I was referred to Dr. Baldwin due to having shortness of breath. My annual chest scan ( because I'm an ex-smoker) shows mild, centro lobular emphysema). My experience with Dr. Baldwin was horrible!
He burst in the room like he was on speed and clapped his hands saying loudly " Hi! What can I do for ya today?" He then proceeded to rapid fire questions at me and was condescending and dismissive of any answer. I have been having many strange & debilitating health issues since having COVID twice and am unable to exercise much, in addition to the shortness of breath I have exertional intolerance so I have to pace myself and be careful to not over do it. He didn't care, nor listen and told me to walk an hour a day, every day. When I told him I haven't been able to work since getting sick with long COVID he acted confused and said "why? what were you doing before you got sick that you can't do it now?" I was a cashier at a convenience store and it was a very busy, physically demanding job, that included stocking shelves & some cleaning, a non-stop 6-7 hours on your feet. My Fitbit logged 15,000 steps per shift. He was like "Great!!! Then do that! Go get a cashier job!"
I tried to explained that I have extreme fatigue among many other things that I would not be able to perform that job at my current level.
Then he listened to my lungs, 2 breaths in, front & back, said everything sounded great. He asked me what I do for fun and at that point I started crying. I had been feeling really down and I felt so humiliated to cry in front of this man and he waved his hands at me saying " oh no no no, I just wanted to know if you like to read or garden or music. Here's what we're going to do" he got a pen and notepad and wrote, while saying out loud what he was writing and proceeded to say sleep study ( told him I'd already had one and it was normal and he said he was ordering a 3 day one to get a more in depth picture) and Echocardiogram ( told him I had already had one about a year ago and he said we're doing another) then wrote walk for 1 hour per day and go downstairs to the lab to get my blood drawn ( he ordered a full panel even though I had just had a full panel done less than 2 months prior) and then told me to make a follow up appointment for 3 months out.
My dad had driven me to my appointment and asked the nurse when she came to get me how long it would take because he wanted to know if he had time to get gas at Costco . The nurse said" initial intake appointment, oh probably 45 minutes or so. You definitely have time" The visit was over in 15 minutes. I really felt like he was on speed, too much caffeine or he's just hyper and off putting!
Needless to say, I do not intend to go back to him. By the time I got home he had left a message saying he wax ordering a cardiac stress test as well.
Also, the sleep clinic called to schedule the sleep study which was just a 1 night test like I had already completed before. I told her the Doctor told me it was for 3 nights and she said there's no such thing unless he noted a special request, which he did not.
Maybe his hyper, rapid fire, insensitive manner works for some people but this first impression for me was a NO GO! Maybe he was having an off day? read more