My overall experience was extremely bad. However before I begin I'd like to say that the front desk staff and the nurse that came in before the doctor was extremely pleasant and kind. I was referred to Dr Mason with extreme pain in my neck/shoulder and numbness and tingling in my hand. I am mid thirties and he was extremely hung up on this fact, citing my age repeatedly. I had been experiencing this pain for months by the time I got in to see him. Steroids had had no effect on the pain or loss of feeling in my hand. I had to insist that I know my body and that something was wrong to even get the referral for an MRI. He agreed but still stated that at my age he didn't expect to see anything. He only gave me Motrin for the pain even though it was bad enough that I could hardly sleep or work and I expressed this to him. I didn't push the issue knowing that doctors are afraid to prescribe pain meds these days and for good reason. At this point other than my word he really had no way of knowing anything was wrong with me. Once my MRI came back I went in to see him again. This time I took my husband with me wondering if maybe my thoughts on the doctor was just me. Even as hes telling me I have a bulging disc in my neck and DDD he was still very nonchalant about it because of my age. Unless my disc ruptures his suggested treatment plan was to send me to pain management. Hoping that with cortisone shots and medication I can push through this while the disc heals. I was happy with this as I have no desire to have surgery. I have a very demanding job and 2 small children. I was told it would take about a week to get an appointment and after me being very pushy he finally prescribed me pain medication to help keep me more comfortable while waiting for my appointment. He only prescribed enough medication for 7-10 days. The office took a week just to get my referral over to the pain management doctor. I called repeatedly checking the status of my referral. I finally called the pain management office directly and they had just gotten it 8 days after my visit with Dr Mason. Their earliest appointment just for the consultation was a month out. Then I would have to wait again to actually get the shot. I got online and sent 2 requests to Tidewater Orthopedics. The first was to see if there was anyone else I could see sooner to get the shot and the second was to get a refill for the pain medication. I got no response on the referral for almost 2 days but they called very quickly to tell me that Dr Mason doesn't like to prescribe narcotics. I told her I was aware of that as he had mentioned it when he wrote the first prescription but that he referred me to pain management. That acknowledges that I am in pain and need treated. I also told her my appointment was a month away and then some to actually get the cortisone shot. She asked if I wanted to come in and have a consultation with Dr Mason and was very unkind throughout the whole conversation. At this point I decided I needed to find a new doctor that has at least some sense of urgency and concern for the condition of their patients. It was only after I cancelled all of my future appointments online and left a reason of "unable to provide timely treatment and no real concern for my condition or discomfort" did they call with an appointment for pain management. I didn't take the appointment. I had already made an appointment with another practice. Now I'm starting all over with a different doctor but this practice was referred by a coworker and I feel confident that I will be properly taken care of.