Tara-i Am So Glad You Went To See Dr. Sahagian !!!

Hi Tara,
Now you know what I mean about him.
I have been seeing him for years now. He is a GREAT neuro. And he LISTENS to what you tell him !
He is Head of Neurology at Tri-City Medical Center, and also works with Scripps Hospital in Encinitas, having an office near both hospitals.
He is very knowledgeable of CIDP, and is a neuro-muscular specialist.
He works with a team of about 10 different neuros, all between the two offices, of which each neuro specializes in a different neuro aspect/specialty.
As I have told you before–many doctors give you the 15-minute rule for an office visit-then say time’s up, and go to the next patient.
I have has long conversations with Dr. Sahagian, of which my time with him went over an hour.
Tara, I do hope you get the help you need with Dr. Sahagian. He also has set up with him, different doctors he might send you to in a different specialty, that he deems are very good, as I have been sent to two different doctors by him, that I totally am pleased with as well. He uses a Rheumatologist by the name of Dr. Paul Brion, of whom is in charge of my chemotherapy. Dr. Sahagian even sent me back many years ago, to his actual teacher in med school, at USCD, who is a top teaching neurologist, and only deals with rare diseases. They were stumped with me in the beginning, as the CIDP was affecting half of my body, assymetrical. After seeing him, it turned out I did have CIDP, with a variant called “Lewis-Sumner Variant”, though as time went on, it affected both sides of my body.
And Dr. Brion is a fantastic doctor as well-I fully trust him as well.
To me, anyone that Dr. Sahagian suggests, I GO WITH. And ANYTHING he suggests, I go with. He even had an idea once–that he wanted to try on me. A year ago, the great fatigue that went with this CIDP was getting real bad–I was almost becoming bed-ridden because I had to sleep so much–at least 15 hours a day. So, he said, “I have an idea–let’s try “speed” to try to beat this fatigue.” So, he said he would prefer I dealt with a neuro who deals with sleep disorders, (in this case the opposite–how to stop sleeping”, by the name of Mindy Cetel, who knew of CIDP. So, we started with mild stimulants that did not work. Then hit on Ritalin, AND IT WORKED !!!
I use 20mg of Ritalin when I first get up in the morning, then another 20mg around 11am. It gets me through the day until about 4pm-6pm.
Again, I thank Dr. Sahagian for coming up with his “idea”.
Unfortunately, I am his worst CIDP patient, as it hit my autonomic system. And I failed at the normal protocol of treatments for CIDP, with my current Cytoxan being used to slow the progression.
But I even talked with one of his patients, who was doing okay with IVIG, and can talk to them with experience–I told him about our website–hope he joins.
I wish you MUCH LUCK with this VERY GOOD doctor.
—
Now for Sandila–
I used to be with the “Scripps Health Insurance Plan”, but later switched to “Healthnet” for health insurance. Dr. Sahagian takes both insurances.
And I know they take other insurances as well–all you have to do is call them, and they will tell you what they take for insurance plans.
I gave this website to Tara, as Dr. Sahagian’s team of neuros have their own website. Perhaps this might help you, or, as I suggested to Tara–to go and see Dr. Sahagian.
Their website is: [url]www.neurocenter.com[/url]
Look at their website, and give them a call. They might take your health insurance that you have–who knows?
You can see the different doctors there. I was actually with a different doctor on their team that I didn’t like, and was able to switch to Dr. Sahagian, after it was deemed by their head doctor, that I indeed had a neuro-muscular disease. I won’t say who that doctor was, that I didn’t like, but I will tell you that I totally trust Dr. Sahagian. This is a very progressive office, and they often do research as well between the different doctors.
There is a neuro there who specializes in migraine headaches, which I had awful ones in the beginning of my CIDP, as my eyes were affected and could not take light, and would turn into a migraine. Well, this one doctor had done research on patients, using anti-arthritic meds as a trial, and found they worked. I have been taking Indocin, and anti-arthritic med, twice daily, for many years now–AND HAVE NOT HAD ONE MIGRAINE SINCE THEN.
It is a very good office.
Hope you give it a try, like Tara did…and I hope you get some success as well.
All the best,
Ken
(KEDASO)