Currently feeling good, however it gets sore much more easily than before. So as expected. The only problem I have had (now that I think about it) is that the exercises that I have been given to do require you to be lying down. I haven't been in good places to lie down of late and have so forgotten to do them.
Well I think it is time to go to bed and do another set of the given exercises.
Showing posts with label Knee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Knee. Show all posts
Sunday, 13 May 2007
Friday, 11 May 2007
Meeting the Surgeon 4, Post Op
I have been cut.
They took out a piece of meniscus about 25mm long and tapering from 10mm-5mm. I had two sorts of tare, a bucket handle and a radial. Basically I had done a really good job on hurting myself.
I have permission to do all tolerable activity, which at the moment is not much, and I meet up with him again on the 22nd.
I did get onto Robert also and he had no problem with Phil, I still have a problem with his receptionist, she is useless. It took her 5 hours to get a message back to me that took 10 seconds to ask! This is how the conversation should have gone;
"Robert do you remember A Shi who had the knee problem, your recommended Al Burns to him however the was a mix up and he got booked in with Dr Alburn. A Shi wants to know, would you recommend Dr Albrun for the surgery?"
"No I have no problem with that."
"Thanks I'll let him know."
She could have elaborated on how crap she is to not be able to book an appointment with the correct surgeon, but she didn't need to.
All's well that ends well though and now all I have to do is wait for the bills to roll in!
I should get some pictures of the surgery, if I can I will post them for sure!
Ciao!
They took out a piece of meniscus about 25mm long and tapering from 10mm-5mm. I had two sorts of tare, a bucket handle and a radial. Basically I had done a really good job on hurting myself.
I have permission to do all tolerable activity, which at the moment is not much, and I meet up with him again on the 22nd.
I did get onto Robert also and he had no problem with Phil, I still have a problem with his receptionist, she is useless. It took her 5 hours to get a message back to me that took 10 seconds to ask! This is how the conversation should have gone;
"Robert do you remember A Shi who had the knee problem, your recommended Al Burns to him however the was a mix up and he got booked in with Dr Alburn. A Shi wants to know, would you recommend Dr Albrun for the surgery?"
"No I have no problem with that."
"Thanks I'll let him know."
She could have elaborated on how crap she is to not be able to book an appointment with the correct surgeon, but she didn't need to.
All's well that ends well though and now all I have to do is wait for the bills to roll in!
I should get some pictures of the surgery, if I can I will post them for sure!
Ciao!
Sunday, 6 May 2007
Meeting the Surgeon 3, Doule take
"I'm sorry which surgeon do you have a booking with?"
"The wrong one, so I need to get some clarification from my doctor, do you think you can contact my doctor for me?"
"certainly, which doctor was that?"
"Dr Robert Still"
"We don't have a surgeon by that name, did you have an appointment with him here?"
"No, I am sorry, he is the doctor who recommended me to one of the surgeons that is here. I need to contact him regarding his referral."
"Oh, I see, and what was the problem with the referral?"
"Well, I am booked into see the wrong surgeon, so that the problem"
"Oh and you wan't to contact Dr Still and talk to him?"
"If that is ok."
"That should be fine I will put a call through to his office." Handing me the phone.
I was hoping here that they might break into the Dr's list of after hours contact hours once they got the recorded message, but as I had not properly heard the message I also wanted to check what it said.
"It appears that their offices are closed, do you have another number?"
"No sorry so what would you like to do?"
"I don't know? When is the next appointment for Dr Alan Burn?"
"We won't be able to get you in until..." to long " would that suit?"
"Not really, can you give me some information about Dr Alburn?"
Turns out he does happen to be a knee surgeon and apparently he is equally recommended by Robert. The only think that they couldn't tell me is why Robert might recommend Alexander over Phil. Which is all I really wanted to know. If they could say that the waiting list for Alexander was shorter than for Phil, I would have something to go off, but they would not commit to anything. This made it very difficult to decide what to do from here.
Options:
1) Tell them to cancel until I have had a chance to talk to my Robert,
2) Book another appointment with the correct doctor,
3) See this doctor and hope he seemed capable. Check with Robert on Monday
1) I didn't want to wait to get another appointment, I had to wait two month's for this appointment.
2) The wait was still too long for this option
3) Was I going to waste $140.00 on a quack?
As I was going to be able to cancel anything that was booked (even though it would cost $140 for the pleasure) I went ahead with 3.
