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SUMMARY - Good experience with hospital dietician

I received many replies to my post concerning my good experience with a
hospital dietician.  Strangely, the respondents were quite equally divided
into four categories so it will be very easy to summarize their responses.

One group of respondents was sure that my experience was an anomaly and that
I was extremely fortunate to find one of the few knowledgeable dieticians in
the country.  People in this group were sure that most dieticians were
completely incompetent and that they could not be trusted with preparing
food for celiacs in the hospital.  Some of the people in this group said
they didn't trust the hospital to provide their food and that they had food
brought to the hospital to them by family members.  There was considerable
concern in this group about cross-contamination of food in the hospital
kitchen.

A group of new people that had been subscribed to the list for a short time
was very pleased to find out that some people were having positive
experiences in their lives as celiacs.  These subscribers told me they had
been discouraged by all the negative stuff they had been reading from the
list and had wondered if anyone ever made a completely satisfactory
adjustment to celiac disease.  I assured them that it was possible with a
positive attitude and a little self-control.

One group of respondents openly accused me of making up the story I posted
to the list and admonished me to be truthful when I posted something to the
list.  One of these subscribers said I should change my name to Pollyanna.
Respondents in this group said that being a celiac was a terrible thing and
that most of them were unhappy and extremely frustrated about the failure of
the society to recognize their suffering and deprivation.

I received replies from long-time subscribers to the list that had made
excellent adjustments to their celiac condition and said they were living
full, rich, happy lives.  These people told me that the usual negative tone
of the list didn't reflect their feelings. They told me that they enjoyed
the chance to get new recipes and to find out what foods were all right to
eat so they continued their subscriptions and just used their 'delete' keys
liberally.  One guy in this group told me I was 'swimming against the tide'
and that my attempts to make the list more positive and reinforcing were
doomed to failure.  He said that 'no one wants to read good news' and
suggested that I take a really good look at any newspaper.

I would like to thank everyone who responded to my post.  I was moved by the
sincerity of the respondents and I made some new friends that want to
exchange recipes and baking tips.


Joe Clemens, Port Angeles, Washington, USA    [log in to unmask]