Haborview Appointment #2

So we returned to Harborview a month later. I had my standing cat scan done. It was really wired how they do the standing cat scan. If you know anything about a cat scan machine you can't actually stand up, instead they have this strange contraption that they put on the machine table where you would normally lay down and it simulates you standing on your feet. 

Once we finished the CT scan we went upstairs to see the Doctor and find out what the results of the CT Scan. 

This visit was a lot different than our first visit. First of all the Doctor was on time and he did a complete 180. He was polite and actually tired to get to know me as a person instead of just a patient needing his help. He then said that based on the CT results that my ankle was clasping in on itself. He then proceeded to give us three options.

The first option was doing nothing and continue bracing. We took this option off the table very quickly because we knew this would not be a long term option because of the amount of pain I was in before I started wearing my boot again and using crutches.

The second option was ankle fusion. Which would mean that they would fuse my ankle and I would have limited mobility up and down. They prefer to do an ankle fusion because of my having a bad knee.

The third option was an ankle allograft. Which is where they usually take bone from other parts of your body or cadaver parts and rebuild your ankle. 

After the options were presented, we decided that we needed to discuss the different options and do some research, so that we had a better understanding of what the options were.     

Continuing on my ankle journey

As I posted in an earlier post I broke my ankle and had to have everything repaired. Well the ankle journey is still an on going process.

I am now at 8 months of dealing with this problem. I was doing pretty well until I had my screw removal surgery in October and that is when everything changed.

After I had my screws removed I was allowed to start weight barring and getting back to my normal activities. I was doing very well and then I went to a physical therapy appointment and that is when everything changed. I moved on to the balance portion of physical therapy and after the new exercise I really started to hurt. I just figured it was something I hadn't done in several months and that my muscles and tendons were just getting used to working again. However, the pain continued to get worse. My ankle started to hurt worse than when I originally broke it. I went back to using my crutches and back to wearing my boot to help with the pain. I called the doctor and told him what was going on and he said that wasn't normal. So I was sent for x-rays. I found out that something had shifted in my ankle and that was what was causing the pain. I had reached the end of the amount of help that my orthopedist could help me. He sent my to another orthopedist in Kirkland. Brandon and I made the trip over there and the doctor took one look at my x-rays and said that everything had moved a quarter of an inch. He said that the ankle can handle a little bit of shifting but not as much as mine had done. He had only done one of the surgeries required to fix my ankle and thought it would be best to go to UW at Harborview.

We made an appointment and made the trip over to Harborview. It was an awful first experience there. They didn't give me a chance to finish filling out the new patient paperwork. Brandon tired his best to fill out what he could which wasn't much. I also was told that I needed x-rays which was fine but the way that the nurse explained them made both Brandon and I think that I was already supposed to have come with them and that they needed to be standing x-rays. Which concerned me a little bit because I had been told that I wasn't supposed to put any weight on my ankle unless I was in my boot. I had the x-rays and then we sat in the room for almost two hours past my appointment time. Finally the resident came in and talked with us and then she went to talk to the Dr. Well they came back and the doctor was a real grump and asked why we were there. He didn't have a clear picture of what was going on and was more concerned about my A1C than my ankle. He said that I needed to have a standing CT scan and then we would have a follow-up appointment with him to discuss the next steps that needed to be taken. We scheduled the appointment for a month later.

Coming tomorrow will be the 2nd appointment blog entry!