Dr Phil Alburn, he turned out to be fairly decent, he was able to give me answers where I had questions, even to why was Alexander recommended instead of him, he guessed it was a numbers thing, according to him, Robert recommends %50 each way. Didn't seem unlikely, as I didn't have a particularly difficult case according to Robert. He also assured me that I could change at any stage if I needed (which I didn't want to) as it was no skin off his nose, he would not want to perform surgery on someone who was not confidant of his ability.
So I booked the surgery, for the next week (much to my delight) and started filling out forms.
Several hours later...
NIB "What do you mean my insurance doesn't cover this operation."
Hospital "How much?"
Hospital "upfront..."
Hospital "no medicare rebate!"
Public system option "wait how long?"
Several hours later...
after calculations "I can afford it without insurance, go ahead and book it all in."
白龙在下 "I will put in $1000..."
2 days later...
Hospital "What do you mean that you missed something on your earlier quote? How could you miss something that costs $1500"
Anesthesiologist "But I told you that there were two possibilities in duration and you said they were the same cost!"
Several hours later...
Surgeon "So I get 6 weeks to pay..."
Anesthesiologist "So I get 6 weeks to pay..."
Assistant "So I get 6 weeks to pay..."
"See you Thursday!"
Tuesday morning,
Hospital "So I will be refunded for all services I don't use..."
-----I think I will actually be able to afford it-----
(provided I do not get the most expensive option, but that is out of my control)
"The wrong one, so I need to get some clarification from my doctor, do you think you can contact my doctor for me?"
"certainly, which doctor was that?"
"Dr Robert Still"
"We don't have a surgeon by that name, did you have an appointment with him here?"
"No, I am sorry, he is the doctor who recommended me to one of the surgeons that is here. I need to contact him regarding his referral."
"Oh, I see, and what was the problem with the referral?"
"Well, I am booked into see the wrong surgeon, so that the problem"
"Oh and you wan't to contact Dr Still and talk to him?"
"If that is ok."
"That should be fine I will put a call through to his office." Handing me the phone.
I was hoping here that they might break into the Dr's list of after hours contact hours once they got the recorded message, but as I had not properly heard the message I also wanted to check what it said.
"It appears that their offices are closed, do you have another number?"
"No sorry so what would you like to do?"
"I don't know? When is the next appointment for Dr Alan Burn?"
"We won't be able to get you in until..." to long " would that suit?"
"Not really, can you give me some information about Dr Alburn?"
Turns out he does happen to be a knee surgeon and apparently he is equally recommended by Robert. The only think that they couldn't tell me is why Robert might recommend Alexander over Phil. Which is all I really wanted to know. If they could say that the waiting list for Alexander was shorter than for Phil, I would have something to go off, but they would not commit to anything. This made it very difficult to decide what to do from here.
Options:
1) Tell them to cancel until I have had a chance to talk to my Robert,
2) Book another appointment with the correct doctor,
3) See this doctor and hope he seemed capable. Check with Robert on Monday
1) I didn't want to wait to get another appointment, I had to wait two month's for this appointment.
2) The wait was still too long for this option
3) Was I going to waste $140.00 on a quack?
As I was going to be able to cancel anything that was booked (even though it would cost $140 for the pleasure) I went ahead with 3.
Dr Phil Alburn, he turned out to be fairly decent, he was able to give me answers where I had questions, even to why was Alexander recommended instead of him, he guessed it was a numbers thing, according to him, Robert recommends %50 each way. Didn't seem unlikely, as I didn't have a particularly difficult case according to Robert. He also assured me that I could change at any stage if I needed (which I didn't want to) as it was no skin off his nose, he would not want to perform surgery on someone who was not confidant of his ability.
So I booked the surgery, for the next week (much to my delight) and started filling out forms.
Several hours later...
NIB "What do you mean my insurance doesn't cover this operation."
Hospital "How much?"
Hospital "upfront..."
Hospital "no medicare rebate!"
Public system option "wait how long?"
Several hours later...
after calculations "I can afford it without insurance, go ahead and book it all in."
白龙在下 "I will put in $1000..."
2 days later...
Hospital "What do you mean that you missed something on your earlier quote? How could you miss something that costs $1500"
Anesthesiologist "But I told you that there were two possibilities in duration and you said they were the same cost!"
Several hours later...
Surgeon "So I get 6 weeks to pay..."
Anesthesiologist "So I get 6 weeks to pay..."
