Anyone Have Experience With Potscare.com, With Dr. Driscoll?

[****onearth]

I think They said it's $6,000 for the week to go deep into investigative mode and look for answers to the cause of my POTS. This seems almost too good to be true. Does anyone have any experience with Dr. Diane Driscoll and the POTS center in Austin, TX?

[MomtoGiuliana]

I would just mention DINET's position on medical practices. We do want to caution members to carefully evaluate medical providers. There are many types of care out there.

http://forums.dinet.org/index.php?/topic/27149-dinets-position-on-medical-practices/

[****onearth]

Thank you!

[yogini]

I am not personally familiar but have read that this center is controversial in other POTS discussion groups.

Edited December 20, 2015 by yogini

[ks42]

My spouse found the potscare website at one point, so I did a lot of digging to try and see if there was any chance it could be a legitimately beneficial option.

Let me preface this by saying: I haven't been there, so I absolutely cannot speak to their practices. It might be a miracle for POTS patients, or it may be another practice just trying to make money off those who are desperately looking for answers. I really have no way of knowing. I have heard there's a ton of controversy around it, however.

That said, I can tell you this: you can look up Dr. Diana Driscoll on YouTube. She explains her philosophies in her videos. I would also recommend looking up her personal website, and digging around and reading some of the stuff on her forums for patients who are on her protocol. You might also do a search on here for some of the drugs she's used to treat POTS patients. I would also suggest looking very closely at the credentials of the doctors at the center (Drs. Diana & Richard Driscoll and Dr. Cordas). Contact them and ask a ton of questions. Pull up the research articles cited on the "research" section of the Potscare page (a lot of them are available through PubMed or local libraries).

I personally chose not to go for many reasons, but on the whole, I don't feel I fit in with Dr. Driscoll's philosophies about what the underlying causes of POTS may be. I don't think I will benefit from any of the treatment options she uses. I'm also always wary of establishments that don't accept insurance, and aren't reimbursable after the fact, either. My insurance covers a lot - I can pay out of pocket for experimental stuff, naturopathic care, acupuncture, but they'll reimburse a lot of those expenses after I pay out of pocket. Nothing they do at Potscare is reimbursable, even after the fact, and that just makes me a bit uncomfortable and raises some red flags. But again, I haven't been there, so I know nothing of the center. My best advice is just to be as thorough as possible with your research.

[****onearth]

Thanks. Everything sounded great until they mentioned the price. I too have good insurance. If it is a scam, I'm unsure how people can live with themselves and take advantage of the sick. Personally I'd be afraid of ripping someone off that is at their wits end already, if you know what I mean.

I've perused her site and her videos and it seems like she knows what she's talking about, but you never know. I'm also curious as to why it's such a large amount of money. If I ever cured myself of this disaster I would think the good person in me would be helping people for zero-cost trying to help them get back on their feet, and then worry about things like payment later. This reminds me of this mold doctor I once saw, who told me to take out a loan for $15,000 so he could treat me with IV meds and supplements. Does he think I'm an idiot?

[Sylvie33]

Hi all,

The Dr. Driscolls are optometrists....

[****onearth]

She (Diana Driscoll) said she has spent years treating, diagnosing, and experimenting on herself. Apparently she also wrote a book and has done studies on treating POTS. So while she is an optometrist, it might not be any different than someone like myself, with no medical training, who does tremendous research and knows more than most doctors on this condition.

She also (allegedly) cured herself of POTS. I'm highly skeptical, but then again I'm not getting adequate treatment elsewhere. So do I trust these world renown autonomic neurologists who offer me no help? Or do I try another route with something that supposedly cured herself? If you look her up she also gives talks, seminars, etc. so maybe it's legit? I'm also at the point where I realize I'm going to have to figure this out myself since these doctors aren't making any headway.

I don't know at this point, and my brain is too fried to make adequate decisions. Maybe I'll wait a while and hopefully insurance will approve something like this.

[MomtoGiuliana]

One way to evaluate claims by a medical practitioner is to see if any studies they have done or treatments they are promoting have been published in peer-reviewed medical journals.

I think one thing to keep in mind about POTS is that it can wax and wane and even go away for reasons that are as unclear as why it started to begin with.

I took SSRIs for a year and I did start to feel better within months of starting an SSRI. To this day tho I have to say I am not sure if, in my case, the SSRI helped, or if I was just going to get better anyway. (There are peer-reviewed studies indicating SSRIs help about 50% of POTS patients).

