Interventional Pain Specialists - Fresno, CA

"My biggest concern with seeing a doctor for my back pain was that they would assume I was seeking pain medication and not take my concerns/pain serious. I was scheduled for a consultation for pain after x-ray/mri showed pretty serious problems and referred by my primary care doctor. When called about the appointment by Dr Lees office I was told that it was a consultation and would have to keep it under 30 minutes and I would not be given pain medication. Today, after arriving was taken to an exam room by a nurse. The nurse asked normal questions that I was assuming would be asked. She was very short and matter of fact which is good. Then she asked about the anti inflammatory and muscle relaxer that was prescribed by my Primary Doctor, which I told her it didn’t work and I stopped using the muscle relaxer because it wasn’t working and it have a fear that I will be addicted to prescription pain medication. She then asked if ibuprofen helped. I says that it helped dull the pain. She responded with a laugh saying “that’s funny, because they are basically the same medication.” Once the doctor came in he asked me to stand and point to my back where the pain hurt. He felt around a little then asked me to sit back down. He then said that he would give me a different anti inflammatory and different muscle relaxer and would need me to go to physical therapy before he would see me again in a couple of months. We had to ask about the results of the MRI. He then grabbed his little toy spine and said that in this area I have arthritis. We then asked what it was written about the “spinal stenosis” in the MRI report. He said that it said it was mild so it basically meant that my spinal cord area was only closed off by 10-15% which shouldn’t cause any pain. He then turned around and told his nurse what he wanted for the prescriptions, waved and said nice meeting you then left. Nothing was mentioned about the 4 bulging discs or the compression fracture of my vertebrae, and we weren’t given the option of asking. For sure he didn’t give us the chance to go over the “30 minute consultation time” that was given to us. He was in there less than 5 minutes. We were then left with the nurse who took time sending the prescriptions to the pharmacy then said follow me. Got the paper for physical therapy and then sent us home. Once we left we found out that the physical therapy paper wasn’t even fully filled out. Just overall a horrible experience. It felt that he didn’t care about me or my back. It felt that he didn’t want to take the time to explain anything or answer any questions. And it felt like he thought I shouldn’t be in any pain and was just there seeking pain medication. From this experience I would look at other options before scheduling an appointment with this office. "