I recently sent the following email to Dr. Wells as a follow up to two visits to her office. She failed to respond to any of my concerns, except to refund me the $25 she overcharged me and told me "to work with somebody else."
Although Dr. Wells claims to be a Naturopath, her website neither names the institute she graduated from nor does it give a date of graduation as do all other Charlotte area Naturopaths that I have researched online.
As Naturopaths are not regulated in North Carolina, I felt compelled to share this email to protect the public:
Hello Peggy,
I need to express my concern about how you have handled my health issues during my last two office visits:
1. Your misdiagnosis that I have Graves' disease, a very serious illness, is a major concern. Your power of observation is supposed to be heightened as a doctor. Instead, your contention that: 1) I look like I have the same "bug eyes" as Marty Feldman, 2) I was too deluded to notice this myself, and 3) that anyone else, but you, would not have the guts to tell me this was a major concern. In point of fact, my eyes look exactly like your eyes and do not have the white area around the entire eye as do those with this very serious disease. Furthermore, Graves' Disease is related to hyperthyroidism. However, I have hypothyroidism. Please 1) familiarize yourself with the difference between hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism, and 2) be aware of your psychological projections on to your patients in relation to serious misdiagnosis. If you had gone online and researched Graves' Disease, you would have been aware that people who have this very serious eye disease actually need an operation in order for them to close their eyes during sleep to avoid damage to the eye.
2. Taking me off Clonazapam, cold turkey, could have caused me horrendous withdrawal symptoms, including seizures. I was unaware of this until I followed your instructions and stopped taking Clonazapam, cold turkey, and experienced throbbing headaches, in addition to serious insomnia. When I went online and researched the numerous potential withdrawal symptoms of going off Clonazapam, cold turkey, I was astounded that you were not aware of this and did not take more caution with my fragile health before instructing me to do exactly this, in light of the fact that you were aware that I have hypertension, a bad heart, and asthma.
3. You took me off Losartan and HCTZ, cold turkey, without any ability to bring down my hypertension after two office visits. This has been a major concern because you told me during my first office visit that my heart was also very compromised, according to your diagnosis machine. So far, I have had no response from you after sending you an email that my blood pressure had seriously spiked after I followed your instructions and went off Losartan and HCTZ, cold turkey.
4. Your initial mis-prescribing of thiamine, instead of L-theanine, for my insomnia cost me several unnecessary nights of continued insomnia and the wasted cost of a bottle of thiamine. To add to your mis-prescribing thiamine, you actually viewed my newly purchased bottle of thiamine during my second office visit, muscle-tested me with it, and then instructed me to take 5 of these tablets every night. It was only after emailing you that I was still having bad insomnia that you realized your mistake and emailed me back to take "theanine."
5. You charged 33% more on my credit card during my second office visit than you initially discussed with me just one week prior ($100 versus $75), without any explanation. When you handed me the charge slip, I had to ask you about the additional charge. Your explanation was that 1) you usually charge $125 per visit, 2) that you were giving me a discount (which I hadn't asked for) by initially telling me that I would be charged $75/visit, and 3) that you added the additional amount on my charge for my second visit because you performed some additional modality (that you would not elaborate on). This disregard for someone else's credit card and declining to adequately describe additional charges is something that you need to be aware of.
Peggy, I consider myself a friend of yours, in addition to being a patient. However, if you treat an unfriendly patient in the same manner that you have treated me, you should be aware that these types of concerns could potentially appear on the Internet to protect other patients.
I would like to continue to remain under your care, as you have been much help in the past. However, going forward, I need to request that you take much more care in your diagnosis of a serious disease, taking a patient off prescriptions, cold turkey, that they have been taking for years, mis-prescribing supplements, and how you handle your credit card charges.
I look forward to your email response regarding these concerns. read more
