Thursday, July 17, 2008

Hand Surgeon Shopping

I spent most of the day today at doctors appts. Luckily I have that unique ability of being able to stare in space and not think about anything.... you know the kind...the people that can watch TV and still not know what is actually on. Yep, that is me and luckily it is because I spent 5 hours time for just 2 doctor appts.

My Ortho guy referred me to one Hand Surgeon in SLC and I decided to also take it upon myself to get a second opinion. That made for a long day in one massive waiting room though (the doctors offices were just across the hallway from each other luckily).

The first doc =
surgery tomorrow
12 weeks of healing time
not really comfortable with me riding outside until maybe the 8th week
maybe plate the wrist....will get back to me after consulting other docs
definitely plate up the two hand bones with screws
oh... and this was after she walked in and pressed on all the broken bones SO hard that I about hit the roof. "Does it hurt HERE?" as she practically takes her elbow with all her body weight onto each mangled bone. Ugh YEAH IT HURTS THERE!!! can't you see the damn x-rays?
She was in and out and didn't really give me any options

The second doctor =
(first question to me) "When would you want to get back to racing realistically?"
My answer: "I love you" (no, I really didn't say that!)
back outside training in 4-5 weeks
no plating the wrist because the bone will heal fine on its own as is, it just needs immobilization
definitely plate up the two hand bones with screws
He gave me options, sat down to chat, he explained the good bad and the ugly of all the options to include just letting it heal as is with no surgery (bad idea in this case).
I liked his look, his demeanor, his goals for me and his understanding of what I do.
He also understood that if one can't ride outside for a long time that one may go nuts-oh.
Bottom line is that he gets that he won't be slowing an athlete down and that he MUST work with me on this.
I mean, hey, maybe it will take 12 weeks total like the 1st doc said but I work in baby steps and you tell me 12 weeks and I feel defeated already. You tell me riding outside in four, maybe five weeks and you have my attention. Yeah it may get to the 6th or 7th week or whatever at that point but you deal with that then, not now. I operate in baby steps for sure with everything I do.
Oh yeah, and he let me get sassy with him and then laughed about it which was cool.
I felt comfortable in him and his ability to handle things before, during and post surgery which is a good feeling.

Surgery is this coming Monday, July 21st with him at TOSH. Oh boy. Oh and they want me on their wall of fame at TOSH........very flattering of them to ask and the timing couldn't have been better to give me that little boost. But are they sure they got the right gal?

2 comments:

StupidBike said...

I have a sweet swiss army knife and a rubber novelty hand, I could have you back on the bike in 7.68 days.

KATHY SHERWIN said...

Sold!!!

What are you a Gillespie now doing ER stuff in hotel rooms at races?!