The first time I saw Dr. Garg, He did not ask me, first, what was going on in my body, instead he showed me a stick figure and was pointing to areas on there, some of which correlate to my pain and other areas didn't (based an a xray he saw). When I got up to show him areas on my body that didn't correlate and also get clarification, he yelled at me and told me to sit down and be quiet, when I stood up to show him where I was feeling pain in my body (he refutes that he was yelling at me - let's just say that he raised his voice and scolded me - I was there and I experienced it - He says that he respectfully disagrees, which means that he has no awareness that he was being condescending and humiliating in his approach).
He recommended that I get an MRI in my lower back, which I appreciated, because I think that was the right recommendation, but the whole time he had a scolding condescending tone in his voice and was treating me like I was bad and wrong for trying to tell him all of the areas of concern in my body (including tendonitis in my arms, possibly caused by Cipro). I wrote a review about my experience under "Chicago Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine."
The second time I saw him, he was nicer to me. He didn't talk down to me, like before. I thought, good, maybe this guy was just having a bad day. He recommended that I see a pain management specialist. After that, I had a meeting with that pain management specialist that he recommended, for my lower back. I am waiting for an appointment to get injections.
I went back to him a 3rd time because I wanted to talk to him about pain elsewhere - in my neck, left shoulder, mid back and between my shoulder blades (these are the areas that I tried to discuss with him the first time), because I thought it might be good to get an MRI in those areas to see what is going on. He seemed perturbed that I was trying to describe several areas of pain in my body and asked me to talk about them, one at a time, (he indicated that I was wasting his time to talk about all of this and that he had a lot of patients to see). He indicated that he had already told me to go to a pain specialist and that he was not the right person, and that I needed to go back to that person. Once again he had a scolding condescending tone in his voice. I thought the specialist he recommended was only for my lower back, and that I first needed to be evaluated by Dr. Garg. He acted like I should have known that I didn't need to come to him first. Or that I didn't know the pain I was experiencing in other areas of my body were all related to the spine, only, and that he would not be the person to go to (orthopedic doctors deal with issues of disorders of bones, joints, muscles, ligaments, tendons, nerves, and skin - my issues fall in that category, so how was I to know not to come back to see him for the other problems). Originally, when I told my primary doctor about my pain, she recommended an orthopedic doctor, so that is who I thought I needed to go to, to evaluate the other areas of pain, and Dr. Garg was the only one I could see about it, who is within my insurance network. So I assumed I need to to go see him about this, also.
He said that it is very unlikely that having this many places of pain in my body would be separate problems, and so therefore I do not need to get an MRI of my mid back and shoulder areas. When I said, but it could be something else, and an MRI of those areas might be a good way to find out, he said, "how could there be so many different problems in all of these areas in your body?" I said "Old Age?," and he said that that is very unlikely, that the pain and stiffness in my shoulder is most likely caused by problems in my neck (I didn't know that, but he acted as if I should). He recommended I only get it for my neck. Okay, it made sense after he told me that, but again, how was I supposed to know that, and what is wrong with me suggesting getting an MRI for those other areas? He made it appear as if it were wrong to assume that, or ask about it.
He told me that our personalities are not compatible. Yes I agree - anyone who can tolerate a scolding, condescending tone of voice will get along fine with him. You would also need to speak to him about only one problem in your body at each visit, because apparently, he has a hard time dealing with multiple issues. He said not to ever see him again. When he walked out of the room, I felt humiliated and angry to be talked to in that manner. Tears rose in my eyes and I cried for a while. read more