So saying, she cut me loose (medical)

[drwex]

I heard back from the GI doc today. All my bloodwork leads her to believe it's a food allergy, due to lack of positive results for everything else. I say "leads" because they (Lahey) don't have a test for allergy to eggplant/tomatoes. She was under the impression they did, and apologized for misleading me. On the other hand, we have baselines for histamine and mast-cell levels, a definite no on shellfish allergies, and some clearer picture of how bad my nut allergy is.

She's promised to send me a writeup on all that, along with her notes on what else she tested for, all of which came back negative. From a gastro-intestinal perspective there's nothing more she can do for me so next up should be a discussion with an allergist, if I want it. Her feeling is that we've identified the cause so I should stop eating those foods and only take action if something else presents as a problem. She suggested a particular allergist she likes to work with and whom she regards as progressive in the field.

I'm not 100% happy with this answer, but I'll wait to read her full writeup before I make any decisions.

Comments

[sykotropic.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure this will help or not, but Martin Ehrlich is a doc here in NY, located here: http://www.healthandhealingny.org/

He as well as Dr. Pamela Hops have been treating my family (self, child, child to be, husband and father) for several years now. Under the care of these docs my father has managed his prostate cancer without radiation or surgery for 2 years and I have been off asthma medications for 5+ years (the asthma was primarily triggered by subtle interactions of food allergies and environment). Anyway, it might be worth an email to see if they would suggest someone in your area who might be able to help you in a holistic manner. You are welcome to use our family names to hopefully prompt a response (ask desiringsubject for details)

[drwex]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll talk to the allergist and see what he says. If I feel like I'm out of options I may look for additional input.

[docorion.livejournal.com]

Hm. What (other than "This is the cause of your problem, take this pill and it'll be fixed and never, ever bother you again") would have made you "100% happy"? Asked another way, is your unhappiness at the answer you got, or the process by which you got the answer, or it's lack of completeness, or what?

Why I ask: from my perspective, your GI doc has given you as much of an answer as lies within her purview. More of an answer, if it's available, lies within the realm of allergy and immunology, and she is properly sending you to see someone in that specialty. So I am confused that you are 'not 100% happy with this answer', as it seems it's as good an answer as you could have expected from this particular specialist; it sounds like you feel she could have done better, and I'm wondering what 'better' would look like to you.

[drwex]

What ... would have made you "100% happy"?

A blood serum test that came back positive or negative for eggplant and tomato sensitivity, for starters. Any sort of definitive diagnosis, as opposed to "we've eliminated everything we can think of so it's probably this other thing we can't actually test for."

More of an answer, if it's available, lies within the realm of allergy and immunology, and she is properly sending you to see someone in that specialty.

Yeah, she said more or less the same thing. I'm not per se unhappy with her so much as I'm unhappy with the lack of a definitive answer.

[guenpanther.livejournal.com]

Ouch, sorry to hear things are still ongoing. I'm wondering if the sudden onset is because something is being introduced into the food chain?

If it's a food allergy, does this mean you're going on oatmeal for a week, to see if it goes away?

Hope you feel better soon!
-Jill

[drwex]

I'm wondering if the sudden onset is because something is being introduced into the food chain?

Yes, the sudden and violent onset of this reaction is one of the things I need to talk with the allergist about. I have a suspicion but I want to talk to a medical professional about it.

If it's a food allergy, does this mean you're going on oatmeal for a week, to see if it goes away?

Also a topic of conversation. Normally people with a food allergy are cautioned about members of the same family - in this case it's the potato group. I need to talk to the allergy guy about what else I should watch out for. At the far end of that is an elimination diet, but usually that's done when you don't know what's causing problems. Right now I have some pretty strong prima facie evidence.