I’m a psychologist so I of course think that you should disclose all kinds of personal information TO me but you’re not going to get any personal information FROM me, but I am going to make an exception and disclose a bit to help you understand my availability from now through well into the Summer months.
I have exam appointments booked up into May 2023 already and a large waitlist for any cancellations (and I likely won’t get to most people on the waitlist since people tend to not cancel). I will contact the people on the waitlist as well as my e-mail mailing list subscribers when exam appointments become available to be scheduled again sometime later this Summer 2023 (and when I am again back to normal with medical records reviews as well).
I am running around one month behind on medical records reviews, so if you paid today it would be around one month before I got it back to you (if you had a VA deadline though let me know and I will see what I can do).
Now for the rare personal disclosure: I have been dealing with an annoying pinched nerve impacting my typing for a while and have finally decided to do something about it. It is a relatively minor thing you don’t need to worry about, but I will be having a surgery for it in May. Any exams I have scheduled and any records reviews I have already accepted will of course get done, but the timing of it could be impacted. I will be attempting to finish as much as possible before my surgery, but even after my surgery the reality is a lot of my reports and medical records review based nexus letters can get done through dictation (I have already been doing plenty this way using dictation truthfully).
I am not scheduling any new exam appointments until I know that I will be ready to hit the ground running since during exams I’m often taking notes by typing for 45 to 90 minutes. I usually then clean up the notes using dictation software, so after the exam I go back and make it readable by dictating the report. I can dictate my records review reports as well so that isn’t an issue.
In order to keep me from building up a large backlog of medical records review based nexus letters or having people wait an unacceptable amount of time I am temporarily reducing the number of cases I am accepting until this summer after my surgery. Remember there are also other doctors you can try such as one from this list here: List of Doctors Who Write Nexus Letters – Nexus Letters from a Psychologist
I will most likely always accept a case for sleep apnea secondary to a psychological condition like PTSD, depression, anxiety, etc. as I know it is hard to find someone who can address that well- though it will likely take a month or more to get it back to you and it is possible for a bit in May and June that might lean a bit towards the slightly longer than a month side depending on how things go. Sleep apnea secondary to psychological conditions is also an area of interest of mine (I even wrote a book about those nexus letters). I may temporarily have to turn down or postpone other cases, however, but I will continue to add people to the list for sleep apnea secondary to psychological conditions for sure and probably other things.
As of today 4/3/23 I have a bit of a backlog of referrals where people responded to the referral form (or Ruby Receptionists filled out the form for you) to respond to (in part because my assistant is no longer with me– Ruby Receptionists is answering the phone at the moment–and in part because I was still deciding what to do with referrals which at my current pace/volume I might just be getting to right around the time I’m going to have surgery for the pinched nerve). So, with that in mind my availability for taking cases, while not completely turned off, will be reduced until the Summer.
If you want to get more updates feel free to subscribe to my e-mail mailing list if you haven’t already.
Thanks for understanding,
Todd Finnerty, Psy.D.