My experience with Dr. Gonzales has been one of kind and quite different. I never had any problems waiting for an appointment, nor interfacing with her staff. Some were receptive, some were not, but none reflected Dr. Gonzales, who portrayed a good personality, was attentive, and caring. Her choice of wearing exotic hats, or her choice of a displaying a homy decor for her office was never a problem either. I was referred to Dr. Gonzales' office by a very dear friend, and did not think twice. I brought my family as well, and all of us received thyroid and general medical treatment.
After about six months, all of us developed some sort of bone pain, had hair loss, and experienced palpitations. Blood exams were always performed for monitoring, Dr. Gonzales always checked the numbers, and believed results should be in the higher end of the spectrum for better overall health. We followed suggested treatment.
As symptoms did not improve with thyroid hormones, my family members stopped taking the thyroid med., and felt somewhat better. I continued with her treatment. Dr. Gonzales increased my thyroid med. every visit or so, as needed, to reach the level she believed was best for hypothyroidism.
After two years of treatment, my palpitations and dizziness became a significant health problem. It was dismissed first as generalized anxiety, stress, and fibromyalgia symptoms. At one point Dr. Gonzales switched me from Synthroid and Cytomel to Armour, and that is when I really got sick, as the correlation mg differ, and ended up at the ER. Armour appeared as a better choice of thyroid hormone, as many women do not process synthetic hormones too well; however, it is hard to measure the ratio between t4 and t3, as Dr. Gonzales explained to me.
After my ER visit, I called her office to inform of my on going problem, and was not able to talk to her via a telephone call. Meanwhile symptoms became unbearable. It impaired my daily activities, I could barely work. I felt dizzy and faint, sometimes while driving, which was very scary.
I tried reaching Dr. Gonzales' office without any luck. It became apparent that I could not talk to her via phone. Perhaps she was too busy as she saw many patients, but at that point, I was quite disappointed given my situation, and pretty ill too. My family and I had been patients of her for a while, and all of a sudden, I was faced with having to find medical help somewhere else. I had no idea of where to go as according to my friend, Dr. Gonzales stood out from most doctors in the field. and in this area.
ER and UC visits, gastro, cardiologist, GP, exams of all sorts, and palpitations with dizziness became a serious issue. I felt exhausted, foggy, weird.
Fast Forward one year, I was overmedicated by another local doctor who had his medical license revoked due to overprescription, with benzodiazepines. A misdiagnosis almost cost my life that began with an overprescription of thyroid med. Imagine now to be give a benzo to subside palpitations caused by the thyroid med. as a heart medication was not advisable. At the same time I found out by another local endocrinologist that I had been overmedicated for hypothyroid to begin with, therefore generating hyperthyroid symptoms that were mimicking psychiatric symptoms! What a nightmare! A broken system indeed! My life came to a total halt! After four years of pure horror with unbearable symptoms, feeling sick from benzos, from trying to take psychiatric meds. and undergoing treatments that I did not need, I was finally able to safely taper from the benzo hell reality, and bring balance to my thyroid by using minimum amounts of natural hormone, along with natural nutraceuticals. It's been simply pure hell!
As horrific and outrageous as my situation was, my point in this post is NOT to bad mouth Dr. Gonzales. She seemed to have tried her VERY best within her realm. It would have been important to be able to talk to her on the phone! It appears as though she is also a victim of a very broken system.
I am here to call attention to current malpractice of iatrogenic medicine that is pushed upon several doctors not only by reputable universities but respective medical associations here in the US. Doctors like Dr. Gonzales are taught and encouraged to "push" meds., to dismiss patients quickly, many are misinformed of dangerous med. side effects, and never encouraged to address a patient as a whole, treating with a natural approach to healing prior to prescribing meds; hence, seriously impacting people's lives!
A simple procedure of increasing thyroid med. for hypothyroidism snowballed into the most unnecessary nightmare of misdiagnosis as "anxiety" with a subsequent overprescription of serious wrong meds. and invasive treatments that nearly cost my life.
If only I had been able to reach Dr. Gonzales via phone at the moment I needed the most, perhaps I could have been saved from suffering such horrific iatrogenic experience! read more
