Dr. Christopher Podgorski Matthews, DO

I have been dealing with pain for over 10 years. I've had many back surgeries. I came to him to discuss a switching to different pain medicine as I have been on the same one for many years and was not getting the relief as before. I did not want to increase, just switch to a different med. After oh 5 minutes he explained to me that he was going to take me completely off my pain med instead. He wouldn't listen to a word I had to say, not sure if he even read my chart to begin with. I've never felt so low in my life after a doctor appointment. I have lost total faith for the Kaiser pain clinic and can only wish I had a different insurance to be able to see my old pain doctor! So, I would recommend not wasting your time with this doctor!

He is not a Pain management Dr but rather a pain med reduction manager hired by Kaiser. The more pain pills he reduces the better he does

This physician is now a pain specialist, though I cannot locate any information about his training in pain medicine. Maybe it is there, but you would think it would be made public, if it exists. I had the feeling that he was rather a beginner at this. He was supported during the whole visit by another person from the pain management team. I arrived early to fill out paperwork, but was roomed right away. He kept wanting to begin, but I kept pointing to the paperwork. Finally, still before the scheduled time, we just began, and several times during the visit he pointed to the paperwork and pointed out that I had not completed it. I don't believe he was fully aware of all facets of the drug he prescribed, neither its form nor its half life nor some of the possible complications, but that is very detailed, so I won't go into it. After one phone call, he wrote in my chart that I had very poor coping skills. The pain management psychologist and I had a good laugh about that. But he has… helped me in one major respect. He wrote in y chart that I had an "unrealistic expectation of cure". This so inspired me to prove him wrong that I no longer have chronic pain. I guess, from his perspective, chronic pain is incurable because he doesn't really know enough cure it.