Three and a half friggin years later
The result of:
- The purchase and consumption of 31 medical text books on lower limb orthopaedics, neurology, neuro and spinal surgery and radiology.
- Uncountable subscriptions to medical journals.
- 18 MRIs, 4 CAT scans, 3 XRAY scans, 3 bone scans.
- 12 surgical procedures; 8 to the lower limb, 3 to the lumbar spine. 1 (successfully) minor procedure performed by myself for a medical emergency for which acknowledgement was initially refused and later accepted after surgical extraction of foreign body.
- 29 doctors
- AU$130K (total estimated)
- Having been misdiagnosed by a not-so-clever person named Dr Leigh Atkinson, including the suggestion that my chronic pain is “caused by the holy ghost.” Yes, seriously, he said this — while also in the room with a qualified medical professional (whom he called delusional in the same rant). He also claimed that I did not have Entrapment Neuropathy of SPN when I told him I strongly suspected it. I did — surgically verified by lower limb orthopaedic specialist (November 2009).
- Having been repeatedly told for nearly two years by Dr Michael McEniery, who would threaten to sue me again if I was to call him incompetent or dangerous (even though this might be my genuinely held opinion based on substantiated fact and so he would lose) that I am obsessing about a minor condition, requiring no medical intervention, and that this obsession is because of the athletic demands of myself and my coach.
- Having executed a partially-successful mission to demand immediate medical attention in March 2009 at significant expense.
I have successfully and single-handedly diagnosed:
- Entrapment Neuropathy of the Superficial Peroneal Nerve, 10cm proximal to lateral malleolus (unilateral).
- Foraminal Stenosis of the Fifth Lumbar (L5) Nerve Root (unilateral).
- Spinal instability (Spondylolisthesis) at Fifth Lumbar (L5).
- Withdrawal from morphine and oxycodone after immediate cessation.
These conditions were caused by a single acute sporting injury in July 2007. I have been treated for all.
L4,L5,S1 fusion 15 March 2011
PS: This is why I sometimes demonstrate low tolerance for stupidity and/or failure or refusal to entertain the possibility of thinking. People get hurt. No, I am not sorry.
April 30th, 2011 at 9:51 pm
This would be an interesting story if I had any idea what you are trying to tell me.
April 30th, 2011 at 10:11 pm
yeah like totally
May 2nd, 2011 at 2:47 am
Are you better now? It is unclear whether you just got a diagnosis and started treatment of you have recovered from it.
Also, could you explain more what your symptoms were and how they affected your daily life?
My daughter was misdiagnosed by a specialist even though a test that she ordered had heavily indicated that they should rule out a specific diagnosis. So we lived in hell for 3 more years until we went to another doctor and asked for the results and saw it. She ended up having the suggested problem. The health of my daughter, my wife, and mine suffered from the misdiagnosis.
May 2nd, 2011 at 7:20 am
Hello Hugo, I am 7 weeks post-fusion surgery, which is expected to take about 12 months to recover from. The early signs are very good. Sorry to hear about your daughter. I have formed the opinion that medical specialists are no more equipped to make a medical diagnosis than lay-people. It is too bad that sound epistemological techniques are not taught alongside medical expertise itself. I hope you don’t suffer too much more because of it.
May 3rd, 2011 at 6:18 am
> I have formed the opinion that medical specialists are no more equipped to make a medical diagnosis than lay-people.
Come now, that’s overstating the case, though no doubt you had a bad experience with some of the medics you saw. If you’ve diagnosed yourself in your very specific problem it’s because you’ve spent a lot of time educating yourself in it.
May 3rd, 2011 at 1:07 pm
Jonathan,
I desperately searched for counter-examples to the statement for many years. No such thing was forthcoming to any large extent. I would love for evidence to the contrary; at this moment, anything but my position is overstating the case — wishful thinking.
