Dr. Christopher Paul Friesen, DO

I started seeing Dr Friesen 20 years ago when I had migraines. Such a blessing! He had my headaches under control with minimal medication in a matter of 2-3 visits. As my life progressed & I began to experience other health issues, Dr Friesen always took the necessary time to explain what was happening, what the contributing factors were & offered more than just drugs to fix the issues. I learned a great deal from him & am pleased to say that I am migraine free & managing my other issues like a champ. I would go back to him in the blink of an eye if I moved back to MO...It has not been fun trying to find a new doctor that I am comfortable with.

Dr. Friesen has lost admitting privileges in all hospitals. The only way to be admitted is through the emergency room, even if he recommends it.

Go some where else

My husband has been seeing dr Friesen for the past few years for check ups. Recently after several health issues, it has become clear that this dr is not at all competent to; manage medications, coordinate care with other medical professionals, review the chart history, respond to requests for prescription changes, or communicate regarding the results of blood tests he ordered. Additionally he ordered 2 blood tests nor covered by Medicare resulting in a bill for almost $400. And, after repeated attempts to get the rationale and results of those tests, still no answer. So, if you are sick with anything more than a cold find another doctor. This one is bad news.

My husband and I started seeing Dr. Friesen after my husband had to go to an urgent care near our house and he was working there. When I went in to see him initially, I was about 10 months post- partum and I thought I was depressed. He asked me what I thought was wrong and why I felt that way. When I explained myself (being quite brief), he stopped me, saying he didn't need a life story (!) and that yes I was probably depressed. I chalked the encounter up to my emotional state of mind, and maybe being over sensitive and continued seeing him. Bad move. He runs late every appointment. I have been the first patient of the day and he is STILL late! That is just incredibly rude to me. I am in and out of appointments and meetings w clients all day and make every effort to never be late. I realize he is a doctor, but he seems not to care. I can hear him talking to his other patients while I wait in the next room for him and he is talking to hear his own head rattle! Which is exactly what he… does during my appointment time with him. I have been on an anti-anxiety for 2 years and he has asked me to continue with follow up appts every 3 months. I don't have time and when I told him this, he told me good luck finding a dr who see me once or twice a year and just refill my meds. I am not a sick person, far from it. In his defense, I did start a new medication, but he 'wants to see me' every 3 months no matter if I have a new med or not! He also this he is a headache specialist. A conference attended twice a year does not a specialist make. If you think you have migraine, see a neurologist, not this guy. When I went in to get my initial consultation for my anxiety/depression, he asked about headaches. I admitted that I had some, but nothing serious. He insisted that what I had were migraines and that I be treated for them. He told me not to take over the counter, non-migraine specific meds to treat the headaches and prescribed expensive migraine meds to me. I figured, ok he's the doctor, not me so I followed his advice. He put me on preventative treatment and it was so bad. I could not keep my eyes open, I blanked on everything and just walked around like a zombie. I weaned myself off of them because I couldn't get into see him and the side effects were not bearable. He acted miffed but acknowledged that I had done it the right way, then tried to prescribe me more meds! I barely ever got headaches and now I was this severe migraine sufferer because once I had a headache that made me nauseous? He sees what he wants to see, as I guess we all do, but I am inclined to believe that he sees dollars and extra billing opportunities with is migraine stuff. Incidentally, I did follow his advice and did not take over the counter, non-migraine specific meds for my headaches and ended up running thru $100's of migraine meds for one really bad headache. But when I desperately tried to get rid of that headache with Advil and tylenol...guess what? It worked. My friend with a board certified neurologist encouraged me to try that first and what do you know? It has worked every time since I have started with that. Dr. Friesen is not professional either. He would constantly forget why I was in to see him (frequently to get refills on my mood meds because he would not give me a 6 or 12 month prescription!) and would yammer about these 'migraines' I had and then forget about my meds untilminreminded him! 'oh yeah' he would say, 'let me see what your chart says about dosage.' I had the bottle in my hand and he needs to check the chart? Quit wasting my time.

I was referred to Dr. Friesen by a friend who is treated by him. Dr. Friesen accurately diagnosed my migraine headaches (not a surprise since I've had them since I was 15), and was the first doctor to suggest that I should look into preventative treatment. Unfortunately, when I had severe reactions to the two FDA approved preventative treatments (Topamax and Depakote), and informed Dr. Friesen that I was unwilling to continue with that treatment, not only was he unable to come up with any alternative treatments, he derided my questions about non-medicinal means to mitigate stress/anxiety to hopefully lower the migraine threshold. After such condescending behavior from a health-care provider, I was extremely embarassed and refused to go back. That turned out to be a good thing, because by transferring to a specialist, I was able to get onto a treatment regimin that actually worked to limit the number of migraines per week, and didn't have the severe side effects of the treatments… that Dr. Friesen prescribed.As a side note, Dr. Friesen paid no attention to the incongruity of prescribing Depakote (with teratogenic effects...ie: causes birth defects in your child if you're pregnant) to a young married woman of child bearing age. He also paid no attention to the fact that although I have hormonally triggered migraines, I was on birth control pills (for an unrelated issue) and that it might be a good idea to determine if those were exacerbating the issue.

Great personality, has a very easy-going attitude but extremely professional, which really help put me at ease about my situation/condition. Very happy I made the appt. and looking forward to having Dr. Friesen as the person I can go to in the future!