My name is Ramon L Santiago. I am 74 years old and I was wounded in Vietnam at the age of 31…read more Since I was wounded, l have lived with pain twenty hours a day at a level between 9 and 10 according with the pain scale. I was wounded during a combat operation where I received shell fragments in my arm, leg and back. As a result, I have back muscle impairment, paralysis of the external popliteal nerve in my right leg and paralysis of my external ulnar nerve in my right arm. I also have PTSD Due to my extensive injuries, I am now classified as 100% disable. Since I am at a 100 % disability level, I believed that I would l be receiving a top notch health service through the Veteran's Administration, but unfortunately I was wrong. Before I was first able to see a pain doctor, I was told that I needed to wait four to six months for an appointment then an additional two to three months to actually see a doctor. Up until that time I had to use any kind of pain drug including illegal drugs to control my pain and ironically the doctor could also not take care of my pain. They were reluctant of prescribe pain medication. I know that a lot of people abuse pain pills, but my situation requires either injections or pain pills because I went through a number of surgeries and in the last surgery the doctor told that no more surgery can be applied to my ulnar nerve and the popliteal nerve. The reason is that both nerves were so thin that there is no area left to repair them anymore and therefore I will be living the rest of my life taking pain pills. I was going insane. I was taking any kind of pain medication including illegal to alleviate my pain. One day, I talked to one of my co-workers who had also been wounded in Vietnam and he recommend that I go to see Doctor Dave's. I made an appointment with Dr. Dave's and on my first visit and I was completely blown away by how helpful and kind he was and how fast he got on top of my problems that included pain from combat wounds, high blood pressure and cholesterol. A lot of doctors don't realize how important this is if you are looking for a doctor whose medical knowledge is encyclopedic, treats the whole person, and takes the time to be caring even while maintaining a very efficient office. I was also impressed in how fast he was getting back to me, which is another important trait to find in a doctor when you are a patient in need. Doctor Dave's maintains a very efficient office and his staff are very professional. His office is brand new, clean, and they run on time. Doctor Dave's consistently answers all my questions before and after making my appointment. He provides a safe, understanding, sympathetic, private practice. For those people in the local area looking for an internal medicine doctor, you should consider visiting Dr. Dave's. He is a great doctor who is extremely knowledgeable and dedicated. His staff is courteous and I like his philosophy of treating any patient no matter the race, religion or sex. Dr. Dave's is always helpful and he is always available. He has personalized service and goes out of his way to "problem solve" using all of his contacts and knowledge to offer multiple solutions. I would highly recommend Dr. Dave's to anyone! Living with chronic pain is not easy. Few time I was thinking on taking my life until I met Dr. Dave's. He taking care of my illness and now my life is worth living. So If you have found any derogatory comments on the web about him I recognized that not all of us have the same mentality; however, you should pay Dr. Dave's a visit before you make a decision.

Terrible experience, would not recommend this doctor. He did not do a very through exam, only…read morewanted to inject me, I had t request PT first. Also, because of an inaccurate billing by the doctor I almost had to pay $1000 for a blood test that wasn't even needed. After multiple calls and letters , by me, I was able to fix.

Wonderful staff & I'm feeling amazing after my first injection for low back pain. I'm back doing…read moreall the things I love & not having to modify exercises when I workout. I'm shocked how good I feel & have minimal pain, just a little when I first wake up. Stretching has helped that.

I have been under the care of Dr. Gu and Dr. Brewer for approximately 12 years. Dr. Gu has put a…read morespinal cord stimulator on my spine and has done a 2nd surgery to update the stimulator. Dr. GU IS Amazing. He sincerely cares about his patients. He is very talented and I am blessed to live here so that he can help me with my spinal pain. Dr. Brewer had treated me the most amount of time! He always greets me with a smile. He is always upbeat! That is hard to do when you treat patients that are constantly in pain. He has exhausted every possible avenue to help me control my spinal pain. He is very good diagnostically! He always knows what is wrong with me even if it has nothing to do with his area of treatment. Both of these doctors are wonderful. They actually listen to their patients and treat them accordingly. My life and pain management would be very different if I was not in their care. They are wonderful! I am grateful they are my doctors!

