My Orthopedic Visit and Scheduling My Surgery
I called the orthopedic doctor the next day (Thursday) and was able to schedule my appointment for Monday. I went to the Orthopaedic Associates of Central Maryland. This is the biggest team of doctors in one location I have ever met. I went to the back and got my X-rays done within 30-45 minutes of my appointment and my OS was in right after. He confirmed that I had fully torn my achilles and I could go either the operative or non-operative way to repair it. Either way, both meant that finishing this semester will be very difficult but I would rather have a lesser chance of re-rupture in the future so I went with surgery. He informed me that he would be conducting my surgery and that my surgery would be done in the same building at their outpatient ambulatory care center on the floor below. He understood my concerns about school and scheduled my surgery 10:00 AM on that Thursday. He tried to get me in early so I could return to school a little bit faster, as I only had 5 weeks left of school at the time. I’ve never met such an accommodating doctor. He put me in the CAM boot until surgery. He explained that it would be about 10 weeks before I would be back walking on my own again.
There was a slight setback though. I live in PG County, Maryland but I am in school in Baltimore. My Pre-Op paperwork and lab work had to be done before Thursday and my primary care doctor is in PG. She said she could schedule my pre-op physical for Wednesday morning but she wouldn’t be sure if my lab work would be done before Thursday. My mom tried to convince me to just wait until the following week but I couldn’t. My doctor doesn’t do lab work in her office so i would have to get a LabCorp slip and vist a LabCorp location. I was able to get my lab slip on Monday and have it faxed to LabCorp on Monday to have my lab work done on Tuesday. That would guarantee my lab work to be back before Thursday. I felt optimistic about my surgery again until I looked my paperwork and saw that my doctor forgot to order my Coagulation Studies. There was no way my mom could get to the doctors and fax the paperwork again before Thursday. So I lost all hope, again. I decided to try my luck with the Health Center on campus. I called early Tuesday morning after I left LabCorp and told her my situation. And she squeezed me in right when they opened. She did my physical and my blood work and had it done and faxed to the OS within 5 hours. I was so thankful. I was overly excited to get the surgery over with.
