Imagine you just injured your knee after lifting and twisting to pick up a box and your physician quickly sends you to a specialist. You go to see the orthopedist and are surprised to hear that you have a meniscus tear and degenerative osteoarthritis. It’s been a week now and your range of motion and strength are slowly improving, but pain is still strong and affecting your daily activities. You worry that if you don’t act soon that you might cause long term damage. The worrier in you starts thinking about playing with your grandkids many years down the road, and what your knee function and strength will be many years from now. 

The surgeon skillfully shows you on the imaging what is causing your pain and how to fix it with a simple procedure. It’s expensive and invasive, but you’ve always been the type to do the best for your health and future. You are convinced a second opinion won’t be helpful since you’ve already had the MRI that showed a tear, and had such personal attention given to you by your doctor who explained it all. So surgery is scheduled and performed. Weeks of bedrest and pain pills later you begin physical therapy. 6-8 weeks after that, you finally finish rehab and are feeling somewhat better. Looking back you can’t believe all this was caused by one wrong twist.

Similar stories happen millions of times every year for a variety of conditions and usually go unquestioned. But what if we told you that nearly every part of the journey of healing this patient experienced should be questioned.

1) You were sent immediately for MRI 
2) The physician was 100% certain that the tear was the cause of pain 
3) The limitations of imaging weren’t described to the patient 
4) The long term outcomes of surgery vs conservative care weren’t described to the patient. 
5) A bought of physical therapy wasn’t performed prior to surgery 
6) The patient assumes that the surgery was helpful in decreasing pain when in reality the 10+ weeks of rest, pain pills, and 6-8 weeks of devoted physical therapy are more likely options. 

BUT…the biggest part of the story that should be questioned, is that the patient didn’t feel like they should get a second opinion. They probably felt it would be too hard, or it wouldn’t be worth the cost, and most generally fear the awkward conversation with their doctor. 

We believe that each chapter in this book will revolutionize the way you view the visit with each of your healthcare providers and quickly change the treatment options proposed to you.