David J Ciske, MD

Just to update my last review: Dr. Ciske has still been very helpful. However, his staff has been careless a few times in regards to making sure I get the appropriate tests done as well as losing my x-​rays that I hand-​delivered to the office to make sure he received them.

This guy is either a religious fundamentalist or a complete idiot. Either way, he isn’t someone you want to have control of your access to healthcare. He speaks in absolutes and doesn’t seem to understand that you’re there to get advice on how to get healthy or maintain being healthy, not get lectured, shamed, or put into action plans that he deems necessary without any input about your life circumstances.
In my case, I’ve been on the same medications for roughly 4 years, had lived in 2 different countries. nobody had issues with my prescriptions or plans to get healthy. Before even reading my file (I brought it with me to my first meeting) he declares, in a very condescending tone, that these medications are not acceptable to any patient under him and that we must begin the weening process. I informed him that I was okay with tinkering with my medication levels, but not until a couple of months pass since I am on the job market and the culmination of 10 years worth of study was coming to fruition with the job search. He nods and I thought we were in agreement.
The next month, I called for a refill on my prescriptions. He has the nurse read a note «Per our discussion last visit, I am changing your prescription to these reduced levels.» So, as mentioned above, he decided what was best for me, put it into action in a vacuum and then has the gall to say that we agreed to it (we never discussed weening immediately, only in the future and certainly not in a month), he didn’t even ask for my opinion on how I would want to reduce my meds.
Even more ridiculous, he wanted to reduce my meds but had absolutely no alternative beyond «deal with it» for how to fill the void. I’ve been trying to find alternatives for years. which was in my file. He has no plan, just a ridiculous purist idealism and a penchant for not working with you, but against you.

I will admit now that the issues I describe here occurred in 2006. However, they are pretty major and based on them I would warn anyone away from this guy.
Ciske was the first doctor I tried when a sudden major medical problem convinced me that I needed a primary care doc. I went once and never returned, because of two things that happened during that first visit.
#1: The nurse took my health history before Ciske came in, as usual. When he arrived, he looked at my chart and said to me, «So you’re in relationship?» A bit taken aback, I responded, «Uh, no, what?» I looked over at the computer screen and he was UNCHECKING THE SEXUALLY ACTIVE BOX. That ANY physician could be so incredibly narrow-​minded, and in a way that actively threatens the health of patients, is absolutely astounding. The fact that Ciske seemed to be relatively young – definitely not over 35 – just made it all the more baffling. Fortunately, I was assertive enough to tell him immediately that I was in fact sexually active, but no woman should be put in that position by her doctor.
#2: Because of my then-​recently discovered clotting disorder, he insisted that I should not take ANY form of hormonal birth control. I use Depo Provera (the shot), which is progesterone-​only, and had little interest in giving it up – especially given that blood thinner meds cause fetal bone deformation, so it’s kind of important to avoid getting knocked up by accident. I pointed out to him at the time that there was only a known association between estrogen and blood clots. His response?
«Well, they’re all hormones.»
That’s right. This man has an MD and he apparently believes all hormones do the same thing. Probably he would have strongly opposed treating me with insulin if I’d been diabetic, too – that’s a hormone, after all!
Numerous other doctors, including two hematologists and an obgyn, confirmed later that, as I already knew, Depo Provera is actually the preferred hormonal contraceptive for women with clotting problems.
To sum up, this man is either a stealth puritan or an idiot; either way, you do not want to entrust your health and safety to him.