Before Your Initial Consultation
We are looking forward to getting to know you and working together on your road to recovery. We understand that coming in for an office visit can be a significant undertaking, requiring you to take time out of your day, away from your family, away from work, and having to deal with traffic and parking. We respect your time, and would like to make your visit as efficient and valuable for you as possible. Please feel free to contact our office by phone or through the online form with any questions.
Symptom history
Being prepared for your consultation will allow us to better understand your shoulder condition and how it is affecting your life. For patients that have dealt with their symptoms for a long time, it can be difficult to recall certain aspects of their condition when asked during a consultation. Therefore, we have prepared a list of the most common questions that our team will ask you at your visit, so that you can think about them at your leisure before your visit.
When did your symptoms begin? Was there an acute event or trauma that led to your symptoms?
When do you experience your symptoms? Is it all the time or does it get worse with certain activities?
Where is most of your pain located?
How would you rate your pain on a scale of 0 to 10? If a normal shoulder was 100% and a completely disabled shoulder was 0%, how would you rate your shoulder overall?
Over the past few months, is your shoulder getting better, staying the same, or getting worse?
What activities for work, sports, and recreation are important to you? How is your shoulder affecting your ability to do these activities?
Treatment History
As a specialized referral practice, our patients have typically had treatment elsewhere prior to consulting with us. It is important to have a detailed record of previous treatments you have had. This includes physical therapy, medications, injections (what type and when), and previous surgery. If you have had prior surgery on your shoulder, please request a copy of your operative report from your surgeon’s office, and bring it to your visit.
Previous imaging
If you have had previous imaging of your shoulder, please reach out to the facility where the imaging was done, and request both the report as well as the actual images on a CD. Please bring this with you to your appointment. This includes X-rays, computed tomography (CT or CAT) scans, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. If you have not had X-rays recently and you are seeing us for the first time, we will likely request a new set of X-rays on the day of your visit.