Some of you know that Cody's back has been bothering him. He finally got an appointment with a back specialist at UPMC and he's on his way to feeling better (hopefully), but I digress. I'll keep you posted on his back progress.
Since his back's been hurt, he hasn't been able to physically practice with the lacrosse team but he goes to practice every day. Last Sunday, he was heading to the locker room and he got hit in the face with a stray lacrosse ball. He came home and I took him to a Med Express. They said they weren't sure whether or not his nose was broken but to go see a Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor.
We went to a ENT in Greensburg on Friday and was told it was broken. He had three options- do nothing (which the doctor said wasn't the answer), have an inter office procedure done where they will straighten the broken bones, or third, have surgery, what was to best option according to the doctor. This ENT, a Dr Klingensmith, was the most socially awkward person I've ever met. He spoke with his eyes closed. He never answered our questions and acted like we were wasting his time asking questions. Cody and I left the appointment totally confused, knowing that we had no confidence in this man. So we decided on a second opinion.
We realized that we had a limited time period to make a decision since the bones were healing, making any procedures more difficult.
So before the second doctor appointment, we told Cody not to eat or drink anything for several hours before in case they would do the surgery that day.
Our second doctor, sat down, made eye contact with us and asked questions. He asked if Cody's nose bled when it was hit, if it turned black and blue and if it looks crooked. Cody answered no to 2 of the 3 questions. Before reviewing the xrays, he said that he didn;t think it was broke. After looking at the xrays, he said that it was definitely not broke. We were shocked. He showed us the xrays to confirm his opinion.
So here we were, anticipating the worse and that Cody would be having some sort of procedure done. If we had not gone for a second opinion, Cody would have been having surgery with a 4 week recovery. What would the fist doctor had said when the surgery team was supposed to be repairing a nose, and it was perfectly fine!!!
We asked the second doctor and he said, (very PC), that he couldn't second guess another doctors opinion.
So as a consumer, what do you do??? Joe thought we should contact the first doctor's office manager and complain. Someone told me we should contact our insurance company and complain about him.
Not sure what we are doing to do --- I'm just glad Cody didn't have to suffer through an unnecessary surgery.
Until next time, when I continue the rantings and ravings of a (now happily, overprotective, asks lots of questions) mom of an
American Dream Family.....
So glad to here Cody's back is on the mend. What a shame about his nose. It really is scarey. We have many friends that we have meet through Jackie's riding team that are in the Healthcare field. The Drs. have said that healthcare is just going to get worse. Many of them will be retiring early(within the next year or two). They have taken jobs as coroners or teaching. The Government and insurance companies are guiding how Drs. have to do their job. God bless us as we get older with more ailments. See you next week.
ReplyDeleteI don't know as a society what we will do about health care. Hopefully young pre-doctors like matt u will help fill the void. What concerns me is that when we chose our doctors (pc,, oo/gyn), we chose doctors younger and closer to our age. Like you said, when these doctors start retiring, what will we do? In the age of mediocracy, we need more intense doctors.
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