…how many people eat the crackers that the folks at their doctor’s office give them to break their fast after their endoscopy?
…and, in cases of confirmed celiac disease, does taking the crackers vs. not taking the crackers accurately predict the likelihood of adherence to a gluten-free diet?
…and, finally, is any percentage of doctor’s office staff members even aware that it’s funny to give glutenous crackers to someone they’ve just tested for celiac disease?
Based on a Sprue Story 
Do they really do that? How ridiculous! May as well have vodka jelly shots to finish off an AA meeting!
You’re so right! (It’s also like hosting someone’s intervention at a pub!)
You were offered crackers?!! I was offered no such thing.
I guess I must be doing pretty well in the “worst doctor ever” contest. Nice to know it might not be as standard of a practice as I thought!
My doctor DID hit on my boyfriend while he was holding my hand because I was freaking out about getting anesthesia …. that kind of was weird. But no crackers, nope. 🙂
Haha! Seriously? Doctors should be required to be licensed in (and regularly retested in) people skills or something. That’d weed out a lot of them, I bet.
Seriously! ha. She’s like “WHO’S THIS HANDSOME YOUNG MAN?!!” complete with eyelash batting and further flirting. It was kind of funny. And yes, most doctors need some serious people skills. I wholeheartedly agree 🙂
That is freaking bizarre!
But get this – the gastro doctor who first saw my daughter after her emergency room visit, who said she looked like a classic celiac (pre blood test) sent us home with a huge stash of chocolate and vanilla ensure drinks (think it was ensure) but when we glanced at the ingredients it had gluten. !!!??? Maybe trying to get the optimum endoscopy result? No clue, and no thanks. We threw them out and changed doctors after opting out of the endoscopy. Her blood levels were off the chart high and even the dr said it was 99% celiac.
Crazy stuff all around.
That is crazy! I wonder if the doctor hadn’t even looked at the ingredients? Mine didn’t seem to have much sense of how pervasive gluten is. I “fired” him, too; I’m seeing a new one in early March up at Columbia.
That’s where we go now (if you mean Columbia Celiac Center) and are very happy with our lovely doctor there. Good luck! Can’t be much worse than getting glutened after an endoscopy 🙂
I never imagined they would offer crackers either!
I was diagnosed through Entero Lab with their stool and gene testing methods for celiac, so no endoscopy.
But no crackers, either, so that’s good! Thanks for the comment. Just curious, how’d you decide to go with Entero Lab rather than the “traditional” route? Were you already gluten-free by then?
[…] was heartening to learn yesterday that not every doctor’s office gives out crackers after a celiac endoscopy. (There were also some less heartening doctor stories, but that’s […]
I wish I could remember if they offered me crackers. I do know that we were completely clueless about celiac and didn’t even know what he was talking about when he said he saw evidence that I might have it. The endoscopy was looking for an ulcer, so celiac wasn’t even on our radar. I was starving, so on the way home we stopped at a restaurant and I had a big old order of French Toast.
I do wish that the next week when I found out, that I would have went and had one last maple bar doughnut. That is the ONE thing I miss most. Mmm, maple bars. I have to go get to work on a gluten-free one.
I’ve never even heard of these mystical doughnuts! When you get the kinks worked out on your recipe, let me know.
I know maple bars are usually a raised doughnut, not a cake one, but if you can make the glaze (which should be easy to do GF), and use it on a cake doughnut, the plain cake doughnuts from the second babycakes cookbook work pretty well.
thanks for the tip. I’m not opposed to a cake doughnut at all. Hopefully I’ll figure out a cake one and a regular raised one eventually!
I just found this post via the benevolent magic of Google, because I had my endoscope a few days ago and couldn’t freaking believe that my gastroenterologist actually handed me a gluten-filled cookie AS HE TOLD ME I WAS CELIAC. Seriously!
Him: *hands me a cookie* “Here ya go. I bet you’re hungry, eh? So, yeah, we don’t really need to wait for the biopsy results. It was really clear on the camera, your villi are totally gone. With your blood results, you’re definitely celiac. You need to be really careful about what you eat from now on, and we’ll get you to a dietician as soon as there’s an opening.”
Me: “Okay. Wow.” *awkward pause* “Um… so, I guess this cookie is gluten-free? I’ve never had a gluten-free cookie before.” *nervous laugh, takes bite*
Him: “What? Oh. No, it’s not gluten-free. It’s a normal cookie. You probably shouldn’t be drinking that coffee either, our creamer here isn’t gluten-free.”
Me: *through cookie* “WHAT.”
Him: “You’ll need to stay another, oh, 20 minutes or so so we can observe you, but if you’ll excuse me, I have another patient…”
Me: *spitting cookie into my hand* “WHAT??”
I’m getting free national health care (I live in New Zealand), but come ON, people. Ugh.
Oh my gosh! What a story, Susie! I’m glad you shared, though I’m not glad to hear that’s the state of the national health care system in NZ! I’ve always had this idea that in Australia and New Zealand the science is farther ahead on digestive disorders and celiac than in the US, but maybe that’s just grass-is-greener daydreams on my part?
[…] advised me on eating out, revealed your doctor horror stories, cheered me on when my results came back, shared your grocery shopping adventures, helped me […]
[…] ID and “allergy” bracelets. I also had a big “NO GLUTEN” sign on my bed in case someone gave me crackers while I was too drugged to […]