I was a patient at the one on Rockville MD. They were fabulous and had been managing my sciatic…read morepain perfectly. When I moved to Glen Allen I immediately set an appointment with the same center here. This doctor had never seen me before, didn't look at my MRI and said you need surgery for an implant in my spine. We will schedule you in a week..... I asked him if he had read my chart and he said it doesn't matter. You have sciatic pain so you need an implant. I left there so mad and I would rather drive back to MD once a month than be treated by that QUACK

I know this is an old recommendation, however if it wasn't for Dr Van Manen, I would not be walking…read moretoday. I fell and broke my ankle and tibia many years ago (late 90's) and was taken to Chippenham where the ortho on call did the operation (Elmore- since retired) and he botched it. He put screws into the break (tibia) and the plate and screws broke. However, he told me that was okay, as it had healed. A year later I was still in pain, he told me it was in my head. So I went to see Van Manen on a recommendation of a friend, Van Manen sent me for tests and saw that the ankle had heeled at an angle. So he scheduled surgery to correct it (the break in the tibia did not show up on xrays). So he had me feeling good, but not totally under when he made the incision and saw that my tibia was still broken. He told me of it and proceeded to correct all the wrong. He is a gifted surgeon and to this day, I walk with no pain or problems.

The people are nice and and care for the patients. Dr. Gu is very knowledgeable and considerate…read moreabout their patients.

Front office staff are consistently rude. Dr. Gu was horrible, seemed unable to explain a treatment…read moreplan. The treatments I received made my condition worse. This guy should retire.

I have always been treated well. If I have had to wait at all, it has been a short wait. I think…read morethey are trying to help me within the formulaic policies determined by AMA Guidelines, not by the individual. If your pain can be controlled under the guidelines, you will be well served by this practice. The staff are all lovely.

The front office staff doesn't call back when they say they will. My medication needed a prior…read moreauthorization, it was for for a refill last Wednesday. I called on Friday to see what was going on with the prior authorization, I was told that the med techs take care of it now. So they would be working on it, I said that if I didn't have my medication I would be going through withdrawal over the weekend so what should I do about that. Tina said I'll talk to the med techs and make sure they're on it. I never received a call back. It was a very tough weekend. I called back on Monday, spoke to Tina again. I told her I wanted to speak with Janelle, she asked me what was going on. I explained it to her. She told me that she would get to the bottom of it, I never received a call back. I called again on Tuesday, spoke to Tina again. She told me that all prior authorizations had been sent in and that mine was sent in. I asked her what day it was sent in and she couldn't give me the answer. She said that she would check with the pharmacy to see what was going on. When she told me she would call me back I let her know that she told me that on Friday and on Monday and didn't call me back. Her tone changed and she told me that they were not responsible for how long it took my insurance company to approve a prior authorization. But she told me to be patient. After the phone call I called my insurance company they let me know that they never received any prior authorization from the office, so I asked if they could send one in urgent, and they did just that for me. I called the office back and let Tina know that I called in for an urgent prior authorization. Tina called me back a half an hour later to let me know that she spoke with the pharmacist and that the medication would be filled today and that it did not need a prior authorization! I checked with the insurance company and they approved the prior authorization 13 minutes after I had asked for it, that's why the pharmacy was filling it. I asked Tina to have Janelle call me, that still hasn't happened. The office closes in 20 minutes. I appreciate the treatment from the doctors I absolutely do not appreciate being treated the way I was by Tina in regards to the prior authorization. There's no reason it should take three phone calls and an extra 4 days without medication to get a prior approval. I was able to get it in 13 minutes. All that needed to be done was a phone call from the office, but I kept getting the runaround. Tina told me they were not in the business of giving people to run around and that I should be patient.