Treatment too conservative?
I am reading many comments as well as some other methods of treatment and am wondering if my doctor is being too conservative on my treatment. I am 3 weeks post surgery today. I have had my first splint / cast removed with a new fiberglass cast put on. This cast will be removed on January 13th at which time, I will have the “Boot” put on. Since it is my right ATR, the Doc won’t let me start to drive for another 5 weeks. Since I am just starting to learn as much as I can about ATR’s, does my treatment plan sound typical? I would like to hear your thoughts.
Hope everyone had a great Christmas and Hanukkuh with their crutches / boots.
December 26th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
Brutus, there’s no prize for following a “typical” treatment plan. Esp. in ATR treatment, where most Docs still do what their med-school professor or first “attending” showed them several decades ago.
The object (IMHO) is to emulate the fastest and most patient-convenient protocol that’s been tested rigorously, and has been found to produce excellent results, following your kind of initial treatment (esp. op or non-op).
For most patients, I think that’s pretty close to the UWO protocol at bit.ly/UWOProtocol, but opinions can vary around it. But since it produced great results with and without surgery, I think the burden of proof is on anybody who suggests going much more slowly. Faster may also work well, esp. for post-op, though I don’t think it’s been widely demonstrated in a study, with conventional surgery.