Hey Kelly thank you so much for finding my thread for me!!!!!! I know you say it's easy but....
Yesterday I emailed Dr. Spitzer (right knee surgeon) and cancelled my surgery. Good old Wilbur, you've heard about him before!, has had over a week to fit me into the schedule to see Dr. S but has played his little games. The scheduler called me because after Wilbur never responded to my request for an appointment (he has to put in the squeeze in appt, front desk can't do it) I emailed Veronica the scheduler. She called me and I talked to both of them on the line. He was snotty but thats okay, VEronica said, Wilbur is standing next to me. I am going to transfer you to him so he can make your appt. He let it go to voicemail! So I left a message and then called back a half hour later. A male who sounded like Wilbur, quickly said, "Wilbur gets off at 430 and it's 431" End of conversation. So I waited and waited. As of Friday he still has not called me to set up the appointment. Clearly he is not going to do it. And also I feel it's clear he will do everything he can to postpone my care and this will result in my surgery also being post-oned. So I am done with them.
That was this past Monday that the call transfer happened. So I resorted to calling my ex husband who is a physician in Palos Verdes, next to Torrance. He gave me a couple names of good guys. So it turns out that there are lots of docs in Torrance who are doing the MIS/quad sparing. Using the mini tools that Zimmer (my knee) provides for them. I liked Dr. Albert Reff's website and office secretary. Office is in Redondo Beach, which just 20 miles from here and does not involve Los Angeles traffic. He has photos of the office and it looks normal, no old photos of movie stars in the exam rooms, ha. He is listed on the Zimmer website for all the procedures he does. Knees are his thing I have not met him. He will be back from a medical leave in 2 weeks but I get to meet his consultant who is covering for him on Tuesday. I know this is premature but it just feels right. The secretary even worked in my ex h's office in the past and we had a good laugh as my ex had tried to set her up with his younger brother. Another ortho Dr Todd Shrader was recommended. I called them too and the secretary was a real complain! And this is where my ex-h actually sends most his patients for follow up care. I knew the older Dr. Shrader when I was working in the hospital. He also is on the Zimmer website and does the less invasive procedures. I realize you should not chose your doctor based on their office staff but I thought that woman, PATTY, could be another Wilbur!
I did go see some other docs. Klapper and one at UCI. UCI guy told me that my arthritis is not bad enough to do a replacement. He lifted up my leg and bent it back and forth and there was no pain. Nope there never was in my other knee either! He said come back in 2 months and that wouldn't it be great if I didn't have the replacement for another 5 years when the arthritis is worse. How do I walk any distance in the meantime. Klapper took xrays on a machine from the 60s and showed me that my bones were touching in the medial spot. He gave me a surgery date and a girl had me come to a counter to tell me the things I needed to do before the surgery. I had to ask to go sit down in a private area! Otherwise she would have done the whole thing in front of the front office and while standing. Funny! Anyway he's not meticulous like the Dr. Spitzer and other doctors about infection prevention etc. he told me my bend in my TKR was only 90. I had just gotten off the freeway and was wearing stretch long jeans! I said, no it's not, it's 130! I'm wearing jeans. So he pushed my other knee in and said, that's 130. I said I'd like to have matching knees. He said he'd try but that I probably shouldn't have had my zimmer nexgen and the lack of flexion proves that. He said I will try but if I get in there and the ligaments aren't good enough I am going to put in a johnson and johnson. He talked quickly and it was hard to catch it all so I am doing my best to give a thorough report here.
So then the UCI guy. Then the Wilbur... and I realized it was never going to happen. Even if I would email Dr. Spitzer and get the appt, Wilbur will find another way to screw it up. He did that pre op and also post op.
So hopefully this new surgeon is going to be the one for me. If you check his website you can even see that he has the Bonesmart philosophy. So once I saw all that and Wilbur still wasn't responding it seemed okay to cut my ties with Dr. Spitzer. He is doing a study with a colleague regarding the approach to use when the tkr patient has tumors. I had the chondroma (benign) right in the way of the cuts so he had a custom implant made that does not involve cutting into and dispersing those tumors. His belief is that it is possible that by doing so, the tumor cells are spread through the femur and could possibly mutate (not his word) and turn into cancer cells later on that would be difficult to treat once they'd been spread. Dr. Klapper poopood that whole thing. Personally I appreciated his being so meticulous.
So I feel bad that he won't be able to follow me but how the HECk would I get an appointment anyway? The front office said they couldn't give me an appt until June which is when my surgery was scheduled and so they told me it was Wilbur who had to put it into the schedule. Actually this also happened when I went for my 2 months visit. I was coming back in 2 weeks for Synvisc in my left knee. He came up to the check out desk upon request of the front office to make the 2 week appt. But he had to put it into the computer. he said he would, but he didn't. So when I went in, which I had started working and had to leave early and drive 35 miles they said it wasn't in the computer and wouldn't let me see the doctor. Low and behold the front office had given me a card and I pulled it out, so they called for Wilbur. He told me I can't see the doctor and I said, oh no I came all this way leaving work and I am going to see him and get my synvisc. So then he told me I have to have prior auth for the Synvisc from Blue Shield. I said NO the synvisc comes from my medication plan, a separate company. It's just an injection as far as Blue Shield is concerned. I also said I discussed all this 2 weeks ago with Dr. Spitzer and told him about my medication plan. Dr. told me "dont worry about it, we'll take care of it". Wilbur laughed and said, he doesn't know anything about this, such as the insurance end of it. Wilbur also told me alot of factoids that are simply not true about my insurance, telling me blue shield has been refusing to pay on synvisc. Mind you all of this is with he and I standing in the middle a full waiting room! That's my wilbur! I have other stories but my fingers and your ears are both wearing out! MY point was that I feel bad about dropping out of this type of study. Dr. said you can follow the progress of a tumor when you leave it alone but not when it gets spread into tiny bits.
So I am really hoping that Dr. Reff is my guy. My ex will probably refer to him more if I'm happy. I was so excited when I read his experience with MIS type procedures.
Okay Kelly what do you think????? Weigh in please
United States
It should also be in the BoneSmart library. 
