In our continuing series, we’re following a real GBO patient, Gio, from diagnosis all the way through treatment at Great Basin Orthopaedics. Be sure to check back for updates as we follow the journey, which is documented by his mother, Paige.
If you'd like to catch up:
- Find Appointment 1 here.
- Find Appointment 2 here.
Appointment 3: June 10, 2020
Dr. Hayes explained that Gio’s ankle basically had no lateral support (ligaments on both sides torn) and would not get better without surgery. The recovery time would be three months, after which time Gio should be able to do everything he did before. The promise of a full recovery was very reassuring to this mom of a young athlete.
With mom guilt fully engaged, I asked if the ligaments had been damaged back in January with the original ankle turn, or in February during track training, or was it later in March when we went snowboarding and Gio felt something give? Dr. Hayes said there was no way to know — there is no carbon dating for these injuries — and that it didn’t matter. If we’d come in after the initial ankle turn, we would not have jumped to getting an MRI at that point because it presented as a bad sprain. While in retrospect I definitely should have brought him in sooner, the fact is, there were no elective surgeries in March, April and most of May because of COVID-19. It wasn’t the surgeon’s job to make me feel like less of a terrible, neglectful mother, but he did.
Before we left our appointment, we scheduled surgery, got our post-surgery crutches and got our paperwork, including post-surgery pain protocols and prescriptions. After all those months, wham bam, surgery was on.