Peminda Cabandugama

"I had an interesting experience with this doctor and his staff this morning and I thought it would be important to share it with his prospective patients. To give you all some perspective, I have an extensive family history of thyroid disease. My mother has Hashimoto’s and everyone on her side of the family has Graves’ disease, thyroid cancer, nodules, etc. Due to this, I have been closely monitoring my thyroid since I was sixteen. Now 21, I began noticing symptoms of hyperthyroidism around July. Heart palpitations, hot flashes, high blood pressure, night sweats, etc. I saw my PCP, who informed me that these are common symptoms of the dangerous disease known as being a woman. Those pesky X chromosomes are known to cause hysteria and anxiety, after all. Knowing that this was untrue, I pulled teeth to get an endocrinology referral (not Dr. C) and a thyroid ultrasound. Ultrasound showed inflammation, especially of the left lobe, and multiple nodules of TIRADS 4 value. PCP claimed this was “normal” even though I had no nodules on my ultrasound from last year and told me to go to the endocrinologist. This endocrinologist told me that this was from hashimotos and my high antibodies (TPO 29, baseline is less than 9), but he couldn’t do anything because, “I’m not a very good diagnostician.” And so I was sent on my way. As my symptoms continued to worsen and I was constantly in and out of emergency rooms due to my heart rate being erratic, I found a new PCP who prescribed me a beta blocker for my heart rate and referred me to a new endocrinologist (the lovely Dr. C). The appointment was three months away, but I reasoned that I could wait it out, go to emergency room as needed in between, and hope that he could do something for me. I had an MRI, a CT scan, multiple ER trips, multiple referrals to other doctors to rule out other issues, and guess what the only thing was that was abnormal? You guessed it, my thyroid! My T4, T3, and TSH continued to swing from high to low over this period of three months. I got my blood work a few days before my appointment with Dr. C today, and sure enough, my levels were in the normal range again. Last night, I printed off all of my previous lab work to show the doctor how screwy things have been. My appointment today was at 11:00 am. I get a call at 10:04 am that my appointment was cancelled because my thyroid labs were normal. Naturally, I was distraught by this because I’ve been getting sicker and sicker as the months go on and eagerly awaiting this appointment to finally feel better again. I’ve been literally counting down the days. And then, not even an hour out, I get a call that it’s cancelled. I called and messaged (including my fiancé), and explained the situation, but no matter what we said we were not going to be seen, and no referrals were offered either. So essentially, I am back to square one. I’m 21 years old, have chronic high blood pressure even with propranolol, and am so exhausted walking up a flight of stairs drains me. I thought today I finally would get relief. I was wrong."

"Awesome doctor. Extremely good bedside manner. Always tries to explain things and help me to understand them. He even personally has answered my questions on MyChart. 10/10 recommend to anyone with thyroid or weight issues."

"Great personality, bedside manner. Very thorough explanations. Highly recommend"