saw the OS today....

[Grace]

Well, i went to the OS this morning and skipped my first class of the day....it was so nice not to have to walk to the bio annex in the middle of no where in the middle of a huge campus.
Anyway...i think today proved something to me, that i can't continue on with this OS.  I just felt so unsatisfied when i left.  He told me i had ugly legs (gee thanx doc) and that i needed to build muscle and try and get my kneecap back in line (this i knew).
I told him about all the pain i am having with my "good" knee and he just ignored it. i told him i wanted to get it taken care of before its 6 years down the road and i am in the same place with the left that i am with the right knee.
So i think i am going to stop seeing the OS all together.  He does me no good and aggrivates me.  I am really tired of being frustrated and in pain.  Why pay this guy to do me nothing?
I am going to go back to PT for a little while, as it seems i have finally made some headway with the therapist.  
The next thing i have to think about is that i am going back to the other university in the spring and my fiance and i have opted for me to live in a dorm (save money, although i'll miss my apartment).  The dorm i will live in has no elevator!!! and the first floor does not have rooms....it has a gym and comp lab and washateria, etc.
How do you guys at college deal with that sort of thing?
I will not be able to get therapy there, etc.

Just frustrated and upset....ususally are after a trip to the OS....his name is Dr. Strange...rather call him doctor do-nothing!

anyway, i just needed to vent and stuff.  Hope all are having a good day....rain stopped and its beautiful but hot.  

                                 hugs all around - Gracie

[Iona_-Uk]

Grace!

Haven't "seen" you around here for ages!.

Great OS you have there, very flattering, attentive etc etc, joke isn't it how these people actually pass the entrace interview to med school?.

I know I've said it before Grace and I will say it again, to some other poor sould whose posts have the misfortune to cathc my eye, please, if you are unhappy with the OS, get a second, third, fourth opinion.

I just wish I had followed my own advice sooner!, It really was the best thing I had ever done.

Dr's always state the obvious and frsutrating as it maybe, it just helps to know they do actually know what they are doing- we hope- but grace- don't put up with this any more than you have too and be firm with the dr's, they hate it but it does make them sit up and take notice.

I know it feels like a giant rabbit run, keeping going back and forth to surgeon and take a break from them if you need to- I did that- for 2.5 years, and it was a quite good in a way as I learnt various ways to manage my knee pain, learnt but didn't always work for me.

You say you are going to a new campus and are living in, is it the stairs that will be the real prob or is it being away from your appt?, stairs can be challenged, i still hate stairs but cope because I have to, just take things steady and don't care if you hold everyone up!.

At then end of the day grace- i can give you all the advice you want but you will know what is right for you becauseit is in your heart- talk to your parents, fiancee, freinds and get their advice as well but do what you think is right.

take care
Iona

[Helen]

Sack him Gracie. Mine is as bad, so I know how frustrating it can be to go in with questions and come out without anwers. Find yourself a new one. Post on the site to see if anyone can recommend a good one.

Is the move to the dorms going to make your life harder or miserable? Or will you benefit from the company of other students. I couldnt have lived on campus, but then again, Im an oldie with a rather large family!!

Keep smiling and posting. Me n my elephant leg (Jake's name for my legs...mummy leg and elephant leg) are getting divorced!!

Time for kiddies to go to bed...yay!
Helen

[Grace]

It is not the moving to a dorm and leaving the apartment that will be so bad.  I grew up in house of 9 kids, i am the eigth.  I moved out cause i needed to be in a population controlled enviroment!  LOL!  And leaving la familia behind is no biggie....its only about 45 minutes to an hour away.  My prob is being stuck on the second, third, fourth.....all the way up to 6th floor.  I still cannot handle a flight of stairs.  i can't even look at stairs without bursting into tears!!  Another issue is that there is no physical therapy center there and i am hoping i can get all this taken care of (realignment and my "good" knee).  There is one hospital out there too.  Here we have about 6.  Just seems like a bad idea when you add together how clumsy i am (grace is really my middle name but i am called grace because i am less than graceful....that started when i was like 7).

I am serious about not seeing any OS at all anymore.  I was recommended to see an OS in the same building...Dr. Kilroy....just don't want to have to deal anymore.

It is a good idea to take a break.  i don't know about 2.5 years, but may a semester or two.  I do want to get all of this taken care of before my wedding.

I know i cant come here all the time and ask for advice....it just takes me time to act on it.  I really don't have a clue what to do....i guess ican just take it one day at a time and handle it all to the best of my ability.

Thanx for the insight!                                     - Grace -

[wendy]

Grace,

I ended up on the fifth floor in college. My building did have an elevator, but you usually spent 1/2 an hour waiting for it to arrive. I remember one night we had a fire drill. It just so hapened to be the night after I had my knee scoped. It was great fun trying to manage the stairs with about 500 other girls trying to get out behind me. It was hard, but I did manage. As I have told others one of my magers was Recreation. All our classes were in the Arena building. It was an old building and had no elevator. The classes were on the second floor which was rreally equivalent to the third floor of most buildings. I would get to the building about 1 1/2 - 2 hours before class just to get up there. I know it was very difficult but I seemed tto manage it.

Good luck and take a deep breath.

Wendy

[chica_2626]

I feel ya on the stairs issue!!  Those are still the worst for me, especially now that I'm back in school.  Of course I'm still in high school and not college, but high school kids can get quite impatient with someone who is slow on the stairs.  School has been rather brutal to my knee and I feel like I am moving backwards now.  It's frustrating but I keep trying.  I've finally just started gritting my teeth and going faster on the stairs but I am about in tears by the time I get to my next bell.  But I'm really upset at everything cause if I'm slow on the stairs I'll usually end up getting pushed by people going faster than me which hurts my knee or if I go up at normal speed, I am ready to die before I get to my class.  Which then it's hard to concentrate cause I can't think of anything but the pain!  So it's a lose-lose situation pretty much!  On the OS situation I would get another one.  And not someone in the same building...when I switched I was referred to someone else in the building but we wanted a completely new opinion.  And I'm glad...my first OS was kinda like well maybe we could try this I don't know what would really help you.  His excuse was he didn't want to limit me and take the time out of my life when I am only 16.  I was already really limited and was going to stay that way if some action wasn't taken so I finally asked my therapist.  And I went to the top OS in the city, he is the OS for the Cincinnati Bengals and everythingf and he came in and looked at me and could immediately see that a LR was the solution and couldn't believe I had waited so long and put up with PT for so long.  I mean it was the completely opposite ends of the spectrum the other one was like well I'm not really sure how well that would work blah blah blah.  So yeah I'm definitely rambling but I would switch doctors if I was you!

[Grace]

Well, the PT i am trying to trust (beginning to trust) reccomends the guy in the building nest to his office....so i am gonna check out if he is on board with my health insurance and if so i will go see him.

I hopped on line and checked the residential housing thing at the school and got a number for the faculty memeber who regulates housing.  She said with medical forms filled out and a letter from my OS, etc I maybe able to get into their Academic year housing which is like an apartment at the edge of campus that has first floor housing and you don't have to follow a lot of the rules they do in regular dorms....thing is its academic year, so they don't move out between semesters and get reassigned like the other dorms.  There are only 27 spots available and its gonna be hard for me to get in unless by some other students misfortune, a tenant gets kicked out for one reason or another. And it will cost more...but thats okay.
So i have hope!
Thanx for the messages!  I know i will have to tough out whatever comes to me.....butisn't it nice to dream that they will make some kind of special accomidation for us (like build an elevator into a 77 year old historical building used for classes??).
thanx again and ya'll all have a good night!
                                                                        -Gracie-