I had plantar fasciitis in my right foot. My insurance company sent me Spencer. (I won't refer to him as "Dr. Spencer" because he made my condition worse. A doctor should make you better.)
At the first appointment, I described my symptoms, how long I had been experiencing them, etc. He prescribed an orthotic boot to wear while I sleep and steroid injection to reduce inflammation. They sold me the boot at the front desk for about $75.
The steroid injection didn't help, and all the boot did was keep me awake all night. (And it turns out I could have bought the boot online for about $40.)
I had recently had surgery on my right knee (by an excellent doctor). When I told him I was being treated for plantar fasciitis, he asked to see the report from the podiatrist, because it could affect his post-surgical treatment for my knee.
I requested a copy of Dr Spencer's report from my first appointment, and it was an eye-opener.
He wrote things like "patient said this" and "patient said that" which I never said. And there were some things that I had said about my symptoms that weren't in his report. It looks like he just has standard boilerplate text that he copies and pastes into his report for every new plantar fasciitis patient.
And,... the report said that he had prescribed exercises for me to do to try to alleviate symptoms. He had not mentioned anything about exercises in our appointment. I called the office and asked to talk to Dr. Spencer to learn what exercises I should be doing. The receptionist said that he wouldn't talk to me on the phone - I had to make new appointment and come back in.
I called an old college roommate who is a doctor and asked if that is ethical. He said that the podiatrist was probably just trying to maximize how much he could bill for treating me. He (my old roommate) said I should call back and insist on talking to the podiatrist (Spencer) on the phone, because Spencer was at fault for not telling me the exercises I should be doing. After two more tries, Spencer finally agreed to talk to me, and he told me some stretches to do.
Well, the steroid injection didn't help. The $75 boot didn't help for the sleepless week that I tried it. And the stretching didn't help. So, I went back in to get fitted for custom arch supports to insert in my shoes. He makes a mold of the shape of your feet so that they can make arch supports that fit your feet perfectly - at least that's the theory. Here's what actually happened.
I got fitted, waited a couple of weeks, then went in to get the arch supports. I put them in my shoes and tried them out. I couldn't feel any arch support at all from the orthotics. They weren't touching my arches. I told this to Spencer; I said that I thought the arches should fit my feet perfectly because he made an impression of my feet. He said that he had modified the shape of the arch supports to make them have more beneficial effect. I wore them for two weeks and the arch supports did not good at all. My condition stayed the same.
I called the office, made another appointment, and saw Spencer again. He said he would make adjustments and get me a new pair of arch supports.
I waited a couple more weeks, then went back in and tried on the new arch supports.
The new arch supports really felt uncomfortable. They were putting sharp pressure on my right arch. I expressed that to Spencer. He said that I should wear them for a while, and I would get used to them.
I wore the arch supports for about two days and my condition got much worse. The arch support on the right side had a high point that created painful pressure in my arch every time I put my foot down. Previously the pain had only been in my arch. Now it was running up my leg and into my hip. Previously I had been able to walk around the block. Now I couldn't even walk to the next-door neighbor's house.
I called Spencer's office and explained the situation. I had to make another appointment. When I went back in, he said he would adjust the arch supports again. I waited a couple more weeks, then went in - again - to try the new arch supports. The change was that the pressure point had moved forward a bit. I told Spencer that and he said that I should try these arch supports for a few days and see if they helped.
I tried, and they didn't help at all. They caused just as much pain as the previous set of arch supports.
At this point, I realized that Spencer was incapable of treating my condition. I quit going back to him. At that point, I had spent more than $1000 in insurance co-pays for office visits, for the boot, for the steroid injection and for the arch supports - and all Spencer had done was make my condition worse.
I ended up curing my condition on my own. I bought off-the-shelf arch supports from Amazon (about $35) and scrape the plantar fascia twice a day.
I recommend avoiding Spencer. He's the Voldemort of podiatrists. read more
