Non union rib fracture

[rhillranch]

In September of last year I had a fall off of a horse and broke 5 ribs and my collarbone. I am 60 years old. 4 of my ribs of my ribs were plated and have healed. My collarbone did not and I was scheduled for surgery next week to have a plate put on my collarbone. Upon getting a cat-scan I found out that my second rib had a non-union fracture that did not heal. I've had chronic pain under my shoulder blade and now believe this was the cause. My orthopedic surgeon did not see the problem with the rib and basically said he doesn't do ribs. I did not complain about the pain behind my shoulder blade to the surgeon because I thought it was a knot that would work out . My physical therapist had been working on releasing the knot with no success . Then I see the report that there is still a nonunion fracture . I would like to only have one more surgery instead of doing the scheduled clavicle surgery and have to go back for the rib. My accident was in another state and I don't have access to the doctors who did my rib plating on the other 4 ribs. My question is what kind of doctor do I turn to that would do both surgeries together? I'm going to call my orthopedic surgeon tomorrow but have a feeling he is going to want to wash his hands of the situation. My collar bone surgery is actually scheduled for next Tuesday and I already have done my pre-op tests. I'm also worried that putting the brakes on now will cause a problem with my insurance company.

[Hidden]

To talk is the best thing. When you talk to both the insurance company and the orthpod say ‘help please’ . You want the best outcome. So should they. I get paperwork may affect the outcome. That you may have to go with.

A problem here is that you didn’t express the total sum of symptoms at the time. It’s a common situation. You probably think a skilled physician should have deduced it. They are only as skilled as the time etc allows. Us punters have to help them to help us. Skilled talking on our part! We’ve all done it & you did it for all sorts of reasons eg not to be a nuisance, keep things as simple as possible etc but really it’s a type of denial. You could class as practical denial but you should sort that too.

Why do you want just one operation? Share that with your orthopod etc and see if that’s relevant with your insurance company.

Get talking as soon as possible so you get your choices and can make the right personalised decisions.

Hope that helps.

[rhillranch in reply to Hidden]

Thank you so much for replying. I put a message into the surgeon this morning already . I only wanted one surgery or need to get the whole thing over with as quick as possible. I own and run a horse farm and can't be out of work for that long if possible. It has been affecting the quality of my work for quite some time. I forgot to note that I also had shoulder surgery in March and had just been cleared to go back to riding and working when 3 days later the accident happened. Needless to say my work has suffered and I'm anxious to get back to it. A stream of bad luck. Again thank you.