Semi Productive Doctocter Conversation

[Lister]

Well, it was my 3 month checkup today. He says all of my problems i am still having are just part of the healing process and will go away with time. He is very mad at me for not starting to eat yogurt yet, and says that i need to start eating small amounts of icecream starting today and if he finds out i dont do it he will no longer be my doctor because he feels that if i cant trust him he does not want to see me. Im scared to try to bring back dairy because i feel like i dont feel very good as it is and im afraid that it will make me sicker.

(my girlfriend is the one that talked to the doctor, i was at work)

[Guest nini]

why does he want you to eat yogurt? is he not aware that a lot of times people with Celiac/Gluten Intolerance are also lactose (dairy) intolerant? If dairy bothers you, then continue to avoid it. If he's going to give you ultimatums like that, do you really want him as your Dr. anyway? You've complained about this Dr. a lot, but you've also defended him... We can't tell you what to do about this Dr., but you will have to decide who you trust more, your own gut instincts or a Dr. that can barely take the time to talk to you when you are freaking out?

If it was a 3 month checkup how is it that your girlfriend talked to him and not you? You were at work for your 3 month checkup? He did it over the phone??? That doesn't make sense... He may be trying to help you out because you can't afford the bills, but at the same time, is the care that you are getting truly quality of care? We all told you that all the symptoms you were having were part of the healing process, are we experts? Only because we have been there. We have had Dr.s not believe us, weird symptoms that our friends and families all thought we were making up, and because of these experiences most of us do feel like bigger experts on this subject than most medical Dr.s

of course you are healing. And if dairy bothers you, don't eat it, it's that simple.

[Lister]

have not tried dairy to find out, the second he suspected celiac, he thru me off the dairy, he thinks im ready to reintroduce, based on the some symptoms of improvment

[Green12]

Well, it was my 3 month checkup today. He says all of my problems i am still having are just part of the healing process and will go away with time. He is very mad at me for not starting to eat yogurt yet, and says that i need to start eating small amounts of icecream starting today and if he finds out i dont do it he will no longer be my doctor because he feels that if i cant trust him he does not want to see me. Im scared to try to bring back dairy because i feel like i dont feel very good as it is and im afraid that it will make me sicker.

(my girlfriend is the one that talked to the doctor, i was at work)

Sounds like you need to kick your doctor to the curb. I am with nini, if you feel like dairy makes you sick then you should not eat it. Period. And if he is telling you you need to do as he says and not question it, that is your first, big, red flag clue to look for another doctor asap.

[Rachel--24]

I'm with the others who have posted. If a doctor demanded that I eat something that I knew was not the best thing for me I would definately no longer see that doctor. You have to listen to your body and do whats right for you. There are many people here who cannot tolerate dairy plus a whole lot more than that so if you feel dairy will worsen your symptoms you are probably right. Dont eat it and as nini said....its as simple as that.

[Lister]

yeah, but i meen i guess i can atleast try dairy, and see what happens since i meen, i have not had it since going gluten-free, so i have no clue if it makes me sick or not, its a pretty big food group, to nock off eating without knowing. so i guess wil give in on my day off and go try a very small amount of icecream and see what happens, but if i feel sick from it he can screw off

[elonwy]

Just make sure you get gluten-free ice cream. If you go to Dreyers website and look at the individual product info it tells you which ones are gluten-free. Doesn't say on the carton, but the website is a great source. I'm a mint chocolate chip fan myself. I went off dairy (mostly) for my first three months and it helped a great deal and then I introduced it back in slowly. You might want to try the test on Friday so if it doesn't work you don't have to go into work (assuming you have a normal work week). I like to save my trials for weekends so that if I do feel sick I can lie around in bed all day and not feel guilty.

Elonwy

[Lister]

he did specificly specifie vanilla and vanilla only, he also said (surpised he did reaserch) that i should probably have hogandaz vanilla because its gluten free. he then also told my girlfriend some other good gluten-free stuff that i should look into. (starting to wonder if maybe this doc has a celiac relitive-seems fairly well informed)

[Green12]

he did specificly specifie vanilla and vanilla only, he also said (surpised he did reaserch) that i should probably have hogandaz vanilla because its gluten free. he then also told my girlfriend some other good gluten-free stuff that i should look into. (starting to wonder if maybe this doc has a celiac relitive-seems fairly well informed)

Why ice cream? Did he explain why he wanted you to start eating dairy by eating ice cream?

[Lister]

no clue, the first time he said yogurt( my girlfriend mentioned that i was supposed to eat yogurt, and he responed saying he instead wants me to do icecream i have no clue why)

[Green12]

no clue, the first time he said yogurt( my girlfriend mentioned that i was supposed to eat yogurt, and he responed saying he instead wants me to do icecream i have no clue why)

hmmm, that's a mystery. You would think he would want to start you off with something like yogurt or a mild cheese, or milk even. But he must have some kind of method to his maddness.

[ravenwoodglass]

Well, it was my 3 month checkup today. He says all of my problems i am still having are just part of the healing process and will go away with time. He is very mad at me for not starting to eat yogurt yet, and says that i need to start eating small amounts of icecream starting today and if he finds out i dont do it he will no longer be my doctor because he feels that if i cant trust him he does not want to see me. Im scared to try to bring back dairy because i feel like i dont feel very good as it is and im afraid that it will make me sicker.

