“I was in terrible pain — the worst pain I’ve ever been in. And I’ve given birth to four children! I had gone to a series of doctors, each one trying to figure out what was wrong with my hand. They never came up with an accurate diagnosis, and they couldn’t do anything for the pain except prescribe pain meds, which made me loopy. I hated the feeling but I had to take the pain medication because I couldn’t deal with the pain without them. One doctor even suggested an amputation.
“It seemed like nobody was really focusing on something that would help me in the long-term. It was then that my daughter said to me,
“Mom, I think we should contact Dr. Goyal, see if he will accept you as a patient, and untangle this mess. We are going in circles and getting nowhere.”
“Dr. Goyal runs First Primary, which operates a bit differently from the average doctors’ office. They operate on a subscription model. So, instead of paying a co-pay through insurance, you pay a monthly subscription just like you do with Netflix. This way, doctors aren’t beholden to insurance companies and they have the freedom to care for patients the way they want to. It is better for us because we get more one-on-one time with Dr. G, and it is better for the doctors because they get to practice medicine how they think is best.
“Luckily, Dr. Goyal accepted me as a patient. It was astonishing — the first thing he did was visit me at my apartment for a full two hours. He looked around for how safe it was, to see if there was anything to be concerned about and to go over my medical records. For the first time, a doctor was looking at the whole of me. I almost immediately began taking a lower dose of the pain meds and that was so encouraging to me. Then, the fog lifted a little bit and eventually I didn’t need the pain meds at all.”