Quote Of The Day

[moonunit]

Okay, I think we need a quote thread here, because every once in a while I see a doozy and wish we had them all in one place so that we don't start feeling like we are the only ones with brainless doctors out there.

My own story is in the "pre-diagnosis" section if you want to know the background, but basically my current status is that I do not have celiac disease according to at least one member of the medical community, and I do according to another. Dr. Negative thinks that Dr. Positive (who is a GP, not a gastro) doesn't know what she's talking about. I personally am not sure either way at the moment.

So. I took my son in for his 9-month checkup today and casually mentioned to his ped that if I am found to have celiac disease after all, I might start my son on a gluten-free diet too, since his growth has slowed down despite eating like a horse, he's STILL not sleeping through the night, and seems irritable a lot.

The pediatrician said that my son didn't have celiac disease because children with that disease are very skinny with protruding stomachs, etc. I said that 60% of kids with the disease don't show outward symptoms. And then he gave me the quote of the day:

"Well if someone doesn't have symptoms, it doesn't really matter whether or not they the disease, does it."

Insert giant slap on forehead... apparently he hasn't heard about what the disease actually DOES to the body.

Okay, what are your quotes of the day? I hope everyone feels better knowing that they are not alone... and that you can get a good laugh out of the fact that some docs are let out of med school with ideas like this in their heads.

[darlindeb25]

I went to a doctor here on Long Island and was telling him I have celiacs disease and he says, "My son has celiacs too, he can't have barley!" I truly hope he does know the difference. I did tell him that in addition to the regular glutens we can't have that I also can't have soy, corn, and tomatoes. I hope he was listening to me, I have the feeling he just keeps barley away from the little guy. Deb

[Lisa]

Doctor: "What are the symptoms of Sprue?" I think he needs to hire me.

[Guest Viola]

And this from a gastric specialist

"There is nothing wrong with you, go home and service your husband and look after your children and quit spending so much time thinking about yourself"

I was 89 pounds at the time

[jerseyangel]

Shirley--I can't believe he said 'service your husband'! You should have clocked him one

[Lisa]

Holy Cow Shirley....I can't imagine what I would have said. He must have been 99 years old and just got off the Saratogga Wagen Trail, or widowed for 79 years. Hah

[Jnkmnky]

In no particular order....

"Children don't get Celiac Disease."

"Gluten enteropathy is rare."

"He has Cystic Fibrosis."

"Oats are safe."

"Sprouted wheat is safe."

"Is that when you can't eat bread?"

"Don't put your family on the gluten-free diet, it's too restrictive. What will you do for birthday parties when they have pizza and cake?"

"Why do you want the other kids tested for Celiac? Are they showing symptoms?"

"Can he eat toast?" <<-- this from the dr who admitted my son to the hospital for pneumonia... we were looking for a safe breakfast the following morning... I was like, "Sure, Dumb-ass.... toasting removes the gluten!"

"Do you bake all your own breads?" I had to wipe the tears away...

"Let me put in a consult to our nutritionist..." HELLO, I was doing it for 4 years already!!!!

Okay, I think we need a quote thread here, because every once in a while I see a doozy and wish we had them all in one place so that we don't start feeling like we are the only ones with brainless doctors out there.

My own story is in the "pre-diagnosis" section if you want to know the background, but basically my current status is that I do not have celiac disease according to at least one member of the medical community, and I do according to another. Dr. Negative thinks that Dr. Positive (who is a GP, not a gastro) doesn't know what she's talking about. I personally am not sure either way at the moment.

So. I took my son in for his 9-month checkup today and casually mentioned to his ped that if I am found to have celiac disease after all, I might start my son on a gluten-free diet too, since his growth has slowed down despite eating like a horse, he's STILL not sleeping through the night, and seems irritable a lot.

The pediatrician said that my son didn't have celiac disease because children with that disease are very skinny with protruding stomachs, etc. I said that 60% of kids with the disease don't show outward symptoms. And then he gave me the quote of the day:

"Well if someone doesn't have symptoms, it doesn't really matter whether or not they the disease, does it."

