Lowe, Dr. Michael

He services regular patients as well as VA people up here. Although he may be fine, his staff is terrible at follow-up. There is no follow-up there at all.

March 2013 - My initial visit went well. I liked Dr. Lowe immediately.  In the waiting area before seeing the doctor I asked other patients how they liked Dr. Lowe.  All of them spoke highly about him which was good to hear.  He has a great bedside manner, and listened to what I had to say.  He offered samples of Celebrex for me to try for the pain in my knees of which I expressed my desire for knee replacements later in the year.  He explained that they were expensive, depending on my insurance coverage but they seemed to help patients with arthritis pain.  He wrote up all new scripts that I was currently taking and took blood to making sure everything was okay.  Blood was drawn in his office which is wonderful not having to go elsewhere which is a pain for patients.  A week or so after my initial visit with Dr. Lowe his staff called me about my blood work. My cholesterol meds were changed to Lipitor due to my liver readings being high and Lipitor is better with liver functionings than Lovastatin.  They took care of calling in a new script for me.
July 2013 - Went to see Dr. Lowe to get a referral for knee replacement doctor and to discuss my thyroid. My husband came with me as he is a patient through the VA.  Dr. Lowe seems happy to see us, very friendly. He looked at my knees, asked many questions about my pain, swelling, etc. Asked me if I had a doctor in mind, since I didn't, he referred me to Dr. Patrick Harrison whom he had sent other patients to and they were happy with the results. He also mentioned that there had been problems with some of the 'metal' knee replacements also stating it wasn't his specialty and I should discuss with the surgeon. His staff made an appointment for me and I am going to see him today at 3:30.  I explained my other issues about my thyroid to Dr. Lowe and he said my TSH was within the normal range but on the 'low' side. I explained I felt I was one of the people that my 'normal' range should probably be on the 'high' end of 'normal range.' He prescribed a low dosage to start off and see how I do and we'll go from there after 30-days by re-testing my blood.  Gary also discussed things with the doctor (although he didn't have an appointment)....that's normally a NO-NO but Dr. Lowe didn't mind at all.  We both really like the doctor and his rates are very reasonable whether you have insurance or not.