Finished My Follow Up Appointment With My Surgeon
[ Thursday August 1st 2024 at 4:42 pm ]
The surgeon I saw today is going to do a referral for me to a surgeon in Ottawa for specialist knee surgery. This is different than knee replac6ement surgery. This is the equivalent to what was done to my hips before they were replaced. It makes sense to me.
In theory the Ottawa surgeon could choose not to operate on me. I don't think this will happen though. It is a surgeon making this recommendation. On the off chance it does there are also options for me in Toronto the surgeon today talked over with me this afternoon. I am confident I am now starting into having knee surgeries.
Neither of my artificial hips are okay. Today's surgeon is positing my hip issues as a result of my knees issues. I agree with having a knee surgery. It makes sense to me that this is the next step. Although if I am honest I think I'd be saying this about any surgery makes sense to me at this inflection point of my life.
I explained to the surgeon today that the thinking of my local hospital emergency department doctor on February 19th 2024. It was for me to have a "young" surgeon on my team that could get to know me and follow me throughout their career until retirement. The surgeon I saw today in willing to assume this responsibility for me. If I ask for an appointment the surgeon today said he will give it to me going forward. He wanted me to be aware of his limits. I already knew what they were. I had wanted to know what I was getting myself into before my initial appointment with this surgeon. I want good communication with my doctors in general. I have no problem with a doctor explaining what they are able to offer me. As well this doctor knows his limits and has demonstrated he is willing do a referral when I am outside of his skill set.
The only hard part from today is that the surgeon wanted me to talk about the pain I am experiencing. I started crying. Not hard though. He wanted to know what it is like to live with when weighing if I should be operated on. This topic was needed. The example the surgeon gave me while asking was if I was only experiencing swelling and if so any type of surgery would likely "do more harm than good".