South County Health Medical Office Building

"The NP here simply dismissed ALL of my symptoms that did not fit with her initial eyeball & magnifying glass assessment, but treated me for ones I did not have—disregarding Malassezia chunks, hair-fuzed and black scales, and twisted, knotted tangles of dead hair about 2 inches long that fell out of my shaved scalp, and things which are too nauseating to recall. Apparently, constant, throbbing head pain alongside scalp excretions that could indicate both fungal and bacterial infections pulsating through my scalp underneath the skin, into which all of my hair has grown, frayed, & is pulling so tightly that it burrows deeper all the time. I cannot remove it on my own. Yet, nervously attempting to alleviate my own pain in the face of a skeptic I knew would not help do it for me apparently prompted a diagnosis which neither explained nor solved any of the symptoms that brought me to the ER: generalized anxiety—one condition which I neither had in the past, nor exhibited then, outside of an understandable concern for my own physical health in a situation wherein medical staff would not take the steps required to actually make a definitive evidence-based diagnosis—opting to dismiss my complaints as unfounded since my pathology is characteristically inconspicuous/easy to miss. I fear that my entire head, which once bore my best feature, will become no more than a mass of scars and lesions: the outcome that I will likely face if the potential problems lurking in my scalp are allowed to keep progressing much further, where already the sebum buildup is so thick as to obscure my rotting skin underneath & trick NP's into thinking they do not even need to take my complaints seriously, despite the wealth of other physical evidence available which could be observed with minimal effort if pride & presumption did not take precedence over patient welfare. I am a 35 year old woman who ages well & is often therefore profiled as a child, but who has been tortured by tragedy and the physical health deterioration that accompanies the burden of prolonged grief & trauma in a society which condemns "otherness" in all forms and neglects even health issues that statistically favor marginalized groups. The majority population's fine, straight hair could never consume their skulls in the way that my thick, curly, mediterranean hair has done. I don’t really know why I thought this staff would be willing or able to help me, limited in perspective by their experience treating the middle-class snowbirds that populate the area alongside a privileged, youthful demographic & tourists—who probably do consider such simple problems as trichotillomania & anxiety ER-worthy in worrying about superficialities & their entitled futures. I, however, spend more time grieving the ghosts of my past than I do wasting it on our forsaken future. I happen to think ridiculously highly of myself and have every confidence in my ability to navigate through life's challenges with my head held high as I always have, because I am gifted, resourceful, and infinitely more experienced with life than the average social media obsessed American whose biggest concern is their selfie lighting. So, no I do not have generalized anxiety. I have a horrifying and painful condition that is physically confirmable by multiple means and which SCMG health professionals weren't willing to even attempt to treat based on the entirety of evidence, writing off anything inconvenient as a lie or a delusion. Because clearly my factitious specialty is fabricating fake chunks of sebum and intricate sculptures out of strangled, dead hair: my number one hobby. So glad I got a script for the itchiness and sleep problems falsely ascribed to me (talk about confirmation bias), that my real pain problem remains unaddressed, & I now blackout slightly every time I stand up, with no way to ascertain the implications thereof. It is a relief to know the SCH ER will wait to make sure you are really moments from death, feverish, & raving before they waste precious resources on your well-being—NOT so innovative."

"Dr. Casci is absolutely wonderful. He actually calls me when necessary. My last PC who I had for 4 years never called me. He is kind, caring, professional and compassionate. He is really trying hard to help me. He goes out of his way to figure things out for me. Best Dr. ever!!"