Marilyn Ligon, MD, FAAFP

Dr. Ligon has been my primary care doctor for many years (long before she joined the MDVIP Wellness Program). She has been an excellent doctor from the very beginning. She is kind and caring and when she walks into the exam room she always greets you with a smile, which really helps when you aren't feeling good. In addition to our specific health conditions, she has always cared about our general health and wellness. With Dr. Ligon joining MDVIP, she has more time and resources to help us even more. After the Wellness Exam she spends time going over everything and gives suggestions on what we can also do to make our health better. It's very nice to be working on this together. I'm glad that Dr. Ligon became an MDVIP doctor. I like the screenings and diagnostic testing that she sets up for us.
Dr. Ligon has helped me through many things over the years, a few of them: I had a "total reverse shoulder replacement" and "two spine surgeries". For each problem, she examined me, took x-rays in her office, and she knew I had serious problems. Right away she referred me to great surgeons. The surgeries went perfect. I was in the hospital four days for the spine surgeries and she came to visit me. I consider myself very fortunate to have Dr. Ligon as my primary care doctor. She also has wonderful nurses and office staff. They are always kind, helpful, and they check up on us.

I love that Dr. Ligon often asks, "What causes...?" The Epilepsy Neurologist at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville on my first visit to him in April 2019 read out-loud Dr. Marilyn Ligon's question, "What causes her seizures?" that she had sent him when referring me. I liked the question. I suspected the question might spur the Mayo neurologist on to solve the mystery and think creatively instead of just labeling it "Epilepsy" and not trying to find a root cause. For a decade, I had taken a generic for Trileptal that usually controlled the memory seizures, trances, and faints. I had asked Dr. Ligon, which neurologist I should go to. When I named Mayo as one possible, her eyes brightened, and she exclaimed, "Mayo!" Mayo had operated on her uncle and cured his brain cancer. She had already referred me to good specialists to improve my thyroid and sleep problems. They were not the main seizure causes. Instead, Mayo found that a cavernoma (collection of berry-shaped blood vessels) was the cause. When I texted Dr. Ligon that Mayo said they could remove the cavernoma from my brain, she responded that she had tears of joy. She keeps saying how good I look. I assume both doctors have a sense of accomplishment. I am glad I can solve my nephew's percentage word problems in my post-surgery brain and still love colors and creativity. My heart no longer beats below 40bpm like it used to. Dr. Ligon remedied a toe fungus by cutting off nails of both big toes in a way that left the nail bed so that the toe nails are growing back. This nail surgery did not cost extra; MDVIP yearly $ covered this. Also, partly since I am single and have no family to get to go to her, Dr. Ligon compassionately allowed my sister-in-law, who sometimes can't get her breath, to see her under my name via a scholarship. So far, it turns out to be allergy to many things. A friend who referred me to Dr. Ligon said that Dr. Ligon liked research. Dr. Ligon's question, "What causes..." displays her bent enjoying research. She can think outside the box. I have had plenty of mysteries for her to ponder or refer to specialists (thyroid growths, low T3 & T4, seizures, bradycardia, sleep apnea, toe fungus, basal cell lesion on face, and more). Most of these are fixed now! Thank you, Dr. Marilyn Ligon, for your knowledge, research, listening, referring, and caring. Good job! I love my repaired brain that you had a big part in making happen. God did the most, encouraging me with Psalm 23 about provision and Jesus being with me, plus leading at least 7 churches to pray and answering their prayers including not taking out more than necessary. I have been driving for a month, now, and still working 40 hours per week as a children's director. Next month I take a test again at Mayo so they can compare my brain function 6 months after surgery with my brain function results from the same test before surgery. I get to see the same surgeon who did such a great job that I was good to leave hospital 2 days after surgery! I get to ask him about the small bump on my forehead.

We were Dr. Ligon's patients before she decided to go with MDVIP, and to be honest, we had a hard time making that leap (for a variety of reasons), but I am glad we did. The next month after she started the MDVIP, we both got bronchitis (and neither of us are spring chickens). I got better in a few days, but my husband "sorta" did, so I called to get him seen. It was late in the afternoon, but she saw us then. She said he still had the bronchitis, but his chest still hurting (and his age) bothered her and she decided to do a cardiac draw and sent to the lab stat. The next morning about daybreak, she called and said she had his lab results and I needed to get him to the ER, that one of his heart enzymes was high and appeared he was on the verge of a heart attack. She had the ER staff alerted and they were waiting for us. We walked in, said who we were, and was taken straight back. To shorten this story, his enzymes all went up while he was there and everything was attended to ASAP. He had 1 artery 100% blocked and two more 96-98 blocked. He was admitted and had triple bypass surgery in a short time. (He had had his yearly physical just a few weeks earlier and everything was good. Cardiologist said that diabetes was the cause of the blockages.) He is doing very well now thanks to Dr. Ligon's intuition and caring. I am very sure that a "doc in the box" or a new GP (if we were fortunate enough to have even found one by then) would have picked this up so quickly or pushed so hard to get the ER staff waiting for us. I do believe that we absolutely made the right decision to do what we had to do to stay with Dr. Ligon and her staff.

After having my thyroid tested by other doctors, Dr. Ligon decided to search it further. She discovered Hashimoto's disease and began treating me. She then went further to have me tested for Lupus. it was discovered I have Lupus markers. I appreciate her diagnosis as I would never have known to be cautious as one with auto-immune diseases should be.