens more, but they are all pretty depressing and I don't want to revisit them. I have yet to find a doctor that I respect.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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BSVD Rookie

My Doc humiliated me, talked to me like I was a child, and told me Celiac is an allergy to wheat. (and he's the one that diagnosed me) I feel like I did or said something wrong. Sorry, I just need to have a little pity party right now:(

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  • 2 months later...
Broomey13 Newbie

My Doc humiliated me, talked to me like I was a child, and told me Celiac is an allergy to wheat. (and he's the one that diagnosed me) I feel like I did or said something wrong. Sorry, I just need to have a little pity party right now:(

 

I started seeing doctors when I was 15 years old for severe and debilitating joint and muscle pain (among a myriad of other gloriously awful symptoms), it was ruining my life before I even really had one!  I was tested over and over again for RA (despite the several negative tests before each one, doc thought, well, let's try ONE more time...), one doctor told me at 16, it's just growing pains, you'll grow out of it.  At 18 a doctor told me, well, you're abnormally flexible (I was a gymnast for years before I hit puberty and it all went downhill from there lol) and that's the price I had to pay for that "gift".  At 20 a doctor I hadn't seen before put down her notes, looked right at me and said, "I'm not prescribing you any narcotics, so know that before we proceed"...the best part is I wrote on my medical history form, I don't take opiates because I can't stand the effect they have on me...  The last doctor I saw before I gave up and researched, reached out to the gluten-free community and then ultimately went gluten-free on my own, well, the last doctor responded to my multiple requests to be referred to a GI specialist for testing (my insurance required that darn referral) by saying, "you're more likely to die in a plane crash than have celiac, that's definitely not whats happening here.   You just have fibromyalgia and IBS and depression and ADHD, have 6 prescriptions and call me in the morning."  ...well, that last part wasn't a direct quote, but pretty much.  I've pretty much given up on doctors for help diagnosing my issues, I get my anti-depressant/ADHD meds from him every month and call it a day.  Western medicine, by a large majority, is a straight up joke!! I'm coming up on 4 years gluten free and have never felt healthier in my life, so they can take their "clinical" diagnosis and shove it you know where, no one wanted to help me when I needed it so I fixed the problem before they got around to testing me for it.  Absurd!

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upsilamba Apprentice

My first real experience with a dr (aside from check-ups) was when I broke a finger as a 7 year old and my pediatrician told us it couldn't possibly be broken because I didn't seem to really be in pain, and x-rays "weren't worth it." so I walked around with a broken finger for 6 weeks until we finally went back to see an orthopedist since it still hadn't healed...and I have to say docs have been pretty consistent in disappointing me/meeting my VERY low expectations since then : )

 

I do give a lot of credit to the PCP i went to see who thought to test me for celiac this past after I told her that I was having lots of stomach pains and trying to eat healthy by "eating lots of whole grans," whoops. But minus 1000 points for when the results came back she called to tell me i "tested positive for gluten" and that I should stay away from it for maybe a year and then "I could probably go back to eating gluten again." Thankfully I'm cynical about drs that I asked her to see the actual results, researched the tests online and emailed her back to ask if the tests meant celiac disease, and if so, doesn't that mean for life? She basically answered me back with an "ummm..." and suggested I go see some random GI who could "answer all my questions." I'm trying to get the nerve up to send her a good medical book on celiac with some passages highlighted, and a note on the inside asking her to please not give her patients advice that could kill them, in future... but I know others have had much worse experiences.

 

My slightly uplifting stupid dr story was a few years ago - after going in to an ENT to find out why i was getting constant shooting pains through my nose (not to mention sinus infections, migraines, etc), the very lovely, intelligent dr and had me do a CT that found I had a giant, POINTY bone spur stabbing into the inside of my nose. Unfortunately I moved before I could have him do the surgery to remove it, so I then shopped around 3 different surgeons who all told me that the bone spur couldn't be causing any problems for me, that it was most likely allergies or all in my head or take your pick of condesceding things Drs like to say to 22 year old women.

