Most of the morning was spent getting ready to leave town at 1pm for our 3 o’clock doctor appointment. We were stuck on the highway for about 20 minutes while they were scaling some rocks (taking them down) in one section near Georgetown. We arrived just before 3 and after 20 minutes of paperwork, we were taken back to a room.
First off, the same as last time, Dr. Corenman’s assistant doctor comes in and does an exam which consists of an interview, some new x-rays, and checking the misses neck and back out physically. While waiting I was reading Dr. Corenman’s book on the back and spine that is written for other doctors. It happened to be lying on the counter. Eric, (Dr. Corenman’s assistant doctor) remembered us from our last visit and we shared some stories about our boys. After 30 minutes with him, Don (Dr. C) came in. He talked to us about the whole story since the injury to date, performed some tests on the misses, read through her history and manipulated her neck in different ways. Both doctors kept coming and going looking at x-rays and the mri we brought with us with his 2 nurses. We had 4 people 100% dedicated to the misses and her issues for 3 hours! The mri we brought from workmans comp was, according to Eric, horrible. He said Dr.C wasn’t going to be happy when he saw this. That must be why they took about a half a dozen x-rays. Without going into all the details, we now have a clear complete understanding of where the misses is at and what to do, step by step, to get her problem solved. We’ll start with more injections, this time in the proper place, hopefully Monday in Summit County which is about 30 minutes closer drive for us than Vail. If that doesn’t work, then some kind of epidermal that does something and if that doesn’t work, then some procedure where they inflate each disc to see or do something. Now if option 1 does work, then we also have some options there such as burning or cauterizing the end of the nerves so the misses will have no pain. The headaches could also stop all together with injections in the proper place. Lots going on. The good news is, for as bad as the misses neck is, she has no neck pain! She is in for some lifestyle changes though, as from this day forward, no impact activities like running. We also need to sell or trade in our road bikes (the ones like ten speeds where you’re hunched over) for mountain bikes where the misses will be more upright. We also need a new bed (agggh $$$$) and she should use only a thin pillow. Swimming, biking and the elliptical are all good as is hiking and walking. It all comes down to genetics for the misses and her discs and surrounding tissues. We asked if workmans comp will try to say this was pre-exisiting to get out of paying and Dr. C said that he has her records from a few years ago and can prove that it’s not. He said he’s in court all the time and not to worry about it as he’d handle it.
We walked out, with the misses headache up a bit, but this was intentional through the manipulation so they could isolate and determine the actual source of her pain. So while she was a bit sore, we finally have some answers and a sense of relief that we now know exactly what is going on and have a plan on how to fix it. Lucky that I decided to pay out of network on my own a few years ago to go see Dr C or he wouldn’t have the records to validate that this is not pre-exisiting and was caused by their treatment on the misses. Also lucky that I had met Don at the first wine dinner I ever did in this business and have stayed friends for the past 11 years. Of course we took him and Eric a few bottles of wine as usual.
Say what you will about medical care in this country but there’s a big difference out there. In all the previous appointments we’ve had over the past 3 months, the most any doctor spent diagnosing the misses was about 10 minutes! As I said earlier, we had a team of top doctors and nurses totally focused and dedicated only to her for 3 hours! It’s frustrating to know that if the system allowed it, (meaning people didn’t have to be rushed in and out), and if all doctors were as educated and cared as much as these guys did, we could have been a lot further down the road to recovery sooner than we are now. This has nothing to do with health care for everyone but rather the health care system that forces doctors to get through so many patients in a day to get paid. Excessive malpractice insurance costs and regulations are the root of the problem, not the fact that everyone doesn’t have free care, at least according to the doctors. I knew this was the right thing to do (getting her up to see Dr. Corenman) as we can finally see some light at the end of the tunnel.
Time for me to get to the gym so I have to run but the misses can tell you more when you talk with her. Thanks to Uncle T and Aunt B for helping with the boys again! We couldn’t have gone to all the docs this week without your help.
Take care,