Dr. James Michael Johnston, MD

I was going to see Dr. Johnston for injuries sustained in a car accident. he also performed my shoulder surgeries which eased one problem. He seemed to be a very good doctor; caring and such UNTIL after receiving an MRI on my upper back/shoulders (as I was & am still having problems with my shoulders/base of neck) there were a few questionable areas noted and he was extremely concerned as these could possibly indicate cancer. He put me through a week long of extensive bone testing and at the weeks end his assistant PROMISED me that I would receive a copy of the final radiology report when it came out later that day. Well, his Meridian office closed early so I contacted the Boise office where I was treated so rudely by the front desk clerk. I was appalled! I did insist on receiving my report (as promised) as with going a week through all this testing on this cancer scare... I wanted my report.Needless to say, the report was good but with still one questionable area near my T5 vertebrae.… Dr. Johnston never followed up with this, nor did he ever refer me to someone who could. He told me "I don't do spines and the doctor we have here doesn't do this kind of stuff" and that was it.A while later, I read a causation report Dr. Johnston wrote for my attorney I used for my car accident case (come to find out he is good friends with the attorneys partner). Dr. Johnston said 80% of my injuries were from the accident but only 50% of the treatment is due to the accident. That doesn't make sense... nor did it to my attorney. Then it became clear as reading further, Dr. Johnston wrote his own personal commentary stating that "I was a difficult patient with whom to work" which come to find out was a comment resulting from a complaint from the rude, inappropriate front desk clerk after the cancer scare HE put me through (and remember, didn't follow up with). He then said "I feel Ms. -- perceives pain much worse than others" this coming from a doctor who, in the almost 2 years of treating me agreed that my injuries were from the car accident and was surprised that in the pain I was in that I was not asking for stronger pain meds (I have a high pain tolerance & I don't like taking pills). I was also later told by someone close to Dr. Johnston (name to remain undisclosed) that Curt Holtzer (my attorneys associate & good friend of Dr. Johnston) asked him to write a crappy causation letter as Curt wanted my case to go away quick as it wasn't going to bring them a lot of money. I could care less about getting money... I want to live pain free and since, I have not been able to find another doctor in Boise who will disagree with Dr. Johnston & the other stuff he wrote so I am still living in pain. I did get some good news that the pain is not in my head... I went to the spine institute where on a cervical MRI it did show the C7 disc protruding onto the nerve BUT again, when Dr. Jorgenson heard of Dr. Johnston, I received attitude and he blew me off saying "that's not anything that I work on"... um, isn;t this the spine institute where you are a spine surgeon? wow! Lastly, I'd like to know what Dr. Johnstons opinion of my injuries is now since about a year or so ago he had one of the same injuries I had (impingement) and had the same surgery he performed. Apparently, I heard he was in a lot of pain... humm.