All About G

Alright, here’s the deal.

I haven’t heard from Dr. Krauss about anything, and I haven’t quite figured out everything I need to about the insurance, but at the moment, I’m trying to find a very specific thing, and I need your help.

Orthopedic surgeons do a lot, but in actuality, a lot of them are specialists. I’m looking for a orthopedic with a shoulder specialty and experience with surgical repair of clavicles. I’m already working on getting info from others who have had surgeries and such, but I would very much appreciate it if you all looked into shoulder specialists in the Northeast, preferably. Please let me know what you come up with. I want to get this treated before school ends for the summer, because my student health insurance ends at the end of the semester, so I wouldn’t have that added coverage.

And to those of you that help, thank you so much.

Comments (0) Feb 12 2009

It’s really late, but I felt like I had to tell you how my visit to Ithaca Orthopedic Group went.

I didn’t actually see an orthopedic surgeon, because I guess the universal rule is that you can never visit an orthopedic directly; you have to get referred to them by the whole world first. So I saw Dr. Krauss (hoping that’s how his name is spell) instead.

So, we started out with me telling him absolutely everything I knew about what had happened. I told him ab… oh! That reminds me. I don’t think I told you about my epiphany… well I’ll tell it to you the way I told Dr. Krauss.

Basically, this injury occurred a couple of years ago during school late March, 2007. I recall playing soccer in the gym after eating lunch, and I remember someone (I think it was Steve… knowing him like I think I do, it probably was) sandwiching me up against the wall really… lack of a word~… and after lunch period was when my clavicle was bothering me so much. Mom looked at it after school, said it was bent, and we saw the doctor the next day, and nothing got accomplished.

I told Krauss about my theory of it being a bowing fracture, and I told him about the few case studies I compared symptoms to, even if those case studies were ulnar bowing fracture. Anyway, he took a look at me, requested I get an x-ray on my spine (because he thought that I had a curve in the spine that was affecting the prominence of the deformity). He left to talk to the radiologist while I sat in the freezing exam room, pissed that he thought, of all things, that my spine was somehow part of the problem.

Anywho, he came back, and told me I had slight curvature (and honestly, who doesn’t? No one’s perfect), but it probably wasn’t affecting the clavicle all that much.

The good news; he told me, straight up, that he believed my self-diagnosis was absolutely correct, and he gave me a couple of tips to look for case studies that relate to the clavicle so I could better compare (you’ll see why in a minute). The bad news; since it’s been two years since the incident, putting an amazing amount of pressure on the bone just isn’t going to work. I’m going to need to get an osteotomy if I want to fix this clavicle. And guess what, folks! That’s not all.

Surgery on the clavicle takes a specialist, and I mean a specialist. This means, that if I get the surgery done, I may very well have to travel to NYC, or even Boston, to get this treated. That’s pretty expensive traveling wise, so most likely I’d be going by myself (and that’s gonna be scary as hell). Another potential problem is cost. I’ll need to get a CAT scan, among other things, and I know that while insurance helps pay for a good chunk of the cost, my clavicle could very well be classified a “pre-existing condition” and they won’t help pay for treatment. Maybe we ca find a loophole in that… who knows?

So right now, I’m waiting to hear about the situation regarding our health insurance before I figure out if I’ll be able to go through with it. And once I’ve done that, I’ve got a hell of a lot of research to do. I have to thank Krauss, though. He told me he’d look into clavicle specialists and help out with researching the treatment of a “plastic deformation clavicle fx” (fx = fracture). Those were the Google terms he gave me. So hey, I think you all should help research too. The search terms are in the quotation marks earlier in this paragraph. You’ll learn a thing or two. I know I’ve learned a shit load since I started on this little and tedious expedition.

But there you have it. To the stupid doctors: I. Fucking. Told. You. So. What the fuck now, BITCH! In the meantime, I’m not giving up on getting treatment — if there’s a will there’s a way. Just because I might have to travel a few hours doesn’t mean I’m not going to get it done.

And while Krauss was telling me “Well, I wouldn’t let my daughter go through with it, just because it’s a very delicate operation” — you need to do everything EXACT and perfect, or you fuck up everything — “And who knows if it’ll actually get rid of the pain”, I say that, well, may be it’ll work, and may be it won’t. But we won’t know unless we try? I’m not sue-happy, if that’s what you were concerned about, Krauss. I wouldn’t sue if you messed up — I’d just make you fix the mistake. The only exception is if I die because of something directly related to the surgery/treatment. In that case, I gave my mom permission to sue on my behalf. But since they’re specialists, and they’re orthopedic surgeons, I have faith that they know what they’re doing.

