A week ago I had my second set of lab work drawn. When I went to get it drawn, there was a note on my chart from my Dear Dr. to check my weight. So I am proud of the weight I have lost and I gladly stepped on the scale. The lab tech called the weight to the nurse who immediately said something about I was loosing weight tooo fast and needed to get an appointment with the Dear Dr. Well, if you know me, this request was completely ignored for I don't think I am loosing "too fast".

BUT as we all know, nature can turn against you at any time <g>.
On Sunday I went swimming for the first time in 6 months. The rash I had was completely healed and I just knew it wasn't caused by swimming. WRONG...without 4 hours of getting out of the pool I was covered, completely covered in a rash that looked like I have the chicken pox! So you guessed it, I made and appointment to go to the Dear Dr.

As I am waiting in the lobby, I see another women come in, about my size, then another, larger than me, and then another and another and I am thinking -- "Is this fat woman morning?"

I start out with the Dear Dr.'s P.A. He is very cute so I didn't mind. He wants to put me back on prednisone...which makes me gain weight rapidly. I told him I wanted something else. He told me this was it, take it or leave it. As he closed me chart he saw two notes. DON'T GIVE PATIENT ANY MORE PREDNISONE. DR. MUST SEE PATIENT ON NEXT VISIT! So he said well he could write the script I must see the Dear Dr.

Thirty minutes later the Dear Dr. came a stormin' in the room. I was loosing weight toooo fast, didn't I know what that did to my body??? Didn't I care about staying healthy. I just held up my hand and asked..."have you seen the lab work I had taken last week?" Well she looked at my chart and said it's not here, and it's doesn't matter, you can't pull down your lipids that quickly. I simply said..."I will not talk to you about diet, until I know the results of last week lab work." So she said let go have someone get them.

Twenty minutes later she came back in the room with the results in hand looking very much in shock. "How did you do this???" "I've never had anyone lower their levels this dramatically so fast" This is when I told her I had started the Atkins diet. You can probably hear her saying: "That is the most unhealthiest way to loose weight.....blah blah blah" So I said, what in my lab work shows that it's unhealthy? Am I loosing weight?? Show me where this is bad. Well she couldn't. She then asked what I was eating and I told her of the bacon, sausage, steak, chicken etc. She asked me about calories and I told her I was averaging 1700 to 2000 calories a day. She didn't believe me. So I told her if she had an internet connection I could show her my journal on fitday.

We went to her office and I took her to fitday...'How is this working...this shouldn't work...' I explained the Atkin's philosophy and explained that I am "starting week 8". This is when she told me she was late to a meeting and that I, I was going with her. I said I need to get to work. But she told me no meeting, no medicine. Sooooo I went. Well guess what...It was fat woman morning. She put together a support group for about 20 woman and was encouraging them on Low Fat. She had me explain how much weight I had lost, she shared my lab work. The ladies instantly started questioning me about my diet...I explained that this is not a diet but a WOL. Then about the WOE.

'Oh, I couldn't live without sugar or bread' is what I heard from the group. The best comment was from one lady who said "But I thought the Dear Dr. said this was an unhealthy diet".

Bottom line, the Dear Dr. is now going to research Atkins. She admitted she was so against it, and had persuaded people not to try it based on other Dr.'s opinions. She is totally stumped and is now opening her mind. Who said you couldn't train your Dear Dr. ?

Dee
(an ex-nurse <g>)