Insert giant slap on forehead... apparently he hasn't heard about what the disease actually DOES to the body.

Okay, what are your quotes of the day? I hope everyone feels better knowing that they are not alone... and that you can get a good laugh out of the fact that some docs are let out of med school with ideas like this in their heads.

Did you educate the moron?

[burdee]

I LOVE this topic. I had to add my stupid naturopath's comment after I told him about my excruciating (bits of broken glass stuck in my intestines) pains from celiac contamination. He said:

"There's no pain receptors in the intestines. You're only experiencing a little pressure from gas."

I was VERY tempted to kick him in the gut and say: "Of course, you won't feel that because you don't have any pain receptors in your intestines."

BURDEE

[Guest Robbin]

And this from a gastric specialist

"There is nothing wrong with you, go home and service your husband and look after your children and quit spending so much time thinking about yourself"

I was 89 pounds at the time

SERVICE YOUR HUSBAND???!!! I am stunned. I seriously cannot believe some of these horror stories. Just when you think you've heard the most outrageous thing come out of a doctor's mouth, someone manages to top it. That guy NEEDS serviced. Not the kind of service he might want.

[paulasimone]

<moon unit's doc "Well if someone doesn't have symptoms, it doesn't really matter whether or not they the disease, does it.">

that is CLASSIC. i bet he cleans his house by throwing all the garbage into the closet.

and viola, "service your husband" - HOLY COW. what a freeeeak!

mine seems pale in comparison to y'all's, especially those of you trying to get answers re: your kids.

me: pre-celiac-dx, weeping at third strep throat in a year and a half, the rest of the time filled with other, less severe assorted illnesses and infections, "i can't keep doing this - why am i sick all the time?"

smug internal medicine doc: "you're not sick. i see sick people all the time. you're not sick." (mind you, she was writing two or three prescriptions for me as she says this.)

last week i found out she's still there - she'll get a "thank-you" letter from me soon, copied to the head of the clinic. i had a lot of doctors that didn't know what was wrong with me, misdiagnosed, overprescribed, but she went out of her way to actually belittle me to my face and (successfully!) intimidate me from trying to get care.

[debmidge]

said to my celiac husband prior to correct diagnosis, said by a gastro specialist in 1977 - pre HMO days too!

"You just have run of the mill IBS"

Meanwhile, he just lost 30 lbs with D everyday and gas and had anexoric look - this had been going on for 4-5 months; people in the hospital looked better than he did.

[Ursa Major]

Last summer I was seriously ill (after being sick all my life, but this was bad) with chronic diarrhea and awful pain and weakness. One day I got the most awful chest pains, that absolutely took my breath away and seriously put me into shock. My husband rushed me to the hospital, thinking I was having a heart attack. They hooked me up to monitors for five hours, did nothing to alleviate my pain at all. This stupid nurse kept saying, "Slow your breathing down, that is not helpful!" Duh, I know that hyperventilating isn't healthy, but she should have tried that terrible pain for all those hours!

Anyway, they did a lot of testing, and after five hours the doctor comes and tells me that its 'just' severe stomach and bowel cramps, and that my potassium and electrolytes were low, "But you're fine and can go home now". Okay, what about finding out the CAUSE of the awful cramps? How about fixing the potassium and electrolytes? I had to figure that one out myself.

The second visit to the hospital emergency was worse, the doctor and nurses treated me like I was a joke for coming in with diarrhea and dehydration.

Finally, after six months of this, and lots of tests that all turned out negative (for different bacteria and parasites), I figured it out, went to my doctor and told her point-blank that I have Celiac disease.

She said, "Oh, I thought you had the symptoms, but didn't think you could have it because you weren't losing any weight". I gave her an interesting information session on unexplained weight GAIN in many celiacs. I sincerely hope that the next person won't have to suffer for years before she'll diagnose celiac disease, just because they are overweight.

[Guest nini]

a certain idiot Dr. said to me...

