Alternative Medicine Practitioners - Berkeley, CA

"Summary version: Silva's incomplete (and hence inaccurate) chart notes and his (or his staff's) inability to communicate information from me to Silva put my health at risk. He ignored anything I had to say about the various medications that I had tried over the past fifteen years, including which were effective, which weren't, and which I was currently taking. He and his staff did not reply in a timely manner, despite my multiple requests for assistance and statements of the urgency of the issue. He and his staff treated me as an adversary, not a partner in treating my medical symptoms. He seems to think that he knows everything and that the patient has no information that is useful in diagnosing and treating a medical issue. He has no interest/willingness in hearing about new treatments that he is not familiar with. I am thankful that my medical problem is not life threatening; my day-to-day health was compromised, but at least my life wasn't threatened by his lack of care. Details: I started seeing Dr. Silva for chronic headaches about eight months ago when I moved to the area from across the country. We reviewed the medicines I have been taking for almost a decade, medicines that have successfully controlling and treating headaches. Dr. Silva remarked that he would not have prescribed medicine X; I explained that it had been effective for me. He said something like "oh" and moved on to the next medicines. I had several refills left for X, so I didn't ask for a prescription at that time. Recently, a few days prior to travel, I needed a renewed prescription and requested one from Silva. He had his staff tell me that since he had never prescribed X for me, he would not prescribe it now. (X is not a narcotic or scheduled drug, this was not a matter of drug-seeking.) Aside from being completely illogical (he did prescribe other medicines he had never prescribed for me before), X is not a med you stop cold turkey. At first he seemed confused that I was taking X for headaches, despite the fact that we had discussed my meds previously. His staff insisted that I was only taking Y as that was what Silva put in my chart. I informed them that information was incorrect, but they refused to budge because that's what was in my chart. I explained the situation again, including that X is something one shouldn't stop cold turkey. That was a call on Thursday. I did not get a return call until Monday morning, when his staff explained, again, that since he had never prescribed X for me, he would not prescribe it now."