I went to my first gastroenterologist yesterday. (I was diagnosed with gerd and gastritis in the ER a few months ago). I was excited to tell him that I was no longer taking the Omeprazole prescribed in the ER or the Zantac because I had weaned myself off and that the herbal supplements I've been taking have helped me. However, he was not excited about this at all and told me I needed to be on the Zantac and probably take it for life. Then he asked me if I've lost weight and I said yes about 30 pounds but it has been from anxiety and not eating because of the pain of gastritis. But since my pain is gone I now can eat and feel like I've gained a few pounds these past 2 weeks. He said that having this gerd and weight loss is concerning. I can understand how it could be concerning if there was no reason behind the weight loss, but I explained to him WHY. Then he seemed completely uninterested in the whole gastritis aspect and agreed with me that it probably was healing if I no longer had pain, which I'm not sure if that is true or not, but he went along with it. Then he pressed on my stomach HARD. He pressed where the breastbone meets the stomach and I said OUCH and he said do you have pain there and I said well yes, when you pressed on it, it hurt. and he said that is concerning too. Then he said, well since you have pain and have been losing weight we need to do an endoscopy.
I had figured that I probably would wind up having an endoscopy, but I never imagined that the doctor would come up with reasons like Explained weight loss and pain after pressing the breast bone area (I had three people have theirs pressed and they all said, heck yeah it hurts when its pressed). I'm not saying there is nothing wrong and I shouldn't be alarmed, but it's almost like this doctor was finding a reason for me to have an endoscopy. I thought GERD was reason enough.
Then I said I don't know about the endoscopy right now because I feel that I am healing and I don't like the idea of something invasive unless necessary and he said, "don't worry only 1 out of 10,000 people get hurt by the procedure.
He had his back to me the whole time and was typing on his computer and did not seem interested in anything I had to say about what has helped me. I am so upset that I think I am going to call my insurance company and see if I can see a different doctor or maybe not go to any doctor again. I understand that doctors are busy (although I was the only patient in the whole office at this time), but I really feel he was so insensitive that I don't like the idea of him putting a tube down my throat. Especially after I saw I am last in line of a long list of people he will be endoscopying that day.