Last winter, while in the great sandbox in the East, Hubby hurt his shoulder. When he came home he went to the doc and had him look at it. The doc listened to hubby, handed him Ibuprofen, and sent him out the door.
The shoulder got worse, so Hubby went back to the doctor. They x-rayed it, saw nothing, handed him more Ibuprofen and sent him out the door again.
This repeated two more times (not the x-ray, just the dismissive treatment they refer to as medical care).
Finally Hubby pitched a fit (a.k.a. asked for a second opinion), so they sent him in for an MRI.
Last Thursday he called for the results, and was told by the doctor that when they saw two tears in his shoulder they stopped looking at it and submitted a referral for him to go to Ortho.
He had his appointment today, and his rotator cuff is almost completely torn (was told there were “only a few strands holding it together”), and the labrum is torn.
The injuries are similar to this.
So, Hubby will be going under the knife. He has an appointment on the 15th to let him know what to expect from the surgery, and what kind of physical therapy he can expect for and during recovery.
To any military doctors that may happen across this… sometimes when a patient says he is in pain, Ibuprofen just won’t cut it. How about it if you actually practice medicine for a change?