First Visit to TOC

Jan 2nd, I called TOC to confirm my appointment time on Monday the 5th at 5pm (or maybe it was 6pm). I was amazed it was so late in the day. My experience with orthopedic doctors was sitting in a waiting room full of people with all kinds of knee, leg, foot, hip problems and waiting long times before you get to see your doctor. I asked if there was any way to see Dr. D on Friday. I said "I would think he'd want to see this as soon as possible. I've had a pretty bad injury to my foot". At first she said no, then she said "Oh, wait, we have an opening today at 3:30. You'll need to be here at 3:15pm." Luckily, hubby was still home on holiday, and so he was able to take me.

The waiting room was not too crowded but we did have to wait a bit. Plus I forgot to take my pain pills with me to the doctor so I could take my next one while I was there. I was taking one pill every 6 hours and was pretty religious about documenting what time I took my meds.

Dr. D's assistant was very gentle with my foot. I thought she was a nurse but came to find out later she wasn't. She is very good but I've forgotten now the title she gave herself.

TOC took x-rays again after finding out that none were sent up from B'ham. I don't know if I was supposed to bring them or not. The x-ray tech took forever to take those same three x-rays that were taken down in B'ham in a heartbeat. Remember I didn't have my pain meds so I was a little impatient and in pain.

So I don't know if they took post-op x-rays in B'ham or not but these new x-rays showed a displaced 2nd metatarsal. From a side view of my foot, the bone protuded up a bit. So Dr. D talked of surgery and putting in a pin but my foot was too swollen at this point. He said it was like a hot dog on the grill and if you cut it open now, you wouldn't be able to put it back together.

This first visit was a bit disturbing. I still didn't realize the severity of my foot injury. I talked of full recovery. He didn't really answer but said it takes 3 months for the bones to heal. He didn't talk a whole lot but kind of stared at my foot, and stared at the x-rays before speaking to me. I think he didn't want to scare me but wanted to point out the positive things. He said "Well, you don't have any breaks in the joints". I also think I was his last patient of the day on a Friday afternoon. Not that time of appt should matter with this ordeal but I felt it played into his response. He did say that if he had done the surgery, he would have put pins in every phalanges. I told him that Dr. B had tried to contact him and he looked really surprised. I somehow think he didn't get the message.

Dr. D ended my visit with his recording the whole visit into his digital voice recorder. I thought this was different, but kind of cool to hear what he says. He's done it every time since so this must be ordinary for him. I've never had any other doctor do this while I was in the room. I figure they leave the room and then do that sort of thing.

I asked his assistant about him. She told me he was really good; that he did his residency at Mayo and went to Duke. He seemed young, new, I had never heard his name, so it sent me to the internet to look him up. Turns out his father is an orthopedic foot and ankle specialist, too.