BellaOnline Forums Health and Fitness Thyroid Health Not So Great Thyroid Doctors

Many of you email me daily telling me stories of thyroid doctors or doctors you've been to and they've done nothing to help you.
Or they have made you even sicker!
Please use this space to post their names so that others don't have to follow in your footsteps.

Please don't waste your time & $ on these so called doctors from the Chicago area, Dr. Frederick Ellyn, Dr. Frohman, Dr. McNett, Dr. Fred Schutz, Dr. Ross Slotten, Dr. Mark Stolar, Dr. Sturgeon, Dr. Larry Faines, Dr. Linderman, Dr. Bajramovich. I also went to Mayo Clinic In Rochester, Minnesota & was treated very bad. Please avoid these doctors. Some of them mis-diagnosed me. Some of them ripped me off finacially with natural treatments & cures. When you become real ill sometimes people get very desperate to get well & there are con artists who take advantage of that.

Dr. Frohman actually laughed at me & some of my terrible symptoms. Dr. Stolar was the worst. I was his patient for a yr. & he told me that he would help me & he kept giving me hope. Then he mis-diagnosed me & sent me to a surgeon. This surgeon just told me it was all in my mind & menopause. I am still not in menopause & he made these remarks about 6 yrs. ago when I became ill.

Many of these doctors gave me meds that either did not do a thing but cost $. Or they made me feel much worse with horrible side effects. My personal story is way too long. But I would say Dr. Mark Stolar was the worst in that he pretended to care. He really gave me hope & then turned out to be a nut case, calling my home & threatening me. He also held on to my medical records until I told him that I would report him. I did report some of these doctors to the state medical board. Those boards have other doctor's in charge & they rarely take any kind of action against a Dr. even with sexual misconduct. Or even if a patient has died. They are real reluctant to take their liscense away. Or do anything else to them. It is even hard to suspend them.

I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to let people know who to avoid in the Chicago area. I hope I at least save 1 person or more the aggravation, frustration & emotional stress of dealing with these jerks. Thanks for listening.

Can we really do this? If anyone wants drs for hypERthyroidism to avoid, let me know and I'll name names and tell you why. Take care, Fay

HELLO,
Why not? People recommend doctors too so why not warn people about the doctors who are not good? I wish I would have known because all some of them did was waste my time & $. People need to know. Not all doctors are good & ethical. Good night & I hope everyone has a good weekend. Judy.

HI,
I just wanted to add something to my previous post. If anyone had a bad haircut, incompetent auto repair or any other kind of bad service, they would complain to the person in charge or tell friends about it. You would also want to know if there was a predetor or rapist in your area, especially if you have kids. the original post was asking people to give names of doctors who did nothing to help you or even made you worse.

Maybe some people want to look at this without e-mailing you (Fayge) I know I rather post it here than to give out my e-mail to everyone & then try to find the time & energy to answer it, if I would get alot of people asking. It is time that we stop being secretive about it. Also anyone who went through bad medical care should not want to protect the doctors who are incompetent, uncaring or both. I'm not afraid to post these names. We have have freedom of speech. It is bad enough that most doctors & the administration just stand by wrong doing, no matter what.

I owe it to other people to let them know so they can be informed. Fayge you would be of more help to post the names of bad doctors instead of expecting people to ask you personally. There is also a post for good doctors & the last time I looked noone has posted anything there. That would help too. I do know of a good Dr. but he is not a thyroid/endocrine Dr. Please stop being afraid to speak up about this. All it does is protect bad doctors. Thanks for reading this & listening. As with any posts in any section you can take what you like & leave the rest. If we all were the same or had the same thoughts the world would seem very boring. Best Wishes, Judy.

OK, Judy, I'll bite ;-)
My experience is with Graves, in southeast Michigan (northern Detroit suburbs).
Dr. Ospina and Dr. Fahdanelli, his former associate, will absolutely not prescribe anti thyroid drugs. If one does get on ATD with either of these drs, you have to be especially proactive in following your care.
Dr. Charles Taylor and Dr. Donald Meier are ex docs of mine. Dr. Taylor only prescribed ATDs after serious arm-twisting, then proceeded to administer them incompetently. I switched to his associate, Dr. Meier, who told me that even though I ended up in remission, he still would have recommended RAI. Neither respected the new TSH guidelines or thought FT3 testing especially necessary, which makes me very leery of recommending them for hypo people.
I don't have personal experience with Dr. Sheldon Stoffer but closely followed labs of a hyper friend, and was very depressed by a testimonial I read somewhere from a sadly clueless patient. He goes by TSH alone and again, by the old standards. Like many endos I'm concerned about, he doesn't seem to know that it's normal for TSH to stay suppressed in hyper patients, so should NOT be used for dosing ATDs.

I think that's enough for now. Take care, Fay, in remission for nearly 6 years after 14 months on methimazole.

