Off topic- orthopedic problems

godzilla
on 11/28/13 7:48 pm - Israel
Years ago I had an ankle fusion.
Then had my RnY in 2006.
My TT 2011;BR/BL 2012.
I work as a private caretaker ( night shift from 11pm thru until 1pm the next day once or twice a week) for a 92 year old woman who lives by her son and his family. The work is somewhat physical in that there is slaking her to the toilet, showering her and dressing her and screwing a board into her bed like a corral.
Recently I noticed my ankle hurting and throbbing for two hours after I walked home from work; both knees and my left shoulder. The orthopedist examined me thoroughly and sent me for X-rays with a flippant comment that most women my age (50) and size have osteoarthritis. I know this orthopedist since 1990 when my daughter had pelvic surgery and I weighed then 120Kilo.
Since then I had Ring (SRVG and VBG) and in 2008 RnY.
I now weigh 78-80 kilo. I am short at 5ft/152cm and I need to still lose weight but as many of us know, the struggle is a struggle.
I returned to the orthopedist with the X-rays and he says no osteoarthritis and to take magnesium (I take sporadically) and to buy rocker bottom shoes. I get disability and if he writes me a script I get a discount. He days he can't. And then he tells me to lose twenty kilo. He did not really address the problem of the pain in my ankle!
I was mortified! I've lost forty kilo. I still need to lose weight however I do not feel it is within his jurisdiction to tell me HOW MUCH I need to lose. That responsibility would be my GP,dietician or surgeon (surgeon days I am fine where I am and that he looks at health and not only numbers.
I filed a complaint against the orthopedist as I strongly feel he could have spoken to me very differently.
I wrote a about this on a Hebrew forum on FB, spilling out my guts and got bashed really badly by some people that I hesitate to express myself anymore.
Am I so very wrong to feel emotionally violated? Was it wrong that I filed a complaint? All I want is an apology and advice on what yo do for the pain - or I will keep a "steady diet" of OxyContin the night after I work.
Mikimi in Israel
Huneypie
on 11/29/13 3:21 am - London, United Kingdom
DS on 07/24/12

Whilst I'm of the absolute belief that self-advocating is important (I've had docs tell me my labs are 'fine' when they're not), the complaint letter is generally my last resort.  I wrote a letter recently, but I had my family review it and they helped me make it nice (I was annoyed) as the main objective was to get the help I needed from my doc. If allowing them to save face was part of achieving that goal then so be it, but taking the time and having others review my letter has actually helped get referred which I needed.

You can always post a paraphrased version of your letter on OH to get some input (maybe not on this forum though) if you don't have people at home that can help.

BTW I may be off course as in the UK we don't 'fire' doctors the way they do in America... I have no idea on how the land lies in Israel, but that's my take.

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View more of my photos at ObesityHelp.comSleeve 2010 Dr López Corvala, Mexico. DS 2012 Dr Himpens, Belgium

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godzilla
on 11/29/13 6:41 am - Israel
I am fed up with feeling Fat Discrimination by the medical establishment! I waited a week as my feelings of being hurt/insulted festered inside of me and felt I had to write a letter of complaint.
I don't want the orthopedist fired; just a type of apology from him and that he look at the whole patient as a human being and not just numbers.
I wrote the letter in Hebrew and asked an Israeli woman waiting her turn to see her GP to read it through to see if I wrote it in respectful manner and if I got my message across.
My feelings aside, what is protocol in is a specialty doctor permitted to tell me how much weight I need.
Mikimi
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