"All your problems are because you are fat. You just need to lose weight" (DUH I need to lose weight moron, don't you think I've tried? And the diet he gave me to follow was very high in whole wheat and I literally GAINED 10 - 15 pounds in a week. So I went back in and screamed at him that that the diet was NOT working)

and he said

"you must not be doing it right"

Ack... no, just following your high in whole wheat diet EXACTLY moron, do ya think that should've been a clue right there? I fired him as my Dr. and went to another one in the practice...

[WGibs]

"Even if you have celiac, there's no reason to go on a gluten-free diet. Just take Imodium."

[Guest nini]

"Even if you have celiac, there's no reason to go on a gluten-free diet. Just take Imodium."

AAACK!

[Guest Viola]

The doctor that told me to 'service my husband' was a specialist I went to 35 years ago. If he was still alive I would like to take the Celiac diagnosis and shove it where the sun don't shine.

He not only said it to me, but to my family, so for the next almost 20 years, I was treated like a "pain in the butt" hypocondriac, with little or no support from anyone.

I can't believe a doctor told you to ignore the diet and stick with Immodium What is the matter with these people!! I'm sure glad I've got a good doctor now.

[sillyyak]

Pre diagnose and having spent 3 months with very intense symptoms (I had been asymptomatic prior this last Fall when an infection triggered my symptoms of sprue - a very curious thing as I really had not any symptoms I can think of even now 6 months after diagnosis and looking back on my whole life. I really had not been sick or had any overt symptoms. I realize that I was doing damage to my small intestine though but for some reason nothing that would make me even remotely think I had sprue. In fact, I never heard of it until Iwas diagnosed) BUT that being said, in the 3 months of not having a diagnosis, I heard many RIDICULOUS comments from multiple medical professionals in variouson what I might possibly have (if anything at all), including:

"You are pregnant"

"You belong in the psych unit"

"You just have a bellyache"

"You cannot keep coming to the doctor when he cannot find anything wrong withyou"

and my personal favorite (when I was in the ER because I was taken there because of dehydration, etc), a nurse told me "You have had the 85 million dollar work up and your doctor cannot find anything wrong with you, so what are YOU hiding?" to which I replied "Then I guess I need the 86 million dollar work-up".

[pinkpei77]

uggh!! all of this sounds so familiar.

mine all started about 2 1/2 years ago. i would just start getting nauseas after about 5 bites of my meal and most of the time running to the bathroom vomiting or with the D!

after about 5 weeks of not eating at all.. except crackers and bread and still getting sick(know i know why) i went to the dr.

they asked my symptoms and then when they asked me to roll up my sleeve for my blood pressure test and seeing that my arms are FULLY tattooed.. they say to me "OH!! well there you go.. you must have hepatitis" i started bawling and left.

my boyfriend (at the time) called them back, yelled at them, got me referred to another dr.

went and saw him and he sent me in for an ultrasound..found nothing (DUH)

then it dawned on me.. my mom.. my moms sister and my moms mom all had gallbladder disease.

i asked the dr to order a HIDA scan for me to test for gallbladder disease and he waited a month to do that for me.

mean while.. im going on 9 weeks of not eating...lost 21 pounds

i get the HIDA scan .. it hurts really bad.. the guy says.. you probaly have gallbladder disease.

i call my dr everyday to get the "official" test results..and hes out of town .. so i see another dr in the office and she says to me.. "are you sure youre not just anorexic"

i wanted to punch her teeth out.

and i expalin to her.. listen.. i love to eat..i just cant.. i get sick evrytime i eat and it hurts soooo bad..

she says to me (while looking at my tattoos) " look.. im not giving you any pain pills so dont ask"

i was like.. yeah .. thats exactly what i want.. so i can puke some more.

finally they refer me to a GI.. he looks at my results .. says you have GB disease adn took out my gallbladder 3 days later.

i felt a bit better after that.. less vomiting for sure..

but still the instantious bloating after 2 bites of food and the pain.. but the dr said i had to give my body a year to adjust to not having my GB.

