Dr. Ian Steven Alward, MD

Dr. Alward cares. His humanity shows through his Doctor's image...actually it is a part of that image. This Doctor is absolutely the best primary care physician in my life. He listens to one's concerns thoroughly before making an assessment. I trust this Doctor completely.

After years of not understanding a life long problem that finally figured out had to do with some odd & very rare disorder associated with having an inabilty to control and manage my sleep/wake cycle as others seem to be able to do as though it were 2nd nature. I, on the other hand, was held captive by continuosly feeling trapped in one state of sleep or wakefulness or the other and I eventually became unable to function in my daily life on even the most basic level due to complete lack of being able to manage my symptoms. I literally spend YEARS going from one doctor to the next, all of who basically didn't fully understand my particular disorder (or, as the case may be, didnt even believe I was telling the truth or thought that I at least essageraging my condition (as it turns out, it's very rare & difficult to treat. Most often doctors would or eventually refuse to treat me altogether since I wasn't improving enough under their care to matter all that much in the first place.… Finally, at my wits end, I found a God Send, Dr Alward, and he came just about the time I was honestly considering giving up on my search for answer, refuse all treatments & just let nature take its course and simply give in to simply and literally sleeping my life away and stopping all searches for help. By the time I found Dr Alward, I was just ready to give up on life completely because I felt I didn't have enough quality to justify the effets it took to function on even a basic level and I was tired of fighting & having to justify a disorder I had no explanation for in the first place. I felt others just thought I was lazy & bizarre & minimum, I was misunderstood by nearly EVERYONE. I had grown tired of fighting this bizarre & mis-understood condition everyday & couldn't imagine fighting it for the rest of my life. And, it had come to a point to where the struggle wasn't worth the few. spuratic & unpredictable rewards of symptom relief that only occasionly offered some bit of a very short lived reprieve / Anyway, at my wits end, I was blessed to run across Dr Alward, who revisited my previous diagnosis related to sleep issues & discovered I actually had an extremely, hard to control disorder, including Idiopathic Hypetsomnia with an overlap of Narcolepsy & several other serious sleep/wake related issues as well ( any one of which presented its own issues & treatment) Dr Alward patiently explained the complexity of my condition but, while uncertain how to treat it, agreed to start me on one of the latest, most studied treatment plans same as what the leading research hospital, Emery Universith in Georgia is doing, in hopes of improving my function. He also increased my stimulant intake understanding people with my disorder simply require higher levels of medication as compared to the general population. I'm already doing Mitch better & my level up of function is already greatly improved. Dr Alward didn't fully understand idiohypersomnia but I brought in information on it from repeatable sources and he didn't seem offended or seem as though his ego was hurt by having to sort of learn about my condition as we went along. In short, Dr Alward will respectfully listen to & is not afraid to try another approach to treating a condition the what's been or is being tried isn't working well. Dr Alward just wants to help his patient have a better quailty of life & if he even has to learn & do extra research on a given condition his patient has but he doesn't quit understand, he's not too proud to admit he sometimes doen't have all the answers at the tip of his fingers but knows how to get the ansers he needs, should that senerio arise. Dr Award is actually INTERESTED IN HIS PATIENTS AND DOING, OR EVEN DOING OUTSIDE RESERCH IN ORDER TO GAIN A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OR LEARN SOMETHING NEW REGARDING EVEN A COMPLICATED CONDITION, THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HE DOES ...You don't find Drs like him very often. (I've NEVER found one & I've been to countless doctors) I'm considering him to be my "life-line" at this point & feel God has sent down an angel for me with a specific assignment to find a way to where I can function on a daily basis & return to feeling my life is valuable & make eventually helping me understand that I actually have a purpose in life & that I'm not just this sick thing that takes up space & sucks air someone else deserves more so than I. Dr Awlard is the BEST. He 's knowledgable, not afraid to admit he's at a loss & needs too learn more about whatever topic or condition he's treating etc. He's extremely kind and more than willing to search for additional knowledge if he feels he needs to in order to offer the best & latest treatment for any given illness / He's the most caring doctor I've ever known! He's my God-Send!