I should have read up on the reviews for Dr. Mark Fesenmyer… They suck! He’s not very well received, and now I know why. So the main question I have after seeing him…

Dr. Mark Fesenmyer are you ignorant or lazy?

CHECK OUT HIS HEALTHGRADES REVIEWS HERE

YOU CAN READ MY GOOGLE REVIEW HERE

In the words of Julie Andrews, “Let’s start at the very beginning. It’s a very good place to start.”

Dr. Foley recommended Dr. Fesenmyer, after she diagnosed me with Crohn’s. I waited several weeks for an appointment, and I can tell you now, that it was a waste of time. Now, I can’t speak to his skills as a gastroenterologist in general, but I can speak to him treating Crohn’s. He’s terrible. Please, keep your sanity and copay, and go see someone else. For the love of God, please see someone else. 

Upon first meeting him, I could tell he clearly read nothing about my case file. He had no idea why I was there. He didn’t even look at the damn referral Dr. Foley sent. I thought my luck was bad enough being treated by Dr. Foley, but then I had the misfortune of meeting Dr. Mark Fesenmyer. 

I informed him I had been diagnosed with Crohn’s and had these seton’s placed. He then asked if I had been actually diagnosed with it… Yeah, you can tell he didn’t bother to read the referral. He then pulled up the colonoscopy images on the computer, and started discussing medication with me. The first medication he recommended didn’t treat the fistula issue. So, he had already forgotten the first part of what I told him. That should have been a red flag. I had never been treated by bad doctors before, but now I had two of them. It was a new experience for me. I didn’t know how to deal with this. I didn’t know what red flags to look for. 

So after I reminded him why I was actually in his office, he recommended I start a different medication. He wanted me to get a TB test and a Hepatitis test before I started this medication. He recommended it without ever going over what the drug actually does. Turns out it is a very powerful immunosuppressant, and it can have some very serious side effects. There are several things you need to watch out for while on this medication… He never mentioned any of them. 

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So, if you go on the website for this medication, it recommends you get baseline blood work done. He instead decided to use 5 month old blood work to determine I wouldn’t have any issues with the medication. My new gastroenterologist was heavily concerned by this, but wait, it gets worse. So when I complained to Dr Foley about the complications from this colonoscopy, she said I should ask him about it. 

So I email in, and he recommends another immunosuppressant, and some blood work after I start it. No blood work before I start it, just after. So I start this new drug and I get worse. I first emailed asking about the hair loss first. His medical staff informed me that hair loss is not a common side effect from either crohn’s or the medication he prescribed. So I did some googling. Did you know inflammatory bowel issues are the leading cause of medically related hair loss? I know this, but apparently the staff at a gastroenterologists office responding to my message was unaware. Also, top 6 side effects listed for the second medication he prescribed includes… wait for it… hair loss. This is the level of ignorance I’m dealing with, and these people have medical degrees. 

Had he done some baseline blood work, we could have skipped through all of this. However, he decided that someone with two different autoimmune issues didn’t need any diagnostic testing before being put on some powerful and dangerous medication. So that’s where my question comes in. Was he too damn lazy to order some basic labs before putting me on two powerful immunosuppressants, just like he was too lazy to read the referral, or was he too damn ignorant to do so, like his medical staff informing hair loss is not a common side effect of Crohn’s? 

I’m sending this over to his office a couple days before I post it, and hopefully he can give me some feedback. 

Until next time. 

Click here for Part 4

**To start from the beginning, click here.

***At the time of publication I got a letter from Teresa Kempfer at Community Heath Services which stated they had no issue with his treatment. I’ll be posting a response to that later. So make sure to check back.