 

The uplifting part, though, is when I finally did find a doc who was "willing" to humor me and take out the bone spur, and I came back to tell him after how ridiculously better I felt, he looked at me and said, "Huh, maybe I should stop telling all my patients this won't help them." So, progress? Or baby steps, at least? : )

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  • 2 weeks later...
cherries Newbie

      When asking if there was a test to see if I was lactose intolerant the physicians assistant's nurse could hardly tell me the response from the physician's assistant with a straight face. She said to tell you to drink a quart of milk and see what happens. :) I immediately said I am not going to do that!

       I haven't actually got much help from the doctors unfortunately.

That sounds like my doctor, he refused to any kind of blood work and told me if it makes me feel better than just do it. Needless to say I'm looking for a new gp. I told my endo that gluten free foods seem to help my blood sugar, and he said that I was sensitive to gluten. My peditrist told me to eat gluten and a month later, no energy, dark rings under my eyes and the neuropathy that had been reversing was back!

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  • 5 years later...
Scott Adams Grand Master

I think this thread should be resurrected!

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squirmingitch Veteran

If you don't talk to doctors then they don't say stupid stuff.:lol::lol::lol:

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  • 1 year later...
Dima Salahi Rookie
On 2/5/2012 at 3:23 AM, elizabethh said:

I have a good one! Just a little over a month ago I was at the doctor's office for the stomach flu, and he asked me about the celiac disease after seeing it on my chart so I just briefly explained to him what happens with that, then he says:

 

Doctor: "Wow you need to get that checked out, you have that really bad and you need to find out what's going on."

Me: "What do you mean?"

Doctor: "You have a severe case of it, other people do not have it as badly as you do."

Me(getting nervous and confused): "What exactly do you mean? I have it worse?"

Doctor: "Well when people have celiac disease they can't eat gluten while they're sick, but once their intestines heal then they can eat gluten again."

 

WHAAAAT?!

 

Totally never thought I would look at a DOCTOR, feeling like they are totally stupid. I spent like 15 minutes explaining to him how it really is and being in total shock that anyone could think/say that, much less a doctor! Omg!

I had an opposite response. I want to him for second opinion; he said well it looks like you don't have it as bad as others, you have villi in your intestines, the gluten only destroyed some of them in different areas, which means you can get gluten once a week or so. Of course, he apparently wanted to get rid of all my villi, if I was stupid enough to go along with this idiot.. I wonder what they study at med school, these doctors! 

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  • 2 weeks later...
MissMish Newbie
On 2/4/2012 at 4:12 PM, researchmomma said:

I am amazed that a Celiac specialist would actually say with complete conviction: if no genes, you cannot possibly have Celiac. Dr. Fasano even states that it is possible.

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for putting this in your post!!! I am close to crying because I have needed to hear this for so long now!

Eight years ago, I stopped eating gluten to see if it would stop my migraines. It stopped nearly all of them.

Five years ago, my GI told me I did not have Celiac because he tested my blood for the genes, my blood did NOT have the genes, so it was impossible for me to have Celiac. He said I had gluten sensitivity and IBS, and to just stop eating gluten and I'd feel better (I had already been eating gluten-free for 3 years at that point). He said the good news was that I didn't have to be as careful as someone with Celiac disease. He refused to have me try eating gluten to do a biopsy, saying that without the genes he couldn't justify it.

Ever since then, I have wondered about that because people who don't have the genetic predisposition to breast cancer still end up getting breast cancer even without the genes, so why would Celiac be any different? It just never rang true for me.

Two months ago I went to a rheumatologist and didn't mention being gluten-free because why would I?! And of course she needed to do blood work for RA and Lupus and Sjogren's and a whole list of others. I didn't know she tested for Celiac. Well guess what?! After all this time of being gluten free, without cheating, I had a video conference to find out my test results and the rheumy told me my "test panel lit up for Celiac disease."

I almost fell out of my chair.

I've been super careful at home about cross-contamination, and during Covid, of course, have not been eating from restaurants, etc., so it's no surprise to me at all that I'm doing better.

Thank you again for this post. I LOVE me some vindication!

