Appointment Tomorrow

[manatee08]

Tomorrow is my very first appointment with the orthopaedic surgeon. I am so nervous! What if he tells me I'm not fixable? What if he gives me a horrible prognosis?

Sorry, I just needed to get that off my chest. I am kind of freaked out, but excited at the same time at the possibility of getting a real, concrete diagnosis. I am ready to not be crippled after every ride; I love horses, but the pain is obscene. I shouldn't need to take 3 advil before I ride and then still gimp around for the rest of the day popping painkillers like candy...

Everyone keep your fingers crossed for me!

[LEELEE85]

Tomorrow is my very first appointment with the orthopaedic surgeon. I am so nervous! What if he tells me I'm not fixable? What if he gives me a horrible prognosis?

Sorry, I just needed to get that off my chest. I am kind of freaked out, but excited at the same time at the possibility of getting a real, concrete diagnosis. I am ready to not be crippled after every ride; I love horses, but the pain is obscene. I shouldn't need to take 3 advil before I ride and then still gimp around for the rest of the day popping painkillers like candy...

Everyone keep your fingers crossed for me!

Hi,
Don't be too nervous about it... But i do know how you feel. I was really nervous a couple of months ago cos thats when i first saw my specialist and thats when i was told i needed surgery, i was upset for a while but now its just a relief to know that it has to be done, and im glad to know i will be pain free. What do your curves measure?

Keep in touch and let us know how you go.....

Lee

[Snoopy]

Good luck today. Do you have your list of questions wrote down in the order of importance to you?


Mary Lou

[manatee08]

I just got back from the appointment. I'm a little disappointed, because the place is far away (an hour) and the doctor wasn't even there. They had someone I am assuming was a nurse practitioner look at me. She took some x-rays, but my back was too long for them to get a complete x-ray of. There is a definite curve, but just one... its so strange! Somewhere maybe 6" from my pelvis, my spine just turns right, and keeps going... to the right. All the way to the top. I always thought it would curve back at the top to compensate. She measured my curve (she said it was an unoffical measure b/c she wasn't sure she was measuring correctly??) at somewhere around 17*.

I kept saying that it wasn't the side to side curve I cared about; I can live with pain. It is the front to back curve that is bothering me, b/c it is affecting my life, being a horse show competitor. She kept saying that the front to back curve didn't look that bad... she even suggested that it was just the picture angle, and I was seeing my winging left shoulder blade. Finally I got her to let me get on the computer so I could show her the pictures of me riding where it looks awful. As soon as she saw the pictures and I explained that I even was wearing the Shoulders Back brace in them, she immediately was like, "ah. I definitely see what you are talking about now." But she still didn't take any front to back x-rays... so I dunno about that.

So anywho, the doctor was in surgery this morning, and he is going to look at the x-ray and the pictures when he gets back. I really wish I had gotten to talk to him... bummer that they didn't tell me in advance he was going to be MIA!!

So I don't even know anything more now than when I went this morning, except what my spine currently looks like. I'll post again later when I've spoken with the doctor!

[gayle]

sounds to me like that drs office is unorganized or something if they cant even take a simple x-ray and then after that dont know what they are looking at?have you met the dr yet?

[manatee08]

sounds to me like that drs office is unorganized or something if they cant even take a simple x-ray and then after that dont know what they are looking at?have you met the dr yet?

I hope that they get more organized. The doctor was in surgery, and so he wasn't there at all. So nope, haven't met him.

This just sucks, because not many places take my insurance... the next closest orthopaedic doctor that takes it is almost 2 hours away. I love my school, but sometimes being in the middle of nowhere VA sucks!!

[LindaRacine]

I believe what you're concerned about is kyphosis. If your doctor's office only took xrays from the front or back, and not from the side, you are probably not being seen by a scoliosis specialist. You can find a list of specialists here:

http://www.srs.org/directory/directory.asp

Regards,
Linda

[manatee08]

I believe what you're concerned about is kyphosis. If your doctor's office only took xrays from the front or back, and not from the side, you are probably not being seen by a scoliosis specialist. You can find a list of specialists here:

http://www.srs.org/directory/directory.asp

Regards,
Linda

Thank you so much for this list!!

The doctor's office I went to yesterday called me back this morning. They said that after seeing my photographs (of me riding) and my x-rays, the doctor wants to evaluate me himself.

On one hand, this is a little worrisome, because it indicates that they sometimes let the nurses evaluate and diagnose without the help of the doctor ( ) but at the same time, it's good for me because now I will actually get seen. I have an appointment for next Wednesday afternoon with the actual doctor.

If it doesn't go well, you can bet I will be headed as fast as I can to an actual scoliosis specialist.