More Doctors for Needlenoggin

Always more doctors. :)

On 10/27 I took Needlenoggin to an appointment all the way back down at SCVMC, hoping to get the brace off of him or get him some physical therapy or something. I dropped him off at the appointment, and went the couple of blocks back to the rehab center to order his medical records.

When I got back to his doctor, I found out what probably saddens me the most about his injury. Needlenoggin's memory is gone. Sometimes it is nearly normal, but most of the time he can't remember instructions, directions, a few things on a list, the day of the week, who his doctors are or when he came home from the hospital. He'd half-remembered info to the doctor, and between the staff guessing and the power of suggestion, they'd gotten almost no factual information. I had to go in, correct them, and get referrals so he could get doctors that weren't affiliated with Dr. F.

I DID get to see his discharge paperwork, by the way, and I think I've found out why they didn't want me to have the records. The discharge form says he can do stairs with a lot of assistance, and that he is mentally perfect and has a wonderful memory. Either lies or utter incompetence.

Some cool things, though:


This is his broken wrist.


Here you can see the injury to his vertebrae.


Here you can see the pieces that broke off.


Here's the metal rods in him from his fusion.

I did get him to a PT appointment over at UCSF, and the lady was wonderful. We're now playing phone-tag with the real PT clinic to try and get him an appointment, and trying to get him into a UCSF General Practitioner. Looks like we need a UCSF referral for that (if any of you work there, we could use it!), so it is a process.