Dr. Carey Diana Vaughan, DO

I wasted 5 months living with excruciating pain under this doctor's care. She wouldn't order a basic xray to see why my lower lumbar region was in such pain. When I asked for an MRI (after researching on line) to ascertain why my sciatica might be so acute, she became frustrated and said, "Well, you're not going to have surgery no matter what the results are anyway!" My husband and I were stunned. Who said anything about surgery? What did that have to do with discovering why I was in such pain that I cried each morning? She decided to put me on a certain medication for the pain, but it made me so sick to my stomach no matter whether I took it on an empty stomach or full. After several attempts, I finally told her I can't take it because it made me so sick. She again seemed frustrated and said, "Of course it makes you sick! I tried it and it made me sick! I don't know how anyone can stand to take it!" I just couldn't believe it. What did her reaction to this med have to do… with me? She wouldn't suggest or offer any alternative. I had to live with the pain. She advised me, once again, that much of my problem was due to my non-Paleo diet and told me in an aggravated and deprecating tone, with my husband present, that I was "just like everybody wanting a magic cure" (such as surgery or medication, I presume, though I hadn't asked for either). She told me I might want to have her massage me rather than my regular PT because she said she didn't "do all that bone popping", and she wasn't "rough" but had a much gentler approach; naturally, I was very surprised to discover she was even rougher than my PT and did quite a lot of bone popping. That was it for me. After 5 months of numerous tests and experiments with her, I was done. My husband was encouraged by some co-workers to take me to urgent care because they'd be sure to do an xray and start me on a medication, which is precisely what they did! The xray showed I had some arthritis and bone spurs in my L5, and the doctor who ordered the xray said I'd been living with this kind of pain far too long. I feel foolish now as I look back. I found another doctor after "firing" Vaughn. She immediately ordered an MRI as I'd been in physical therapy twice a week for 5 months with no relief at this point. The MRI showed I had severe facet disease, which means the cartilage was wearing away between the discs in my spine, compressing the sciatica and causing severe pain. She then set me up with a pain management team to work on treatments. I wish I could say my pain is completely gone now, but I LOVE this team (Dr. Harris/Chip/Troy). They LISTEN to me and have decreased my pain by a good 60% through steroid injections in the lumbar and non-narcotic medications that target the nerves and muscles. They continue to look at new ways of bringing relief. Carrie Vaughn did so many weird and irrelevant tests on me, and talked incessantly of how she and I were "so much alike", so the crazy genetic tests she was learning about and having done on herself were tests that she was going to have done on me. There was no end to it. I have no idea how much money my poor husband shelled out while he watched his wife deteriorate. This is a doctor who is supposed to specialize in what was ailing me, yet I could not even get her to order me a basic xray for FIVE MONTHS. (On the 5th month she finally agreed, but as I say, I went elsewhere and had already had it done thru urgent care.) No way was I going to stick around and fight my way to an MRI with her! The pain had reached such a pitch that I'd become depressed and anxious, believing this would never end. I knew I couldn't live years with this. I'm only 52 and my husband and I are newly married! I believe Carrie Vaughn does care. I know this sounds contrary to all I've said, but I believe she wants to be helpful. The problem is she seems to have her own agenda. It's as though all illnesses must fall within her own narrow and unorthodox parameters, and she cannot see her way to treating her patients in a conventional manner when conventional ways are called for. She told me the reason she got into this field so late in life was because she was so messed up and wanted to know why. I found her diagnostic methods to be very subjective, so much so that whatever she was going through, she seemed to believe I was going through. There were tests she wanted to have done on herself and therefore done on me because we were "so much alike", as I've already mentioned; however, she would then say at my next appointment that she'd changed her mind about that test because she didn't believe it was necessary--she would be doing a different test instead. I began to see that her life was one of experimentation and discovery--and that this is what she did with her patients as well. She was always very passionate about new tests she'd learned about, in addition to the "no wheat" and Paleo diet. In fact, on my first appointment, I was told to buy The Paleo Cure and The Wheat Belly books, both of which I dutifully bought. She later told me I needed to buy another book called The Three Agreements. I never did buy that one. I'm not saying that there is nothing good about that diet or those books, but when you've reached a bone on bone state and you cry in agony just to sit on the toilet and you dread getting out of bed, and you can no longer go on a ten minute walk with your husband, something more than a change of diet is needed..... I believe Carrie Vaughn should've gotten her doctorate in research--not practical medicine. I actually wonder if I should have reported her. She is a friendly, smart, funny, passionate, caring human being who has absolutely no business "doctoring" people.

I would not recommend this doctor to anyone. She seemed very unknowledgable. I decided to go to a different doctor and I'm glad I did!