Cort
Phoenix Rising Founder
- Messages
- 7,390
I saw Dr. Cheney for almost 2 years from about 1999 to 2001. He was of course extremely expensive. He was not particularly effective in treating me. He did diagnose mercury poisoning - probably from eating too much fish - and stopping eating fish did reduce some severe and really puzzling symptoms I was having. This was very helpful to me but was not a particularly difficult diagnosis to make - I think most alternative doctors would have made it at some point. He was not effective in the various means we tried of chelating Mercury from my system. In the end it just took time for me.
I found Dr. Cheney at times very engaging but often I was bothered, given my fragile money situation, by his tendency to talk on and on. I expected a concise physician - but concise is not a term you could use with Dr. Cheney. I thought the initial consultation was rather strange; a good portion of it consisted of him explaining his theory while he provided you with published scientific materials. About 10 minutes of that and my eyes glazed over and I ended up retaining very little. I did tape the session but never really referred to it. I thought it was a very odd way to start off. (Honestly I had the idea it was more for him than for me.) A short summary or even one of his videotapes would have been far cheaper and more effective.
My problem was that I'd tried everything and many things had worked but because of a strange reaction to energy producing drugs (I'd fall apart after a time) I had trouble taking any supplements. He was very big on polymorphism testing for immune, detox and other genes - something I was reluctant to do - since I worried that I'd already tried the 'treatments' given for the polymorphism problems that had been uncovered. He assured me that this was not so. I did the tests and it was so. I sent him a blistering letter suggesting that we just wasted a significant amount of my precious funds and he suggested that I not remain as a patient anymore. I backed down and I continued as a patient.
He was very creative. I was struck by how enthusiastic he was even after 20 years of practice. I was particularly struck by his willingness to engage others outside his practice and learn from them. He is obviously a very dedicated physician and this is a very complex illness. He is one of the most curious physicians I've ever seen. I think it's possible that I simply wasn't there long enough for him to learn enough about me.
His fees, however, were just devastating; at one point I got $1300 bill for a phone call; $500 to read my e-mail and the rest to converse with me.
My course with him, not surprisingly, was cut short by my need to declare bankruptcy(!). I think I physically saw him in the office just twice (because of cross country flights). In hindsight I don't regret my decision to see him. At some point for some reason I had some money I would've always wondered if I'd missed a big opportunity if I hadn't seen him.
I found Dr. Cheney at times very engaging but often I was bothered, given my fragile money situation, by his tendency to talk on and on. I expected a concise physician - but concise is not a term you could use with Dr. Cheney. I thought the initial consultation was rather strange; a good portion of it consisted of him explaining his theory while he provided you with published scientific materials. About 10 minutes of that and my eyes glazed over and I ended up retaining very little. I did tape the session but never really referred to it. I thought it was a very odd way to start off. (Honestly I had the idea it was more for him than for me.) A short summary or even one of his videotapes would have been far cheaper and more effective.
My problem was that I'd tried everything and many things had worked but because of a strange reaction to energy producing drugs (I'd fall apart after a time) I had trouble taking any supplements. He was very big on polymorphism testing for immune, detox and other genes - something I was reluctant to do - since I worried that I'd already tried the 'treatments' given for the polymorphism problems that had been uncovered. He assured me that this was not so. I did the tests and it was so. I sent him a blistering letter suggesting that we just wasted a significant amount of my precious funds and he suggested that I not remain as a patient anymore. I backed down and I continued as a patient.
He was very creative. I was struck by how enthusiastic he was even after 20 years of practice. I was particularly struck by his willingness to engage others outside his practice and learn from them. He is obviously a very dedicated physician and this is a very complex illness. He is one of the most curious physicians I've ever seen. I think it's possible that I simply wasn't there long enough for him to learn enough about me.
His fees, however, were just devastating; at one point I got $1300 bill for a phone call; $500 to read my e-mail and the rest to converse with me.
My course with him, not surprisingly, was cut short by my need to declare bankruptcy(!). I think I physically saw him in the office just twice (because of cross country flights). In hindsight I don't regret my decision to see him. At some point for some reason I had some money I would've always wondered if I'd missed a big opportunity if I hadn't seen him.
