I got extensively checked out for why I was in pain all the time after I ate, losing massive amounts of weight to the point of near-starvation and felt like I had food stuck in my esophagus all the time. Doctors tested me for a couple of weeks for physical esophagus problems, declared I was fine, and sent me to a psychologist who grilled me for 45 minutes about whether I believed the tests or I “still thought something was wrong with me”. I told her I believed the tests but that they were not the right tests yet. Pretty sure I didn’t anxiety myself into losing 60 pounds in 4 months and losing my house, work and relationship… she declared I had “health anxiety”. Oops, turned out I was actually developing LADA, a form of type 1 diabetes. I ended up at the ER later on and they said I would have died or gone into a coma in another 1-2 days.
I was recovering from extended time with undiagnosed Celiac. I assumed it was related to that. My symptoms seemed a lot like what I experienced with Celiac, but I was so stringently gluten free that I couldn’t figure out what was happening. The doctor i saw was a celiac specialist - and he was great at that - but I needed a more general doctor or an endocrinologist. On the last day of 2 weeks there, after all these esophagus tests, allergists, a dermatologist and the psychologist, he said “It could be Type 1 Diabetes… some people get that too”. Then didn’t order a blood test or do anything.
Insanely bad doctor, wow. Losing a ton of weight super quick is like one of the biggest symptoms of diabetes
I wish I’d figured it out myself. One problem was I was recovering from Celiac, and tried a very restricted diet, and a liquid diet - which actually worked when I started doing chicken in a blender (which is much better than it sounds, especially when you’ve been starving for 4 months). Tell a doctor ‘I was starving and I went to this weird restricted diet’ and it seems they have a really hard time with the order of things. Reality was “I was starving and in pain and then I tried this restricted diet” and they hear “you were on this restricted diet, and then you were starving and in pain”.
Do you know what they call doctors that barely passed medical school, at the bottom of their class?
Doctors.
I’ve thought about it. It was all a lot to handle and I didn’t really think back to it for another year. Probably I should write her “hey, so here’s what actually happened…”
More like “hey, your actions were harmful to my health and you should reconsider your biases as a professional since it’s your job to be open minded even when you think your patient is wrong”
Or at least "hey, here’s my malpractice lawyer’s number.
