I visited Dr. Kopelove for the first time last week, and I regret to report that I did not have a…read morepositive experience there.
When I enter a practitioner's office, I expect to be acknowledged and greeted. Upon entering this office, the two women seated behind the receptionist desk stared blankly at me like they were upset that I had disturbed them. I let them know I had an appointment, handed them the forms I'd filled out in advance, and gave them me driver's license and insurance card. During this entire process, they said less than ten words to me; however, they were happy to resume talking to one another once I sat in the waiting area.
Since it was a workday, I had intentionally made an appointment in the morning (9:30) rather than in the afternoon when some practitioners tend to be running behind. Despite the fact that I must have been only the 2nd or 3rd patient of the day, I had to wait 15 minutes past my appointment time before I was seen.
As part of the registration process, I was asked to fill out several forms about my pain and health history, as well as mark on a diagram where I was feeling pain. I expected that my first appointment would include some time discussing these forms and the pain that I was feeling.
Instead, Dr. Kopelove barely glanced at the forms and asked me to tell him what was wrong. I had the opportunity to talk for approximately 1-2 minutes ( and even then, I felt like I was being rushed) before he started talking and telling me what he thought was wrong with me. I did not feel like he was listening to me or taking what I was saying seriously.
His manner and tact left much to be desired. He told me I had a "bad" shoulder, "bad" feet, "bad" ankles and "bad" posture and (again, without understanding or acknowledging my pain) almost instantly began recommending orthotics as a solution. While I acknowledge that correcting one's stance can have positive impacts on the rest of the body, I felt like I was being pitched to by a salesman.
He even pulled out a picture of himself from when he was in a coma and had serious spinal injuries...quipping that orthotics were the only thing that helped him become pain free. While this might be true, it came across like those testimonials you see in infomercials.
He dismissed my main issue - that I was having excruciating sciatic nerve pain twice a month that feels like I am being electrocuted in the butt for 1-2 days on end - by saying that he thought it wasn't the nerve, and that it just had to do with my bad posture getting my alignment off. When I insisted that his interpretation was incorrect, he asked me if I'd seen my gynecologist and had them do tests "since the pain I was talking about was in the area of my lady parts."
First of all, the last time I checked, the place where I have pain - in my butt and hamstrings - is not in the "lady parts" area. Secondly, I've had leg aches from PMS (which I think is what he was implying) and it's a completely different pain. Lastly, I have yearly checkups with the gynecologist and have never had any irregularities. In short, he was intentionally and blatantly dismissing what I am 100% sure is sciatic nerve pain so he could keep blaming my "bad" body parts and posture for the pain I have.
During the treatment part of the visit, he kept telling me where I would have pain in different parts of my body. Instead of asking "Do you have pain here?" and "How does this feel?" he kept saying, "I know you have pain here," and "I bet you have pain here," and "I can tell you that it's going to hurt when I press here." While he was correct in many of the instances, his tone was inappropriate and reflected a smug rather than a caring attitude.
Further, at some point he pressed very hard on my costal cartilage in my upper chest, where I did not report pain and where I have very little fat or muscle. He definitely pressed that area too hard because several days later it aches and is very painful to the touch.
When I got up at the end of the treatment, he said, "How do you feel now? It feels better right?" like he had just performed some magic. While I did feel slightly better at that moment, I'd argue that if I'd taken my $40 co-pay to a masseuse for a half hour massage, I'd walk away feeling much better too.
After the treatment, they applied electrical stimulation to my lower back for ten minutes. He also sent me away with a prescription to get X-rays of my lower back at an imaging center, with the caveat that he "really didn't think anything was wrong there."
In sum, when it comes to my health and my body, it's really important for me to feel like I'm being listened to and that the practitioner takes me seriously. I want to feel like the practitioner has my best interest in mind, rather than his own ulterior motives or sales ambitions.
Unfortunately, I did not feel any of these ways in my visit and cannot recommend this office to other people.
