What's to chat about?

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

I've always been of the opinion, if given the choice between the extremes... I'd much rather sweat than freeze.

I'd rather cold than hot. When it's cold you can add enough clothing to stay comfortable, and it doesn't interfere with being active. When it's hot you can only take off so much, and any activity can be totally draining.

[Bruce Weldy]

Anyway... some like a long read, some don't. You're welcome and I'm sorry. LOL

It was something I really kneeded to read....

[Bruce Weldy]

I've always been of the opinion, if given the choice between the extremes... I'd much rather sweat than freeze.

I'd rather cold than hot. When it's cold you can add enough clothing to stay comfortable, and it doesn't interfere with being active. When it's hot you can only take off so much, and any activity can be totally draining.

Agreed.....I like Texas in the winter, but not so much between May and October....

[Seth]

It was something I really kneeded to read....

I see what you did there. You're such a punny guy.

Seriously though, if you found something in there that you found helpful, I'm glad.

I'm the only guy I know of that's had issues with replacements. Everyone else that I've spoken with is tickled pink with the results. I wouldn't let my experience sway your decision. But, there are obviously some less than perfect results out there in the world. Feel free to ask anything you're curious about. Public or PM, call, text, email... I'm happy to contribute to your decision process Bruce.

[Bruce Weldy]

I'm happy to contribute to your decision process Bruce.

My knees are all fine......left, right, wee...

My biggest decision is whether to have the guys in the white coats bring me chocolate or vanilla pudding....with my lithium.....

[Seth]

I'm happy to contribute to your decision process Bruce.

My knees are all fine......left, right, wee...

My biggest decision is whether to have the guys in the white coats bring me chocolate or vanilla pudding....with my lithium.....

Too funny. Thanks for the chuckle Bruce

[Radian]

Welcome home Bryan. Bottoms up.

Wow Seth...helluva a read. Hope it heals the right way this time around. That's big medicine to be able to stomach watching that procedure on yourself.

[Seth]

Doc just left. We're going to go in again tomorrow night. Something's not right with the patella and it's swelling and bleeding more than it should be at this point in the game. Probably just a quick fix. Not too big of a deal.

[Tom Smit]

Seth, wishing you good final results with your knee.

I can tolerate heat, and I don't mind the cold as long as I am dressed for it. Where I live is right between Great Lakes and the humidity can make the heat hotter (because the sweat doesn't evaporate and cool you off), or make the cold colder (because the heat leaves you and travels faster through the moisture).

[Grant Bunter]

Interesting read. I know exactly what you're talking about Seth.

I'm not doing it now, and am pretty proud of my experience, but many of my years in life have been spent in the OR, as a specialist in Orthopaedics joint replacement, joint revision as the "scrub", and also as an advisor for a large multinational Orthopeadic Company to surgeons doing all types of joint, revision joint, and trauma surgery.
I don't need an app to read CT's or xrays lol.
I was a founding member as a nurse in the OR of an open heart surgery team newly established in the 90's, because of my expertise in Vascular and Thoracic surgery.
I also spent many hours at a time assisting plastic surgeons with reimplantation of digits on hands, the end results of being DIY's like ourselves who got a bit carried away with the circular saw.

So, if anyone else ever wants other advice, please don't hesitate to PM me.
Caveat. Anything I tell you is not medical advice.

So, good luck with recovery from your patella tracking issue and the revision surgery as well. Having been through it before, you already know best results are obtained from early efforts once everything is "right"...

[Bryan Cox]

Hope you guys are well

Glad to hear it went well and I sincerely hope you're back on your feet sooner than later. And with any luck, you won't have to have more surgery. You gotta get back to the super light DR200 build. I've been foaming at the mouth to see what you end up with. Take care!

[Seth]

Interesting read. I know exactly what you're talking about Seth.

I'm not doing it now, and am pretty proud of my experience, but many of my years in life have been spent in the OR, as a specialist in Orthopaedics joint replacement, joint revision as the "scrub", and also as an advisor for a large multinational Orthopeadic Company to surgeons doing all types of joint, revision joint, and trauma surgery.
I don't need an app to read CT's or xrays lol.
I was a founding member as a nurse in the OR of an open heart surgery team newly established in the 90's, because of my expertise in Vascular and Thoracic surgery.
I also spent many hours at a time assisting plastic surgeons with reimplantation of digits on hands, the end results of being DIY's like ourselves who got a bit carried away with the circular saw.

So, if anyone else ever wants other advice, please don't hesitate to PM me.
Caveat. Anything I tell you is not medical advice.

So, good luck with recovery from your patella tracking issue and the revision surgery as well. Having been through it before, you already know best results are obtained from early efforts once everything is "right"...

Grant, I know it wasn't your intention, but I'm impressed! What a fabulous history you have. Thanks for sharing that.

