Before my insurance ran out I wanted to follow-up with an endocrinologist. I called around Houston by calling the best-rated endocrinologists - each Doctor was booked before the holidays and the next appointment for each would be early January. I was crossing my fingers to have a positive experience at Dr. Gardner's office, the only office I reached out to that had an opening- in fact the office had multiple openings for appointments. The first lady who I spoke with on the phone was GREAT- very helpful.
The time of my appointment was 11:15am and I waited with only one other person in the waiting room....until 1pm. Meeting with the NP before the doctor was very beneficial as a pre-screening of sorts.
When meeting with Dr. Gardner he seemed frustrated when I asked about medical conditions and even bothered by medical treatment questions. When I asked about thyroid issues the entire conversation with Dr. Garder was dealing with cosmetic treatments, and he seemed frustrated when I asked about the actual medical side of having a family history involving thyroid problems. Instead of focusing on endocrinology he kept asking me why one of my eyes is bigger than the other. He kept stating that I need to go see a friend of his who is very interested in eye size. I understand doctors benefit from referrals; however, I made an appointment for thyroid issues. An odd thing during the appointment was that he referred to ""other Hispanic women do X to treat this."" It did not help things to have to let the doctor know I, as a patient, was not Hispanic and it would be better to generally speak about treatments.
I understand a doctor is rushed for time and when I started to ask about costs I could not get a word in and he excused himself from the room and that was the end of the appointment. The NP in the room could see that was not an ideal way to handle an appointment and offered her email address if I decided to not come back.
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