TLDR: This doctor mismanaged my meds so bad it almost killed me. When I was explaining my symptoms to him, he gaslit me and told me it was impossible to overdose on the medication I was taking and that my symptoms would not be related to the issue he was treating. This of course, wasn't true, and I had an endocrinologist confirm I was having a thyroid storm as a result of medication mismanagement. Arrogant, negligent, and dangerous practitioner. DO NOT GO TO HIM.
For the first two years I was seeing Dr. Shen, things were good. He performed a full thyroidectomy on me and was managing my thyroid medication thereafter. There was a minor complication with my surgery which resulted in me losing half of my parathyroid glands. Dr. Shen worked quickly to treat my symptoms while we were waiting on the diagnostic tests to confirm this and was able to resolve my issues within a week. I was grateful for his candidness and dexterity to alleviate my suffering rather than having me wait in pain on test results to start treating the problem.
But off and on for years after, I'd have these issues with my breathing that nobody was able to figure out. In addition to issues breathing, I had consistent heart palpitations, trouble falling and staying sleeping, tremors, and chest pain. I've been to the E. R. 6 times for these issues in the past two years due to their severity. In the past, these symptoms usually subsided within a week or two and always began around the time I'd see Dr. Shen and we'd change the dosage of my thyroid medication (every 4 months we'd go up or down 25mcg because my levels were consistently outside of normal ranges). But since November, these symptoms have been on and off nonstop. I'm going on 8 weeks of consistent symptoms onset now (though, thanks to my new doctor, I've finally begun my recovery journey). Dr. Shen assured me it was all unrelated to the thyroid despite my test results coming back consistently outside of normal ranges. I started seeing an endocrinologist to take over managing the thyroid hormones per Dr. Shen's suggestions and that doctor was certain the thyroid medication and unstable levels were the cause of all my issues and I was shocked at what we discovered.
It turns out I've been steadily overdosing on thyroid hormone pills for God knows how long. The last time I saw Dr. Shen (a week ago from posting this) he doubled down that the thyroid was not the source of issues and told me it was impossible to overdose on thyroid hormone (Contrary to what my endocrinologist and the government website had to say). He also condescended down to me because I asked him one time in two years if we could stick to one dosage of the medication I'd been on because I felt the constant flip flopping was contributing to my problems. He basically chastised me as if I had been straying from the recommended dosages in all this time. He spoke over me and hardly let me get a word in. What was able to say, he twisted to fit his narrative. I told him several other specialists couldn't identify any other underlying causes in their realm of practice to explain my feeling this way and he warped that into several other specialists agreed that the thyroid wasn't the cause when I never said that. He also insinuated multiple times that the source of symptoms was anxiety despite me telling him numerous times that my care team all agreed that was not the case.
All in all, I'm disheartened and disappointed with his flippant bedside manner, dismissive attitude, and disrespectful tone. It's even more hurtful that after two years of more or less successfully working together, he chose now during one of the most painful and scary experiences of my life to change his tune and show his real colors. Ultimately, if you want a doctor who hears and believes you (and isn't willing to misinform you on matters outside of his expertise), I highly suggest looking elsewhere. read more