"Hello, I have been told by my primary orthopedic surgeon that I need to have surgery on a tendon on my toe within the next 7 to 10 days. I am looking to get a second opinion before agreeing to the surgery. Do you have a surgeon in your practice who could see me on short notice to give me their opinion?"
I called 10, maybe 15 clinics and the answer to each one was the same:
"Our next available 'new patient' appointment is in September, does that work for you?"
Bear in mind that I started calling on July 16th. September is a month and a half away... It is not clear to me which part of "surgery within 7 to 10 days" they didn't get.
Eventually, I called an orthopedic surgery about 40 miles away and they said they had a specialist who would be able to see me. As it turned out he was a podiatrist which seemed OK to me as his website said that he specialized in foot reconstruction, toe rehabilitation etc. His next available appointment was into August, but the scheduler took pity on me and slipped me into his schedule early the following Monday morning.
When the day came, I drove out to the clinic and met with the Podiatrist. He seemed nice - had just returned from a 3 week vacation and I was his first patient. He took a look at my toe, and reviewed the x-rays (I had the images on CD from Ortho #1). His diagnosis could not have been more different than Ortho #1. He felt that my tendon was fine, and that I had a fragment fracture in the upper bone of my big toe. This accounted for the swelling and the lack of motion in my toe. He said bone fractures normally heal in 6 weeks, so not to worry about it. He also recommended that I get a set of prescription orthotics/insoles to account for my flat feet. He was actually far more interested in my flat feet and the orthotics than my toe. He also said that I could put a tight bandage around my toe for the next 4 weeks to help with the healing process.
When I told him what Ortho #1 said, he told me that it sounded like Ortho #1 was inexperienced with foot injuries and that "orthopedic surgeons like to operate first and ask questions later". He said that surgery was absolutely the wrong answer and completely unnecessary. He said that he would send a report back to Ortho #1 with his findings.
At the time it hadn't occurred to me, but it was pointed out later, that only a few days after my visit with the Podiatrist would be 6 weeks since the original injury. So in his estimation, my toe had about 3 days left to go from being bruised, bent over and immobile to fully healed...
I left the podiatrist feeling a bit lost. 2 doctors, 2 differing opinions. I wasn't completely convinced either way. The phrase "thats why they call it a practice" was running through my head; did either of these doctors really know what was wrong, or was each unduly influenced by the bias of their specialty? Determined to get a better answer, I immediately contacted Ortho #1 and arranged to see him again to discuss the 2nd opinion and what the next steps would be.
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