Ankle Surgery

[121212]

I have a question, I was at the VA today to see the doctor about my ankles, I had a MRI on both of them and it came back that anterior talofiblar ligament in both ankles was not visualized and likely chronically torn, along with distal Achilles tendinosis in my left ankle and and a bone spur at the Achilles tendon insertion on the right ankle, there is allso a lot of other small things wrong with the ankle. The question is the doctor told me there was nothing he could do for me, there is a surgery to fix both ankles, but he told me he did not think the VA would pay for it, he said it the kind of surgery a pro basketball player would get, the problem is I am service connected for both ankles because of chronic sprains to the ankles, it seems to me the VA should pay for it, it was done in the military. I just wanted to know who I should talk to about this, to see if they will fix it or not.

Thanks Ken

[hotcoffee2]

service connected for ankle sprains....no brainer. va pays for surgery. would I do it? no. i was maimed by va dpm ankle surgery. i'd have an amputation before i would let them operate. the outcome of amputation is more predictable than va foot ortho or va dpm. sounds like a tendon transfer surgery...the equivalent of brain surgery on your foot.

patti

if you elect to go forward.....make sure the person operating has a strong background in this surgery and plan for allot of non weight bearing recovery time. have one foot done at a time.

I have a question, I was at the VA today to see the doctor about my ankles, I had a MRI on both of them and it came back that anterior talofiblar ligament in both ankles was not visualized and likely chronically torn, along with distal Achilles tendinosis in my left ankle and and a bone spur at the Achilles tendon insertion on the right ankle, there is allso a lot of other small things wrong with the ankle. The question is the doctor told me there was nothing he could do for me, there is a surgery to fix both ankles, but he told me he did not think the VA would pay for it, he said it the kind of surgery a pro basketball player would get, the problem is I am service connected for both ankles because of chronic sprains to the ankles, it seems to me the VA should pay for it, it was done in the military. I just wanted to know who I should talk to about this, to see if they will fix it or not.

Thanks Ken

[Pete53]

I would be very careful about any VA surgery.

[121212]

Thanks for the Help. I thought they should pay for it.

THANKS KEN

[Pete53]

Anytime the surgery is elective and not due to an emergency situation I think its best to get it approved first.

[john999]

I second Pete's warning about surgery at the VA. I say it even stronger for anything to do with your feet. If they mess it up you can be in a wheelchair. They can really make a mess of foot surgery anywhere. I have foot problems and I would not let them operate on my feet unless I had a compound fracture. I would look at every single option before I let anyone cut on my ankles or feet. You could have a very long recovery (one year) if you let them do surgery on your feet.

[121212]

I would like to thank everybody for all the help they gave me, about the the question i had about my ankles, I called the hospital and talked with the patient advocate and she talked with the doctor and I got a second opinion, the new doc said that my ankles are really bad and needed to be repaired, and I am being sent to little rock ar,I have had surgery there before and had no problems with it. I thank the first doctor got in a little trouble for telling me the VA would not pay for my surgery, again I wanted to thank everybody for the help.

Thanks Ken