One thing that has been particularly frustrating with every gastroenterologist that I have seen throughout the last ten years of my life has been their lackadaisical approach to my very severe lactose intolerance. I discovered that I was lactose intolerant about 9 years ago when I found that I was having severe chest pains every night when I’d try to go to sleep — to the point that I felt that I was having a heart attack.
After talking with my doctor at the time, she suggested that I get an ECG test to check to see how healthy my heart was. Shortly thereafter I mentioned these symptoms to my mom, who explained that I was most likely lactose intolerant and to keep track of what I ate.
After doing a bit of testing, I found that even the slightest amount of lactose left me with severe stomach pains, cramping, and other common digestive problems that you would expect from someone who can’t digest milk. I’ve become so aware of my intolerance, that I can tell within minutes of eating something if it will bother me.
Last year, I was put on a prescription medication for high cholesterol. It took me several times to find the right medication, as I would often have what felt like heart problems with the meds. After thinking back to my original diagnosis, I realized that the symptoms seemed familiar and I discovered that the pills contained trace amounts of lactose within them. I found that taking 6-8 Lactaid pills with the medication daily, tended to reduce the symptoms to something tolerable.
My primary care physician felt this was highly unlikely. After talking with my latest gastroenterologist, he feels this is not possible. Nobody can have such a severe reaction to such a trace amount of lactose, he claimed. Most recently, I was prescribed two new medications (one for pain and one bottle of digestive enzymes) to help with my pancreas. Both of which contain lactose, the digestive enzymes in particular are mixed with lactose powder. I took both of these new meds on Thursday (4 days ago), and started to feel the symptoms immediately.
It’s come to the point, unfortunately, that I have been so sick the past few days that I cannot tell the difference between the pain that I have had from my pancreatitis and the pain that I have from my lactose intolerance. As a matter of fact, when I first started to experience the symptoms of my pancreatitis, I had written it off as pain from my LI and consumed about 10-15 lactaid pills throughout the day to try to ease the pain. It’s been a frustrating number of days, and it’s even more frustrating to explain this to a doctor that doesn’t believe that I could possibly be those intolerant to lactose.
All in all, I am looking forward to speaking with my new doctor this week. Someone who understands how food can impact the body and can take a more wholistic look approach to my health. For most people, lactose intolerance means a little bit of gas and bloating if you eat too much dairy. For me, it’s an incredibly painful and unpleasant experience.
