So - in August (over a year after the initial injury) I went for yet again another set of x-rays. Took them back to my primary doc and viola! an OCD lesion was confirmed!!!
Seems that actually, the OCD lesion was noted by the radiologist back a year earlier (9/08) but that the clinic docs never chose to tell me, or do anything about it. I guess in their defense, I have had two orthopedic surgeons tell me that "sometimes" OCD lesions resolve "on their own" - so waiting it out is not inappropriate.
I went to see an orthopedic surgeon in late October. He looked at the x-rays and we talked about the injury. He wanted me to have a CT scan to get more information on it all. So - that's what I did.
In November, I had a CT scan of the ankle and took the results back to the surgeon. Apparently, what he saw in the scan was significant and he wanted to send me to NYC for the "top doc" to do the surgery as he no longer did surgeries. I asked him about someone more local (NYC is 30 miles away - a daily commute for a lot of people around here - but I didn't think I wanted to ride home on the commuter train after surgery and I really had no one to take me there). He was very supportive and said he would write letters on my behalf to the insurance for an out of network doc to do the surgery if I needed it.
I called another surgeon and his office never got back to me.
With the holiday rush and the start of my coaching season, time got away from me and before I knew it, the new year was upon us....and with it, a letter from my insurance carrier that they were no longer doing Family Care and I needed to select another HMO....thankfully, I didn't have to start the whole process all over.
Once I chose a new HMO and got my cards and provider list, I was able to find two seeming adequate to good orthopedic surgeons. I contacted my primary (who was in the new plan - so yippee!!) and while he didn't know either practice, he agreed with my gut feeling about who to go with.
A full physical with my primary last week and his wishes for success with my ankle - brings us finished with the history lesson and ready to move at present day.
Since this has started (the ankle, not the blog) there have been good days, ok days and really miserable days. This past weekend was a pretty ankle miserable weekend - as was the week and weekend before and before that as well....
The pain and the swelling seem to be my constant companions. There are more nights than not when I can't even find a comfortable place to lay my foot/ankle and sleep is difficult to come by....anymore now, I don't even have to be doing much of anything vigorous....last weekend at guard com petition, I stepped onto the floor to help the kids get their equipment off and almost went down because the pain was so sharp and so intense. I was almost in tears and the kids all saw and were concerned.
But - I push through. Its like at church when someone asks why I still wear heels - my ankle hurts whether I'm in heels or in flats, in shoes or barefoot...if its going to hurt anyway, I might was well look good while I'm in pain....same with walking - it hurts to walk, but it also hurts when I don't walk - so I might as well do something positive...nothing is to be gained by sitting and moping about it...no one will give me sympathy...so grin and bear it is what I do....
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