Dr. Goodman was like many doctors, very helpful at first, but after a couple negative stool tests, and completion of a colonoscopy and a mini-capsule endoscopy, he proceeded to drop me in the box of "IBS" and since he related that he could not find the source of my GI bleeding in my stool (besides a very small anal fissure), proceeded to blame it on heavy menstrual cycles. Limited thinking. Clueless on what causes heavy bleeding and what is upsetting my endocrine system to cause this. Heavy cycle bleeding is a symptom not a cause. Dr. Goodman failed to fully investigate and show interest in the fact that he discovered granulomas surrounding an "unknown" something in my colon from the biopsy (suspicious)- because he couldn't discover what it was as it was too small, he brushed it off as unimportant.
Further, after I insisted on a small capsule endoscopy (which I am grateful was approved, but only because insurance would pay for it with my iron deficient/anemic state last year… and further), and after results came back supposedly "normal," he proceeded to disregard any mention of ongoing bleeding with my stools, gas, bloating, severe distension, liver pain, insomnia, reduction in energy (1/2), and reduced cognition as well as weight gain with inability to lose (never had this issue in my life before). It is clear to me I have a chronic infection with these symptoms and what i see with my own eyes in my stool on a daily basis (it's not just undigested malabsorbed food, which is another symptom). Basically, like many Western mainstream doctors and unfortunately, many untrained NDs, because he couldn't find a biological cause for my symptoms with the tests that he ran, I now was thrown in the lazy "IBS" filed and easy to diagnose common "her menstrual cycle is causing the anemic state" - never mind the fact that I still have intermittent bleeding inside my stools and around them with string/worm red things. He also showed little interest and did not allow me to submit more than a few stool tests (when reseach studies state that sometimes it may take 7 to receive correct results instead of False negatives). Basically, he ignored my continuing symptoms, normalized and minimized them, and treated me as if I didn't know my own body and that he was the expert on it based on a hurried colonoscopy that he failed to follow up further on with the abnormal biopsy and questionable images I saw myself on the live video camera (and since printscreen copies)-saying, that a long segmented white/cream/yellow "thing" that was shown near Jejunum and duodenum as "debris." Further, when I pointed out to him (after receiving a cdrom of the mini capsule endoscoy- which I pressed for and received), there were suspicious images of thread/roundish white long "object" images floating within my small intestine. He brushed them off as "debris" as well. I continue with my symptoms that have worsened with liver pain/pressure now, but am now branching out from mainstream ineffective, insensitive, and incomprehensive lab stool and other tests.
None of these doctors are aware of the detailed/complex (not cut/dry) aspects of chronic infections that are difficult to diagnose. Instead of further pursuing and searching for the source of my symptoms. I have a Veteran who traveled to middle eastern, African, and SE Asia areas and was exposed to numerous resident parasites in these areas. This knowledge seems to be disregarded no matter how many times I brought this up to him. I am lumped in the "common" easy to diagnose categories of "IBS" and "heavy menstrual cycle bleeding" in relation to anemia.
Never mind the intermittent blood in stool still happening and host of other unhealthy digestive symptoms that rapidly increased my cholesterol, weight, and significantly reduced my red and white blood cell count as well as my ferritin. Iron is high - binding- that doesn't mean I need iron pills! Good grief doctors. Know before you prescribe. Iron makes my symptoms worse because I already have a lot iron binding capacity in my body - it's not available-that's the issue.
I can imagine how many other patients he has diagnosed as "normal," when clearly these people are not healthy. If "normal" in their world of wide range lab tests "normal" definitions, than clearly our nation's health is at high risk.
Lastly, I felt like he and some other doctors judged me on what I looked like that they deemed "healthy looking." Never judge a patient on what they look like on the outside. You have no idea of what dysfunctional biological issue is going on inside of them. Further, you do not know "their healthy"- you as the doctor, need to stop comparing individual patients to others you see and determining in a biased view that they are "healthy" based on what you think other patients you've seen are with similar observations.
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