Dr. Cynthia Marie Knutson, MD

This was probably the most disheartening experiences I've ever had. She is supposed to be the "migraine expert" in this area. First off, I had my initial appointment with her. I was extremely excited to get to this point, having had migraines for over 15 years. I told her that my mother had told me to go to the Mayo clinic, at which point she laughed and said they would take care of me. After that, the appointment went well. She updated some medications and I set up an appt with Gretchen Baldwin. Second, my followup appointment went wonderfully. Gretchen is driven to help her patients and was very informative. Knowing I had suffered a head injury that year, they addressed some of those issues they knew came from that. Everything after that was anything but fun. I soon was soon unable to go to work, having migraines everyday. Through the next two months, I visited Gretchen almost weekly to bi weekly. I was out of work during this time, and Gretchen had to write weekly… notes to excuse me from work. Gretchen said there were other medications we could try and she would not give up on me. After over two months of this, I was told I could not make any additional appointments, and I was supposed to go to the psychiatrist to adjust medications. Needless to say, going to work with excruciating pain, not being able to walk without a cane, and wearing sunglasses at all times was not what I would see as someone able to work. They then canceled my appointment without telling me. The receptionist said they had left a message, and I was directed to one of the RNs I'd been talking with which I am assuming she was the "Red Flag" lady (Cathy?) - the people they don't want to deal with, get sent to her. She said we had discussed it and I must have forgotten. So two different answers within minutes of discussing appointments, and I was told I couldn't make any additional appointments and it was them whom would schedule them. Needless to say, she was anything but helpful. Thank goodness my boyfriend was there to see the way I was treated. At this point I was thinking I was losing it and he confirmed everything I did was acceptable, and them giving two different stories to me was also confirmed by him. She asked "what I wanted them to do" so I asked for a referral to the Mayo clinic. Last conversation was with Cathy, and she informed me, my referral was put in to the Mayo clinic and "it could take up to a year to get into them" because they see people with "worse issues" before people like me. This was a little disheartening, but I had no other choice than to take what I could get. Clearly Sanford doesn't want to deal with me. Two days later I had a call from the Mayo clinic and they got me an appointment within two weeks. After going there, the doctor determined my medication was what made me unable to talk, walk or remember anything with any certainty. They adjusted my meds and from then until today, my migraines have been resolved. To put an even more interesting spin on this, another lady I work with had the same issue and also went to the Mayo. On top of that, the medication I'm currently on, is what Dr. Knutson has put another coworker on. After all this I had given her the benefit of the doubt with possible ignorance of this medication, but now find another person she had given this medication. He was also on the other medication that had given me the same side effects, to which he said her response was "it is better than a migraine isn't it?" How is this care for a patient? After reading the "about Sanford Health" page, this goes against their Mission Statement, Vision, and Values. Their "promise to the employees and patients", has been broken. This is not a promise they can keep with employees that mistreat and neglect their patients. This effects their "culture" they claim they have. I'm switching to Essentia and I have been referring anyone with this issue to anywhere but Sanford and more specifically, not Dr. Knutson, as there are too many stories I have heard about the same issue with the same doctor. I cannot put 0 for this so please, take my 1 star as a 0 or negative. I can't get my life back that was dismissed so easily, so she deserves nothing more than 0.