What Else Are They Missing?

[bartfull]

I have read story after story on this site about doctors who know nothing about celiac. Now, I know that doctors, like teachers and just about anyone else in technical fields, must partake in continuing education. And celiac has been such a "hot topic" for a while now. Yet so many doctors STILL know nothing about it.

 

I'm just wondering, if they haven't updated their learning on celiac, what else are they still ignorant about? How could I trust a doctor who knows nothing about celiac to treat my other ailments? If these doctors are still stuck in the twentieth century, I'm sure they can't provide the lastest and best treatments for anything!  

 

End of rant.

[SkyBlue4]

I hear you! I just went through a discussion with my kids' pediatrician that left me angry. He refuses to test my children for celiac disease because ~wait for it~ they don't suffer with diarrhea. 

[frieze]

make sure you get that refusal in writing..

[IrishHeart]

I hear you! I just went through a discussion with my kids' pediatrician that left me angry. He refuses to test my children for celiac disease because ~wait for it~ they don't suffer with diarrhea. 

That's absurd. Relatives of diagnosed celiacs should be screened. In fact, they should be tested every few years.

Bring him the latest info from the U of Chicago Celiac research center that says this is HIGHLY recommended.

Or get a new pediatrician.  IMO

[SkyBlue4]

Or get a new pediatrician.

I'm thinking about it but my options are limited and not necessarily better.

This morning I was able to get the office to agree to test one of my kids (b/c she's always constipated) but I still have to fight for my other kids b/c they don't present with "symptoms". What a joke. 

[kwylee]

Bartfull, your rant is right on the money, totally agree.  You call to mind that the days are over where doctors are panoptically lauded as some sort of information gods. Yep, I grew up that way back in the 60's - your medical doctor had all the answers and whatever they said was taken as gospel. Until I saw enough of them in the 21st century who denied simple logic or brushed off my intelligent observations about my own body or what I was experiencing, merely because they had not read the symptom or disease in a medical book that could have been written eons prior.  Or worse, because they were afraid to go against the medical establishment.  After countless visits to the doctor without answers, I made the gluten connection on my own, and then pursued testing.  While in the meantime, doctors were still stuck on the useless "stress, hormones or menopause" schtick some go to when they can't admit they haven't a clue.

 

But hey, I'm not anti-doctor.  I am convinced there are good ones out there, the best of which no longer subscribe to their own hubris as substitute for effective medical detective work that keeps up with the times.  Those are the gems.  And hypochondria aside, it's up to us to know to keep looking when our gut tells us the doctor may be totally off-base.  While I understand that doing your own internet research on health symptoms can yield cholera in the face of only a rapid heart rate, we should get used to the garbage-in/garbage-out method of taking responsibility for our own health and well-being, and get yourself to a humble doctor when you need a similar resource....or to stitch you up when you split your lip.