I'm Going To Med School!

[heathen]

so i got my acceptance letter to med school today, and beyond being excited and nervous, i can be an insider for you guys...

so what do you want to know? it may take a few years to get through them all, but i'll try.

[happygirl]

Congrats!!!!!!!! Wow, what an accomplishment! Where are you going?!

[GeoffCJ]

Congratulations!!!! That's awesome.

I have often thought about going to medical school. I truly believe the frustrations I've had with doctors over the last 10-12 years would make me a better doctor!

Geoff

[heathen]

i'm going to the university of Arkansas for medical sciences in little rock. i know, Arkansas... how good can it be? but it's actually a really good med school, even if it's not "prestigious." and i do think that having celiac will make me a better doctor--definitely more sympathetic.

[Canadian Karen]

I think that is just awesome! Go shake some sense into those who don't teach the doctors properly about celiac!!!!

Hugs.

Karen

[Guest AutumnE]

i'm going to the university of Arkansas for medical sciences in little rock. i know, Arkansas... how good can it be? but it's actually a really good med school, even if it's not "prestigious." and i do think that having celiac will make me a better doctor--definitely more sympathetic.

Congratulations!

Good Luck

[Nantzie]

Congratulations!!!!

I don't have anything I'd really like to know, but I do have a concept I'd like to see gain acceptance.

I'd like for doctors to recognize that there is more than one form of gluten-related health issues. Someday I think that there will be different "types" of celiac just like there are different types of diabetes. Type 1 Celiac would of course be biopsy-proven celiac. Type 2 Celiac would be diet-proven celiac. With other types to be specified as the research and understanding progresses.

Nancy

[Kaycee]

I'd like for doctors to recognize that there is more than one form of gluten-related health issues. Someday I think that there will be different "types" of celiac just like there are different types of diabetes. Type 1 Celiac would of course be biopsy-proven celiac. Type 2 Celiac would be diet-proven celiac. With other types to be specified as the research and understanding progresses.

Nancy

Nancy, you have mentioned that before. What I want to know is why you think there should be different types? I am just curious.

And I would like there to be accurate information describing the difference between coeliac, gluten intolerance (aren't they the same?) and gluten sensitive. Even I am confused about those differences.

Cathy

[PeggyV]

Congratulations,

wish more Doctors had Celiac/ Gluten Intolerance. Maybe they would be more inclined to listen to you when you tell them about your symptoms and not so quick to rule out the possibility just because your tests come back negative.

[debmidge]

Best Wishes for Success!

How many years do you have to attend? What is cirriculum for each year? I have so many non gluten-free related questions about it! It's so exciting !

[jerseyangel]

Wow! That is great news--congratulations

Go and knock some sense into them for all of us!

[Joanie & Meg]

so i got my acceptance letter to med school today, and beyond being excited and nervous, i can be an insider for you guys...

so what do you want to know? it may take a few years to get through them all, but i'll try.

Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm glad you'll be in Arkansas! My Meg and I could see a Dr. that really understands. Study hard!

Best of Luck,

Joanie

[heathen]

it's an integrated curriculum. in the first year, i'll take biochem and cell first. then gross, histology, neuro 1, physician care, and something else i can't remember. then the "specialties" are bunched together in a year. so two years of class, and two years of clinical rotations. my friends have told me that if i can make it through second semester freshman year, i should be ok.

thanks for all the encouragement.

[blueeyedmanda]

Congrats! Getting into Med School is such an honor. I wish you all the luck!

[gfp]

Nancy, you have mentioned that before. What I want to know is why you think there should be different types? I am just curious.

And I would like there to be accurate information describing the difference between coeliac, gluten intolerance (aren't they the same?) and gluten sensitive. Even I am confused about those differences.

Cathy

Im not Nancy but ...

Some celiacs have elevated IgA only, some IgG only, some both even taking into account TtG etc. not to mention nooone has differentiated the 4 types of IgG specifically regardng celiac.

Some celiacs have no biopsy or GI symptoms at all yet react to a gluten-free diet and have elevated serology for neurological problems ...some people only have DH...

The only common thing being ingestion of gluten...

This only gives 2 options... either there are mutliple diseases not just one OR celiac expresses its symptoms differently in different people.

Either we sub-class celiac so that different parts of it can be addressed (for instance B complex to deal with neuropathy) OR we call them different diseases... based on one diagnostic test which is a pretty unreliable test to start off with (biopsy).

IMHO I see no benefit telling someone with elevated serology and responding to a gluten-free diet they are not a celiac because their biopsy is negative... what should Dr.s do do, tell them to keep eating gluten so they can get a positive diagnosis and perhaps kill the patient in the meantime or give them irrepairable damage?

Given the general level of knowledge of the disease in the medical community as a whole I think we need to keep it simple... Dr's are only technicians, they just follow the manuals and patch us back up, very few are actually invoved in research and most of those that are don't see patients...