Assistant "So I get 6 weeks to pay..."
"See you Thursday!"
Tuesday morning,
Hospital "So I will be refunded for all services I don't use..."
-----I think I will actually be able to afford it-----
(provided I do not get the most expensive option, but that is out of my control)
Thursday, 3 May 2007
Meeting the Surgeon 1, Dr Who???
This didn't seem like too difficult a task at first. Go there, set a date, fill out some forms, leave. This was not to be. I last posted when it was time to leave, I decided to call ahead to check if the clinic was running on time, as I have known there to be four hour waits.
I called the number on the card that I had and I was transfered to another area of the hospital, the to the reception of the surgeon who I was supposed to meet, then I was told that he didn't have an appointment with me. I said that was interesting as I had been told I had an appointment with him. The booking was made by my doctor's receptionist, surely she would be able to make an appointment, it was her job! NO. They then went into their computer to find where my appoint was, I didn't have the surgeon that I thought I had. I It turns out that she had made an appointment, it was with another surgeon in the same clinic she got one part right. She was supposed to and understood (proof of which is in the card she gave me with his name) that she was to make a booking for Dr Alexander (aka Alan, aka Al) Burns, what she did was make an appointment with Phil Alburn. Who has the same name if you slur Al Burns and don't pronounce the "s". Same thing you ask? Not when he is going to cut you open and play at removing/repairing your knee. So, due to not having received the letter of confirmation that I was supposed to get, (probably due to my house being a mail black hole) I found out 15 minutes before my appointment that I had the wrong surgeon booked to look at my knee. As you might imagine, I had a couple of questions. Who was Dr Alburn? The latest and greatest thing in post industrial art? Probably not due to his working in a surgery clinic, but was he going to cut open my knee and try to put in a new hip!
It turns out that he was a knee surgeon who has approximately as much experience as the doctor who was recommended from the same clinic. But I still wanted to know why then I was not recommended him by my doctor (formerly a knee surgeon in Canberra and quite good) was this surgeon crap, for want of another word, is his experience meaningless because he is comparatively a blithering idiot compared to the surgeon that I was recommended? I thought on my way in I would risk a fine and talk to my doctor. Good plan, that was until I get this message, "you have reached... Our office is closed until... thank you for your call...". This made me even happier that I decided to risk the fine of talking on my mobile while driving to get the information. It meant that I was closer to the answer every second that I was on the road.
Having informed the surgery that I was going to be late due to checking my appointment, I wasn't worried about time, I was worried about other things.
I called the number on the card that I had and I was transfered to another area of the hospital, the to the reception of the surgeon who I was supposed to meet, then I was told that he didn't have an appointment with me. I said that was interesting as I had been told I had an appointment with him. The booking was made by my doctor's receptionist, surely she would be able to make an appointment, it was her job! NO. They then went into their computer to find where my appoint was, I didn't have the surgeon that I thought I had. I It turns out that she had made an appointment, it was with another surgeon in the same clinic she got one part right. She was supposed to and understood (proof of which is in the card she gave me with his name) that she was to make a booking for Dr Alexander (aka Alan, aka Al) Burns, what she did was make an appointment with Phil Alburn. Who has the same name if you slur Al Burns and don't pronounce the "s". Same thing you ask? Not when he is going to cut you open and play at removing/repairing your knee. So, due to not having received the letter of confirmation that I was supposed to get, (probably due to my house being a mail black hole) I found out 15 minutes before my appointment that I had the wrong surgeon booked to look at my knee. As you might imagine, I had a couple of questions. Who was Dr Alburn? The latest and greatest thing in post industrial art? Probably not due to his working in a surgery clinic, but was he going to cut open my knee and try to put in a new hip!
It turns out that he was a knee surgeon who has approximately as much experience as the doctor who was recommended from the same clinic. But I still wanted to know why then I was not recommended him by my doctor (formerly a knee surgeon in Canberra and quite good) was this surgeon crap, for want of another word, is his experience meaningless because he is comparatively a blithering idiot compared to the surgeon that I was recommended? I thought on my way in I would risk a fine and talk to my doctor. Good plan, that was until I get this message, "you have reached... Our office is closed until... thank you for your call...". This made me even happier that I decided to risk the fine of talking on my mobile while driving to get the information. It meant that I was closer to the answer every second that I was on the road.
Having informed the surgery that I was going to be late due to checking my appointment, I wasn't worried about time, I was worried about other things.
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