Blogpost: FCK Doctors & Univ Sports Medicine

NYSpeed Automotive NYSpeed Off Topic
1

I don’t usually post this sort of shit… but a few people have known about the ongoing situation, or have asked about the bionic knee at meets et al (the Glenn for example).
[LEFT]Story time…[/LEFT]

[LEFT]Who’s heard of Broomball?[/LEFT]

[LEFT]It is played on a hockey rink, with corn brooms taped up into hockey stick shapes. You use a kickball like ball. You where ice shoes (soft soled sneakers). You use hockey nets. You wear a helmet, knee, elbow pads. Guys goals worth 1 pt, girls goals worth 2.
Think a bar sponsored softball league for the winter. k?[/LEFT]

[LEFT]My wife’s been playing broomball for years. its a good workout before the bar. [/LEFT]

[LEFT]In October she slipped, fell straight down onto her knee. Didn’t feel a pop or anything, just hurt like a mofo. Being the champ that she is she limped over to the net and played stay at home defense for a little while. A loose ball came her way, when she went to run for it, her knee gave out completely. Blinding pain and all. [/LEFT]

[LEFT]She decided to sleep on it. The next day was worse, as expected, but she couldn’t move it. I take her to Mill Fill Sub, we get nice pain killers & xrays say no breaks - go see a specialist. [/LEFT]

[LEFT]On a referral from a family friend she goes to Univerist of Sports medicine on Harlem. USM treats Buffalo Bills, Sabres, Bandits players… among other people of course. [/LEFT]

[LEFT]Kid doc does a 3 minute exam, takes an MRI, says “torn PCL”. Prescribes ibuprofen, a soft knee brace, and light physical therapy. My wife is a very active person @ work (ladders, flights & flights of stairs, managing a small wharehouse, and office work), and at home (our dogs, around the house, home improvements, the park, etc). [/LEFT]

[LEFT]Even google says that there is no real good way to repair a torn PCL, so we oblige. 6 weeks go by, following orders, and it’s not improving AT ALL.
Go back to USM, same doc, “You’re fine. Continue PT”. Ugh.[/LEFT]

[LEFT]8 weeks later, ZERO improvement. Go back to USM - doc says “You’re going to be fine, go to therapy. I have sports players who PLAY with this injury”. At this point I’m fucking livid - but she doesn’t like doctors & is afraid of surgery. Doc does bump her upto a hard knee brace.[/LEFT]

[LEFT]At this point the pain level has not really improved since ~2 weeks after it happened. Range of motion is back to maybe 70%. She has basically learned to live with the pain… at 28 yrs old, and I’m still fucking livid. She needs to go to a diff doctor. IMO its a knee injury, as complicated as that joint is you NEED to get another opinion because this guy CAN’T be right - it should’ve improved SOMEWHAT in three months.[/LEFT]

[LEFT]In March she slips on ice - knee gave out while walking. Back to square one as far as range of motion and overall problems. Back to USM - doc says go back to PT, heres some more ibu, You’ll be fine. Mind you - this is still based off of the initial 3 minute exam & MRI.[/LEFT]

[LEFT]…She has to restrain me in the doctors office. [/LEFT]

[LEFT]Fast forward through an uneventful and ineffective 3 months of rehab, arguing, and pain. She gives in and calls up another doc (thanks for the referall from 97FormulaWS-6). [/LEFT]

[LEFT]New doc is an old school guy. Spends 40 minutes with my wife, manipulating the joint, and actually gasp diagnosing the symptoms. His “tests” and diagnosis actually makes sense by the way he is moving her leg and what the outcome means, etc. He’s almost positive that the PCL is fine, or minimally injured. Suspects displaced meniscus & maybe torn ACL.
Takes an xray, takes an MRI. Calls up today from home and tells her that the pictures confirm. Schedule surgery. [/LEFT]

[LEFT]Expect to be laid up anywhere from 2-4 weeks, soft cast, and anywhere from 2-4 months of rehab / phys therapy. Dependant upon how much scarring they find… considering shes been walking on it & working on it for 6 months.[/LEFT]

[LEFT]Don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy it is / will be taken care of. I’ll be happy when we can walk / run with the dogs, blah blah blah… (since she hasn’t been as active, neither have I and the scale shows it :frowning: )[/LEFT]

[LEFT]BUT WHY THE FUCK COULDN’T THIS HAVE BEEN DONE 8 MONTH AGO?[/LEFT]

2

BTW - :fyi: Knee Pad jokes = banned.

3

I may be wrong with your insurance coverage, etc but why didn’t you get a second opinion like 2 months after instead of 3/4 of a year?

4

That was the prob.