Hi Fayge & everyone else,
I'm happy to hear that you are in remission & the treatment has helped you. It is very sad that many doctors are like this. I'm still dealing with some of the same things. I hear this stuff from all over & it is terrible. Especially with thyroid problems & diseases. Other things too. Thanks for sharing. It is 6 yrs. now that I am still not diagnosed. All of my symptoms are getting worse every day. I am seeing my Dr. this Tues. I was totally healthy before I became ill. I was never really sick a day in my life. Very active too. Now, I can barely function. So, I hope that 1 day real soon I can share with people that some Dr. finds out what is going on for sure & that I will be in remission too. Take care & Thanks so much. Judy.

I thought it was just the UK that had problems with doctors telling us it was all in our mind etc. We thought our cousins over the pond had it so much better than us and I am shocked and sorry to learn that you hit the same brickwalls as us. I have had private tests that clearly show I have autoimmune thyroiditis(Hashimotos Disease)...my doctor told me they take no notice of auto-antibodies and are only interested in T4 and TSH. Mine of course are in range(oh how I hate that expression) as Hashimotos gives false negatives. Going to see an endo soon, he's highly recommended so I can only hop.

Hi Ebs. Do you get T4 or Free T4? FT4 is more accurate. And what ranges are given for the TSH? While some labs give different ranges for the T's, the TSH range is fairly consistent, and the American Academy of Clinical Endocrinologists has revised the ranges. You can check it out at www.aace.org . Is the upper range for TSH on your labs closer to 3 (the new upper range) or 5 (the old range)?

Hi,
I am new to this forum. I have had similar problems. It is tragic that our medical health professionals are so uneducated when it comes to Thyroid Dysfunction and other areas. I've heard similar stories from other patients battling problems.

My story is similar to your but I think with a twist. I was battling Hypothryoidism. As with your stories, my physician kept brushing me off, saying it was "women's problems". He didn't even look at the blood levels which showed a wildly swinging TSH values and antithyroid antibodies. I was in agony for about 9 months. Then I demanded to see my own blood results. I was in tears and I got to the point where I was begging for them to pay attention to me. I couldn't take it anymore. When I saw how my blood results showed that I was clearly having a problem related to a malfunctioning thyroid I was horrified. I demanded to see a specialist.

Gradually, we got the tyroid under control. I was on Synthroid for 3 years and my blood results were stable. I felt great. It was a world of difference! It was great.

Then last September I felt pain / pressure behind my eyes when I looked up, down, left, and right. I ignored it as a strange headache but it continued. Then I had swelling all around my eyes and into my forehead in the mornings. I went to my optomitrist. He stated they eyes themselves were healthy and that it must be something systemic. My primary care physician gave me 4 different medications for allergies. Meanwhile, in November, my blood levels showed that I had suddenly gone Hyperthyroid. The doc lowered my dose. I asked if this could be causing my eye problems. They said no.

I followed all the instructions for the allergy meds. Nothing worked. I threw all my products and bedding away. That didn't work. They started me on a low does 5 day Medrol steroid. That didn't work.

My bloods for thyroid showed I was still Hyper in December, January, and in Feb. Each time I asked if the eye problem could be related. Each time I was told "no".

My eyes were getting worse. The pressure was getting worse. The swelling was lasting longer and longer. I had visual disturbances from the pressure on the optic nerve. In December in a panic, I called my primary care physician who still insisted it was allergies. I didn't think so. Still, I agreed with his wishes to send me to an allergist. The allergist did the full scratch test and injection test and told me that it wasn't allergies; it was Thyroid Dysfunction. I told him my doctor's did not believe me and asked if he could write a letter. This was at the beginning of February. He did write the letter. My primary care physician and endocrinologist did nothing.

I did searches on my own. I found that periorbital edema (the eye swelling) can, indeed, be part of Thyroid Eye Disease and can be a problem, especially in the morning. No one had bothered to check! It goes along with the eyes bulging. My eyes had started to bulge in December. No one was listening to me.

I wrote to my doctors in mid February telling them that I was very concerned and was going to stop my Synthroid. I did. It was the only thing that gave me any relieve at all! That was also the only thing that managed to get the attention of my doctors. When my PCP saw me this week, he was horrified at my appearance. Meanwhile, I had been off the Synthroid about one month and my eyes had actually improved. However, my Hypothyroidism had returned! My TSH was 25 mIU / ml. I have to start over with the Synthroid with the lowest dose and work my way up. Meanwhile, I still have the problem with the eyes

Yes, it is terribly frustrating dealing with these doctors who want to ignore everything as a "women's complaint" and who want to listen only 5 seconds or so in order that they may pigeonhole someone's diagnosis into Plans A, B, C, and D.

I also understand that it is unusual for someone to go from Hypo to Hyper! If anyone can help me out with this aspect... please do!

I could also use the name of a good endocrinologist and opthamologist in the Southern New Jersey area.