We made a little more progress today .... I called the Baylor gait center early this morning and found out the process for scheduling an appointment. They faxed me the paperwork and I faxed it onto my two orthopods & told them they both had to race to get it returned first! The scheduling lady told me that I could likely get in for an appt. w/in the next two weeks. (I was impressed with her helpfulness on the phone)
I was then able to schedule appointments with three foot surgeons for Oct. 9 & 10 and am hoping to fit the gait test in there as well. The fourth doctor that we discussed seeing is out of the country until the end of October, but I can see someone else that works with him. A little more about the Baylor place ....
Baylor Motion and Sports Performance Center
The Baylor Motion and Sports Performance Center uses innovative and highly technical ways to study human movement and determine better ways to perform surgery, recovery and therapy techniques as well as help athletes perfect their sport.
Precise measurements and evaluation of human motion are captured by accurately measuring segment positions, joint rotations, joint forces and subsequent muscular activity with highly specialized equipment.
One of the first laboratories in the world to have the revolutionary new Vicon MX system, The Baylor Motion and Sports Performance Center utilizes 12 MX40 Motion Capture cameras with a high-speed 4.0-million pixel sensor. The cameras record up to 10,000 frames per second using a 10-bit grayscale precision, which allows motion to be captured with superior accuracy, speed and reliability. These cameras record the patient's movement from different angles. The views are then combined and sent to a bank of computers that creates numerical measurements of the movement. These measurements allow doctors to more closely diagnose pain associated with orthopaedic problems. For example, pain felt in the low back during walking may be caused by a problem in the knee or hip. Such close diagnosis can decrease the length of treatment and help to eliminate pain more quickly.
Patients with clinical problems such as sports injuries, cerebral palsy, arthritis, ligament injury, knee and hip replacement, foot and ankle injury, stroke and other disorders are seen in the laboratory so experts can study their movements for motion analysis.
The laboratory is also used for research studies on a variety of musculoskeletal disorders and neurological disorders. Investigators compare the effects of differing surgical techniques, evaluate the long-term effects of specific surgeries and test new bracing techniques, as well as monitor patient progress.
I should have scheduled the gait test first and the dr. appointments around that, but it happened the other way around. Several of these doctors offices were the first places that said they'd fax me something and within minutes it arrived .... just love it when people do what they say!
Hoping that the last piece of the puzzle falls into place tomorrow and we'll be set. Very thankful for having made huge scheduling progress in the past 48 hours and for Dr. P thinking of this state-of-the-art gait lab. We have friends in Dallas, so we are hoping to stay w/someone & avoid the hotel expense.
Love & hugs,
je
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