I had my procedure with Dr. Kasimian on October 1st, 2014. I never considered writing a review…read morebefore but decided to write one today after reading a one star review because the patient "had to wait an hour," or the "staff was incompetent with scheduling" etc... Bottom line, Dr.Stepan Kasimian is BUSY because of the same reason your favorite restaurant only accepts reservations and there still is a wait, because they are EXCELLENT !
I want to give my story, as detailed as possible, without boring you the reader. Around September 2008, I hurt my lower back doing very heavy T-Bar rows at the gym. Back then in my naive youth years, I never properly stretched or warmed up, just hit the iron. Why not ? I'm invincible and I'm special. Nothing will EVER happen to me. Guess what ?? After 20 years of abusing my body, on September 2008, I found out the hard way that I wasn't so special, and I definitely was "breakable." The day after that memorable T-bar back workout, I felt this intense heat on my lower back. Something that I had never experienced before, and hopefully never will. After 1 or 2 hours of this heat, I started to feel this sharp pain, which became a dull pain off and on. The next morning, with zero exaggeration, I couldn't move out of bed. I took maybe 5 Tylenol's that day and didn't really think about it, hoping that it would pass. Fast forward 2 years later on 2010. My right thigh always was in pain when I stood up, accompanied with numbing in my big right toe. From 2010-2014, I literally had about 6 MRI's from 4 different doctors. Unfortunately, they all looked at me at gave me prescriptions for physical therapy and some prescribed me pills which I refused. I went back to these same doctors, 2 who were the "best" at Cedars and told them "it's been 4 years of leg pain, numb toes, and now my left leg if hurting when my right leg isn't." He told me to "hang on" it will get better because the MRI shows a small bulging disc(approximately 3-4 cm,) nothing in his opinion that would warrant an operation because I was "still walking" and I looked strong in his opinion.
Around the summer of 2014, I met Dr. Kasimian, and yes, he was busy and there was a big wait. HE ACTUALLY LISTENED TO ME. I WILL REPEAT AGAIN, DR. KASIMIAN ACTUALLY LISTENED TO ME ! Compared to other doctors who you see for 5 minutes maximum in the office while charging your insurance company $1000. Dr. Kasimian after 20 minutes recommended I receive a brand new MRI because he wanted the most up to date information. 2-3 weeks later after the MRI Dr. Kasimian recommended a micro decompression on my L4/L5 and L5/S1. I had the procedure on October 1st of that year and was surprised to find out that I had a bone spur on my L5 vertebrae pushing down on a nerve which WAS NOT evident or visible on the MRI. THE SURGERY WAS A SUCCESS AND I TOLD DR. KASIMIAN THAT HE "Saved My Life !" I said that because he did. 6 years of sciatica isn't a joke, not including the mentall trauma I endured because of the chronic pain. Thumbs Down to Cedars Sinai Orthopedics who really didn't care because they believed if I was walking, surgery wasn't needed. THUMBS UP to Dr. Kasimian who really cared and took time to see what options were available to help me.