Obviously, all the CT's now-a-days are digital format and impossible to read without the correct software/app. But, I understand what you're saying... you know what you're looking at. To my eye, I could easily see the area that was painful looked different than the surrounding areas and was clearly a wedge shape. The doctor acknowledged that he saw it too, but said he didn't see anything that concerned him. I'll post up a screen shot for you to look at when I get home in a couple weeks and see what you think. The tool in the viewing program indicated the bone density with a numeric value that I was able to cross-reference to what healthy bone should measure and what condition different values indicated. The report for the 2nd CT was supposed to written with contrast to the previous CT report, which acknowledged the non-union. I asked for the doctor to request a second report from the radiologist lab that included the comparison in the report... they essentially just reworded the same thing they wrote in their initial report. Insufficient IMO. I'm going to be climbing up someone's back side at that radiology office.

Sometimes I get the feeling that the Workers Compensation Insurance company has a slight influence on what is and isn't reported, or what a doctor is or isn't to reveal. There's just been a few too many "weird" things in this process... one doctor (Chiropractor actually) was trying to bait me into accepting an offer to refer me to another doctor he "knew of" that writes prescriptions for 100qty of high dosage hydrocodone pain pills, all I wanted was an adjustment to help alleviate some back pain. Another orthopedic surgeon I went to for my knees just wanted to take x-rays of every part of my body and assess my prescription drugs for 2 visits (was only Celebrex and Lipitor) then said he doesn't work on knees. What??? He was a weirdo anyway. But still, too strange of occurrences for me to be ignorant of the possibility that the insurance company isn't pulling some manipulative strings behind the scenes and possibly censoring the information that's being reported/admitted.

In any case, things are moving along and getting taken care of finally. So, I'm gonna try to focus on that and be grateful.

[Seth]

You gotta get back to the super light DR200 build. I've been foaming at the mouth to see what you end up with. Take care!

Me too! I can't wait to see how light they turn out to be and how far off the advertised response and sensitivity they come out to be with the different driver and slight construction modifications. My guess is, performance won't be too far off and weight should come is somewhere near what is quoted for the J12Lite, empty cab weight of 20lb, plus driver, crossovers, accessories. Could put me really close to 25 pounds per cab.

If I can carry two in one hand and get sufficient output powered with a 150 watt amp channel... I'll be very pleased.

[Grant Bunter]

...isn't pulling some manipulative strings behind the scenes and possibly censoring the information that's being reported/admitted.

No, I don't live in the USA, and our legal system is different, so all I will say in that regard is this:
Informed consent means you should be informed. Informed to your own level of satisfaction, such that the information you have received leaves you in a position to make an informed decision to consent to proceed. Unfortunately, if you didn't fully understand at the time, and/or didn't ask the right questions (and let's face it, to ask the right questions, you would need to be an Orthopod when it comes to Orthopaedics) at that time, then, since you signed, the onus would be on you to somehow prove otherwise.
What I wrote above is in keeping with what is here:
https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-car ... ed-consent

Another observation is this.
Over time, all fields of surgery have progressed into sub group specialisation. So yes, there are orthopods who don't do knees as an example.
They may specialise in hips. Or feet. And so on.

That's where you might hear "I don't do knees, but I'll refer you to Dr such and such who specialises in knees"...

[Seth]

...isn't pulling some manipulative strings behind the scenes and possibly censoring the information that's being reported/admitted.

No, I don't live in the USA, and our legal system is different, so all I will say in that regard is this:
Informed consent means you should be informed. Informed to your own level of satisfaction, such that the information you have received leaves you in a position to make an informed decision to consent to proceed. Unfortunately, if you didn't fully understand at the time, and/or didn't ask the right questions (and let's face it, to ask the right questions, you would need to be an Orthopod when it comes to Orthopaedics) at that time, then, since you signed, the onus would be on you to somehow prove otherwise.
What I wrote above is in keeping with what is here:
https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-car ... ed-consent

Another observation is this.
Over time, all fields of surgery have progressed into sub group specialisation. So yes, there are orthopods who don't do knees as an example.
They may specialise in hips. Or feet. And so on.

That's where you might hear "I don't do knees, but I'll refer you to Dr such and such who specialises in knees"...

Thanks for the insight Grant. I'm pretty sure our legal systems are close enough. But really, I'm not interested in any legal action or proving anything. I would, however, like to chat with the manager at the radiologist office though, and see what he/she has to say about the report they provided (twice) that so strongly stated how well the bone was healed, when in fact, it wasn't even close. It could simply be a case of a lazy review by an employee that needs to be let go/replaced. I'm more interested in doing the right thing and following up to prevent the same "mistake" from being made with someone else who's in a more critical situation. The last thing I want to do is take on a victim mentality. Just wanna fix my stuff and move on.

Still, those other weird interactions that I mentioned were just too bazar to ignore/forget.

I still find myself being so impressed with your experience in this field, Grant. The surgeons assistant that worked across from him was awesome. His mannerism, professionalism, and sense of humor was so well suited for the situation and job at hand. I can totally see you doing that job well.