Another $20 wasted

Well folks, I wasted another co-pay visiting a doctor that told me exactly what I knew she was going to say: “You have IBS.”

Really?

I told her everything. All of my symptoms, everything about my past, about my eating habits, etc. The one thing I didn’t do was mention IBS. I was trying so hard to avoid using those three letters because I didn’t want her to throw it back at me. And I really don’t believe it’s IBS. (The symptoms of IBS are similar, but I don’t have many of the classic symptoms. IBS has a lot of the symptoms that Ulcerative Colitis have, but on a much less severe scale.)

I waited for 35 minutes to see her and was out of her office in 20. I KNEW this was going to happen.

She wrote me a prescription for some kind of med to help me with the symptoms, suggested I try it for 2 weeks and if it doesn’t work, I need to see a GI specialist.

I probably won’t take the meds since she said there were a lot of weird side-effects that come along with it (shocker) but I will take the Prevacid she prescribed for the massive heartburn I get. If I’m going to get any kind of relief from meds, I’ll take it from this for now. But there HAS to be a better way.

I also feel that doctors hate how much research we do on our symptoms. I really don’t think they like to be questioned. They’re the ones that went to school for this stuff, so who are we to walk in with ideas of our own?

I explained how my symptoms (which include ADD, type O blood, sinus issues, migraines, and my father had very similar issues with his stomach as well)  point to gluten allergies, but since I’m not a doctor, I don’t want to be the one to make that call. She just smiled and said, “It’s obvious that you do a lot of reading, but I still think it’s just an IBS issue.”

I’m very frustrated but I’m sure I’ll get to the bottom of it soon. Until I do, I will continue to be gluten free because right now it’s the only change I’ve made that has seemed to work, even if it is just a little bit.

On a happy note, I found some Teff today at Harris Teeter. I’m so excited and I can’t wait to try it. It’s another HEAB inspired idea and I’ll be writing ALL about it tomorrow morning.