Neck MRI results

[Crankin]

Yup, that is exactly where I am at. I chose a much younger and active primary care doctor and my PT is a cyclist, runner, and x country skier. I was tired of being told to "ride 5 miles" by overweight men, my age, who can't comprehend my lifestyle.

[Pax]

I tried that route, chose a doctor who was team physician for the university basketball team. He treated me like a busted up old lady, no respect, no regard, no interest in my fitness. Very frustrating experience.

[Crankin]

I also eliminated any providers that seemed to treat me a certain way because of my birthdate. I tried to get my good friend's doc, who is younger, but is a runner. He was full, so the one I chose in the same group who seemed to have an emphasis on prevention... I think that a lot of providers are so used to seeing older people in really bad medical shape, that when one of us comes in with a sports/ortho injury, it doesn't register to them that what we do is extremely important for our physical and mental health in many ways. I speak up and let them know, and if they don't get it, I am done.

[OakLeaf]

I tried that route, chose a doctor who was team physician for the university basketball team. He treated me like a busted up old lady, no respect, no regard, no interest in my fitness. Very frustrating experience.

Hmm. My chiropractor "up north" treats varsity athletes at a top-ranked Div 1-A program. My "southern" chiropractor treats a handful of professional athletes (NBA and MLB) as their personal physician in their off-seasons. Never got that kind of vibe from either of them.

Back when I was younger, starting with the knee I sprained when I was 16 and up through the hand injury I had about 10 years ago, I had a whole list of injuries wind up with complications because I followed MDs' advice to rest and stay off it. I'm just pretty much done with them ...

[ny biker]

I find that it's hit or miss in terms of finding doctors who know what to do with a patient who exercises. The exception is my gynecologist, because we both work out with the same personal trainer. Otherwise there seems to be no reliable information available before making the appointment. I was just lucky to find a pulmonologist who is unphased by my activity level. When I had the paralyzed vocal cord problem last year I would have been lost without him, since the ENT I went to had no concept of how to treat an active patient and refused to believe me when I said that it was affecting my ability to breathe when I rode my bike. When I went to an orthopedic surgeon some years back for a knee problem, two days prior to a riding a very hilly century, I was relieved that he said "let's give you something to get you through this weekend" rather than "I'm sorry but you can't do that bike ride" -- when I made the appointment I had no idea how he would treat me.

Great news about the meniscus, Catrin.

[Catrin]

I've been pretty good in recent years at not meeting that attitude, but my PCP is an OD and my chiro specializes in sports medicine. Of course that still doesn't mean they don't look at my birthday, and my chiro DOES remind me that I don't have the neck of a 26 year old. All in all I feel fortunate. So now I'm faced with figuring out how far to push my exercise until we get more information - enough but not too far. I just CAN'T sit on the couch until Feb and however long it takes to get those tests completed.

[Aromig]

I always find the sports medicine people the best. I'm in my mid-40s, work at a professional desk job, and am "curvy" (my nice way of saying overweight) but still really really active. I'm always relieved to find someone who helps me maintain my activity levels, without just having the knee-jerk reaction of saying "don't be so active."

[salsabike]

So one thing I did when I went to see ankle surgeons two years ago about the posterior tibial tendon dysfunction might interest you all, because it's very germane to everyone's concerns. I wrote a one-page summary and asked them to read it before we talked. The summary basically said:

"I have recently been diagnosed with posterior tibial tendon syndrome, stage 1 or early stage 2. My goal in coming here is to get a comprehensive understanding of all of my options for treating this, before it deteriorates further. It is very important to me that I be able to stay as active as I am now....

(description of symptoms, MRI results, etc.)

I am a 60-year-old athlete who is 40 pounds overweight. I have worked very hard to take the weight off, and several times have lost 20-25 lbs., and have gained some of it back. I am very aware of the weight effect on my body, care about it, and work to change it, with variable results. It is just as important for me to say here that I am nonetheless very active and plan to be very active as long as I possibly can until the day I die...

[a list of what I do annually since 2005: ride 2500-3000 miles a year, 8-9 miles hikes with 1500 ft. elevation gain. That I've done 8 sprint triathlons and three Olympics since 2008, and maintained a typical weekly triathlon training schedule with a coach, until this injury in 2014. That from about 1976-1991, I took 6-12 hours of ballet class a week; had to quit because I developed fibromyalgia; took medication for the resulting severe chronic muscle pain that made me gain a huge amount of weight and ended up changing my weight set point, so it is harder to lose and keep off weight now.]

And ending with this:

I can’t imagine not being able to hike and ride, especially...I write this so you will understand that being very active is a huge part of my life and that conversations about posterior tib tendon syndrome treatment need to recognize that as a priority concern of mine. Thanks."

The ankle surgeons I saw--one who is on the Seattle Seahawks' orthopedics team and one who is on the Washington Huskies' orthopedics team--took me very seriously and treated me with respect. I am not sure that would have happened without presenting this letter first.

So...just a tool for you all to think about using when the stakes are high and you're really worried.