Do all surgeons have sucky bedside manner?
I went to the orthopedic surgeon yesterday to have him take a look at my heel. I thought that I had just bruised it during a fight at World Championships but that was two months ago and now there is a huge painful lump on the side of my heel. I have testing coming up in September so I am trying to get this treatment fast tracked so I will be able to test. Anyway...
Dr. M comes in and asks what is the problem. I tell him that I hurt my foot in June...blah blah blah. He looks at it, starts to probe it (which HURTS...but he doesn't seemed concerned about me jerking my foot out of his grip every time he touches it...he doesn't even mention it.) Then he starts going on about how I injured the calcanius (guessing on the spelling), how it is probably just a hematoma, blather blather blather. The problem is that he is blathering on in solely medical terms. No layman's, no let's talk in English about what your problem is. I don't know if he was trying to impress me or if he just didn't care if I understood or not. Lucky for me, I spend a lot of time in doctor's offices and I understood every word.
He doesn't know that though.
I KNOW what a hematoma is and I KNOW that the lump on my foot in NOT a hematoma. He says that he is going to send me for an MRI but he says that I will probably just have to wait to let it heal. I take this opportunity to tell him that I am in a lot of pain and boy, do I have a high tolerance for pain. I told him about the time I discovered the lump when I was scuba diving about a month after it happened and I clipped it walking into the surf and about passed out from the pain.
His head popped up and said," Wait, HOW long has this been hurting?"
"Two months," I said (like I had said at the BEGINNING of our conversation.)
He grabs my foot and takes another look and poke (*ouch*) at it and then says that it is most likely broken and I really need an MRI and I will probably be on crutches for six weeks.
Wonderful.
I totally don't want to go back to this guy. But it takes FOREVER to get a referral through my HMO so I am stuck.
*sigh*
I went to the orthopedic surgeon yesterday to have him take a look at my heel. I thought that I had just bruised it during a fight at World Championships but that was two months ago and now there is a huge painful lump on the side of my heel. I have testing coming up in September so I am trying to get this treatment fast tracked so I will be able to test. Anyway...
Dr. M comes in and asks what is the problem. I tell him that I hurt my foot in June...blah blah blah. He looks at it, starts to probe it (which HURTS...but he doesn't seemed concerned about me jerking my foot out of his grip every time he touches it...he doesn't even mention it.) Then he starts going on about how I injured the calcanius (guessing on the spelling), how it is probably just a hematoma, blather blather blather. The problem is that he is blathering on in solely medical terms. No layman's, no let's talk in English about what your problem is. I don't know if he was trying to impress me or if he just didn't care if I understood or not. Lucky for me, I spend a lot of time in doctor's offices and I understood every word.
He doesn't know that though.
I KNOW what a hematoma is and I KNOW that the lump on my foot in NOT a hematoma. He says that he is going to send me for an MRI but he says that I will probably just have to wait to let it heal. I take this opportunity to tell him that I am in a lot of pain and boy, do I have a high tolerance for pain. I told him about the time I discovered the lump when I was scuba diving about a month after it happened and I clipped it walking into the surf and about passed out from the pain.
His head popped up and said," Wait, HOW long has this been hurting?"
"Two months," I said (like I had said at the BEGINNING of our conversation.)
He grabs my foot and takes another look and poke (*ouch*) at it and then says that it is most likely broken and I really need an MRI and I will probably be on crutches for six weeks.
Wonderful.
I totally don't want to go back to this guy. But it takes FOREVER to get a referral through my HMO so I am stuck.
*sigh*
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