Valley Neuroscience Institute

In my long and never ending process of recovery I’ve been in so many clinics. This is top notch. Even the front desk help are amazing. Friendly helpful sweet ladies!
I feel much better than I know Dr. Cheng is going to help my neurological issues from my spine injury! Yay for one step up in recovery!

I went for my first appointment at Valley Neuroscience Institute over a year ago on the recommendation of a friend. I’ve suffered with migraines for years, and the first neurologist I went to just wanted to prescribe more medication.
Dr. Piker met with me, spent over 90 minutes on a full evaluation, and sent me on my way with a plan that I was over the moon with. He had indicated that I needed to strengthen my muscles, and was in need of chiropractic care, and the particular specialty that I had to seek out was tough to the point that I could only find one provider near Seattle that takes my insurance.
Three months later, after starting yoga, chiropractor visits to target issues with my neck, and vitamin supplements that I’d been prescribed, I had no change in the frequency of my headaches or pain levels. I returned for my recheck visit, had to wait in the room for almost an hour because the Dr. was so far behind, and then got less than 15 minutes of his time. I was told «These things take time, so keep working hard!» I felt he had zero concern for the fact that I had no change in headaches and pain and just needed to get out of that room as fast as possible to catch up with more severely overdue appointments. I left feeling completely dejected. I was told to make another appointment for six months later, and when I left the desk staff had gone to lunch (because my appointment was so far overdue), so I skipped making an appointment and went home.
10 months later, due to whatever happened between my insurance and Valley Medical, I received a bill for this appointment. 10 months! I don’t mind paying coinsurance when necessary, but when I realized it was because the cost of my appointment, before insurance, was $ 547 I couldn’t believe it! I’ve never seen anything like this. $ 547 for a 15-​minute recheck appointment? I received no treatment, no prescriptions, no procedures… I’m at a loss.
I have not been back to meet with Dr. Piker since, and have instead started physical therapy (a decision I made, one that was not recommended by him) and saw improvement in the frequency of my headaches and amount of pain within just a couple weeks. Dr. Piker is revered as the headache guru, so I’m at a loss as to why this didn’t work for me, and instead a self-​diagnosis (of sorts) was the key to helping myself get better. He may be able to help you out, but beware of the crazy expensive patient bills.

wow! i was referred to dr. piker because he is «the headache guy» around here and i cannot believe how amazing he is! i had chronic headaches for years & years and saw many doctors for them. no one told me it could be birth control. no one told me it could be diet. everyone just threw more & more, stronger & stronger pharmaceuticals at them and hoped for the best. dr. piker is different. he spent an hour with me going over my long history of headaches, sleeplessness, allergies, sinus problems, food sensitivities, everything. in the end he told me i needed 3 things: i needed to get more sleep — and prescribed melatonin and magnesium supplements to help; see an atlas orthogonal chiropractor to get my neck in alignment to relieve compression of the nerve running from my neck into my brain; and go on a 100% gluten-​free diet. this man is a godsend. he didn’t throw more pharmaceuticals at me — he truly wanted me to get better in a natural way and to function as if these were never problems for me in the first place. if you have headaches, please do yourself a favor and go see him.