Broken leg, not a sprained ankle.

The scooter wasn’t even running when I backed it up and locked the front wheel, spilling me to the side and landing the right foot peg and nearly the entire weight of the scooter on my heel, just below my ankle. I thought it was a sprain. Back in grade school I played basketball, baseball, football, soccer, I rode horses a lot (fox hunting mostly) and played lacrosse both in high school and in college.

I have had my share of broken bones and sprains and I was pretty sure this was just a sprain, but after about 10 days, when the swelling and pain did not subside I finally decided I better go see a doctor. My wife had been visiting a local dermatologist, Dr. Maria Lina Fernandez Pimentel, because her acne had gotten out of control after birthing my first born, a boy, back on January 7 (my mother’s birthday). Marissa had been going to a skin care clinic at SM mall but I saw no improvement and insisted she see a real dermatologist MD. Upon asking around, Dr. Pimentel was the top recommendation and after just two visits to her, Marissa showed a tremendous change.

When I started asking about orthopedic doctors, I heard about another Dr. Pimentel, which is the husband of the dermatologist. They share a clinic. He is supposed to be the top-rated orthopedic surgeon in Mindanao. I was really impressed with the quickness and the thoroughness of the way I was treated. After waiting about 20 minutes to see Dr. Pimentel, it only took about 5 minutes until he sent me to xray. 10 minutes later we had the x-ray results. Dr. Pimentel suggested a steel plate and screws since the break was in a high stress area. However, I have broken many bones in the past, when I played sports and this was by far not the worst bone fracture I have suffered. So I suggested just a cast, and promised I would keep the weight of the leg. I am expected to spend 30 to 45 days on crutches.

If I had elected to go the surgical route, which would have been a more robust solution, I would have spend 50% more convalescent time, several days in the hospital and, and my total bill would have been in the PHP 40,000 range. He did require me to go in for weekly x-rays to see how the fracture was healing, and it may be that I will have to go the surgical route if I do not take good care of my leg and keep the weight off.

From my experience with both the Pimentel physicians, I would highly recommend them. First of all, they are related to Senator Pimentel. They have money and are more interested in reputation management than in making a killing from any single patient. They are experts in their fields and I am wholly confident in their abilities as medical doctors.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 1st, 2008 at 13:30 and is filed under Philippines Driving, Philippines Expat Life, Scooters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.