IMHO we need to keep it simple for the Dr's, for all those years they spend at med school they are not scientists ... and science and medicine are not the same.

A scientific view is you should kill the patient, that way you can have a full post-mortem and learn more, cut the intestines into little peaces... the life of the patient has no value whatsoever to science except in what extra information they provide by wether living or dying. I'm not saying a scientist shouldn't have ethics, I'm just saying they don't play a part in good science or bad science...

That is why we have MD's and very strict codes of conduct about experimentation on patients... equally many medical research scientists might argue that what could be learned letting a patient die can save thousands of patients.

Of course the reason for the ethics is non of us want to be that patient who's life saves others!

[ArtGirl]

If sub-classifying presenting symptoms of celiac/gluten intolerance will help MDs make accurate diagnoses, then I'm all for it. The way it is now, if a patient doesn't present a very narrow set of symptoms, then they don't get a diagnosis that would greatly help them.

[gfp]

If sub-classifying presenting symptoms of celiac/gluten intolerance will help MDs make accurate diagnoses, then I'm all for it. The way it is now, if a patient doesn't present a very narrow set of symptoms, then they don't get a diagnosis that would greatly help them.

I'm really not sure it is....

There are quite a few MD's whom are already studying celiac disease but the vast majority are badly informed.

What they know of celiac disease is from medical school sometimes 50 yrs ago...

We also have a lot of division, even posessiveness. Many GI specialists not only don't consider neurological damage, they refuse to connect it whatsoever ir even look at studies about it.

I think eventually we will learn more about celiac disease, perhaps enough to sub-define it, perhaps enough to give it another name?

I just think that at the moment we don't know enough and it will take a lot longer to join the dots by sticking to one rigid definition right now and that an inclusive definition allows more subjects, more information and more research. Right now we have seen it grow from a very minority rate disease to something your average GP has perhaps heard of since med school.

If we split it and have lots of different names we go back to square one for many of these MD's. Also people who don't have biopsy +ve will continue to be sidelined and considered not true celiacs by some.

Anyway, for a few of the experts sub-classing it might be helpful but to the general medical community I don't think so,. at least not yet and for a long time. That doesn't mean I don't think there are different classes ... it means I think sub-classing it and dividing it will not help most celiacs right now and will probably hinder many being diagnosed and helped.

[Nantzie]

Anyway, for a few of the experts sub-classing it might be helpful but to the general medical community I don't think so,. at least not yet and for a long time. That doesn't mean I don't think there are different classes ... it means I think sub-classing it and dividing it will not help most celiacs right now and will probably hinder many being diagnosed and helped.

That's true... The more categories there are the more muddy the waters may become.

I guess my point is that doctors need to be educated on the atypical presentations of celiac as well as the classic presentation. There is an established phrase of "atypical celiac". But it doesn't seem like most doctors know that atypical might have none of the testing results that a classic celiac patient would have. Although some doctors don't even know what the classic test results look like either.

The reason I mention the different "types" of celiac a lot is that I would hate to have someone not try the diet just because their test results were negative, or that they don't have one of the two main genes.

As an example, the short version of my history is -

Insomnia/anxiety dreams / nightmares since early childhood - I remember being 4 and being afraid to go to sleep. Memory and concentration problems.

GI problems since having mono at age 17; D vs. C, indigestion, bloating. Increased GI problems after first pregnancy; 30-second notice D.

Exhaustion and increased insomia after having mono.

Pain and mobility issues starting during second pregnancy. I thought they were just pregnancy related. After I had him it just got worse. It got to the point where I could literally barely walk and could only do the bare necessities to care for my kids. I couldn't even give them a bath.

The last one that showed up (while I was waiting for my endoscopy) was my tongue was swelling, causing my speech to slur. I had a hard time talking and I would bite the edges of my tongue when I would read a bedtime story to my daughter.

When I went on the gluten-free diet all of those symptoms, every one of them, went away like somebody flipped a switch. Within a week it was all gone. 18 years of GI symptoms, almost three years of painful and life-limiting mobility issues gone. Poof!

TEST RESULTS - Negative blood tests. Negative biopsy. Enterolab: DQ1, subtype 6 (two copies). So if I had gotten the genetic test through the doctor's office that only looks for DQ2 and DQ8, I would have ended up with a negative genetic test too.

If I had depended on the test results for an answer when I did my testing a year ago, by this point I would be using a wheelchair at least part of the time, probably wouldn't be able to drive, and I would probably need to hire help not only to take care of my kids but myself as well.

My life is awesome now. I can RUN with my kids (not just jog, I'm talking track-and-field running), I can move furniture around, I can walk for miles, I don't walk like a duck anymore, I can take my kids whereever I want, whenever I want. It's like a miracle.

