Ortho-Doc needs BOOT in BUTT.

[CMERN]

Bear with me..Im kinda perturbed..

My 17 year old son, 5-11-185lbs..PLays staring fullback and Linebacker ( 1st in county on # of tackles). Never complains, never misses practice has had broken ribs, broken metacarpals took only ibuprofen because I MADE him...well last friday walks of field at end of game with rt arm hanging flaccid. Apposing teams sport med man checks him out says go to ortho--possible A.C. seperation..ok monday went to Primary Doctor he does physical assement ..says take ibuprofen,do not lift or use arm ..I will get your referral to to ortho today...He did.. Went to ortho wed. A.M...My son fills out 3 pages of paper work...on cheif complaint sheet states first pain with R shoulder 3 WEEKS AGO!...and states pain as 8 on 1-10 scale. In to the assment room we go .Doc. does minimal push pull touchy feely assessment and says we need xray...son goes out of room for xray..comes back...docs back in 5 mins...says "oh its a sprained A.C." I had to probe and ask him ..ok can he play..are there exercises,,what about treatment..Guess what the Tu%d said ? Oh what ever he can stand..the mans a joke not a doctor...My son cant lift his freekin arm and doc wont even write a note so he can miss couple practices to let injury rest. I asked my son did doo- doo head do a weighted xray? did you hold a weight in your hand? Son said NO.... So I did MY nurse and MOTHER thingy...I laid it out to the coaches. I put kid in sling, and 1 week off no hitting..... My question is wouldn't a weighted xray show more???? I wont be seeing that doc again :angryfire... ok please forgive my rambling/griping and moaning....Thanks.

[P_RN, ADN, RN]

http://www.medmedia.com/orthoo/43.htm

It sounds as if you have the best plan. A weighted view would help. Also it may need an ultrasound and or MRI. Sometimes an initial exam will be "benign?" and a week or so later something shows. Surely Coach won't risk having him play like that?

I'd pursue this. If your PMD won't help, then check with the medical society. In Atlanta there ought to be literally hundreds of orthopods.

[kids]

Find another ortho!

My youngest (18) has "bad knees": bilateral congenital hypermobile knee joints & hypermoble meniscis...right knee repaired with darts in 99 (failed, awaiting auth for an open repair). His left knee finally gave up last fall. I took him to an ortho that has a very good reputation in our community, he did the eval and said all of my sons knee problems are because he is fat and surgery wouldn't help him and he would need a total knee in a few years, wouldn't even order an MRI. This doc even stated morbidly obese on the kids paperwork. OK, yes, my son is a big boy...6'1' & 250 # BUT he has 11 inch wrists, is 34 inches across the shoulders and wears a size 14 shoe...can we say BIG BONED?

Took him to ortho #2 in the same practice...he didn't bother with an MRI either...said given the boys hx, previous MRIs of both knees and his sx was better to just scope it. So 'we' did...45 minutes after Justin went to surgery the nurse came out and had me sign a consent for an open proceedure (I did). It turned out the poor kid had what had started out as a massive bucket handle tear but had progressed to being torn lose and was wedged. The ortho was able to salvage the piece of meniscus intact and it lined up pretty close so he was able to reattach it, both the medial and lateral tendons also had to be released. 8 weeks of non-weight bearing and 6 months of PT and my boy has a fully functional knee.

BTW, this is my compu-geek kid, he would rather give up eating than even watch a football game let alone play. But he does ride his bike +/- 5 miles per day.