I Love My Doctor

[Nantzie]

My regular doctor's name is Patricia Chen, MD. She's at UC Davis Medical Group on Madison Avenue between San Juan and Sunrise. I'm pretty sure that she's not taking new patients right now, which is why it took me a while to write this. But she's just so great that I wanted to post about her anyway because so many people have such bad experiences with doctors while trying to figure all of this out.

When I went in to ask her about celiac and try and get a referral to a GI, she listened to me like I was an equal and gave me the referral.

When my biopsy came up negative and I told her that I was going to go gluten-free anyway just to see what happens, she told me that it's really hard to be gluten-free, and that gluten is in everything. She was very encouraging of me trying it, and was politely skeptical, but not discouraging at all.

That was back in March.

I went to see her last week for an unrelated issue, and told her how my life had completely changed after going gluten-free. Her whole demeanor changed. She started talking to me like I was a friend of her's and got really excited. She said, "Oh my God! I have SO many, SOOO many patients now who come in the same way you did, with all the symptoms. All the tests come back negative. They decide to go gluten-free and the change is immediate and it changes their whole lives." Then she joked that she was about ready to start a club for people with non-diagnostic, dietary-change-positive gluten intolerance.

She even knew about Outback and PF Chang's having gluten-free menus. I told her about Whole Foods having a Gluten-Free Bakeshop too.

She's just really nice and down-to-earth. I just love her.

Nancy

[floridanative]

I'm so glad you found a good doctor that listened to and encouraged you. If there were more docs out there like her, so many others on here would not have suffered for years. The only great doc I ever had was a neuro doc and I hope I never need to see him again. He was almost like an alien to me since he asked me alot of questions, really listened and never interrupted me. Oh I almost forgot about my new dermatologist who actually found my anemia last year when pcp and gyno hadn't a clue as to why I was so fatiqued. He is from India and I would love him to become an internist but of course, he's not going to. He knew all about Celiac - more than any GI I've seen to date.

[misskerry]

May I hop onto this thread and chime in about how great my GI is? I have read on here about people who can't get their doctors to listen to them and they continue to go to them with these symptoms but can't find any relief. That's what going to my primary care phsyician is like. However, my gastroenterologist is wonderful! The first appointment I had with him and his nurse practitioner they actually LISTENED to me! They wrote every little thing down, even if I didn't know if it was related or not. They asked me questions, I asked them questions, it was great. At my follow-up appointment I was given the information on Celiac Disease. In less than a month I went from having no idea why I was so horribly sick to being diagnosed with Celiac and put on the gluten-free diet. I wish that I could share him with all of you because he is great.

Thanks for letting me add that.