Having a surgery is a big deal. Depending on the person and the surgery, it can quite literally change their entire life or can be as simple as a week or two off. As conservative healthcare providers, our jobs are to help people NOT have surgery or recover without surgery, but there are unfortunate times when it is the best or only option. Unfortunately, it's a lot easier to make a decision when the injury is quite traumatic, such as a very broken ankle, unhappy triad (ACL, Medial Meniscus, and MCL), or severe neurological dysfunction.
The part that gets hard is when someone is stuck in the middle. It's not serious or traumatic enough to absolutely need surgery, but the pain or injury may still be affecting your physical abilities or lifestyle. So, how does one make a decision on what to do? Here's how we provide information to patients so that they can ultimately make the best decision for themselves.
- How does this affect your life moving forward and your lifestyle?
- Are you able to get the help you need following the surgery?
How does getting surgery or not affect your life moving forward? Well, let's start by giving you an example. We have a patient who is a high-level Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitor who also runs and operates a martial arts school. He is the owner of this school and his livelihood depends on his physical abilities. In addition, his career as a BJJ athlete is still in his prime. Unfortunately, he recently tore his biceps tendon completely and came to us for guidance.
His initial reaction was that he did NOT want to get the surgery because it was not painful and he still had mild strength in the arm. To make matters more difficult, this patient did not have health insurance either so the first question was "how much do you think surgery is?" Understandably that is an important question, however, we further discussed the lifestyle implications if he did not elect to do surgery. This included if he would be able to compete in BJJ tournaments or not, the risk of injuring other parts of the arm or shoulder because of the lack of strength, and if he would be able to perform his daily physical activities at work.
This was tailored towards HIS lifestyle. We understood his BJJ career was very important and made sure he understood the risks of not being able to compete at such a high-level because of how important it is to have strength in the arms. BUT we helped him understand that if he was a 50-year old male who worked at a desk and never worked out and the financial stress was too much, he would be perfectly fine in life without getting the surgery.
The biggest lesson is helping the patient understand they have to weigh the pros and cons to determine how their lifestyle is affected and if they are okay with those choices regardless of the financial implications. A hard thing to decide, but with the right team of people working with you to help provide guidance, the decision becomes easier.
Now, if this was a mild tear and it was possible to completely rehab without surgery, that would 99% of the time be our recommendation. It may take some time and effort, but it would be worth it.
On to the second question, are you able to get the help you need after the surgery?
What we mean here is do you have a support system around you to help after surgery? Is someone there to help you around the house? To help you eat or shower? How about driving you to and from places? Or will you have to Uber everywhere? These are all questions most don't think about when considering surgery.
For example, we had a patient tear their Achilles tendon. One of the first questions I asked was if it was left or right. They were quite confused but I helped them understand a left lower-body injury versus a right is a much bigger deal. Why? Because of driving! This patient is a father of 2 young kids, cannot work from home, and has to be able to go places for work. Imagine how much harder their life would be without being able to drive for 2-3 months following surgery. Also, could you imagine the cost of having to Uber everywhere or have everything delivered to you?
How about if it's just you? We had a middle-aged patient who had no spouse, no kids, no family and was newer to the area, so they hadn't made any friends. What happens at home when they need to go to the bathroom but can barely move? How about showering without help?
Finally, what happens if you don't have health insurance but need aggressive PT and just have to pay thousands of dollars for a surgery? How will you pay for your rehab? How will you get to your rehab?
These are all but a short list of unfortunate things that occur for some when considering surgeries but are important aspects to address!
For us, our goal is to help people not get surgery, but when it's best for their lifestyle and their circumstances, it's important we help provide the right guidance in these situations to make their life as easy as possible to make the best decision for THEM!
If you're looking for doctors that will do everything in their power to help you and whom you can trust, Strength & Spine Chiropractic is the office for you. Schedule your free discovery visit today at strengthchiro.com
-Dr. Cameron Gholampour
