When Harriett Guido of Hermitage went to New York last month for her twice-a-year appointment with Dr. Robert C. Atkins, she was expecting only a checkup.

To her surprise, she found herself part of the Barbara Walters special, "The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2002," which will air Dec. 18 on ABC.

Atkins is perhaps best known for his famous "Atkins Diet," which promotes eating protein and cutting back on carbohydrates.

Mrs. Guido, a licensed professional clinical counselor who practices in Brookfield, has been seeing Atkins since 1995 to treat her Crohn's disease.

"People think of him as the diet doctor," Mrs. Guido said of Atkins, who is a complementary medicine physician. "But he really treats many different diseases."

Mrs. Guido first heard about Atkins on a radio show. She'd been driving back and forth between New Castle and Hermitage nightly because she was caring for her sick mother.

"When I came home, I'd listen to talk radio," she said. "I discovered Dr. Atkins had a nightly program. One night he had a program on ulcers, colitis and Crohn's disease. He talked about them being diet-related diseases."

Mrs. Guido was diagnosed in 1962 with Crohn's disease, an inflammatory bowel disorder. She had been through two surgeries and had been seeing a gastroenterologist at the Cleveland Clinic for 25 years.

"I had ongoing symptoms of Crohn's disease all these years," she said. "In 1993 I had my second surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. Within months of the surgery, I began having symptoms."

At first, Mrs. Guido couldn't imagine going all the way to New York to see a doctor. But eventually, she called and made an appointment.

"It took several months to get an appointment," she said.

The first time she saw Atkins, Mrs. Guido was amazed at the magnitude of his operation. "He has a very large clinic in the center of Manhattan," she said.

She also realized he did more than diet work, although diet played a big role in treating her Crohn's disease.

"He started talking with me the first day. He asked me, 'What do you eat?'" she said. "I said, I eat a healthy diet."

But Atkins discovered through tests that Mrs. Guido was hypoglycemic and was eating all the wrong foods for her condition.

"We talked about eating a high-protein diet and taking megadoses of supplements," she said.

Since then, Mrs. Guido has visited Atkins at least twice a year for "well" visits, because her Crohn's disease has disappeared. But her Oct. 17 appointment was a little different from the others.

Mrs. Guido and her husband had planned a trip to the city with their granddaughter, Sarah, around the appointment. But Atkins' office called several times, first changing the time of her appointment, and then asking to change the day. When she explained that she couldn't rearrange her schedule because of travel, they let her keep the appointment.

Mrs. Guido would later learn that her appointment kept getting shuffled around because Atkins was being interviewed by Barbara Walters that day.

Her appointment went as normal until a film crew arrived.

"Dr. Atkins looked at me and asked, 'Do you want to be on the Barbara Walters show?'" she said. "I swallowed hard and said, 'OK.'"

Mrs. Guido's appointment was filmed as part of the special. She said she was mostly concerned about how she looked, and tried to sneak in a quick lipstick application.

"Dr. Atkins carried on our appointment, talking about food, supplements ..." she said.

At first the crew filmed Mrs. Guido's back, but they eventually moved around to her face.

"He wanted me to listen and nod at what Dr. Atkins was saying," she said. "I don't remember much. I was pretty nervous."

The shoot took half an hour, but probably only a few minutes will make it into the hour-long special, which will profile nine other people. The identities of the other nine won't be revealed until the show is aired, Mrs. Guido said.

When the show airs in a few weeks, the whole family will probably tune in, Mrs. Guido said.

"It was exciting. It was fun. I think it was fun, too, because it was my granddaughter's first time in the city," she said. "She got a lot of excitement out of it."