Post-op care locally after surgery at Mayo?

@amywood20 Only your surgeon can answer if you need to do surgical followups at Mayo, so you may want to ask that when you speak with someone about scheduling. I have had 2 surgeries at Mayo Rochester, cervical spine surgery 4 years ago and orthopedic surgery for a broken ankle just a few weeks ago. With my spine surgery, it was not necessary to come back to Mayo for every followup, until the one year followup, but I liked coming back there. There was a 6 week, and a 3 month followup. The 3 month was done remotely by mailing in X rays. My physical therapist was sending updates. With my orthopedic ankle surgery, I need to return for each follow up. That involves removing the splint/cast at 2 weeks and removing stitches, and in my next follow up, removing the fiberglass cast. My spine surgeon used dissolving stitches, making return to Mayo optional. The orthopedic surgeon used nylon stitches, and return is essential to remove those and place new support dressings for the ankle. I would expect a shoulder surgery might be similar and need a return. Shoulders need to be assessed for proper movement and a surgeon would want to know how that is progressing. One thing I would also ask is if they can evaluate you for thoracic outlet syndrome which is more common among spine injury patients. That is a neck/shoulder problem and I had that along with my spine problem with a collapsed disc. It creates overlap in pain symptoms, and you can have both as sources of symptoms. That is misunderstood by a lot of doctors, but Mayo is a good place to have that evaluated and that was part of my original evaluation to figure out where most of my symptoms were coming from. If you had spine surgery, and TOS was missed, you would likely still have the arm pain. I had carpal tunnel surgery and TOS was missed for a long time. My experience with recovery from spine surgery also caused my neck and shoulders to tighten up making pain a bit worse until physical therapy could be done, and my therapist did a lot of myofascial release to break up the fascial surgical scar tissue. Here is some info on MFR. It may be able to help you.

I could have found a local surgeon to operate on my ankle, but I didn't want to go to an urban medical center in a COVID hotspot, and I had concerns about infection rates at some of the smaller local hospitals and I didn't have enough information to know which surgeons were better than others. I knew if I came back to Mayo, I would have a really good surgeon and I would be in good hands, and I felt a lot safer at Mayo with the COVID precautions. It cost just a little more, because of lodging, but I think that's worth it for a better qaulity of care and healing. I contacted my spine neurosurgeon and asked is recommendation, and I'm grateful that I can ask that because of the good relationship I have with him and with everyone at Mayo. It matters to me to know that I could trust my care to world class surgeons, and I stop stressing about finding a good one on my own.

Jump to this post

@jenniferhunter So sorry about your ankle! I really wish Mayo was closer, as I love the care I receive there. If the winters weren't so harsh in Minnesota, we might consider moving there. LOL. I suspect I may end up there for this shoulder/spine stuff, as I know they will be able to figure it out.

Jump to this post

@jolinda Thanks for the info and congrats on a successful PKD surgery. In terms of the estradiol/estrogen, none of my medical professionals here seemed to know about that. I was on HRT for three years before learning from others I should not be taking it. I stopped it on my own July 2019. Went to Mayo in October and the PKD/PLD specialists were shocked that my family practice doc, OB/GYN, nephrologist and liver specialist had no clue. Last month I did do a telemedicine appointment with an OB/GYN at Mayo because after six years of not having a period (am not on birth control) and lab work indicating I am post menopause, I have started bleeding again. In my discussion I did mention to the Mayo OB/GYN about my PKD/PLD and the estrogen issue. She wanted to put me on Premarin cream, noting due to how it is administered, it should not be an issue compared to an oral pill. She was concerned about bone health. I have another call with her at the end of the month to go over new lab work she had me do here locally.

Jump to this post