amo818

12-09-2022

Services Used: Outpatient

I have had two appointments with Dr Bouali. The staff was very professional, kind & compassionate. However, my experience with Dr. Bouali was anything but that. I feel as if she dismissed me prior to even seeing me. I was invalidated & interrupted, & never got an opportunity to fully explain or elaborate on my symptoms. She was not an engaged listener, & clearly had a preconceived notion regarding me prior to seeing me. When trying to share the pain that I was in, the doctor continually referred to it as achiness or soreness & downplayed my everyday reality. She was aggressive in tone, condescending & belittling. I have never experienced this kind of treatment from any medical professional before. She concluded my symptoms were all due to my mood disorder (I do have seasonal depression, & am on low dose antidepressant, but I know for certain this pain is not from that). I cried during the first appointment because I felt so dismissed & unheard. She was unsympathetic & from notes chalked that up to me “struggling with quite a bit of a mood disorder.” When examining me, she only casually glanced at one area of my body that I was having pain in. She did not ask where exactly I was feeling pain or any questions. She noted that there was no swelling & announced that I did not have RA. She never looked over any other area where I have pain.
Dr. Bouali did run some preliminary lab work. However, because I have had to take my care into my own hands, with research I have done, I see there are several tests that are much more accurate & decisive that she did not choose to run. My primary mentioned fibromyalgia as a reason for my pain, & that was part of why I was referred here. Dr. Bouali did not mention that possibility once, which left me to wonder if she does not believe it is a real syndrome/disease.
When meeting yesterday to go over my lab results, which were normal, she told me that there is nothing physically wrong with me, & if I could just get my mood disorder stabilized my soreness would go away. I once again tried to explain the level of pain I am daily in, & her response verbatim was “Let me make this clear, there is nothing that I can do for you. This is not physical, this is a mood disorder.” She also told me this was normal for my age, as I am getting older. I am 43, & this is anything but normal.
After my two visits, I read the doctor notes & was shocked to find inaccurate notations. I was never asked my pain level yesterday, & my notes say I was at a level two. My notes say there is no prolonged morning stiffness & my pain never impacts my gait. This definitely did not come from me, as she never asked me this, & I DO experience these. The notes for the first exam contain details from the physical exam, which half of the details were making up things because those parts of the exam never even occurred.
I am very disappointed with my experience. I never write reviews such as this, but I think it is very important for new patients to make an educated decision prior to seeing this doctor. Her rhetoric could be harmful for someone struggling with chronic pain to be told it is in their head. Please be cautious before booking an appointment.

• Date Visited 12-2022
• Overall Satisfaction
• Explanation of diagnosis and Treatment Plan
• Trust in Provider
• Procedural Skills