I have a lot of issues, and my issues with sleep were among them, so I was referred to Dr Natalia Chediak, who is a sleep specialist here in Boca Raton, affiliated with the Baptist Health System, who has his own practice as well. I was told he was one of the best and as a doctor I couldn't agree more.
However I would not recommend him if you have sleep issues. If you believe that is a catch-22 statement, it is. But read on and you'll see what I mean.
First of all before you read this be aware it is full of sarcasm and a little bit of exaggeration, all for Comic effect. I'm sure you'll recognize when I'm doing that.
Dr Chediak had me come in for a sleep study. It's an overnight stay at a luxury 4-star room with no services. I would have given it five stars but the technician, who has been working there since before the year of the flood, and has the personality of a Biblical character who's been dead for 5,000 years , stood by as I went into the bathroom to pee. Apparently he was concerned that I might pee into the wrong cup. Fortunately I did not. I think he was disappointed.
The next morning the results were read to me, and it turned out I had two different sleep issues. I didn't realize there was more than one. You either can sleep or you can't. Apparently I was wrong. So he prescribed me a BiPAP machine for my two different sleep issues. I assume if you have three different issues you get a TriPAP, but don't disparage it because otherwise that would be a pap smear.
Moving along, I had the device for several months, and I met the doctor once to review the results and I assumed for him to make adjustments. This is when I learned he could make adjustments, and was doing so without my knowledge. This explained to me why on some nights the air was coming at me so fast and furious I couldn't handle it, and had to blow it out my mouth to keep up.
Moving on a little more I scheduled my next follow up appointment with him.
Did I mention that I suffer from hypersomnia? Perhaps that's one of the things the machine is supposed to help control, I'm not sure. But regardless, my hypersomnia hits me out of the blue for no reason whatsoever at least twice a day. When I'm starting to suffer from it I begin by getting a little groggy. That grogginess does not go away and increases. Then I get double vision. Then I start to doze off wherever I am. I could be sitting on the couch in the middle of typing or watching TV or doing practically anything and it will hit.
So I happen to start suffering from one of these attacks about an hour or so before my next appointment with the good doctor, as I was getting myself ready to leave. I know that when these things happen I can't go anywhere. I must lay down, and the longer I delay the worse I feel when I wake up. So before I layed down I called the office to explain what was happening, and to reschedule my appointment. Of course I got the answering service, and then had to wait and wait for a call back which probably came about 5 minutes after my appointment was supposed to start. I explained the situation, the person rescheduled me and that was that. Unfortunately that next appointment was about 2 months later.
And wouldn't you know it, when it became time for that next appointment, the same thing happened. So once again I called and left a message.
This time there was no call back. I waited and waited and waited and then finally I tried to call back and left a messagez and I think it was after the third attempt that I did get a call back.
The woman on the other end explained to me that Dr Chediak had a policy that after two cancellations he was dropping me as a patient.
Here's where the Catch 22 comes in. He is a sleep doctor. If anyone should know what happens when a patient has issues with his sleep it would be a sleep doctor. If anyone should be understanding of when a patient cannot make an appointment because of his hypersomnia it would be a sleep doctor.
Now, all the funny anecdotes besides, I began to leave messages requesting assistance in finding another sleep doctor. And every one of my requests went unanswered. In fact, I never heard from them again. No concern for my well-being. Not even an attempt to find out why I had to cancel in the first place.
For these reasons I am leaving the doctor's office with the lowest score possible. read more