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    • cristiana
      Thank you for your post, @Nedast, and welcome to the forum. It is interesting to read of your experiences. Although I've not had TMJ, from time to time I have had a bit of mild pain in my jaw, sharp stabbing pains and tingling in my face which appears to have been caused by issues with my trigeminal nerve.  I read that sometimes a damaged trigeminal nerve in coeliacs can heal after adopting a gluten free diet.  I try to keep out of cold winds or wear a scarf over my face when it is cold and windy, those conditions tend to be my 'trigger' but I do think that staying clear of gluten has helped.  Also, sleeping with a rolled up towel under my neck is a tip I picked up online, again, that seems to bring benefits. Thank you again for your input - living with this sort of pain can be very hard, so it is good to be able to share advice.
    • Julie Riordan
      I am going to France in two weeks and then to Portugal in May   Thanks for your reply 
    • Nedast
      I made an account just to reply to this topic. My story resembles yours in so many ways that it is truly amazing. I also suddenly became lactose intolerant, went a little under 10 years attributing all my symtoms to different body parts, never thinking it was something systemic until much later. I had the same mental problems - anxiety, depression, fatigue, etc. In fact, the only real difference in our story is that I was never formally diagnosed. When I discovered that my myriad symtoms, that had been continuous and worsening for years, all rapidly subsided upon cessation of consuming gluten, I immediately took it upon myself to cut gluten out of my diet completely. I live in America, and had lost my health insurance within the year prior to my discovery, so I could not get tested, and I will never willingly or knowingly consume gluten again, which I would have to do in order to get tested now that I have insurance again. But that is not the point of this reply. I also had extreme TMJ pain that began within months of getting my wisdom teeth out at - you guessed it - 17 years old. I was in and out of doctors for my various symptoms for about 5 years before I gave up, but during that time I had also kept getting reffered to different kinds of doctors that had their own, different solutions to my TMJ issue, an issue which I only recently discovered was related to my other symptoms. I began with physical therapy, and the physical therapist eventually broke down at me after many months, raising her voice at me and saying that there was nothing she could do for me. After that saga, I saw a plastic surgeon at the request of my GP, who he knew personally. This palstic surgeon began using botox injections to stop my spasming jaw muscles, and he managed to get it covered by my insurace in 2011, which was harder to do back then. This helped the pain tremendously, but did not solve the underlying problem, and I had to get repeat injections every three months. After a couple of years, this began to lose effectiveness, and I needed treatments more often than my insurance would cover. The surgeon did a scan on the joint and saw slight damage to the tissues. He then got approved by insurance to do a small surgery on the massseter (jaw) muscle - making an incision, and then splicing tissue into the muscle to stop the spasming. It worked amazingly, but about three months later it had stopped working. I was on the verge of seeing the top oral surgeon in our city, but instead of operating on me, he referred me to a unique group of dentists who focus on the TMJ and its biomechanical relationship to teeth occlusion (i.e. how the teeth fit together). This is what your dentist did, and what he did to you was boderline if not outright malpractice. There is a dental field that specializes in doing this kind of dental work, and it takes many years of extra schooling (and a lot of money invested into education) to be able to modify teeth occusion in this manner. Just based on the way you describe your dentist doing this, I can tell he was not qualified to do this to you. Dentists who are qualified and engage in this practice take many measurments of your head, mouth, teeth, etc., they take laboratory molds of your teeth, and they then make a complete, life-size model of your skull and teeth to help them guide their work on you. They then have a lab construct, and give you what is called a "bite splint." It looks and feels like a retainer, but its function is entirely different. This is essentially a literal splint for the TMJ that situates on the teeth. The splint is progressively modified once or twice per week, over several months, in order to slowly move the joint to its correct position. The muscles spasm less, stress is taken off the joint, as the joint slowly moves back into its proper position. The pain reduces each month, each week, sometimes even each day you go in for a visit. The joint has to be moved in this manner with the splint BEFORE the modification to the teeth begins. They then add to your tooth structure with small bits of composite, to keep the joint in its proper place after it has been sucessfully repositioned. Subtracting from your teeth, by grinding down bits of your natural tooth structure, is done very conservatively, if they have to do