@NavyGunns There are a lot of factors involved with this second opinion surgeon.
He is 1 hour and 40 minutes away in good traffic. The day of my appointment with him traffic was bad, it took 2.5 hours to get there, and 3 hours to get home.
I had my X-rays with me, my surgical report, my pre surgery MRI report and a list of my concerns. He took my list away from me, and my folder, and set it aside and said, just tell me. Well your mind goes kind of blank at that point. The first concern I told him was the pain I have going down steps. He went on to tell me not everyone gets a good outcome, sometimes doing it over makes it worse, and some people’s body just doesn’t like the implant. I didn’t know how to respond to that.
All of a sudden he’s putting a needle in my knee which was very painful, and takes me to the building’s stairwell and has me go up and down, foot over foot, and he wants a percentage number of how it feels. It all happened so fast, my knee is feeling all kinds of weird from the needle and I’m struggling to do the stairs and I couldn’t think.
We went back to the exam room, he prescribed gabapentin and left shorty after. The appointment lasted maybe 15 minutes, though I didn’t time it, so it could have been longer.
I was supposed to call the office a few days later to report on how the shot in my knee and the gabapentin worked. The shot was a local anesthetic.
I did call and left the information and his assistant called me back. I asked for a copy of my office visit summary, she said she’d email it. It took 2 more phone calls and a week to get that email summary.
So, when I stopped the gabapentin I emailed the same assistant that I saw in the office and spoke to on the phone, who emailed me the summary.
You can’t get past the person who answers the phone, you have to leave a message and wait for a return call, so it was easier to just email her.
I’m not driving all that way again and paying for an appointment for a few brief moments of his time again. He obviously doesn’t need my business nor does he feel the need to do anything, judging by his examination of my X-ray.
My husband was with me at this appointment. The dr was in and out so fast we didn’t know what hit us.
I do agree with all you said, and I appreciate your suggestions and support, but we can’t always control the situation at an appointment.
And, this dr came extremely highly recommended, I have no doubt of his surgical abilities. But I will only see him again if I have an emergency before I find another surgeon for a third opinion.
My faith in finding help at this point is dwindling. My X-ray looks fine so they won’t look any further. I fear something will have to go really bad before any surgeon will look further.