the 2nd opinion

My fall was on a Thursday, and I saw a doctor the following Monday. I crutched into a back room where a woman removed my cast, and saved it on the back counter for later (they do that? It struck me as peculiar). There's no way I'll need surgery, I thought to myself. "I won't need surgery, right?" I posed to J, a question that was mostly rhetorical. He said probably not - the ER doctor said it was a fracture in my fibula and there was no displacement (whateverthefuck that means). The bone doctor eventually came in after having a look at my x-rays. "Well, you definitely need surgery" he said dryly. A little too dryly for my taste.

He listed the risks of not getting the surgery and scared me a lot - arthritis, the bone never healing at all, blah blah. Then he talked about a big nerve they'd be operating around that controlled my outer foot and that "we know where it is and we'll do our best to avoid it." He asked if I had any questions and I did not. I had no thoughts. Oh wait I had one thought: OMG, I'm on Grey's Anatomy.

Fuck you bone doctor. But ok whatever, I'll get your damn surgery. We scheduled it for 3 days later, a Thursday. The assistant then took my old cast, put it back around my leg, and proceeded to affix it back together with ace bandages. MOST PAINFUL. The days with that pieced together piece of shit were the worst of all - no circulation in my leg or foot and it caused major swelling and bruising. I wasn't thrilled with this doctor or his team.

But guess what I didn't know? People in the medical world get second opinions like women buy tampons: ALL THE DAMN TIME. With my family and their friends on board, they hooked me up with this other dude who specializes in ankles and I went in to see him on Wednesday - the day before my surgery with the lame doc. They took off my oppressive Nazi cast and had me do a CT scan which showed that the fracture was way more complicated than the x-ray had shown (thanks for nothing other doctor for not doing that, wtf). These guys knew more, they talked more, and I dropped the other dude like a bad habit - luckily these new folks fit me in for my original surgery date - the next day. My first surgery ever.