East Bay Rheumatology Medical Group

After years of being shuttled back and forth betwixt neurologists, psychologists/​psychiatrists, neurosurgeons and the like (and too many with an exasperated or dismissive attitude) … I finally, after receiving two positive ANA labs for an autoimmune disorder (wonder if those had even been ordered before, let alone looked at …) was referred to Dr. Shamas at this practice. What a lucky break!
After a brief but very thorough interview, (she was able to access past critical medical test results e.g.: MRIs, labs, Xrays, etc. from her computer) she prescribed me a drug normally used to treat Malaria to «tune down» my over active immune system. She said, «give it 4 months to work,» and I was to come back then, and let them know how it went, complete with new labs and new xrays. Within 1 month of a daily one pill a day regimen, I began to experience a HUGE difference in how I felt. The «brain fog,» the dizziness and the generalized feeling of malaise and exhaustion were … gone. I hadn’t felt that «normal» for close to 20 years. Nothing is perfect; I still have aches and pains, relics of the ongoing spinal and joint damage from the prior proceeding years of being in a diagnostic «limbo.» But even so, I feel like I received a miracle! I just wish I’d received it a bit sooner.
Dr. Shammas is no longer at this practice, but I have ongoing confidence in the practice and the doctors there. I hope I can continue to work with them to fix what can be fixed, or treat what I have to cope with.