Which Doctor Should I See After Major Injury, Trauma or Surgery?

[rangerrebew]

Which Doctor Should I See After Major Injury, Trauma or Surgery?
Physiatrists focus on getting and keeping you functional and independent after a tragedy or trauma.

By Elaine K. Howley, Contributor |Feb. 21, 2018, at 10:28 a.m.
 

When U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords flew home to Tucson, Arizona, in January 2011 to conduct a series of town hall meetings, she had no idea how dramatically her life would change during that trip. While giving a speech in a Safeway parking lot, the Democratic House member was shot in the head. Six people were killed in the attack and Giffords, along with 12 others, was critically injured. Although she had survived the assassination attempt, the brain injury Giffords sustained robbed her of the ability to walk, talk, read and write.

https://health.usnews.com/health-care/patient-advice/articles/2018-02-21/which-doctor-should-i-see-after-major-injury-trauma-or-surgery

[Cyber Liberty]

Good questions to be asked.  The specialists doing the work are not necessarily the best diagnosticians.  I needed to have my hips replaced a few years back, and I saw an Orthopod about it when the pain started.  It took me several months of severe and increasing pain before I eventually got to a Pain Specialist who correctly diagnosed the problem, and then he referred me to...the Orthopod I'd been seeing to do the surgeries. 

It was a bit frustrating, to say the least.  Not a rap on the Orthopod, but if I'd have started with the Pain Specialist I would have been spared quite a bit of pain.

[Polly Ticks]

Good questions to be asked.  The specialists doing the work are not necessarily the best diagnosticians.  I needed to have my hips replaced a few years back, and I saw an Orthopod about it when the pain started.  It took me several months of severe and increasing pain before I eventually got to a Pain Specialist who correctly diagnosed the problem, and then he referred me to...the Orthopod I'd been seeing to do the surgeries. 

It was a bit frustrating, to say the least.  Not a rap on the Orthopod, but if I'd have started with the Pain Specialist I would have been spared quite a bit of pain.

Just curious ... did you have to think twice before you went back to the same guy to do the surgery?

[Cyber Liberty]

Just curious ... did you have to think twice before you went back to the same guy to do the surgery?

No.  I had realized by that time I needed to have somebody who specializes in diagnoses.  I was ignorant when I started all this that they were two separate specialties.  Usually your Primary Care Physician identifies the correct specialist to see, but the one I had at the time was an idiot who said I had Lumbago (we've since dumped her and hooked up with an Internist).  It turned out the diagnosis was very unusual, which is why it took a Pain Specialist to diagnose it:  AVascular Necrosis.  My Femur was dying from the inside from lack of circulation, and let me tell you, it hurt like all get-out because the painkillers can't penetrate the bone/blood barrier.  It's unusual for somebody to develop that out of the clear blue sky.  If I had been taking steroids for years to combat Asthma they would have spotted it in an instant.

The surgeon did a really good job (he was highly recommended), and when my second hip went south a year later I recognized the pain, went to the Pain Specialist and had zero surprise when he told me I "had it again, friend."  Instead of suffering for over six months I was in and out of surgery in a few weeks, and recovered in less than a month.  All of this happened at the old age of 52.

[Polly Ticks]

Makes sense.  I'm glad you had a much better experience the second time around, though I'm sure you would have preferred to avoid it altogether.

[Frank Cannon]

I don't think a Which Doctor is a good idea.