I’ll keep you all posted.

Comments (0) Feb 10 2009

I think that this appointment, the one I had with the PT, has to be the shortest appointment I’ve ever had. I went in at around 11:50, and I was calling for a ride at around 10 after noon.

So what happened was really simple; Carl, my PT, came in, asked how I was doing and whatnot. I told him that I was fine, and as I was handing him the x-rays to look at, I told him about how I came across something over the weekend (see this to learn what I’m talking about) which led me to believe that the problem with my clavicle was a bowing fracture. He noticed something weird with my rib (and I agree it’s weird, but I didn’t see, and still don’t see, what that had to do with my clavicle, I know for sure that it was irrelevant and non-problematic), and then left for what felt like a million years, but was probably only ten minutes.

At the time, I wasn’t sure what to think, because when he was looking at the x-rays, he didn’t seem to be listening to me, but I didn’t let it deter me. While he was out doing whatever with the x-rays, I was formulating an argument to use along with my in-depth analysis. I’d make him listen and understand and at least acknowledge where I’m coming from.

So, he returned, gave me back the x-rays and whatnot. He told me he wasn’t a radiologist so he didn’t know what is was, but something in the clavicle, to him, seemed off. I told him, once again, about what I thought about my clavicle having at one point a bowing fracture (I explained what it was and typical symptoms, and basically, I was being as detailed as I could), and described how my symptoms matched the case study that I came across. Most likely to make sure I was being valid with my info, he asked me “What site did you find that on?” And I told him “Hawaii.edu”. .EDU websites are, obviously, usually education institutes, and I even told him how to find the page. We were talking about treatments, because he had said “But since it isn’t a break…” and I said “You can’t reduce something like that, because it isn’t a clear break. I think at one point I might have had a hairline fracture that healed, but that doesn’t mean the bone at this point can be reduced.” He agreed with me on that.

Once I was finished saying what I had to say, he said to me: “I think you should schedule an appointment to see Dr. Getzin again. I honestly don’t know what to do with this; your tendons are fine, your joints are fine, your muscles are fine. Did those exercises help any?” I told him ‘no’ an he continued with “I can’t help you with this, I’m sorry.”

I told him that it wasn’t a problem, and I thanked him for listening to me and my input, and I went off on my way.

So now, I’m scheduled to visit Dr. Getzin at 1:30 tomorrow, and I’ll tell him everything I’ve learned and what I think, and see what he thinks. He seems like the type of person who’ll listen, so hopefully my expectations will be met. I’m expecting him to refer me to an orthopedic because at this point, even the PT has established that this is quite strictly a bone problem. I can’t think of any kind of doctor that would be necessary to see other than an orthopedic. And for all I know, he won’t refer me at all. Of course, if it comes down to that, I’ll find a way to get to an orthopedic myself, but Getzin doesn’t seem like that kind of person.

So my verdict? I think the PT I was seeing wasn’t conceited, and I’m glad he listened to me and didn’t brush me off like I didn’t know what I was talking about. He seemed to think that I was perfectly valid with the opinion that I had formed. And he told me, straight up, that he couldn’t help me with it, instead of acting like he could. So props to him.

As for the next step… well, I’m sure I’ll find out tomorrow.

Comments (2) Feb 02 2009

I woke up at 8am today, and got a ride over to the Island Health and Fitness Center for my 9am appointment.

My verdict? I don’t really know what to think or say.

I’d like to say we didn’t get anything accomplished, if only I knew what they, in particular, were trying to accomplish. I know I didn’t get anything accomplished.

We started out with examining my clavicle, and ended up with giving me exercises for my lower trapezius muscle (on my left side, back), because my left scapula moves differently compared to my right scapula. Wanna know how? See for yourself:

Note: just watch how both scapulae move. You’ll see a subtle difference. When the left scapula moves drastically different compared to my right, that’s due to the motion of my arms, because I was working in a very cramped space. Pay attention to the very slight differences, which means you’ll have to actually look for them.

PS – Those clips are not suppose to imply anything sexual at all, to those of you who are too retarded to think otherwise. You can see the scapular movement best when there’s nothing covering it.

