Terrible experience from first visit. I read some other reviews which said Dr. Willens doesn't have good bedside manner, however he turned out to be very nice and spent time talking about my neck injury and then proceeded to give me trigger point shots which I had not had before. I wasn't warned of any side effects or told what could be expected, however he told me he could get me out of pain, so I trusted him and proceeded with the shots. Unfortunately, I had a bad reaction to them and was in excruciating pain about an hour after the appointment. I was under the impression I had a prescription for a mild pain reliever as well as muscle relaxers waiting for me at the pharmacy. When I got to Publix, they informed me that I only had one which for the muscle relaxer. I was very surprised and disappointed, but figured I would be better in the morning so I dealt with the pain that night by just taking Advil.
When I woke up the next day, the shot he gave me in my neck (where my injury was) was killing me and I was in A LOT of pain. I didn't go to work and was in tears that entire morning. The shot loosened up my ligaments too much so I could feel my herniated discs sliding around in my neck...it was horrible and I couldn't even bend over 20% without feeling them slide and triggering a jolt to my nerves and causing pain I've never felt before. I called his office first thing in the morning and the girl who answered the phone said he was in a deposition and wasn't going to be in all day. I asked if they could send him a message or if the nurse on staff there could call something into the pharmacy for me. I didn't get a call back and decided to call again in the afternoon. She said the nurse doesn't recall ever having a conversation with me regarding pain medicine with me, even though the very fact that I could even remember the name of the pain medicine that doesn't make me nauseous is because the nurse remided me the name of it which is Tramadol, (which is very weak on the spectrum of pain meds...it's not like I was asking for Oxycontin). She proceeded to tell me that if I was in that much pain that I should go to the emergency room...so I suffered that entire day and cried on my couch in agony.
The next day I was still in a lot of pain, so I called back and asked if they could call something in. She took down my number and after a couple of hours someone called in 5 pills of 50mg Tramadol to Walgreens which were to be taken once a day. I took a half a day off to wait on the prescription and went into work. A couple of hours into the afternoon I started to get an excruciating headache...something well beyond a migraine. It started at the base of my skull and felt like I was being stabbed with a butcher knife, then the pain started creeping around my head until I felt like there was a hand around my skull squeezing me like a vice grip. The veins in my temples were pulsating and I had to stop working. I cried for the next two hours as this headache consumed me, I couldn't even see straight or think about driving. I called their office again thinking maybe the doctor could tell me what's going on and the girl said she would speak to the doctor and then later advised me once more to go to the emergency room if I was in that much pain.
I eventually just left work as I needed to pick up my son and barely made it home to the couch. After I spoke with my chiropractor he said that he had heard that sometimes the medicine in those shots can irritate nerves and cause a bad reaction. Once he said that I looked online and discovered that there is a very large nerve at the base of your skull called the Occipital nerve. If that gets irritated it can cause Occipital Neurologia which perfectly explained exactly what had happened.
I felt very unimportant and even discarded by this doctor's office. I called looking for comfort and answers from them which they would not provide or even attempt to explain to me, instead the girls were short and snotty and advised me of things that weren't possible. No one ever mentioned possible side effects or explained what I could expect from these shots in the next few days. It's now been over a week and I am in more pain that ever, in fact the pain is worse and is radiating down into my shoulder and back which it wasn't before. I'm having to go see yet another doctor at JOIn to start over and fell like this was a complete waste of time.
On my first visit I asked the girl at the desk to book me on a Wednesday and I thought she had, however when I went back to their office this week (since I had an appointment) she informed me that I was there on the wrong day which was Tuesday and that my appointment was not with the doctor but rather a physical therapist. Crystal said she could just reschedule me (for the next week), but that I needed to pay a missed appointment fee of $50 (in cash) if I wanted to do so. At this point I was livid and decided to never return there. read more