it at all. This process worked for me - after six months, my face, jaw, neck all felt normal, and I had no more pain - a feeling I had not had in a long time. It also made my face look better. I had not realized the true extent that the spasming muscles and the joint derangement had effected the shape of my face. The pain began to return after a few months, but nowhere near where it had been before. This immense reduction in pain lasted for a little over two years. The treatment still ultimately failed, but it is not their fault, and it is still the treatment that has given me the most relief to this day. Later on, I even went about three years with very, very good pain reduction, before the joint severely destabilized again. This field of dentistry is the last line treatment for TMJ issues before oral surgery on the TMJ. There aren't as many denists around who practice this anymore, and the practice is currently shrinking due to dentists opting for less espensive, additional educations in things like professional whitening, which have a broader marketability. Getting this treatment is also very expensive if not covered by insurance (in America at least). My first time was covered by insurance, second time was not, though the dentist took pity on me due to the nature of my case and charged like a quarter of usual pricing. Most cases seen by these dentists are complete successes, and the patient never has to come back again. But occasionally they get a case that is not a success, and I was one of those cases. A little over a year ago, I began seeing the second dentist who keeps my TMJ stable in this manner. The first dentist retired, and then died sadly. A shame too, because he was a truly amazing, knowledgable guy who really wanted to help people. The new dentist began to get suspicious when my joint failed to stay stable after I was finished with the bite splint and his modifications, so he did another scan on me. This is ten years after the first scan (remember, I said the surgeon saw "slight" damage to the tissue on the first scan). This new scan revealed that I now no longer have cartilage in the joint, on both sides - complete degeneration of the soft tissues and some damage to the bone. The dentist sat me down and had a talk with me after these results came in, and said that when he sees damage like this in cases like mine, that the damage to the joint is most likely autoimmune, and that, in his experinece, it is usually autoimmune. He has sent patients with cases like mine to Mayo Clinic. He said he will continue to see me as long as the treatment continues to offer me relief, but also said that I will probably have to see a dentist for this type of treatment for the rest of my life. He is not currently recommending surgery due to my young age and the fact that the treatment he provides manages my symptoms pretty well. I still see this dentist today, and probably will see this kind of dental specialist for the rest of my life, since they have helped with this issue the most. I did not inform him that I am 100% sure that I have celiac disease (due to my complete symptom remission upon gluten cessation). I didn't inform him because I thought it would be inappropriate due to not having a formal diagnosis. I was disappointed, because I had believed I had caught it BEFORE it had done permanent damage to my body. I had never suspected that my TMJ issues may be related to my other symptoms, and that the damage would end up complete and permanent. Luckily, I caught it about 6 months after my other joints started hurting, and they stopped hurting right after I went gluten free, and haven't hurt since. I of course did the necessary research after the results of the second scan, and found out that the TMJ is the most commonly involved joint in autoimmune disease of the intestines, and if mutliple joints are effected, it is usually the first one effected. This makes complete sense, since the TMJ is the most closely related joint to the intestines, and literally controls the opening that allows food passage into your intestines. I am here to tell you, that if anyone says there is no potential relationship between TMJ issues and celiac disease, they are absolutely wrong. Just google TMJ and Celiac disease, and read the scientific articles you find. Research on issues regarding the TMJ is relatively sparse, but you will find the association you're looking for validated.
    • trents
      Welcome to the forum, @SuzanneL! Which tTG was that? tTG-IGA? tTG-IGG? Were there other celiac antibody tests run from that blood draw? Was total IGA measured? By some chance were you already cutting back on gluten by the time the blood draw was taken or just not eating much? For the celiac antibody tests to be accurate a person needs to be eating about 10g of gluten daily which is about 4-6 pieces of bread.
    • SuzanneL
      I've recently received a weak positive tTG, 6. For about six years, I've been sick almost everyday. I was told it was just my IBS. I have constant nausea. Sometimes after I eat, I have sharp, upper pain in my abdomen. I sometimes feel or vomit (bile) after eating. The doctor wanted me to try a stronger anti acid before doing an endoscopy. I'm just curious if these symptoms are pointing towards Celiac Disease? 
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