I swear we just lived through an episode of “House”…but first, a quick overview of our strategy:
Since the Super-Doctor is in St. Louis, we decided to pull our RV to a family member’s house that was sort of, kind of on the way. It was at least south and would save us something like 3 hours of driving – net/net. Plus, she agreed to watch our kids while we attended the doctors appointment.
If we got good news, we would keep rolling south. Bad news, we’d either stay until surgery, head home, or keep going south and take a flight to St. Louis.
Anyhow:
So we had the appointment for Karissa’s nerve issue in her shoulder at one of the 2 pre-eminent doctors in the country for this issue. Her Google reviews were either 5 stars or 1 star. Her Grad Student came in to start the appointment with a few tests. He was normal enough and said Super-Doc would be right in. Well, she comes in in a flurry of conversation with her Grad Student and two others. They discuss the findings without much of a word to Karissa. Then comes in another lady who introduces herself as the Physical Therapist who’s on the Super-Doc team. She and the Super-Doc quickly get into an argument and make Karissa do a few movements without anything other than commands to Karissa. They say Karissa needs to re-do the test she had done locally with their specialists and leave the room in another flurry.
I had to hold up my jaw and stop from laughing – it was exactly how an episode of “House” would go.
We walked next door to get the test and returned to Super-Doc. With the door open a crack, we hear Super-Doc ask her team what they’d do with the new and old data to treat Karissa. She tells them to hold back their opinion for now. They walk in and Super-Doc prompts them for their answer. Both the Physical Therapist and Grad Student say “surgery”. Super-Doc says she’s never done this particular surgery. After a little talk about “super-charging” nerves, Super-Doc reveals her opinion – NO SURGERY! She wants to see Karissa again in 6 weeks, but the big takeaway is that their testing revealed modest nerve life that shouldn’t be there if the nerve was dead. We’re so happy that surgery isn’t needed right now and will resume our road-trip!