From First Diagnosis to Surgery
• In 2007, I found myself in an orthopedic surgeon’s office, who diagnosed me with spondylolisthesis at L4-L5. This was quite a shock—nine years of symptoms and this is the first time someone told me I had a problem with my spine? I was happy to find a cause to my problems, but unhappy with the prescription—back fusion surgery. No way!
• 2008—big flareup leaves me bedridden a few days. Find another surgeon, who makes the same diagnosis with the same recommendation—fusion surgery. No thanks.
• 2009—hear about minimally invasive surgery and find a doc who does this. He makes same diagnosis and recommendation, but the idea of minimally invasive fusion surgery is encouraging. I still say no.
• Watched my locus of activities shrink every year. By mid 2010, I am having trouble walking the 1/2 mile block in my neighborhood.
• 2011—summer opens up after initial plans for it are delayed. I pursue treatment once more with the intention of consenting to surgery if that is recommended again.
Dear friends & tumblr folk of Denver,
I am reaching out to you all for a favor/help/suggestions… I need to find a orthopedic surgeon that will do a follow-up (and write a letter clearing me for physical activity) on my knee that I had surgery on in 2006. Also, it’d be greatly appreciated if said physician would NOT charge me $200-$300.
Thanks in advance :-)
(obligatory question mark for response purposes: ?)
All You Need To Know About Orthopaedic Hip Implants
People suffering from osteoarthritis are easily vulnerable to various complications that limit their mobility. In this health condition, there is a gradual destruction of cartilage, leading to unwanted friction between two bones, which are interconnected through a joint. Over time, the affected bones deteriorate at an alarming rate, decreasing the person’s ability to use the affected area. Since this form of arthritis affects multiple parts of the body, the person’s legs, wrists, elbows, knees and hips are easily vulnerable.
When all forms of treatment and medical procedures fail to yield any positive results, hip implants are undertaken by orthopedic hospitals as a last resort, to increase the person’s ability to move around without being bed ridden for his/her entire life.
So I’ve been talking to my adviser and I made a plan for the next 2 semesters. I kind of want to transfer into UIC because I hear they have a good medical program. I’ve found a weird interest in surgeries and I’m gonna try to pursue the career as an Orthopedic Surgeon. I’ve been looking at videos of different orthopedic surgeries like Tendon repair in the hands, wrist, and ankles as well as hip replacement surgeries and I love it. It’s so interesting I’m learning so much and I already want to dissect something and get hands on. I think I may found a secret calling.
Most people are disgusted by blood and our organs and tissue but I find it fascinating. It’s just like information I was meant to learn or something. I know the career of being a doctor is a little cliche but it’s like the plan is perfect. Learning about so many different tools used like soft tissue retractor and learning about the pelvis and the femur. I like going to school too, I couldn’t bear just being home or work all the time. It’s a long process that’s about 12 or more years but I really love it. I find the process of surgery in general just fascinating and I would love to help people and do what i love.
The other day I explained to my therapist how hip replacement surgery is done and I guess I sounded a bit passionate.
Managing sports injuries with latest technique
There are a wide range of sports who engage athletes of various age groups. To be competent, more and more athletes seek a professional training by coaches and experts. A good sports trainer is the one who understands the bodily requirements for a particular sport as well as bring the best out of the sports person’s capabilities.
Sports injuries are outcome of over exercising, over training and exposing your body to careless activities. Other than these, they also result from external thrusts, fall or unexpected twisting/turning etc. The athletes are reviewed to tackle any forceful stress during the sports event by orthopedic doctors.
The Diagnosis
In January of 2009, I finally went to see an orthopedic/sports med doc at Kaiser. It had been 8 months since the crash and I was still in a lot of pain. I told my sob story to my physician and he sent me to get an x-ray of my quad. What I didn’t know at the time is that those x-rays would significantly alter the course of my life.
He calmly told me that I had something calling Myositis Ossificans ( or MO). Basically, the hematoma (blood) and fluid that built up between my femur and quad muscles had begun to calcify into bone…Bone that was NOT supposed to be there. (This is also known as a heterotropic ossification or HO)
At first, I thought it was really interesting and kinda cool (anatomically speaking) except for the fact that it was in my leg. My doctor told me about my options for dealing with this thing… which essentially boiled down to: [A] keeping the rogue bone and live with the pain or [B] Have that bitch surgically removed. The catch? I couldn’t have surgery until the bone was no longer actively calcifying, because if they took it out too soon, the chance of it reforming was very high. The surgery would also be extremely invasive and the rehab would be just as, if not more, brutal that the surgery. The typical surgery wait time in those with MO was supposed to be around 6 months to 1 year, tops.
Well, 6 months went by (Summer 2009), then a year (Spring 2010), then a year and a half (Fall 2010) and soon, it had been over 2 years since my diagnosis and this thing was STILL effing going. The worst part? The pain. It was so very painful. Every. Single. Day. I have sought out several ‘second opinions’ and they all mentioned something that that no 24 year-old should ever have to hear: the phrase “chronic pain management.” It was terrifying. This thing had basically ruined my life and they wanted me to leave it in me!? Forever?! Not a chance. I wanted it out, I wanted the surgery.
You can imagine my joy when I finally got a consult with an Orthopedic Surgeon at Kaiser in March of 2011. Throughout the course of our conversation, I asked her about surgery and told her how much this had impacted my daily life and then she told me that since the calcification had not changed in size (in my x-rays) in the last year, I could finally have surgery. This was 3 full years after that damn bike crash.
I’m not gonna lie—I started crying immediately. I was so happy. Elated. Overjoyed. Ecstatic. Finally, there was an end in sight. So, I made decision to move to Colorado for the Summer of 2011. I would have the surgery in early May, spend all summer rehabbing, and hopefully be good to go by the time grad school started back up again in the fall.
Why Orthopedic Surgeons (or anyone for that matter) Should Use Dropbox
dropbox.comIf you’re not using Dropbox, you’re wasting time and energy and needlessly inconveniencing yourself. I’m not sure how many of you use Dropbox. Maybe you already do. If you don’t, or if you want to learn another way of using it, keep reading.
Dropbox is a freenweb based file storage program. It’s simple. Go to www.dropbox.com, and open an account. Then in seconds begin to securely upload any file that you want to the Dropbox servers. Presto! The files will follow you wherever there is an internet connection. No more lost USB flash drives. No more emailing files to yourself and hoping you’ve updated and shared the latest copy of a document with your other computer.
As a surgeon I use it to help store my physical therapy protocols. I work out of 3 separate offices and have a series of about 15 different therapy protocols for patients depending on their condition/ surgery. It’s hard to keep copies of all of those protocols on file at each office; especially when I use some of them only rarely.
With Dropbox, I store all of my therapy protocols in my account and can pull them up wherever I am. Hell, I could do surgery half way around the world and still be able to pull up my own protocol. I can also share folders with colleagues without having to email attachments.
Full disclosure, I have no financial interest in Dropbox, but I do find it useful.
The Job Responsibilities of an Orthopedic Surgeon : http://bitloo.com/152557-the-job-responsibilities-of-an-orthopedic-surgeon
