Olson Craig L MD

Before I saw Dr. Olson, I saw one other doctor about my knee pain that was in my PCP network, Aurora Health Care. That doctor wasn't able to find anything wrong and referred me to other specialists. Knowing that my issue had to be dealt with by an orthopedic, I saw Dr. Olson after my sister-in-law had a good experience with this clinic. But my experience was awful! The first visit went well enough. The staff was friendly and got me in to see Dr. Olson in a timely manner. The second visit is when things started to go downhill. Dr. Olson's notes were all over the place and completely inaccurate. Instead of knee pain, he had written down I was experiencing back pain. He couldn't find anything wrong with my knee and started looking at other parts of my body for an explanation for the pain, including my hips and back. The x-ray and MRI of my back revealed a herniated disk on my L5S1, but he never mentioned a treatment plan for it. In the meantime, he was giving me notes to keep me on sitting work only at my job. I saw him regularly to get those updated. He also had me going through physical therapy and pain management clinic, which didn't do anything for me. In February 2013, my pain was getting worse, my job was exacerbating my symptoms, and Dr. Olson still couldn't find anything wrong with my knee. In tears, I begged him to take me off of work. I'm not sure why, but he called my primary care provider, and she revealed to him that I had bipolar disorder and was crying because of that, not because I was desperate and in severe pain. Dr. Olson didn't take me seriously after learning about my mental illness. I suspect he thought the pain was all in my head at that point. He had given me a handicap sticker for my vehicle, and after six months, I went back to him to have it renewed. His nurse came out and refused to let me see Dr. Olson, but he did renew the handicap sticker for me. Six months later, I was still having severe knee pain and I called to schedule an appointment to have the sticker renewed for the third time. The nurse called me back and left a message stating that Dr. Olson wasn't going to see me anymore, and he said he wasn't going to renew my sticker anymore because I should be just fine to walk around. She was very rude. I called her back and left her a message telling her I was still having knee pain and I wanted to see Dr. Olson to be reevaluated. I never heard from them again. I found a desk job at that point, and I learned to live with the knee pain. But when it started to become unbearable again, I found a third orthopedic to evaluate me. He was amazing! He discovered I'd had an arthritic reaction in my knee (confirming it was NOT in my head) and I had to have surgery to correct it. I'm still not able to straighten my knee without pain, but I can now stand and walk for long periods of time without limping, which is a huge improvement over where it was at. I will never trust Dr. Olson or that office again. They couldn't figure out what was wrong with my knee, and they were extremely rude to me. I also discovered Orthopedic Associates recently merged with Aurora Health Care, whom I also no longer trust due to various misdiagnoses I've dealt with from my PCP, so we've recently switched primary care providers altogether. I deserve better treatment than to be stigmatized because I have bipolar! If a doctor can't keep patient notes accurate, they have no business being in practice.
10 years ago (15-03-2015)