It scares me to think how many people are suffering with atypical symptoms. When their tests come back negative most likely the doctor, who is probably really trying to help his patient, thinks that negative tests mean that gluten can't be an issue. Most doctors wouldn't even think to just ask the patient to try the gluten-free diet, or an elimination diet, just in case there was some sort of food intolerance causing the symptoms.

All that being said, I do believe that the most important thing that researchers need to figure out is classic celiac. I would just rather the "gold standard" be the gluten-free diet rather than the endoscopy. I do think that people should do the testing, even just to make sure it's not something else, or something in addition to possible celiac. But I would like to see it get to the point where the final part of the testing would always be the gluten-free diet.

Sorry about the long post.

Nancy

[gfp]

It scares me to think how many people are suffering with atypical symptoms. When their tests come back negative most likely the doctor, who is probably really trying to help his patient, thinks that negative tests mean that gluten can't be an issue. Most doctors wouldn't even think to just ask the patient to try the gluten-free diet, or an elimination diet, just in case there was some sort of food intolerance causing the symptoms.

Nancy

Yep and this is why I think we have to help the poor MD's

Seriously though, the MD just wants a nice neat solution. List of symptoms that fit a well known disease, preferably one with a simple pharmacutical cure.

Its just human nature, if they can give you a bottle and tell you to come back in 6 weeks if it doesn't clear up then they just solved one problem and they have the next 50 patients to get through... so unless something looks like you won't be around in 6 weeks the easiest thing for them to do is take the simplest to treat symptoms. Putting someone on a gluten-free diet isn't that simple, it involves follow-up and its largely out of the hands of the MD... at least as to how well you follow the diet.

Part of the problem is very little of celiac disease is life threatening in the short term. This is proabably why many of us get better service from naturpaths etc. because they are not looking for what will kill you in the next 6 weeks but more an overall picture...

How many times does a MD say, how long has this been going on for?

One of us answers .. well a few years, it seems to have gotton worse in the last 2 ... or so years and ....

Take 2 of these twice a day with food... come back in 2 weeks if you don't feel better..

Did they not hear.... we just said years, do they think they can clear it up with a course of antibiotics? or tylenol?

Nope usually they have no idea ... they figure some of your symptoms you got confused about and are just because you got a bug/stress/bad news, good news ... you name it... and that although you just said your general health has been deteriorating for years they just want to eliminate that bug or whatever and pit you back on the even keel of slowly deteriorating health ?

My life is awesome now. I can RUN with my kids (not just jog, I'm talking track-and-field running), I can move furniture around, I can walk for miles, I don't walk like a duck anymore, I can take my kids whereever I want, whenever I want. It's like a miracle.

That is truly awesome....

[lonewolf]

The reason I mention the different "types" of celiac a lot is that I would hate to have someone not try the diet just because their test results were negative, or that they don't have one of the two main genes.

You are right on. I wonder how many people have been told they don't have Celiac, so not to try a gluten-free diet? If I had relied on standard testing I wouldn't have discovered that dietary changes would help.

[lonewolf]

Pain and mobility issues starting during second pregnancy. I thought they were just pregnancy related. After I had him it just got worse. It got to the point where I could literally barely walk and could only do the bare necessities to care for my kids. I couldn't even give them a bath.

If I had depended on the test results for an answer when I did my testing a year ago, by this point I would be using a wheelchair at least part of the time, probably wouldn't be able to drive, and I would probably need to hire help not only to take care of my kids but myself as well.

My life is awesome now. I can RUN with my kids (not just jog, I'm talking track-and-field running), I can move furniture around, I can walk for miles, I don't walk like a duck anymore, I can take my kids whereever I want, whenever I want. It's like a miracle.

Wow, Nancy. This sounds EXACTLY like what I went through. (Most of the rest of your symptoms too, but I didn't want to quote too much.) I couldn't change my baby's diapers and had to have help every morning until about 11:00. The rheumatologist told me I'd be in and out of a wheelchair for the rest of my life, even if I took the medications he was prescribing. Five days after changing my diet I rode my bike in our neighborhood 4th of July parade, 8 months later went to Disneyland and walked 10 hours a day and a few years later did my first triathlon. I teach PE and coach basketball and not a day goes by that I don't think about how thankful I am to have discovered that changing my diet could bring about such a miracle. (And trying to reintroduce gluten brought back the joint pain and made me develop a kidney disease that has gone into remission since going fanatically gluten-free.)

All this and I can't have "true" Celiac because I don't have the correct genes either. But NO ONE can convince me that gluten hasn't caused most of my health problems.

I really think that someday Celiac Disease will just be considered a tiny sub category of a wide spectrum of gluten intolerance problems.

[Nantzie]

GFP, I remember someone comparing doctors (favorably actually) to mechanics. You just keep looking and trying stuff until the problem goes away. The difference is that after every change a patient has to be sent home to do their own test drive.

Oh my gosh Liz!!! That's amazing!! To go from facing a wheelchair to teaching PE and coaching? It really is a miracle isn't it?

Nancy