There is also of course the placebo effect. Actual physical changes have been shown to occur with placebo effect--in some cases!

[headhunter]

There is a Dr. that's posts on here that has POTS, that has a similar thing going for 6,000.00. He is a member of this site. I talked to him on the phone and he also said that he got rid of pots pretty much. Cant place the name

[Sylvie33]

I second MtoG. With our odd methodologies and symptoms, we are hard to diagnose and treat and easy prey....just having someone listen to all symptoms is alluring (I had a list of 23 last summer...just a tad shorter now).

[Sylvie33]

I wrote "etologies" -- not methodologies ... weird autocorrect.

[Motheroftwo]

So has anyone who went to the POTS Treatment Center in Dallas replied on here? Any updates?

[bombsh3ll]

I have communicated with Dr Driscoll personally & she is lovely & very knowledgeable, and has genuine lived-experience of what it is like to be this unwell. Her theories on the cause of POTS are quite narrow though (raised ICP) and may work well for a small subtype but be a poor fit for many. The recommended treatment is diamox which unfortunately is a diuretic. I did try this off my own bat & it wasn't the right direction for me, but glad I ruled it out.

If I could afford & was well enough to travel to the US, I'd see either Blair Grubb or Randy Thomson, based on their reputations and publications.

B x

[DebM]

 

I took my daughter there and it was a COMPLETE waste of money! 

[Rand.T]

On 4/18/2019 at 11:30 AM, DebM said:

 

I took my daughter there and it was a COMPLETE waste of money! 

It would be nice to hear from you what the "diagnosis" was and what kind of treatments they recommended.

[Dianna K]

Please let us know anyone who has had treatment with Diana Driscoll what protocol she uses and your diagnosis and why it didn't work.

 

[cjdakota]

On ‎12‎/‎20‎/‎2015 at 2:53 AM, ****onearth said:

Thanks. Everything sounded great until they mentioned the price. I too have good insurance. If it is a scam, I'm unsure how people can live with themselves and take advantage of the sick. Personally I'd be afraid of ripping someone off that is at their wits end already, if you know what I mean.

I've perused her site and her videos and it seems like she knows what she's talking about, but you never know. I'm also curious as to why it's such a large amount of money. If I ever cured myself of this disaster I would think the good person in me would be helping people for zero-cost trying to help them get back on their feet, and then worry about things like payment later. This reminds me of this mold doctor I once saw, who told me to take out a loan for $15,000 so he could treat me with IV meds and supplements. Does he think I'm an idiot?

Just to let you know a well known mainstream medical clinic is over $50,000 and many people come out not any better

[Jwarrior77]

I don't have any experience with Potscare however I can tell just by watching many of Dr. Diana's videos online that she is a very genuine person and not out to scam anyone. I've also talked with their receptionist Melissa and she was very caring and supportive. They also sent me her book for free which was extremely informative. If you go on their website they have a section of many of their patients who have responded positively to their treatment. Of course not everyone will. I've considered going however it is a lot of money which is really the only thing holding me back at the moment.

[Sushi]

On 2/25/2020 at 6:14 PM, Linz1501 said:

Can you please elaborate? I planned on going to see her this summer and would really like to hear your story. 

I believe that the methods used at this clinic are more for those who have an exaggerated sympathetic response—which is not the case for all of us. This comment comes just from reading—I have not visited the clinic.

[BruceB]

Out of utter frustration with traditional Drs. we hired Dr. Driscoll to treat my 19 year old son for POTS.

After a year on her "supplement" treatment, my son is no better. We were told treatment was complete.

She's eye doctor who from what I understand has had POTS herself and found a treatment that worked for her.

Good luck.

 

[LaurenS]

Would love to hear if anyone has any further experiences or testimonials to share on potscare.com and Dr. Diana Driscoll. I was on the verge of making the call, but I have essentially lost all trust in anyone who claims to be able to help me. Reading some of the posts in this thread have only furthered my suspicions.

[wb_]

I have been on Parasym Plus for a couple of months, I will try anything at this stage.  I've not contacted them directly for treatment, just purchased the supplement.   It's still groundhog day, but I have improved since I started taking it.  It could also be my symptoms are just getting better with time.  I have a specialist appointment in 2 weeks so I will probably stop before then and see how the body reacts.