(my girlfriend is the one that talked to the doctor, i was at work)

How did your doctor do your 3 month check up by talkiing on the phone to your girlfreind? I can't even get info on my grown children from their doctor unless I am standing with them in front of him. We have really strict privacy laws in place for medical issues, at least in my state. I thought they were nationwide. If this occurred you need to find another doctor, not only because he wants you to eat ice cream to test dairy (yogert would be the way to go and that would make sense because of the good bacteria) but because he broke the law by discussing you and doing an important postdiagnosis assessment over the phone without the patient. You should report him to the AMA if this happened.

[jerseyangel]

I was wondering the same thing about your "check up" done over the phone through your girlfriend?? I had a similar situation as Ravenwood with my then-21 year old who was still living here at the time. The woman at the doctor's office said that due to privacy laws, she could not discuss any specifics with me.

I'm also afraid that if you try ice cream first, after not eating dairy for months, it will upset your stomach--it's rich, and has a lot of sugar. Could cause upset in that situation for anyone--let alone one with a healing intestine. Why would he *require* you to eat dairy? Makes no sense. Maybe if he said to try a little dairy, and see how you do with it....

Lister, maybe it's time to seek another opinion on how to proceed from here--in any event, don't eat anything that makes you sick, listen to your body on this!

[Lister]

I oked the over the phone stuff, and it was not really a checkup- iwas supposed to call in 3 months and say how i was doing, the nurse relayed the message to him and then gave a response to the nurse, then the nurse relayed his response to me. Its how we do it to avoid me having to pay 200 dollers everytime he wants to say something to me

[ravenwoodglass]

I oked the over the phone stuff, and it was not really a checkup- iwas supposed to call in 3 months and say how i was doing, the nurse relayed the message to him and then gave a response to the nurse, then the nurse relayed his response to me. Its how we do it to avoid me having to pay 200 dollers everytime he wants to say something to me

Then the doctor needs to be notified that the nurse gave this info to your girlfreind. She broke the law and should lose her job.

[Lister]

does not really bug me, if she would have just left a message on the answering machine it would not have been so specific so i meen i dont mind. Not like my girlfriend dont know everything thats going on anyways

[penguin]

To try dairy again, eat something cultured, like yogurt or cheese. The "bugs" in these eat the lactose, so most cheeses and yogurt don't have lactose.

[Girl Ninja]

I think everyone should relax and you should do what the doc says. If you were avoiding dairy because it make you ill that would be another story. But you're not. And maybe testing dairy will help him to know if he needs to run another expensive test or not. I am confused about the ice cream over yogurt thing, but maybe he just thinks it would be easier to get you to eat ice cream. If it turns out you're ok with dairy it would expand your diet choices a lot and like someone else mentioned, the yogurt cultures can be good for a healing digestive tract. Good luck to you.

You probably don't mind that he discussed it with your gluten-free, but it is against HIPAA. Is she your medical advocate? Maybe then it's ok if they have that form on file. My doc just had me fill one out today.

[CarlaB]

To try dairy again, eat something cultured, like yogurt or cheese. The "bugs" in these eat the lactose, so most cheeses and yogurt don't have lactose.

Maybe this answers our question about why the doc wanted ice cream ... maybe he's wanting to see if there is a lactose intolerance and thought there would be a greater chance of Lister eating ice cream than drinking a glass of milk. If it was the nurse, maybe the doc had just said dairy and the nurse told Lister's girlfriend to take him out for some ice cream ... could it be that the doc did not specify ice cream, but just dairy?

[Girl Ninja]

That's a good point. You guys are so smart.

[tarnalberry]

The problem is, if you haven't been eating dairy, even if you've healed, you're not producing lactase, 'cause your body doesn't need it. So, just eating a bunch of dairy right now, even if you're not normally lactose intolerant, will give you lactose intolerance symtpoms. You have to give your body time to get back into 'production mode', so don't eat a lot of dairy with lactose at once, or you'll feel the effects pretty much no matter what.

[CarlaB]

The problem is, if you haven't been eating dairy, even if you've healed, you're not producing lactase, 'cause your body doesn't need it. So, just eating a bunch of dairy right now, even if you're not normally lactose intolerant, will give you lactose intolerance symtpoms. You have to give your body time to get back into 'production mode', so don't eat a lot of dairy with lactose at once, or you'll feel the effects pretty much no matter what.

Good point. I do think there's a high probability that the doc said something different. You know the old telephone game ... the doc to the nurse to the girlfriend to Lister. Too many in betweens. Lister, I'd call the doc, talk to HIM and clarify. If he says he did say ice cream, then I'd ask why.

[penguin]

If he told you to eat yogurt earlier on, I would stick with that. Try yogurt first. The dr. may have suggested to the nurse that you eat frozen yogurt if you don't like normal yogurt, and that got relayed as eat ice cream.

[lindalee]

I am on a healing diet-no dairy but I can have cow and goat milkyogurt, cream cheese, buttermilk, 100% pure cream,100%pure buttter, cottage cheese, and sour cream. LLee

[Lister]

talked to the doctor, he specificaly said vanilla icecream, not yogurt. did not answer why though