I'm looking into having my subluxing tendon in my ankle repaired. Does anyone have any opinion on choosing an MD vs a DPM that are both specialized in foot and ankle surgery?
Posts: 11465 | Location: Texas | Registered: January 29, 2003
When I had foot surgery, I was referred by my DPM to a big city doctor (MD) who had done a lot of work on college and professional athletes. I couldn't be happier with the results.
Posts: 5815 | Location: Central Illinois | Registered: March 04, 2001
Originally posted by maxwayne: When I had foot surgery, I was referred by my DPM to a big city doctor (MD) who had done a lot of work on college and professional athletes.
I've had knee surgery and some non-surgical foot and knee treatments. When I was looking for a knee doc and foot doc, I went with the doctors utilized by the large local university's athletics department. I figured if the multi-hundred-million-dollars athletics department trusted their best athletes to them, they were probably pretty darn good. (And luckily both in network with my insurance.)
Going with a "sports medicine" practitioner also helped ensure that they were in the kind of mindset I was after... Fix the problem and get me back in action at 110% ASAP.
Otherwise, especially with joint doctors, you can sometimes run into doctors who specialize more in the late/end of life "just patch them up until they croak" geriatric type of approach.
I had my left ankle fused in 2006. I had three severe ankle sprains prior and managed to be walking bone on bone when I first saw my ortho doc. He gave me three treatment options. 1 - have the ankle fused; 2 - choose a life of pain meds and a wheelchair for the rest of my life; 3 - find another doctor who would perform an ankle replacement surgery. He said I would be back facing option 1 if I went with the replacement. He noted it was designed for little ladies that were not active. I sought a second opinion and the doc said my first was correct of the 2 to 3 years estimate for a second surgery. I ultimately when’s with the first doc. He had done about 100 fusions. I have two screws going in my leg bones and then into the (Talus bone). Plus I had ground cadaver bone and human growth promoter put in between the bones. Good luck.
"I don't shoot well, but I shoot often." - Pres. T. Roosevelt
Posts: 1942 | Location: Chandler, AZ | Registered: June 30, 2010