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There is hope.

Welcome to SEE Wellness
&
Fredericksburg Functional Medicine

 

With offices in both Fredericksburg and Comfort, SEE Wellness is a functional medicine clinic in the Texas Hill Country. We focus on helping people get more life out of their years -- particularly those with chronic health problems, such as inflammatory, hormonal, metabolic and weight issues, autoimmune, cardiovascular, GI, CIRS and especially neuro-degenerative diseases, like cognitive decline. Also, we help people with fatigue, depression and anxiety - and much more.

Here is what Dr. Ellison has to say to potential patients:

A Letter to My Future Patient

To the one searching for healing,

You may have done an awful lot of research online, trying to find answers, yet feel undecided about next steps. You might have an idea of what's going on with your health, but a firm diagnosis is eluding you. Though you've tried to find it, you may not have received much medical help. 

 

There are many ways that your body systems can be broken, and they all break my heart.  Dysfunctions precede disease.  So we look for them.

You need a clinician's help, and perhaps specialty labs or genetics. But perhaps most of all you need someone who is going to take more time with you. Someone who will study you, think about you, and keep looking deeper until the source of your illness is found. And you need all this to be affordable.  In the long run, taking a "systems biology" approach saves money and health.

I want you to have more life in your years...and hopefully more years. Period. I want you to feel you have a partnership in your health, and a team of supporters who will help you make needed lifestyle changes and maintain them more easily. My wish for you is that your waning health will be met with hope.

SEE Wellness & Fredericksburg Functional Medicine invite you to take a devoted, gentle pause to reflect on the issues with your health and to discover what the solutions could be.

I look forward to the chance to work with you.

Suzanne E. Ellison MD, ABFM, IFMCP 

Bredesen Protocol, certified, Prodrome Sciences, certified

"Her warmth and compassion -- I just love her. She's easy to talk to.

She makes you feel like you're the only person in the world."

                          --Terry 

"I looked for a long time to find a doctor like her, who knows what she knows.

She's really been a godsend in my life."

                           --Mark

"Talk to Dr. E.  She likes a challenge."

                          --Garry

 

Working with Dr. Ellison

 

Are you feeling uncertain about choosing a new practitioner to work with? It can be difficult to find the kind of physician who listens deeply, has a breadth and depth of understanding of the issues at hand, has decades of experience, and takes a Functional Medicine approach to your health concerns.

In this video Dr. Ellison's patients talk about what it's like to work with her and the results they have gotten:

For the personal stories of Dr. Ellison's patients, please visit the Testimonials page!

 

What is Functional Medicine?

 

Functional medicine is a medical approach that takes us back to the way the body was designed to work.  It is a way of finding and treating the root problems of often very chronic medical conditions by considering the body as a whole, including the gut microbiome.  In it we look for the often multifaceted causes of your current problems. For example, potential sources of dysfunction are found thinking through toxic, and infectious threats, hormonal imbalances or gastrointestinal weaknesses. Together, we will build a plan for helping the body heal itself with lifestyle changes  including using food to its best advantage, exercise tailored to your current abilities, and supplements designed to give slow, steady healing to your body's dysfunctional systems. Other treatment modalities and protocols are suggested as well.  For more info, see  www.functionalmedicine.org.  

What Should I Expect?

Your First Appointment

When you come in for your first appointment, you will need to be prepared to spend two hours with us.  Get checked in, and relax.  You won’t have to wait long.  You will likely spend up to an hour and a half with Dr. Ellison in your first session. She will review your medical history in depth with you, looking at your health from many standpoints.  She will formulate a plan for you, and you’ll be ready to think about implementing what is recommended.  

As to costs: Dr. Ellison charges $300 per hour, and does not accept any insurance.  She has "opted out of Medicare."  The best way to save money is to save on her time spent during office visits. Every new patient must complete the extensive intake form and submit 3 days prior to this first visit and to forward to the office any relevant medical records by email if possible.

 

Email address: dr.suz.office@gmail.com

Our FAX number is 888-276-0071

 

You will be contacted by my staff who will answer questions and guide you to our intake portal. This is through the app Practice Better which has a great chat stream you can use to be in touch with the practice.

