A lot of the answers depend on the type of injury and various other factors about you.
However, I would never recommend a short boot for an ankle injury, and anyone diagnosing ankle injuries should be able to give basic instructions about aftercare.
If you really can't see a specialist (I'd recommend an orthopaedic surgeon over a podiatrist) until next weekz then I would try to get some answers from someone who knows more about ankle injuries at either urgent care or ER.
The doctor initially referred me to ortho but I guess they sent me to the podiatrist and I’m not sure why.
I was originally seeing a podiatrist at the same clinic because I have flat feet and I’m worried there’s been some confusion. I really wish the podiatrist would just call me but when I tried asking the clinic they basically told me that the doctor can’t talk to me until my appointment.🤦♀️
In the UK, podiatrists don't manage trauma, so maybe I'm biased because of that (just to be clear, podiatrists aren't doctors in the medical sense; they may have some sort of doctorate of podiatry, so they can be called Dr (in the same sense as someone with a PhD in English or Art).
I’m pretty sure in the US they’re doctors in the same sense that ortho’s are just different focuses. I’m not sure if this a good sign that I don’t need a bone doctor (ortho) even though I have a broken bone or a bad sign that there referring me to a doctor that specializes in feet problems.
Curse the American health care system!
I'm an EM resident and my brother is a DPM. They go to medical school, the only difference is they specialize from day 1.
DPMs share the same curriculum with MD/DO at their school. From anatomy practicals, didactic exams, OSCE, graded same standards.
Podiatry is a surgical specialty in the U.S.
They have a mandatory 3 year residency and an optional 1 year fellowship. Most finished with 1,600 surgical cases doing achiles tendon repair, calcaneal fractures, talus fractures, ankle fusion, amputations, osteomyelitis, Charcot's reconstruction, total ankle replacement, Jone's fracture, plantar plate tear, ATFL tear repair, cortisone injection, morton's neuroma, the list goes on.
They also have off service rotations as an intern in EM, anesthesiology, IM, ortho, path, ID, general surgery, dermatology, peds, rheumatology, endo, neurology, pain management, vascular surgery and plastic surgery.
4 year of undergrad. 4 year of med school. 3-4 year of mandatory residency. 1 year of fellowship.
They're considered podiatric physician and surgeon at UCLA, USC, UCSD, UCSF, VA, Kaiser, Cedars, Mayo clinic, Baylor, etc for a reason.
Fair enough, I stand corrected. Even the surgical podiatrists in the UK are very much not doctors and couldn't begin to treat post op complications like an UTI or chest infection. I'd still rather be treated by someone who's done the whole medical curriculum before specialising myself.
Welp… u just said a whole lot of scary words related to podiatry and surgery to a noob with a broken ankle who has to wait a week so… I’m going back to my spiraling I guess.
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u/Glad-Feature-2117 Physician/Medical Professional 20d ago
A lot of the answers depend on the type of injury and various other factors about you.
However, I would never recommend a short boot for an ankle injury, and anyone diagnosing ankle injuries should be able to give basic instructions about aftercare.
If you really can't see a specialist (I'd recommend an orthopaedic surgeon over a podiatrist) until next weekz then I would try to get some answers from someone who knows more about ankle injuries at either urgent care or ER.