In my humble opinion, I feel like the freakish scapula has more to do with the fact that I’m right handed. If it was somehow affected by/affecting my clavicle, I have the feeling the AC joint would’ve been involved and/or affected as well, and it isn’t. So in terms of fixing my clavicle problem, I’d say personally we got zero accomplished.

Moving along, if anything’s changed at all, I’d say it’d be my SC joint, because it feels like they strained something trying to distract it. Idiots. Whatever, I’m just gonna go through with this trial, which I already know isn’t gonna fix anything, and get rechecked so I can get referred to the orthopedic already. I’m assuming they’re keeping surgery as an option when nothing else is gonna work. *sigh* You would think they’d get that it probably would come to that, but whatever. Like I said, I’ll go through with it (unless they do something stupid like fuck up my SC joint or something to that effect), and I’ll be patient. I know I’ll eventually see who I want to see.

Comments (3) Jan 29 2009

I’m sure most, if not all of you who read my blog, know that I have a bad knee; a knee which I injure too many damn times, and therefore must have something wrong with it. It’s my right one, specifically, you know. The one I strain my tendons and ligaments in all the time? One wonders why I haven’t blown it yet, like destroyed my ACL or something.

Anyway, this morning I had Kinesiology lab and were were doing Manual Muscle Tests (testing a specific muscle group for strength and to see if there’s any pain, if there’s any at all) and goniometric measurements of the lower extremities (lower body, feet to hips, basically). Anyway, setting aside my minorly sprained ankle (which I may tell you about in a minute), I made a discovery about my knees.

Goniometry is the measurement of angles, basically. In kinesiology’s case, the angles are our joints, thus we’re measuring the range of motion of that joint. When measuring the knee, the start value is our knee extended, straightened, but not fully extended. When we measure the full extension of the knee, we’re measuring how much it hyper-extends. Sooooo, I got my knees’ ranges of motion measured.

When you measure the degree of extension when it comes to the knee, you prop the foot up on something — a sweatshirt, a book, something similar — and allow gravity to pull your knee “backwards” until it locks. My left knee was relatively normal, it’s extension range of motion was 3°, a relatively normal range. My right knee, on the other hand, was a completely different story.

When we propped it on the sweatshirt, it didn’t lock. This meant that it wasn’t fully extended. So, I tried to adjust my foot’s position, but by the time she actually took the measurement, it still wasn’t fully extended. But even with it not being fully extended, the measurement we got was 19°. So, I’m saying that my estimated ROM for my right knee is at least 20°. One of these days, I want to get a more accurate measure.

So, it totally threw me off when I found out my right knee was about 16° more extensible than my left knee. When I thought about it, I figured hey, maybe that’s why I’m having ligament and tendon problems with my right knee, and maybe that’s why I always hyper-extend my left.

So, anyone else have any thoughts to add to this? Any questions you might want to ask? I’ll answer what I can. So be sure to check your comments, because I don’t think I have a plug-in that notifies commenters if/when their comment is replied to.

Oh, before I go, I said I was gonna tell you about my ankle, right? Well, if I didn’t who cares? I’m telling you anyway!

Okay, so, last Friday, some of the female members of the track team met up to play Ultimate Frisbee (I’m not running track this year, unfortunately, so Coach probably hates me…). It was really fun and all.

So the field we were playing on, one of our endzones was actually sloped a little. You can sort of see where this is going. Well, towards the end of our scrimmage, I was on offense cherry picking the end zone. Kris… Kristen (?) threw me the frisbee, and I turned to try and catch it. When I missed, I turned back around and rolled my ankle REALLY bad. I felt a small pop, and it hurt like a BITCH for a while. I walked back over to our end (because we eventually scored), rubbed it a few times, and then shrugged it off and continued playing. While it didn’t hurt all that much (or maybe it did and I was too focused on the game to actually notice) during the game, when I finished eating and went back to my room, it was killing me. Later that night, it was swollen. With the advice of my good friend Steve (yes folks, he’s still very much alive), I propped it up on my desk and the swelling did go down.

I’m checking my ankle right now and… it looks like… there’s no swelling. But occasionally, when I walk, there’s a shooting pain that goes down my talus, and sometimes on the underside of my foot too. It’s not a crippling pain, but it’s noticeable enough to be annoying and slightly painful.

There you have it. Okay, leave comments with theories and questions if you have any. I’ll reply and answer what I can.

Comments (8) Sep 10 2008