I had a pretty nasty crash last weekend and injured both knees. Just found out that at least one knee will need to be surgically repaired. Obviously, my knees are pretty important to me… as an athlete, but also because they don’t usually get better the older you get. Problem is… I’m no doctor. Don’t know who to trust or how to find someone to trust.
Any advice from the ST medical community or from others that have been through this would be greatly appreciated. Just a bit bummed out and overwhelmed right now.
I am from rural Maine. I had to travel 3 hrs to a big city to see a good surgeon (did not end up needing surgery). If you’re from a small town, ask the local orthopedist to whom he/she refers clients needing care beyond what he/she offers.
The people I see are at Orthopedic Associates in Portland, ME. You could call them and ask if they know of a similar place in your location.
My wife is an X-Ray tech. Nobody knows the good Ortho surgeons like x-ray techs do. And, you’ll get a complete unbiased opinion. See if you can find a rad tech who works at the hospital where you want to get a procedure.
What kind of repair are you needing? Meniscal repair? ACL? PCL? Meniscal repairs are fast repairs and you can be back in no time.
When looking for an ortho: ask around your community, look on internet for complaints about that surgeon, etc. I would want to go to one that works mostly on knees or a sports ortho. Just my opinion. Good luck.
Thanks. Actually there should be no shortage of quality surgeons in the area. I live about 45 miles from Chicago. I just don’t know any orthos personally and I don’t think I even know anyone who has had knee surgery recently that could give me a recommendation.
Wow! so many great thoughts. Thank you for the help.
I’ve been trying to educate myself as much as possible. Here’s what I know so far about my condition:
Right knee: fibular fracture on the top (head) of fubula. Having an MRI on that one tomorrow
Left knee: Compete tear of ACL and MCL. Torn medial meniscus.
From what I can tell, the clinic I’ve been going to has 1 sugeon that can do this. I have not even met her yet so I have no reason to doubt her at all. I’m just nervous about the whole procedure. Pretty important to get it right.
The one thing that sucks with looking for a doctor is you have no idea if they are actually any good. You can’t look online because the negatives (and the positive) reviews may be made up, but the physician can’t dispute them because of HIPPA and they can’t give you names of past patients because of HIPPA. I would go in and ask a lot of questions with how many she has done, if she has done something with multiple injuries like this etc, then go find another couple people and get their opinions.
I would go in and ask a lot of questions with how many she has done, if she has done something with multiple injuries like this etc, then go find another couple people and get their opinions.
I think this sounds like a good idea. You’re right though… I’ll never really know if they’re actually any good until it’s too late.
If you have a teaching hospital near you they normally have very good physicians.
And the hidden danger in teaching hospitals is having surgical fellows using you as ‘well I will know better next time’ guinea pigs. It only takes one second of lapse judgment for the doc, standing 2 feet away, to miss a fellow doing something stupid and voila: instant chaos.
I sold pacemakers/defibs for 15 years and in the thousands of hours spent in surgery I think I was in on maybe a dozen codes. I would guesstimate 10 of those were due to screw ups from fellows at teaching institutions with the doctor standing 10" away from the table. The sucking sound of air rushing into the subclavian as a knuckle head takes his thumb off the introducer port and now we have an embolism! Woo hoo now we got us a party!
I believe that but, you are going to get that at a large number of big hospitals that actually can perform some of the more technical surgeries. I had a posterior sternoclavicular separation, incredibly rare for anyone, let alone someone who was my age. So I had to go to Iowa City to get the surgery done since no one in des moines would touch it. So i’m not saying it’s going to be great 100 percent of the time but normally getting more people through the door every day means they have more experience. But of course its all up in the air most of the time. Doctors are just like any profession you’re going to have some morons.
Thanks. Actually there should be no shortage of quality surgeons in the area. I live about 45 miles from Chicago. I just don’t know any orthos personally and I don’t think I even know anyone who has had knee surgery recently that could give me a recommendation.
I have been seeing Dr. Natrajan and Dr. Sarah Brown for my ITBS. They get active athlete lifestyle. They are located on North Ave. downtown. You may wanna look them up.
What frustrates me is that the best surgeons are often booked months in advance. So if you have an accident and need an immediate surgery, what are you supposed to do? Go with the surgeon who has no patients???
I got lucky when I crashed my bike and separated my shoulder because I found one who had a cancellation and got in. But most were booked way, way out.
If you have an accident and you need surgery trust me they will get you in. My shoulder was pretty serious, and the physician who did mine is normally booked at least a month in advance if not more just for clinic let alone surgery. They had me in within the week and surgery that next week if I recall correctly. If it got worse before then I would have been possibly flighted down to Iowa City and they would have done it that day, but I was pretty stable so they weren’t as worried.
Its the nature of medicine right now, were short on everything right now when it comes to doctors and its not gonna get better any time soon. Possibly worse when we add a lot more people to the system.
If you have an accident and you need surgery trust me they will get you in.
Not always true. I called a number of surgeons and told them I needed surgery for a separated shoulder and got, “Sorry. No openings for 4 months.” Couldn’t even get an office visit.
When I said need surgery I mean if you don’t it readily soon you may suffer permanent injury. Obviously, a separated shoulder needs to be fixed but you aren’t going to die from it so they can delay it out. Which really sucks but like I said were short on everything. In my case I had the possibility of my clavicle compressing my subclavian and common carotid arteries, which is needless to say not good. So even though he is always booked I had to get it.
So as an insider to the health care system, I think that this general rule applies. If you have a run of the mill surgical problem, go to a person in the community that has done a ton of volume. This will tend to not be someone in academics. If you have something weird and unique, your only choice will be to go to an academic practice and there it will be a crap shoot. Academic reputations are often based on publishing academic literature and not surgical skill. The only true way to know is to get advice from orthopaedists i.e. who would the orthopaedist have operate on them? Reputations about this guy being the surgeon for a certain pro team has very little to do with their clinical skill and often more to do with their business acumen.
If I went academic, I would figure a way to talk to the chief residents or fellows and ask them, who they thought was the best.
I just underwent wrist surgery (distal radius fracture into 5 pieces) and when I had to choose, I surveyed the surgeon’s that I work with (I’m an anesthesiologist). Of the top 3 recommendations, I went with the guy I got along with the best.
Believe me, it’s a challenge even for those “inside” the system.
So as an insider to the health care system, I think that this general rule applies. If you have a run of the mill surgical problem, go to a person in the community that has done a ton of volume. This will tend to not be someone in academics. If you have something weird and unique, your only choice will be to go to an academic practice and there it will be a crap shoot. Academic reputations are often based on publishing academic literature and not surgical skill. The only true way to know is to get advice from orthopaedists i.e. who would the orthopaedist have operate on them? Reputations about this guy being the surgeon for a certain pro team has very little to do with their clinical skill and often more to do with their business acumen.
If I went academic, I would figure a way to talk to the chief residents or fellows and ask them, who they thought was the best.
I just underwent wrist surgery (distal radius fracture into 5 pieces) and when I had to choose, I surveyed the surgeon’s that I work with (I’m an anesthesiologist). Of the top 3 recommendations, I went with the guy I got along with the best.
Believe me, it’s a challenge even for those “inside” the system.
I’ve asked a lot of high caliber athletes in the area, PT’s, trainers, did my own research on experience they have & then interviewed them–and went with who left me feeling like they were the best at what they do out of a couple of choices. Example, I wouldn’t go with anyone that has a history of malpractice lawsuits…maybe ask for client references. You may get one shot at this & if it gets screwed up it could be on you for not doing your homework.