Virtual PT

Nobody at the Hospital for Special Surgery holds your hand, that's for sure.  How can they, when everything is done electronically, supplemented by occasional phone calls from people you've never met?

A pleasant HSS representative called to schedule some "virtual" physical therapy prior to my surgery.  She seemed flummoxed when I asked if it would be possible to do it in person.

"You can, but this way the physical therapist will be able to actually see any potential structural problems inside your home."  She also gently let me know that I could use the same portal to pay my outstanding $1,000 bill.  I had opted out of text messaging after getting one too many reminders two months prior to my actual surgery.

"Wouldn't it be better to wait until I've received the necessary surgical pre-clearance from my doctor?"

"Of course," she replied.  "Let me check on the status of that for you when I get off the phone."

It's a good thing she did:  either my doctor's office forgot to do a necessary blood sugar test two weeks earlier, or HSS never ordered it.  I had to go in a second time the next day.  Ms. Zhylinskaya had called that SNAFU right, although the required "MAKO protocol CT scan without contrast" had gone smoothly enough at the Good Samaritan Medical Center across the street from HSS.  I thought this was the pricey out-of-pocket item but the young, light-in-the-loafers technician set me straight.  

"No, Medicare covers the scan, but probably not the robotic arm," he guessed when I elaborated.

 "Don't ever get old," I counseled while putting my pants back on.  

"Are you kidding?" he laughed.  "I broke my tibia in multiple places a couple of years ago in the Dominican Republic."

How?

"I was cliff jumping into the ocean with a girlfriend.  I didn't leap out far enough past the rocks.  It was an 18-foot drop."  He needed somebody like I had in Rio before I went hang gliding.

I wasn't happy about having to wait several minutes before Maddison Dischino, PT, DPT appeared on my screen, mostly because I had been instructed to sign on to the portal ten minutes prior to our appointment.

Ms. Dischino cheerfully explained what to expect after surgery, beginning with two weeks of in-home PT, and the likelihood of PT continuing for another six to eight weeks in a clinic.  She also e-mailed a pamphlet with suggested exercises.

Of course I had questions, first and foremost how my Achilles tendonitis, which had been getting better, might affect my PT.  She recommended that I purchase a "night splint" which I could continue to wear post-surgery so long as someone could help me put it on and take it off.  I ordered one from Amazon immediately.  If I had done my homework, I could have saved myself $25.

When I told Ms. Dischino I was going to be on my own for nearly a week after my home PT ended and asked if would be able to walk to a local clinic for PT, she advised me to limit the distance to 1.5 miles.

For the record, she never asked for a virtual tour of the Folly, perhaps because I already had answered several structural questions on the portal.  Nor did she follow-up on her offer to determine if I would be eligible for virtual PT program through HSS. 

"I'm sorry, I thought my administrative team had gotten back to you," she apologized when I e-mailed her two days later.