When I initially started seeing Dr. Klugh, she seemed very friendly and caring. However, I started seeing some red flags rather quickly but kept dismissing them for the longest time. I was referred to her due to a mass on my thyroid, and she had me do a biopsy by another doctor in her office. She told me that masses are usually cancerous only 5-10% of the time, most of the time they are benign or they may show some abnormality but not cancer. When I went for the biopsy, I started crying, partially because it hurt (hello? they stick a needle in your neck!) and partially because I was scared. I wasn't even 30 and was facing some potentially serious health issues. The doctor was brusque and rude, asking somewhat indignantly why I was crying, and he seemed to belittle my fears. While that certainly isn't Dr. Klugh's fault, this doctor was part of her staff and was who she recommended do the biopsy. Well, lo and behold, it did turn out to be cancer. We had scheduled a follow up to… go over the results about a week after the biopsy, but she called me at 6pm a few days later, leaving a voicemail to see if I could come in the following day. I immediately knew something must be wrong, and I tried calling back right away but the office was closed and it went to voicemail, so I sat for the rest of the evening worried sick. When I did get ahold of her the next day, I explained I was in California for vacation and asked if I should come back to get in for an appointment before the one we had scheduled for the following Monday, and she seemed to have forgotten we even had that appointment scheduled and said that Monday would be fine. So of course I couldn't enjoy the rest of my vacation and ended up driving back early anyway, freaked out about what the results were. My care went fairly well after that for awhile, although she seemed to not listen when I complained that I felt like my medication wasn't high enough since I was still very fatigued, had low mood, dry skin...all the markers for being hypothyroid. A couple years later when my bloodwork showed potential markers for cancer again, the terrible medical care REALLY came out. In order to do one of the tests, she took me off my medication completely to put me in a hypothyroid state since it works best for the test. The first time we went through that, immediately after my surgery, I was the most miserable I've ever been. I was severely depressed to the point of having vivid suicidal thoughts even though logically I wasn't suicidal, but it was just a side effect of being hypothyroid. So when she said we were going to do that again, I dreaded it. She swore we would get it done as quick as possible and she would send me in for bloodwork frequently so we could do the test as soon as my levels were right. However, every time I went to the lab, they said there was no order sent in from her office. I called each time, telling the front office that she needed to send in an order so I could get my bloodwork done, and they assured me she would send it by the end of the day, so I went to the lab later that night, but once again there was no order in. This happened numerous times, meanwhile I was feeling worse and worse. Finally I was at the point of wanting to be hospitalized due to the severe depression, and it was only when I called the office in near hysterical tears telling them that, that they seemed to finally get the point and made sure Dr. Klugh called me back immediately. When I finally did talk to her, she was concerned, of course, so she put me back on my medication right away, which meant I went through all of that for nothing. Instead, she ordered Thyrogen in order to do the test (which is insanely expensive), but by the time they got the order in, it was almost the end of the year. The process for the Thyrogen is that you get an injection on Monday and Tuesday, go to Desert Radiology for the radioactive pill on Wednesday, and then do a total body scan on Friday. Unfortunately, that year Christmas/Christmas Eve and New Year's/New Year's Eve fell on Friday/Saturday, so DR was closed Friday each of those weeks, which meant I couldn't get the test done until after the new year and when my deductible restarted. I was so fed up by that point that I cancelled all my appointments and changed doctors. It was one of the worst experiences of my life.
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