Originally Posted by wphamilton

I just want to rant about doctors, and I'm old enough to get away with it now. I think.

About 2 months ago I broke my collarbone, about 2 cm separation. The surgeon persuaded me in the "conservative" treatment - just let it heal. 85% of them will heal OK this way they said, and that matched with what I knew about it, but I was concerned that the separation and maybe a cm shortening (overlap) is borderline. But they told me that the real difference was only the first three weeks, where the pinning would allow you to be active, and after 6 weeks you wouldn't see a difference either way. So I was fine with the 85% chance.

So at the orthopedist for the evaluation followup they've overbooked and skip me, and I reschedule for a couple of days later. I call back the next day and find that I wasn't scheduled until the 3-month followup! I at least want an x-ray to see if it's at least approximately normal healing, so I fire that bunch and schedule with another. About 2 months since the accident and no, there isn't any union, no calcium bridging the two bone ends, so that's gotta impact the initial assessment, right? No you still get the same original spiel from a guy who didn't even look at the original x-rays. Except that he gets the percentage wrong (that they thought 10 years ago) and can't tell me details from the current x-ray right in front of him. So asking him what the chances are of this fracture healing, given the status after 2 months, he offers to hook me up with a specialist for a second opinion. But "He'll just tell you to get the ORIF surgery". What? You know that the specialist will disagree with you, but you can't give me any specific reasons why you're right and he's wrong? Yes, a second opinion sounds good please.

So maybe I'll be convinced to get a plate installed after all. But I am sick of one size fits all diagnostics that don't take the actual injury into account. What's the point of the visit and x-rays, if nothing matters? Pain med prescriptions? I don't take them, and that seems to be the only clinical diagnosing going on. You can deal with the pain, so everything is fine, even if you wind up with a malunion or non-union, but if someone's a wuss about it that's a whole different story on how it's healing? That chain of reasoning makes no sense to me.