I recently had a visit with Dr. Hussaini at the beginning of the month. I have had a ton of issues that I figured were related to my psoriasis that had gotten more severe over a few months but had not been diagnosed. I made an appointment and during the 4-month wait to see her my psoriasis had resolved, but I had taken plenty of pictures. She said she did not diagnose psoriasis and that I should see a derm, I figured treating patients with psoriatic arthritis she would have some experience.
From the moment that she walked into the room she immediately wrote me off when I said I had no referral (I have a PPO, I don't need a referral - when I need a specialist I just go). It felt as if she was not listening to anything I said and immediately just put me into the fibromyalgia box and gave me a bunch of packets on eating better, getting better sleep, and what fibro is. She did send me for blood tests at their on-site lab, where the phlebotomist on-site treated me like a pin cushion and massaged a vein I can't even see on my arm for minutes, instead of using the extremely visible vein directly next to it where every other lab draws from.
I eventually did request the notes from the visit from MemorialCare and that was when I noticed she was not listening to me whatsoever. After having my son a few years ago I would wake up in the morning with my hands both frozen shut, unable to open them for at least 30 minutes and after prying them open; at 29 that is a frightening experience. She wrote in her notes "unable to close fist, but has resolved. Never saw a rheumatologist." WHAT DID SHE THINK I WAS CURRENTLY THERE FOR?! Then, further down in her notes she included "patient suspects psoriatic arthritis, although my suspicion is low." Also claims she discussed medications with me, but that never happened.
Then came the wait, I reached out for updates on my lab and was never given a clear response on how long I should expect to get them back. I find it extremely frustrating that there is no direct line to this office whatsoever, you have to contact a patient advocate and to be honest, they can't even get in contact with this office. My husband and I got to a point with one advocate that was actually extremely frustrated for us and ended up leaving a very high-priority message on day 10 of not receiving any response on my results. I also had them leave a message for the office manager and opened up one of those "how as your visit" emails and left a detailed response about my visit and continued experience.
Well, the office manager was lovely on day 11, she let me know that the labs had been sitting on the doctors desk for 2 days at this point but that she was unable to review them for another week because she was on vacation. I did request to come pick them up as I plan on seeing another doctor regarding treatment after being treated like I was a self-diagnosing patient that was crazy, pretty much.
Well, I picked up those labs and have since received the full labs from labcorp, yet still have not received them in my mychart portal nor have I heard back from Hussaini. My results show a very high titer of ANA, my C3 complement was extremely high and I tested positive for HLA-B27. This doctor should not be treating people in any capacity for rheumatology if she refuses to listen to her patients and only sends for labs to "appease a patient" she has low suspicions about. I will definitely tell any of my other friends with rheumatic diseases to stay far, far away from this office and doctor if they are looking for a good relationship with a doctor they can trust and feels that they are listening to them.
The worst part is I have ADHD and a very high ability to read others in the sense of being rejected emotionally. I walked out of that appointment with a high feeling of being rejected both medically and emotionally. Her patient and listening skills are non-existent. read more