Dr. Randolph Chang

I lost my employer provided healthcare last year and needed to find a new pain management doc as my new health insurance was not taken by the pain management doctor I’d had for 10 years (even though the BCBS website said they did… Whole other story). I went to Dr. Chang only because he was the only pain management specialist I could find close to me. I have had endometriosis for the past 10 years, I have been taking tramadol to control the pain and make the bad days tolerable for the past 8. Other then the endometriosis I was very healthy. At the time I went to see him I had also been experiencing stiffness in my fingers and toes that had gotten progressively worse over the prior 2 months, I’m pretty stoic so I ignored it and thought it would go away until it had gotten so bad that I couldn’t ignore it anymore and was becoming pretty concerned. At my 1^st and only visit with Dr. Chang, once I mentioned tramadol, I was treated like I was a drug addict looking for drugs in spite of the fact that I had been treated for a proven, known pain issue for 10 years by the head of anesthology at Skokie Nothshore Pain Center, a doctor that Dr. Chang knew. I had my records from my other doctor with me, he never even looked at those. I told him about the pain I’d been having in my fingers and toes and was told, in an incredibly condescending manner, that «Sometimes our hands hurt when it’s cold»…no, no they don’t, not usually in 43 year old otherwise healthy women with no history of any sort of arthritis, I knew something was wrong but after more of the same treatment, I was given 3 very expensive prescriptions, none of which was the medication I needed. I left that man’s office and cried as I walked to my car because I was so upset by the way I was treated. I have never been treated so badly by a doctor. I told my co-​workers about the experience and thankfully one of them referred me to her wonderful, caring doctor because it turned out that the pain in my hands and toes was rheumatoid arthritis, an incurable autoimmune disease where your immune system decides to start attacking the lining of every joint in your body, early detection and treatment are key to minimizing and slowing down the damage. I am a textbook case of this disease and it was presenting very aggressively in my case and this man should have at least referred me to a rheumatologist. Had I listened to this incompetent doctor I may very well have suffered needlessly and had much more damage to my joints then I have, luckily I listened to my gut telling me something was wrong and I now have a highly skilled, caring team of doctors and my disease is now well controlled. Dr. Chang is one of those doctors that make you wonder why they became doctors as he seems to dislike his patients. He is a terrible doctor and a deeply unpleasant man.

Great pain doc!!!

I had a discogram/​discography done today by Dr. Chang at Swedish Covenant Hospital. I was absolutely terrified (like as in having panic attacks), since I knew it was supposed to be a very painful procedure. I had never even met Dr. Chang before, so that just added to my anxiety. As it turns out, I was worried for no reason. Yes, the procedure was painful but Dr. Chang and his crew were just so unbelievably nice, thorough, caring and compassionate that I was thrilled to tears. I feel like I really lucked out getting him as my pain management physician. If you are suffering from chronic pain, I highly suggest you make an appointment with him.