I would not recommend. Because Stanford is a formal high caliber University medical facility, the minimum one should expect is a thorough workup to rule out the many causes of CFS like symptoms. I suspect that a significant percentage of people with problems and symptoms that resemble Cfs Me is quite high. It's also likely they have seen numerous doctors and have never received a thoughtful and carefully considered differential diagnosis.
So when you walk in the door for your initial visit, most people should expect the doctor to have reviewed past testing and diagnosis and perform a thorough workup and testing that fits the history with a good dose of skepticism. Stanford once had a good list of tests for conditions they expected first time patients to have done as a minimum. That should be checked and discussed.
So my experience did not even vaguely resemble what I just listed as the bare minimum. I had a long discussion which seemed like winging it. The only testing ordered was for a number of different herpes virus pcr which is well known to be a VERY low sensitivity test. Herpes viruses rarely live in the blood and if it was there, the odds a pcr would find it is quite low. These pcr tests were negative. I'm not even sure how these tests were relevant. I was a bit baffled and upset. I expected I would finally be getting a REAL thoughtful workup and I got a few useless herpes pcr tests. That was it. A long drive to Stanford with optimism I'm finally going to get good help. My bubble was burst.
I was diagnosed with CFS and given a prescription for valcyte and sent on my way. I took it for year with no changes except its enormous cost.
I've been to Stanford, UCSF, Mayo Clinic, John's Hopkins and many local and alternative integrative doctors and I would put my Stanford Cfs me clinic experience as among the worst when considering quality thorough medicine.Not sure why but I would not bother unless you have some very specific need and know Stanford can provide it. If you think you may have cfs/me and are looking for a thorough review, workup and top quality diagnosis effort you can count on...forget it.
You can tell I was badly disappointed. I was. Good luck. That was 3 years ago and maybe better and I was there on a bad day.
I'm curious if anyone else was disappointed by the lack of diagnostic effort, ease of getting a cfs/me diagnosis and a very expensive antiviral without any serious proven effectiveness except one small study at Stanford years back which to my knowledge was never confirmed. It does suggest some people thought to have cfs me may actually have a herpes viral condition where valcyte may help. But assuming it will work for everyone that presents with the very common symptoms of cfs seems wrong. And in my case, my herpes virus pcr tests were negative which if you believed these tests, I wasn't one of this small subset. There are other tests to try and confirm this herpes subset that could have been included before the diagnosis and Valcyte ordeal.
I don't mean to be so negative. I suspect many out there know the feeling of hope and optimism and Stanfords reputation boosts them and then followed by a letdown. When I go to a regular doctor, I don't have such high expectations. I suspect getting mediocre care at a place with Stanfords reputation has made me more cynical. Maybe not fair so my warning is don't expect any more than a regular competant doctor who is in a hurry and not showing much personal commitment.
God luck.
