And the winner is . . .

I realize the world has been waiting with great anticipation to find out who will be the lucky person who gets to operate on my foot.  The suspense is over.  The winner is . . . my new orthopedic surgeon!

I decided to keep the appointment I had made to interview a prominent ortho guy in Houston.  I considered cancelling it after my last meeting with Dr. L, because my confidence in him increased.  But what can I say, I'm a researcher and a label reader at heart. I knew I wouldn't be completely comfortable until I had done all my checking and all my asking.  And in the last few weeks I've had a few people say to me, "You know, podiatrists are not MDs.  They're not 'real doctors.'" While I realize this could be typical medical field snootiness (after all, I prefer my DO to any MD for my regular checkups and visits), I also did some more reading and realized that the training for an orthopedic surgeon is more rigorous.  Long story short: everything about this orthopedist and his practice and the hospital where he operates was top-notch, very impressive.  I liked the way he answered my questions and his philosophy about whether to do a joint replacement or fix the bones that are there.  And when he left the room, his nurse gushed about his skill and expertise.  She said, "He did the president's mother's feet, you know." When I looked quizzically at her, thinking, "Obama's mother had her bunions fixed in Houston???"  She said, "Oh, I mean President Bush, you know."  Oh.  That makes tons more sense.  I didn't take the time to clarify whether he meant Bar, or Bar's mother-in-law.  Anyway, I feel confident going with this doc (to be referred to as Dr. B in this blog), and I went ahead and set a surgery date and time and went upstairs to take care of my pre-op work.  Now I'm dreading telling Dr. L's office, because I still need to go back there in a few weeks and pick up my new orthotics.  But I feel very settled, having the research part done and the decision made, and I feel fortunate to have such a top doc accessible to me for this important surgery.  I'm actually looking forward to getting this done.  The thought of absence of foot pain (after I recover) is a bit mind-blowing, because my feet have hurt for the last two decades.   5 weeks from today . . . gotta figure out how to add a count-down timer to my blog . . . hmmmmmm.
Next post: a video of the surgery I'm scheduled to have.  Not for the faint of heart, but fascinating to me!