Problems after ITB Faciatomy Surgery

Bobby said:

I had bilateral surgery a year ago in hopes that I wouldn't suffer from ITB syndrome anymore. I
slowly started to train and all was going well for about the first three months. At this point I
started to get a little pain in my left knee...so I backed off. I was only running 2 miles at a
slow jog...as to not over do it. ... A couple of months of no training and just stretching and
daily walking I start to notice a hard bump under my ITB on my left knee. Over the next 6 months
it grows to about 1/2 the size of a golf ball and is hard. My regular orthopedic doctors have
given me cort. shots, but no improvement. I'm thinking this is scar tissue that has built up, but
not sure. I'm not working for the same company anymore so I can't go to my sports medice surgeon
who performed the surgery.

You must return to the original surgeon, regardless of whether he is covered by your current
insurance network. The surgeon who operated your unique knees is the best one to consider the
consequences of what he did and what might have developed in the aftermath.

In my practice this happens to my patients all the time. They switch insurance, stay with me as
primary care doc, but the network of specialists they can see changes and doesn't include whom
they've worked with for months or years. The surgeon who knows you, your problems, your mechanics,
your anatomy, and your sugical procedure is the one who has the best chance of helping. All the time
I write letters of medical necessity for out-of-plan referral, telling new insurance companies to
approve referral of patients to their old but out-of-network doctors so that patients can get the
best possible chance of success. Insurance companies usually go along with my requests because the
alternative is you farting around with new doctors who don't know you very well, who try a bunch of
expensive but ineffective things, put you on expensive but non-curative temporizing medicines, and
you spend lots of their insurance dollars on doctor visits which don't lead to success. Therefore it
is often in their interest to bend the rules and let you go back to your original doctor, and
unfortunately it takes someone with my authority and letterhead to get them to do so, even though it
is logical and appropriate just from your say-so.

Good luck.

-- Josh Steinberg MD, Syracuse

Josh Steinberg <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Bobby said:

I had bilateral surgery a year ago in hopes that I wouldn't suffer from ITB syndrome anymore. I
slowly started to train and all was going well for about the first three months. At this point I
started to get a little pain in my left knee...so I backed off. I was only running 2 miles at a
slow jog...as to not over do it. ... A couple of months of no training and just stretching and
daily walking I start to notice a hard bump under my ITB on my left knee. Over the next 6 months
it grows to about 1/2 the size of a golf ball and is hard. My regular orthopedic doctors have
given me cort. shots, but no improvement. I'm thinking this is scar tissue that has built up,
but not sure. I'm not working for the same company anymore so I can't go to my sports medice
surgeon who performed the surgery.

You must return to the original surgeon, regardless of whether he is covered by your current
insurance network. The surgeon who operated your unique knees is the best one to consider the
consequences of what he did and what might have developed in the aftermath.

In my practice this happens to my patients all the time. They switch insurance, stay with me as
primary care doc, but the network of specialists they can see changes and doesn't include whom
they've worked with for months or years. The surgeon who knows you, your problems, your mechanics,
your anatomy, and your sugical procedure is the one who has the best chance of helping. All the
time I write letters of medical necessity for out-of-plan referral, telling new insurance
companies to approve referral of patients to their old but out-of-network doctors so that patients
can get the best possible chance of success. Insurance companies usually go along with my requests
because the alternative is you farting around with new doctors who don't know you very well, who
try a bunch of expensive but ineffective things, put you on expensive but non-curative temporizing
medicines, and you spend lots of their insurance dollars on doctor visits which don't lead to
success. Therefore it is often in their interest to bend the rules and let you go back to your
original doctor, and unfortunately it takes someone with my authority and letterhead to get them
to do so, even though it is logical and appropriate just from your say-so.

Good luck.

-- Josh Steinberg MD, Syracuse

Dr. Steinberg,

I appreciate your input and will approach my surgeon with that request and see if he's willing to
write a letter.

By the way, I'm originally from Ithaca and had been a patient of Dr Dehaven's in Rochester when I
was racing motocross. I don't miss the snow up there now that I'm living in Georgia.

Thank you for your input and time, Bobby