I visited 29 doctors. I have not alluded to other stories that would blow your mind away. Think programmers denying the most elementary and basic foundations of programming. This form of anti-intellectualism is prominent in our profession. We see it all the time, even from proclaimed experts. A child can surpass this extent of ignorance easily — the same phenomena exists in medicine. I see no reason to believe otherwise and plenty of reason to maintain my current position (which was once similar to yours).
May 20th, 2011 at 11:57 pm
Tony, while not Australian, this podcast from another part of the Commonwealth might interest you:
http://www.cbc.ca/whitecoat/episode/
Especially:
http://www.cbc.ca/whitecoat/episode/2010/08/11/medical-errors-a-list-you-dont-want-to-ignore/
June 7th, 2011 at 10:19 am
It is good to hear.
(Hmm, I sound like a spambot…)
June 18th, 2011 at 7:40 am
I am genuinely happy to read that you’ve finally gotten to the root of this problem.
I do *somewhat* agree with you about the ability of laypeople to come to valid medical conclusions, however I do think that doctors tend to have far more training and exposure to ailments in their specialties which can both help and harm their ability to diagnose. It is ALWAYS a good thing to learn as much as possible about what may be going on with your own body, because your interest in your own health is obviously going to be more than anybody else. I do think the medical profession would be well-served by trying to educate laypeople (as well as being open to questions and dissenting opinions) more than simply passing down diagnoses from some unassailable ivory tower.
Anyway, good luck with your recovery
June 19th, 2011 at 9:01 am
Soulcutter,
I mean this. Lay-people have, to some extent, general abilities to come to determine true facts about the world in which we live. I will call these epistemological skills.
Then there is the skill of medical expertise, itself, where doctors will no doubt have more knowledge and skill.
Unfortunately, the absence of epistemological skill (above a lay-person) nullifies any other expertise. I find a similar phenomena in computer science, however, a medical degree explicitly tests for epistemological skill — perhaps this test has nil efficacy.
We need more research instead of this speculation and bullshitting ourselves.
June 24th, 2011 at 6:06 am
Tony, how was the actual crash, if one?
I’ve locked the front on sand at <20kph, went down with the bike on a side and got the ankle caught under bike somehow. Crashed like this maybe tens of times with no consequence (that also speeks to my brain’s ability to adapt and NOT squeeze the thing as much on sand) but this time it’s been 5 days and I’m still unable to walk…
Most of the pain is now only when putting weight on the foot, in the Medial Malleolus and Tendo Calcaneus, if I read this right
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Gray1239.png
It is most probably “just a sprain” like the doc said, but I remembered your troubles and am doing my homework
thanks,
Razie
June 24th, 2011 at 9:08 am
Crash? This was from an ankle sprain originally. Yeah I’ve locked the front plenty of times, but managed to recover. Here is my first ever video production! http://vimeo.com/24759031
I would strongly recommend getting at least an xray — I’m very surprised your doctor didn’t. Don’t let their complacency become yours.
June 25th, 2011 at 1:44 am
Nice ride! I generally do tight single track (harescrambles)
since we don’t have lots of wide open roads like that, close by.
Oh - I got the XRay
but there’s a lot of soft tissue there and MRIs are hard to get here. I somehow assumed your sprain was bike-related, sorry!
June 25th, 2011 at 7:13 pm
Yeah I normally do single-track, but this was my debut ride post-surgery. They’ve closed off a lot of the tracks in this particular forest for various reasons. During study of medical literature to diagnose myself, I spent a lot of my time mapping out this forest http://osm.org/go/ueGXlHY
January 27th, 2012 at 8:51 pm
hello tony ,
i have anterior ankle impingement syndrome on my r ankle . X ray 18 months ago showed a bone spur on the tibia ( confirmed on 3 d CT scan ) .I had an arthroscopy and removal of spur . !8 months later worse than what i started with . Less dorsiflexion now available before i get pain ( feels like peroneal nerve entrapment . Can you contact me so we can speak , your experience is similar to mine to date and i would like the wisdom of your experience .
My email is info@sydneymyotherapy.com.au
regards
peter