5

Young docs just have enough experience under there belt, I deal with docs almost every day. Young Docs = second option.

OT - I had a younger dentist that said I had 8 cavities. I would not believe that crap so I got a second opinion and was told I didn’t even have one. He is no long my Dentist. 6 years down the road…still no cavities.

6

That sucks hard. I’ll tell you about the 3 times I’ve had my knee operated on over beer tomorrow.

7

take my opinion for what its worth but a sports medicine dr was not the guy to go to for one reason. they are trained to create a liveable amount of pain to allow day to day activities to prevent the inevitable major reconstructive knee surgery.

yes he did misdiagnose and im not defending him but thats just the nature of the beast in regards to sports med. get the player back on the field asap deal with major problems later down the road.

sry to hear about the wife hope it heals well.

8

Plus knee injuries are hella hard to diagnose based on an exam. The first time I blew out my knee the exam resulted in a diagnosis of a torn ACL, then the MRI said wait no it’s a torn meniscus, so they went in to operate and the meniscus was fine but they pulled out the chunk of articular cartilege that had been floating around my knee for weeks.

But it sucks that the n00b doc was only willing to spend 3 minutes with her and then repeatedly tell them nothing was wrong after 8 months with no progress.

9

Damn. Sorry to hear that, Nick.

10

You’re welcome for the referral; tell Dr Buran and Vince (PA) that Mike Marshall said Hi.

He’s a AWESOME Dr and has a great PA. He did my Left knee almost 2 years ago, and just did a large repair on my Right about 9-10 weeks ago.

When is surgery and where? (You may have my GF in surgery; she’s starting a new job in the Surgery center as a Surgery Nurse Asst at St Joes in 2 weeks; and Doc does surgery there, had my right one done there).

Can’t beat having a Orthopedic Surgeon who’s undergraduate is Engineering…

Good luck with everything, and I hope your wife does well, She’s now in GREAT hands with him.

11

Not always true.

My Dentist in Rochester has got to be pushing 70, and I hate him. He’s slow, painful, and IMHO not up to date on procedures. I had an emergency and went to see Dr. Seale,who is like a 2nd cousin once removed or something like that. He’s maybe 40, and was quick, had awesome equipment, and actually fixed the problem first time. He basically told me my old dentist ruined me, by not taking care of a bunch of problems when I was younger. Thanks Doc Smith.

Also when I dislocated my shoulder and broke some tiny bone. The USM on South was awesome. Brian Crager, who is also the PT/Doc for the rugby team knows his shit forwards and backwards. He’s going for his Doctorate and is pretty young (mid 20’s). Course they gave me Bextra which was later recalled because it was killing people! Not his fault though.

Luck o’ the draw, sorry your old lady got a bad egg. Sounds like Dr. Douchington was only interested in High-profile cases like sports players.

12

nah insurance is good. she was adamant about the whole thing for the first few months. She’s nearly deathly afraid of surgery… as far as this goes she has finally accepted that long run > short term.

fuckin eh right.

oh i completely agree. I kinda felt that way all along, but the last visit + this docs info really confirmed that for me. I just wish I woulda known / realized / convinced her long ago.

I love my wife, she’s as stubborn as I am about some things. It’s been a long 9 months.

13

thanks again.

they have to call back tomorrow to confirm when & where.

Yea, its nice to have an intelligent convo with a doc. Especially about something as structurally involved as a knee.

lol… I had a similar experience with a dentist. Went there for ~15 years since a kid… but he’d gotten to the point (72 yrs old) where he was just outdated. Actually turned away some procedures, etc. Found a new guy who is much more efficient & less painful even for the little stuff… just cause he’s up to date.

But the knee thing is alot different then dentistry, IMO. $0.02

Yea we got referred by an ex high profile player, I’ve a feeling that had a lot to do with his “glowing” (at the time) recomendation… :meh:

14

Good to hear you ended up with Dr. Buran. He rebuilt my knee last summer (completely demolished meniscus, torn ACL) and it couldn’t have gone any better. As said, both great guys too, took the time to get to know me and gave me options based on what I was comfortable with.

15

Yea, she has nothing to be worried about with him fixing her up. Surgery with him is a piece of cake, only crappy thing is the recovery.

I’ve had him cut me open twice, and we’re 98% sure he’s going to have to do it again. He repaired my meniscus (sutured it back together, not removed like most people) this surgery, and found my ACL is shot, but we didn’t do both at the same time (personal reasons). So I’ll probably have to go back next summer and get the ACL done.

I found Buran through an ex of mine who he operated on like 5 times for different injuries, and she was great after them. I don’t personally trust anyone else now, especially after 2 surgeries with him.

16

i dont hear anything good about USM ever… but good that your getting somewhere…