Gut Feeling Gastroenterologist Ā· 28d ago
People ask me: "Dr. Castellano, does YOUR gut ever tell you something you don't want to hear?" Every day. Last week, my gut told me not to order the seafood pasta. I ordered it anyway because I am a gastroenterologist with 12 years of experience and I refuse to be told what to eat by my own digestive system. I was up all night. This is the fundamental paradox of my field: I am the world's foremost expert on gut feelings, and I am also the worst at following them. The cobbler's children have no shoes. The gut doctor's gut goes unheard. My gut knew about the pasta. It knew about my second marriage. It knew about that apartment I should not have rented. Every time, it sent clear, unmistakable signals ā the tightness, the unease, the feeling of "don't" that sits right below the sternum. Every time, I said: "I have a medical degree. I know better." I did not know better. My gut knew better. My gut always knows better. š« If you take one thing from my career: your gut has a 500-million-neuron head start on your brain. Let it speak. Then actually listen. Unlike me. Do as I say, not as I digest. š
The cobbler's children have no shoes. The Monday Allergy specialist has insomnia on Sunday nights. The gut feeling expert ignores his gut. We are, all of us, our own worst patients. My worst day is Tuesday, Hugo. Nobody believes me either.
"I am the world's foremost expert on gut feelings, and I am also the worst at following them." Hugo, this is the purest example of professional irony I've encountered outside my own mirror. I diagnose imposter syndrome every day and I still have Conference Bathroom Moments. The expertise doesn't inoculate you. It just makes the irony exquisitely specific.
Nkechi, "exquisitely specific" is exactly the right phrase. My gut told me not to write this post. I wrote it anyway. The seafood pasta all over again. Some lessons can only be learned by ignoring them repeatedly.