so i wait (in pain).. keep going in for tests.. upper GI series.. thing where i swallow the camera and they take pictures of my stomach lining.. catscan..

finally i get a letter from my dr saying.. after all these tests and no conclusions we have no info to help you.. if you think yopu need to come see us agin.. please call...blah blah blah...

so im disgusted at this point..

i go to my health food store and ask the vitamin people for digestive enzymes and they ask my symptoms.. right off this hippy guy with dreads and more patchouli then any one person should ever wear says to me..

oh dude, you totally have celiac disease...

i go gluten free diet for 2 weeks and feel awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i call the GI.. tell them.. go in fot the blood test.. and hes like "oh yeah.. i wonder why i didnt think of that"

and now i have been gluten-free for 1 1/2 years and feeling GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!

[Fiddle-Faddle]

Dermatologist who was looking at what was left of my rash 2 weeks after finishing prednisone: "That doesn't look anything like DH."

Duh, you didn't see it when it did a month ago because it took this long to get an appointment!

******************************************************************

Me on the phone to a pediatrician: " Hello, would it be possible to bring my 6-week-old baby in for aan appointment? He's really looking yellow, and this is definitely something new."

Pediatrician: "It's probably just the fact that your husband is Japanese."

(It turned out that the baby was yellow because his liver was enlarged as a result of congestive heart failure. Also, my husband's skin has never been yellow.)

[Ursa Major]

I go to my health food store and ask the vitamin people for digestive enzymes and they ask my symptoms.. right off this hippy guy with dreads and more patchouli then any one person should ever wear says to me..

oh dude, you totally have celiac disease...

Now, as sad and disgusting as your story is when it comes to doctors, that quote totally cracked me up. Sometimes the most unlikely people are the ones with the most common sense.

[Nancym]

i go to my health food store and ask the vitamin people for digestive enzymes and they ask my symptoms.. right off this hippy guy with dreads and more patchouli then any one person should ever wear says to me..

oh dude, you totally have celiac disease...

i go gluten free diet for 2 weeks and feel awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i call the GI.. tell them.. go in fot the blood test.. and hes like "oh yeah.. i wonder why i didnt think of that"

and now i have been gluten-free for 1 1/2 years and feeling GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!

What an amazing story!

I tell you, I should write a book about the misdiagnosed people out there.

[plantime]

a certain idiot Dr. said to me...

"All your problems are because you are fat. You just need to lose weight" (DUH I need to lose weight moron, don't you think I've tried? And the diet he gave me to follow was very high in whole wheat and I literally GAINED 10 - 15 pounds in a week. So I went back in and screamed at him that that the diet was NOT working)

and he said

"you must not be doing it right"

Ack... no, just following your high in whole wheat diet EXACTLY moron, do ya think that should've been a clue right there? I fired him as my Dr. and went to another one in the practice...

Nisla, you must have been seeing my doctor, as that is exactly what she said to me! And I fired her, and went to a completely different clinic.

[frenchiemama]

I went to the doctor and a dermatologist for 2 straight years with my DH. They kept giving me more antibiotics and when those didn't work, the dermatologist said it was "Some kind of dermatitis. Here, use this soap."

Then after that I went to a different doctor. She looked at my rash, then looked in my chart and said "Well, Dr. Dermatologist couldn't figure out what it was, so it can't be anything physical." Then she closed my chart and gave me the serious/sympathetic look in the eye and told me that "It is probably the physical manifestation of emotional distress. Let me recommend you to a good therapist." She actually GAVE me a card for a therapist.

Talk about emotional distress, I cried all the way home. And it still bothers me.

[frenchiemama]

Oh wait, can I add a mother in law quote?

"Can't she just take some benadryl?"

[i canary]

My most recently medical idiot was a nurse not the doctor. When I called for an appointment for my pap smear - I asked that everything While I'm talking to the nurse who kept saying "No problem, I'll check for gluten" I'm feeling like she doesn't know what I'm talking about. So I asked "Do you know what gluten is?" She looked at me for a moment and said "It's some kind of weed, isn't it?"