Librax And Good Dr. Visit

[skbird]

I went to see my doctor today and told him about how I'm doing with my diet and he told me that out of all the people he's suggested go gluten free over the past 5 years, I have the best success story of them all. I didn't ask how many had been tested by him first (I wasn't) but was surprised that he'd been recommending the diet to others. For background, I emailed him last fall after my second week on the gluten free diet to tell him about it and how I was doing and he said great - don't worry about testing, just see if the diet works for you and that is diagnosis enough.

So it had been 7 months and I wanted to check in with him and also ask about some other stuff (thyroid, autoimmune stuff). He said he thinks the diet works well for me because I am very fastidious which leads me to believe that most the other people around my area on it just don't know to what level they should be careful. That makes me sad, actually. They should all come here!

He prescribed Librex for me for my IBS symptoms. I looked around to price it on the net as my "unsurance" is pretty bad - I have a high deductable for name brand but $10 for generic plan. Librex has recently been reformulated and therefore appears to have no generic. I called a couple places and they affirmed that. But if you have the doctor write the script for the generic names (in this case, 5mg chlordiazepoxide hydrochloride and 2.5mg clidinium bromide) then they will give you the old formula generic. The difference in price at Costco's pharmacy, for example, is $123 for 50 name brand, and $17.39 generic. Just thought I'd post that info for anyone who is thinking of getting this med or if they get it prescribed already under Librex and can't get the generic.

I'll have to see if it works for me. It sounds pretty hefty of a drug but if it helps with the bad IBS episodes I get, then I'll be ok with using it occasionally.

He also gave me lab papers to get my thyroid tested (T3 uptake, T4, FTI as well as TSH) and an arthritis panel to check for autoimmune stuff there (I don't have many symptoms for that but I do get achy joints and knuckles when I ingest gluten).

It was overall a good visit. He told me he's sorry I have to go through all this in order to feel ok and I said I was actually ok with it, it makes me eat healthy food and I really don't mind it all that much. He said, "don't you ever wish you could just go eat some Ben and Jerry's???" and I laughed and said sure, but it's not the end of the world that I can't. (My homemade ice cream is better than B&J!!!)

Anyway, if anyone has any experience with Librex, please share as I'd like to hear the good and the bad.

Thanks!

Stephanie

[KaitiUSA]

He said, "don't you ever wish you could just go eat some Ben and Jerry's???" and I laughed and said sure, but it's not the end of the world that I can't. (My homemade ice cream is better than B&J!!!)

Do you have another intolerance which is why you can't have ice cream? Why can't you have Ben and Jerry's ice cream? That is a brand that will not hide anything and some of their flavors are gluten free.

[skbird]

Hi Kaiti -

Well, I think he was just being flip - doesn't know I specificially can or can't have Ben and Jerry's. I actually don't eat most Ben and Jerry's - because of the sugar. I eat occasionally the Ben and Jerry's that is organic as that has cane juice in it and no corn syrup (something I avoid for sugar purposes, not for the corn). He could just as easily have said "candy bar," "bagel," etc....

I do miss the convenience the most out of anything! And yeah, I do miss Ben and Jerry's... especially my favorite, chocolate chip cookie dough.....

Stephanie