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

[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.