 

You also can receive all forms including the intake form via email or mail, or you can download them from this page.  Once you schedule an appointment, a small one-time administrative fee is charged of $50.  We charge this because of the cost of setting you up in the practice.  You will also receive the relevant financial and HIPAA paperwork to read and do in advance of your appointment.  Completing paperwork is highly recommended.  

Labs and Testing

Depending on your concerns, different screening tests may be ordered even before you are seen.  For example, a Montreal Cognitive Assessment is needed if "memory trouble" is an issue.  At times we even do a computerized cognitive testing for a baseline.  It is possible that even before your first appointment, Dr. Ellison might suggest a scan of your carotid arteries called a CIMT.  After your visit, there will almost certainly be labwork suggested and scheduled.  We use testing from Vibrant Amerca, Great Plains Lab, Prodrome Sciences, Genova, Quicksilver, Precision Labs, Doctor's Data, Oral DNA, and others. We strive to get the best pricing for labs. 

Follow Up Appointments

Dr. Ellison's follow up appointments are between forty five and sixty minutes long, and are typically scheduled one, three, and six months out from your initial appointment.  

We anticipate your feeling better will take 8 to 12 weeks.  That may seem like a long time, but the problems that are identified did not begin yesterday, and they need a chance to heal given a therapeutic milieu.

Group Office Visits and Webinars

We highly recommend viewing any available webinars and attending our Group Office Visits, held either in our kitchen for food demonstrations, or in our meeting space.

Topics include:

  • Why do we use food for the wrong reasons?

  • How weight loss follows "putting the good stuff in" and is a happy byproduct of eating for health.

  • How you know if you have hidden cardiovascular threats, mold illness or candida, or early neurodegeneration--and how you help these, and more.

  • Hormonal issues: thyroid, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, etc.

  • Detox

  • Cardiometabolic diseases (atherosclerosis, hypertension, and diabetes)

  • Minimum cognitive decline

  • Neurodegenerative diseases, like Parkinson's, MS and Alzheimer's

  • Gastrointestinal: SIBO, IBS, chronic diarrhea, GERD, increased intestinal permeability ("Leaky Gut")

  • Autoimmune issues like Hashimoto's, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, Celiac disease, etc.

  • Mast Cell Activation Syndrome

  • Hidden infections (mold, Lyme's, EBV, etc.)

 

 

We will suggest the most relevant and helpful classes for your situation.  

Supportive Medical Technology

SEE Wellness uses supportive medical devices, technology, and therapies to get our patients better results and even breakthroughs in their health. These include Bemer, Vielight, saunas, home ozone treatments and more.  See our full list of adjunctive devices and support here

 

Supplement Pharmacy

How do I start?

If you are prescribed a particular supplement, SEE Wellness keeps medical-grade, pure, quality supplements from in stock and keeps an online formulary with Emerson-Wellevate for your convenience. Re-ordering is very easy.  

First you will want to request an appointment. Requesting by email is best. Please include a cell phone number.  Soon you will be contacted by a member of our team who will walk you through every step in preparation for your first visit. You will be required to fill out an extensive intake, sign that you have  read our Privacy Practices/Hipaa information, and read the financial policy.  If you are a Medicare patient, Dr. Ellison is opted-out of Medicare, so you will also need to read and sign the Medicare Opt-out Agreement. This means that Medicare will not be billed by us or by you, and all visits are Cash-pay. 

 

If you have insurance, you will be able to submit the invoices from her clinic for appointments and lab tests, and they will probably go against your deductible as she is "out-of-network" with all insurance companies.  If Dr. Ellison's staff or she is needed to help you file your insurance, there will an added, but reasonable, administrative charge.

We use an online platform called Better because we can send all the needed forms to you for you to complete online.  Better has a portal for patients and a chat stream access to our office. 

Or:

 

All the needed documents in a print version are here.

 

A $50 non-refundable administrative fee will be charged when a staff member sends you everything you will need to become a patient.  Then your appointment will be set. Be sure to stop by our FAQs page to learn about our policies concerning insurance, getting your medical history sent to us before your visit, and more.

We can't wait to assist you in your journey toward healing. Please click below to get started and send us an email.

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