How It Works — Irena Y. Ghen, MSN, APRN-BC
Root-cause functional & integrative medicine 100% virtual · Florida 772-240-4693
How it works

What it's actually like to be my patient.

Not the sales version. The whole year — including the quiet stretch, the month where you'll want to quit, and what to do at nine on a Saturday night.

Irena Y. Ghen, MSN, APRN-BC
Your first year

Twelve months, honestly described.

Most practices show you a three-step graphic. Here's the real thing, including the parts that aren't flattering.

BeforeNo commitment

Your discovery call — $200

Forty-five to sixty minutes by GoToMeeting video — I send you the link, you click it, there's nothing to install. Your history, your goals, everything you've already tried, and the labs you already have. We start shaping the plan on the call. If I'm not the right person for this, I'll tell you so and you'll still leave with answers.

Week 1You join

Your workup goes out the same day

The $1,000 completes your year and I write your lab orders immediately — with all the diagnosis codes on them. You pick whichever LabCorp or Quest is convenient and go whenever suits you. There's no appointment to wait for.

Weeks 2–3The wait

The only quiet stretch of the year

Results usually take seven to ten business days. Nothing much happens, and that's normal. Text me anyway if something comes up — you're already a member, and the waiting doesn't put you back in the queue.

Weeks 3–4The big one

Your results review

Every number. What it means, what needs correcting, and why — read against optimal ranges, not just the lab's. You leave with a written roadmap: nutrition, targeted supplements, bioidentical hormones where indicated, sleep, and stress. For most people this is the first time anyone has walked them through their own biochemistry without watching the clock.

Month 2First adjustment

What's working, what you hate, what you quietly stopped

All three are useful and none of them are a failure. If you're not taking something, I need to know — not so I can be disappointed, but because a plan you won't follow is a plan I need to change.

Months 3–4Be ready for this

The month you'll want to quit

I'd rather warn you now. Root-cause work is slow because it's rebuilding something rather than muting it, and month three is usually where the novelty has worn off and the results haven't fully arrived. Some people notice sooner. Some take longer. I won't give you a timeline, because anyone who does is guessing — but this is the stretch where having someone to text actually matters.

Month 6On paper

We retest what we were tracking

Same markers, same optimal ranges, side by side with where you started. This is where you get to see whether it's moving rather than just wondering. If it isn't, that's information too, and we change course.

Month 12Your call

Renew, or don't

Nothing renews without you agreeing to it. Most people stay — but "most people" isn't a reason, and I'd genuinely rather you leave than stay out of inertia. If you go, you'll go with your roadmap, your numbers, and a much better idea of what your body needs.

And underneath all of it, every single week: text me. Call me. Email me. Seven days a week, same-day or next-day, for the whole year. The timeline above is the structure — the access is the actual product.

The practical part

What to do when.

The situations that come up constantly, and exactly what happens in each one.

"It's nine on a Saturday and something's wrong."
Text me. That's not an imposition and it's not an emergency escalation — it's the thing you're paying for. If it's genuinely urgent and needs hands on you, I'll say so immediately and tell you where to go.
"I need a refill."
Text me. No appointment, no portal request, no waiting for someone to review it on Monday. Tell me the pharmacy and it goes.
"My labs came back and one number is scaring me."
Don't sit with it until the appointment. Send it to me. Ten minutes of context is usually the difference between a frightening number and a manageable one — and you shouldn't spend a weekend Googling it.
"I'm at urgent care and they're asking questions."
Call me. I can give you what you need, or speak to them directly. You shouldn't have to reconstruct your own history from memory in a waiting room.
"I want to stop one of the supplements."
Tell me — I won't be offended. Sometimes there's a reason to push through and sometimes there isn't. Either way I'd rather know than find out at month six that you stopped in week two.
"I haven't been doing the plan."
Say so. This is the most useful thing you can tell me and the thing people hide the longest. I can't fix a plan you won't follow — but I can change it to one you will.
The other side of it

What I need from you.

This isn't a service you consume. It's a relationship, and it only works in both directions.

  • Tell me the truth about what you're actually taking

    All of it. The supplements from the internet, the thing your sister recommended, the medication you've been quietly halving. I'm not going to judge it — I just can't reason about a body I don't have the full picture of.

  • Do the labs

    I can't work from how you feel alone, and you didn't come here for another guess. The workup is the part that makes everything else possible.

  • Give it months, not weeks

    If you're looking for a difference by week two, I'm the wrong clinician and I'd rather we found that out on the discovery call than in month three.

  • Text me instead of Googling at midnight

    Every question you sit on is a question I could have answered in ninety seconds. You're not bothering me. Using the access is the plan.

  • Tell me when I'm wrong

    If what I'm seeing doesn't match what you're living, say so. You've spent years being talked over by people reading a screen. Not here.

Everything above starts with one conversation.

Forty-five minutes, $200, and an honest read on what's driving this — credited to your membership if you decide to go ahead. And if you don't, that's a perfectly good outcome too.

Book your discovery call
Florida · 100% virtual · Limited to 100 members