The New GI

We had the long awaited (and well stressed about) appointment with the potentially new Pediatric GI today. In order to miss rush hour traffic we were up before dawn, and loaded in the car as a family. I was pleased to have found an appointment with a leading doctor from Oakland's Children's Hospital who also held an MD in Nutrition. An MD in GI and an MD in Nutrition - how could we possibly go wrong there?? Well, ...we most likely have a doctor to keep, but not the amazing nutrition based focus I had hoped for.

Some of the highlights:

- She did not have immediate access to Ellie's entire medical history, so she only saw our brief notes and those from the nurse. She walked in and said 'what is going on?' and I said 'FPIES'. She said 'I suspected.' (To which I laughed and said well that is progress!) To which she then said 'well she is too young for EE', to which I thought 'CRAP. not as much progress as I thought.'

- She said that meat has almost everything you need so Ellie can be fine like this for a very long time, if needed. (It was just nice to hear a doctor say that outloud)

- She asked if she was on a multi-vitamin, to which I said no because we have not been able to avoid corn, to which she said 'well, yes I would imagine not'. (Another nice thing to hear a doctor of her 'level' say)

- She said that the only vitamin to be concerned of at this point was vitamin C, and suggested I do a home skin test of foods high in vitamin C before feeding it to her. (A doctor acknowledging skin test! woot!)

- Ellie continues to grow and gain weight, and is now happily over 30 pounds! (*big mama grin*)

- I said my only real concern was the continued distended belly and so she offered an xray to see what it showed. (I appreciated the proactive approach)

What else...

- She irritated the crap out of me by saying 'we just don't know' about 50 times as an answer to most of my questions.

- She had the nerve to say 'she WILL get better at some point' but not comment on what I am currently feeding her, her history of illness, or know anything about GAPS. (I think this was the same old 'they grow out of it' version)

- When I informed her that Ellie's allergist wanted her off the formula due to the APT corn reaction, she asked if there was corn in the formula (the MD in Nutrition didnt know *all* formulas have corn?). And when I said the previous GI and allergist were in disagreement on whether or not the corn in the hypoallergenic formula could even cause a reaction, she responded with 'right.'. (is that another right, we don't know? right, you can react? right, we always disagree?....?)

- When I asked about missing nutrients she said 'I can send you to a dietician at the hospital for more information on that'. Whoa. I certainly thought that Nutrition MD counted for something..no?

- I made it clear that we fed Ellie grass-fed, organic, corn and soy free meat several times, and then directly asked her thoughts on the matter. I told her I could not find medical evidence of the need but was doing it to be cautious. Did she think it was necessary? The response - 'Well, I would try and see how she responds.' (is that acknowledgement that yes the corn and soy is present in the meat, or is that another answer of we just don't know?)

- She asked if she had been scoped. I gave her the list and the information on the dissacharide test, to which she instantly responded 'well that could be error.' I think my transparancy showed how irritated I was to that response. She then said, 'well, the sample was either handled incorrectly, or her intestines are just that completely damaged. No one is born that way. That is too severe.' (THIS was a very interesting thing to say regarding nutrition and genetics. I firmly believe the test was accurate, and the corn formula played a leading role. But did not choose to discuss further.)

- and oh yeah, she asked why all of the Sacramento area ped. GI patients were flocking to their office in Palo Alto. And when I decided to start telling her she cut me off to respond 'yeah, I know (insert the crappy GI we ditched here)'. I have no idea if that was her way of confirming, or if she was saying 'back off my buddy', but it was more politics in medicine. Ugh.

And that is about all I can remember. I have her email, and am waiting on the xray results. I am headed back to my GAPS book to see what it says about vitamin C, and we keep plugging forward. At least we have a GI on board in the event of an emergency who is experienced and knowledgeable of FPIES.