Today's events

Well, I went to the doctor. We had a nice discussion about the things I could do to further celiac awareness, etc.

When he sat down to talk to me, he started off by saying, "You know, when I was in school, the only time we talked about celiac disease was during the pediatric rotation. Because it was believed to be a childhood disease. And then, while I was doing my gastrointestinal rotations, we still only talked about it during the pediatric rotation."

I don't know why, but actually hearing that come out of his mouth took me by surprise. Perhaps because I wanted to believe otherwise, but maybe more so because he actually admitted it to me. Either way, I had no idea the meaning that his words were about to take on.

So, on the way home, I stopped at Whole Foods to pick up a few things that I can seem to find only there. The gluten-free aisle and frozen section of Whole Foods is always hopping, no matter what time of day. So as usual, there were people milling about the frozen gf section. Among which was an older woman, probably 70, if I had to guess. She had just been diagnosed TODAY with celiac. And as I stood there talking to her, my doctor's words came back to me. Whoever diagnosed her had given her about as much information as they probably learned in med school, and never bothered to learn more.

Twenty minutes later, we parted company. I helped this woman only as much as I could in 20 minutes. But really, what if we got all medical advice from random strangers down the Whole Foods aisles?