Dr. Marianna Igorevna Shimelfarb, MD

condescending; rude; unhelpful

I'm sorry, but my experience with her was outrageous. The pain began 9 days ago, and my initial physician contact was with a teledoc service through my insurance. I was prescribed a muscle relaxer to help cope with the pain as a temporary pain management treatment. I saw an urgent care physician who prescribed oxycodone to manage my pain symptoms in addition to the muscle relaxer until my diagnosis could be confirmed and treated. My spinal orthopedist has suggested that I am suffering from 2 herniated discs in my back. The replacement for the narcotics and muscle relaxers would be a spinal injection, but insurance won't cover it until an MRI is conducted and interpreted by the appropriate providers. Fair enough. Time consuming, but I have bandaids in the form of medication in the meantime. I can respect the process despite the fact that I am on the verge of tears 24/7 and have been for 9 days. My spinal orthopedist prescribed me oxycodone to help manage my pain in conjunction… with the muscle relaxer until the process to "earn" my spinal injection can be completed. I had plenty of muscle relaxers to last me until Wednesday - the day we were hoping/planning to conduct the spinal injection, so he didn't bother prescribing me any more. Unfortunately - the insurance required process for receiving a simple spinal injection for someone in DEBILITATING pain likes to take its sweet time approving itself. In the meantime, my muscle relaxers ran out. I called my spinal orthopedist for a refill twice, but I never got a call back. Once my ortho's office closed, I used the one thing my insurance is good for - the teledoc service. I just needed to buy myself a few days until I could get the injection my spinal orthopedist and I were trying so hard to get for me. A few minutes later, I got a call from a call from Ms. Marianna Shimelfarb. I explained to her that the process was moving as fast as possible. We were waiting for my lovely insurance to say it was okay for me to receive the pain relieving treatment that my spinal orthopedist already knew I needed. I told her that she could check my records to see that I didn't have my next dose that I was due to take within a matter of hours. That while my oxycodone was helpful, it was largely ineffective without a muscle relaxer taken in conjunction. I explained that I just needed a couple of days to buy me time until my spinal injection. That I was unable to get in touch with my spinal orthopedist, and therefore was in a desperate situation. I explained that my pain was amplified substantially when I didn't take my muscle relaxer. I explained that I was in a desperate situation and that I was scared of missing my next dose. Her response was that she wasn't comfortable prescribing me anything without having evaluated me herself. She said it would be a disservice to me as a patient to give me what I was requesting. I was irresponsible as an individual for having multiple people manage my pain treatment. I really should be working with a Primary Care Physician for these needs, and that was what I should have done all along. I should have gone and gotten the spinal injection. Ms. Marianna Shimelfarb - I hope you never have to experience the pain that I am feeling right now. I had a primary care physician up until recently, but when I had to become self insured I couldn't afford the insurance required to continue seeing him. I have been doing my absolute best to move along the necessary process to receive the proper treatment. Even though I HATE having to take the medications necessary to manage my pain because of their side effects, life is borderline unbearable without them. There is nothing I would like more than to have gotten the spinal injection and no longer require any of these medications. You were patronizing and condescending on the phone. Telling me what I had been doing wrong in the process of seeking care. Implying that muscle relaxers weren't necessary to treat my excruciating pain (even after I reiterated that my spinal orthopedist thought I had TWO herniated discs). When I got off the phone with you I don't know whether I was more scared of the pain to come, because it could have so easily been avoided if you had bothered to look at a fraction of the situation. It could have been angry that I was going to have another sleepless night, because the pain was too much to sleep through. How patronizing you were that it would be a disservice to me to help me (trust me, Ms. Marianna Shimelfarb, I have successfully founded multiple healthcare tech companies - I'm not an idiot as you likely assumed), or how difficult it was to explain to you my symptoms, treatment process, and providers involved (you kept getting lost despite the fact that it is truthfully simple and straightforward). Thankfully I was able to cold call a physician right after we got off the phone, and that physician understood. My pain is a 6 vs a 10 like it would have been.