For me it was a strange situation I had just started going to this GP in the summer as I had been looking for a new good GP. He practiced in the hospital my mother was in & out of after her cancer surgery. Turned out I had a horrible asthma attack & the albuteral the ER in my town gave me depleted my potassium. Had been in contact with his office that night & they had me come in & go into the hospital that next day. I had a bad reaction to another medication they gave me & it ended up being in there 10 days.....the smoke from the fire that caused my asthma attack & bronchitis made everything taste horrible.....thus started my extreme weight loss for the 2nd time......had previously lost so much weight & ended up in treatment & in & out of the medical hospital for about a year after that.....so I had that in my background & somehow this felt like it was going to end up very similar & I had no idea at the time how bad the stress was going to get or that I would end up going through a trauma dealing with the home care person who I ended up catching abusing my mother.

This MD continued monitoring me for the bronchitis after getting out of the hospital & noticed & commented on the huge amount of weight I lost. I brushed it off at the time.....but ended up thinking that he really needed to know that I did have problems with anorexia in the past about 9 years before. I put in a call to his office & when he returned the call, I mentioned that the weight loss might not just be nothing since I had previous problems with anorexia.....I sort of thought....new patient.....telephone call....no way would he remember it & put it together with me at my next appointment.....WRONG. We talked about it a little....but his philosophy was that it was his job to take care of my physical aspect of it & it was my pdoc's & T's job to take care of the mental aspect of it.....so in theory there was nothing he needed to do except to monitor my blood & weight loss & he did talk with my pdoc about medication that might help with appetite......none of which I was willling to take.

I was actually in & out of the hospital during the last month of my mother's life. It wasn't until the end of the second hospitalization after my mother had died the night I went in......that my blood work showed up anemic....the middle of January. They had tried to do a PICC line with the IV nutrition but it got infected & I needed to get home for the funeral...but the hospital's pdoc was like your T....& wrote on his report that I would not live if I left the hospital & that I was to be put on a 72 hour hold if I tried to leave (danger to self). My GP was kind & looked the other way but couldn't release me because of pdoc's report....but I promised to come back to the hospital the next week & have the central line & the IV nutrition.....but I just needed to be at my mother's graveside funeral that I had done all the arrangements for from the hospital........think I got support in there that I couldn't have had anywhere else....but it was in the same hospital that some of the trauma occurred in also.

This whole period of time I could hardly eat anything without getting sick so eating didn't even feel like an option at that point. I didn't loose as much as I had the first time but my weight was still dangerously low as the pdoc determined. My GP's job was only to take care of my physical needs & when he got me through the IV nutrition he continued to monitor, but also wouldn't get into the continual putting me in the hospital like the last GP had (thank heavens). They all again suggested an ED treatment center.....but when I talked with them their only treatment was for people who have body image issues which was what I found the first time I went to a treatment facility......I needed a place that would work with all of me that was causing the problem. By that point I wasn't doing well & basically was home, almost hoping I would die because I felt so horrible & couldn't get over or through or deal with life....I couldn't even go back into my mother's house for almost a year after that all happened & it was over a year later I was still struggling to deal with my weight & food.

It's important to have a GP who will monitor your blood work....the more weight your loose & the laxitives will seriously mess with potassium & dehydration.....along with messing up your system if you use enough so that you will never be able to stop using them or end up having serious surgeries & possibly a colostomy bag for the rest of your life.....these things aren't something to mess around with....they have serious consequences & you need to understand that.

I still struggle with eating when my stress level goes sky high like right now.......& the weight fluctuates enough to go up high enough during the ok times that I have some room for loosing during the stress.....but when the stress lasts too long it triggers it into full blown anorexia & a very unhealthy condition for me.

Funny thing....I started here at PC with almost the same situation as yours.....wasn't sure what to tell my GP & how & if it was really my anorexia coming back to bite me again or not.....that was back in Oct of 2004.