It's always good to get 2nd, 3rd even 4th opinions. I knew I needed surgery, just not to what extent. I live in a very small town so no one here could do it. I saw 2 different surgeons, each 3 hours away. Finally settled on the third one I saw who was 7 hrs away. It was inconvenient but well worth it. You really, really want to find one that you like and trust. Do lots of research. Good luck.
I started off with one doctor who told me I was fine (based on an mri), that physical therapy was useless, and that I needed orthotics... 8 months later, I went to my current doc who spent some time trying non-surgical methods before realizing we needed more. Once inside, he discovered my completely stretched out ligament and tear in my peroneal brevis.
__________________ Peroneal brevis debridement; peroneal longus transfer to brevis: tenosynovectomy, 11/20/12
It's always good to get 2nd, 3rd even 4th opinions. I knew I needed surgery, just not to what extent. I live in a very small town so no one here could do it. I saw 2 different surgeons, each 3 hours away. Finally settled on the third one I saw who was 7 hrs away. It was inconvenient but well worth it. You really, really want to find one that you like and trust. Do lots of research. Good luck.
Wow, I never thought about getting that many opinions. I do think I'll go to the city that's 2 hours away to get another opinion though. So you had your surgery in the city that's 7 hours from home? How did that work with your follow-up appointments?
I have a local ortho that has done 2 knee surgeries for me. They had been treating me for the PTTD for a couple of years, but this surgery was beyond their scope (pun intended, haha). I stopped in a couple of weeks before to let them know what was going on and to set up the 2 wk post op appt. My OS was supposed to set up further appts. and follow up care, however, he went out for surgery himself so the office in MD was a little discombobulated. I wound up doing most of the follow up myself. It wasn't a big deal. So far it has worked out great. Find the best doctor you can to do your surgery. That's the most important thing.
I correspond with the MD office by phone and email. They always get back to me the same day. A big clue...when you visit the office, if it seems to be efficient, clean and well run, chances are the care will be the same. I think that's true of any business.
Ginger
Last edited by ginger62; 01-01-2013 at 06:12 AM.
The Following User Says Thank You to ginger62 For This Useful Post: Minnh (01-01-2013)
How many of you who have had surgery got second opinions? Today my physical therapist told me that while I have made some progress, my activity is still very limited by the amount of pain that I'm experiencing, and she thinks I should follow up with the Dr. and find out exactly what he could do to help me surgery wise. I will do that, but I think I should also go out of the area for another opinion. I was wondering if anyone got differing opinions on what should be done.
With my injury I went to an urgent care for x-rays and they told me it was "simple" sprain. About 4 months later when I knew it wasn't getting better I called the ortho office I had been to before to get an appointment. After doing my research on the dr's in the office I was hoping for a specific foot and ankle surgeon but they had me see the non-surgeon ortho (I didn't fight it since all these Dr's work with the professionial/college/high school St Louis sports teams. After a round of conservative treatment, bracing, PT, x-rays, MRI, nothing was working. He thought the MRI showed some tears and immidiately said I needed to see the foot and ankle surgeon. I immidiately liked him, but he wanted to try a few more things before surgery. Even though I knew surgery was my only hope, I was glad that he wasn't pushing surgery after the first visit. So I tried the boot and then more PT and finally had surgery.
So even though I saw a second dr in the same office, I still had that second opinion. But Ginger is so right when it comes to how the office is run. Besides loving my OS the office is just as wonderful, even when the enormous waiting room is FULL!
Erin
__________________ 10/2001 Left kneecap tightened and LR
06/2003 Modified Brostrom on right ankle
10/2012 Biopsies under general
12/2012 Arthroscopy, impingement removed with Brostrom-Evans procedure
