iThriveMD of Mission Valley

A candid review of thrive. I lost a good deal with them. I’m surprised. Here is my objective review. This is a place within a place, as you come into the spa take a right, there they have a desk. They will have you take blood work after your first visit. If I recall correctly it’s 25 dollars if you take it elsewhere or 40 to have one of their techs draw your blood. Quick, they’re good at their job. Then you come back after they’ve reviewed your results. Pretty simple process. The doctors treat you well, they want to see you succeed and make an effort keep you in the loop about how you’re doing, asking if there are any changes in your health etc. They say the add B12 to your shots. Not sure about this, they used to not add it and it felt like it was more effective. Can’t say either way but my experience was that I lost more without the B12. If you reach a plateau you need to go in and review with a doctor your treatment plan. They can increase your dose abd that will help you break through. I recently stopped my treatments because I had a bad experience with the staff after a year of going to the clinic. Will keep doing the treatments elsewhere. Bummer I liked the place but there have been a couple times this has happened and I think it was the same girl each time. But ya, never again. That’s really about the extent of it. I definitely find another place because the medication is really good. Hope they can get their issues sorted out because the doctors will tell you one thing and then the staff tells you another and you don’t want to miss doses. Hope that is a fair review of the clinic and it’s treatments.

My experience at iThrive was a mixed bag. Mostly positive but the negative left a sour taste in my mouth. It was easy to book an appointment with them and they were very responsive. My experience at my first appointment was great. The receptionists were nice, Dr. Williams was kind and thorough with information on tirzepatide, and I left the appointment feeling satisfied with the quality of attention and care. My second appointment was quite different. I had an appointment with Dr. Steinke. Her demeanor was more dry that Dr. Williams, but that didn't bother me. What did frustrate me was how our conversation went during my appointment. I decided to cancel my membership with iThrive because two months was enough for me on the medication and I'm also traveling soon so I didn't want an ongoing subscription for a medication that I wouldn't be able to take. Right when we sat down she asked "so are you going somewhere else?" It felt odd and unprofessional to be asked that immediately. I told her no, that I'll be traveling extensively soon and wanted to take a pause and reevaluate if I would like to continue after my travels. I think it would have been more professional to ask why I've decided to discontinue and how my experience was on the medication. She did eventually ask me how my experience was and I told her I had very minor side effects and that it helped with reducing my cravings for sugar and alcohol, which was my main purpose for taking the medication. Next, we jumped into reviewing my blood results from the first appointment, which at this point were over a month old. I don't really understand the value of reviewing old results if it's not being compared to current results. I had slightly elevated cholesterol, which I have family history of, and since I saw my blood results from when they were first available I got more strict with my diet. For example I fully cut out dairy and while I ate little red meat as it was, I fully cut out what I did eat. She brushed over that quickly once I said I had family history. Then she let me know my A1C was high, which was a surprise because on the panel it said that it was within range. I checked in with a friend who is a doctor, my sister who is a nurse, and did some research online and my numbers were not high. It skewed higher on the normal range but the way in which she said it was high worried me a lot. I had told her that in general I eat clean on the weekdays but weekends are where I have my trouble. Weekends are where I start to crave alcohol and sugar. She told me that based on my A1C she could tell I really dont have a clean diet. That was pretty frustrating to hear because she didn't once ask me what my diet was like or how it may have changed in the past month since starting the medication. She told me that while I am young now, I will need to get a handle on my "binge eating" in the future to keep my numbers in check. Again, not once did she ask what my diet was or how it may have changed in the past month. She is advising this all from old blood work. I was honest from the first appointment that I have a tough time with craving alcohol and sugar on the weekends and that that was my ultimate goal, to get a handle on both those things. I work out five days a week and genuinely eat healthy on my weekdays but weekends are tough for me. It always felt like I worked hard on my weekdays just to unravel that good on the weekends. As of now I havent had cravings for either things while staying on the entry dose. My weight has gone from 146-138 in the 5 weeks that I've been on the medication, but weight loss was never truly my goal. It was to help shut that noise in my head that wanted to drink or have sweets on the weekends. I'm hopeful and curious to see how I do once I completely go off the medication as to how I am able to keep it up.

I am extremely disappointed with the quality of care and communication at iThrive. Every time I visited, nothing was properly documented, not even my dosages, not important notes from provider conversations, nothing. If I hadn’t personally recorded my interactions, there would be no record at all of what was discussed or recommended. When I asked about past notes or care decisions, I was met with confusion or told there was no information available. This is unacceptable for any healthcare service. We deserve to feel heard, supported, and have confident that our care is being properly managed. Unfortunately, that has not been my experience at iThrive. I hope the clinic takes these concerns seriously and makes urgent improvements to their documentation and communication practices. I shouldn’t have to spend countless time going back and forth and being the only one who remembers things said. Today I threw out two unused medications that I was supposed to have gotten and they knew nothing of the matter after Jesus and Maria had me throw it away.