Tallahassee

[Hollylou42]

So it has only been one visit but I have good feelings.

Today, I saw nurse practioner Todd Chezicek with help from Doctor Hardeep Singh at the Tallahassee Digestive Disease Clinic. Todd, while not the most personable doctor (he was striaght down to business, but I understand they have other patients to see too), and he did use some medical lingo that I had to stop and ask him to explain, but overall he was very knowledgeable and receptive to my celiac suspicions. And to be honest, I am only 22 and I didn't have my mom there for parent backup, and yet he took me seriously and didn't treat me like a kid (like some of the other doctors have). He also had great eye contact, and I felt like he was really listening to what I was saying.

Anywho, he ordered more bloodwork for celiac, and some other tests (upper gi and stool samples) just to rule out some other conditions. He talked about how chron's is a possiblity but if it is celiac how the diet is a bit difficult but possible (Thats a given, but I thought it was nice he was warning me of that He talked about a few of his medical journals he had read about celiac and its predominance and the diet. He did mention the horrible 'cancer' word but I am choosing to dismiss that possibility for the time being.

Oh, and the fact that I have lost 17 lbs (and I am little to begin with) which has been such a huge concern for me (D and C I can live with, but feeling like I am wasting away, I can't) really seemed to concern him too. He repeated a few times that my weight loss was a concern to him and we needed to figure out what was wrong to stop it.

Like I said, it has only been one visit and I will keep updating this post as I see Todd and Dr. Singh, a few more times and we come to a conclusion, no matter what the diagnoses. The guy seemed really thorough and cautious and if you need a specialist in the northwest Florida area, I recommend the TallyDDC

-Laura-