Karl E Epstein MD

I developed bursitis on my right elbow and it swelled with fliud and I went to this doctor and he was already talking about doing surgery even though this was a one time bursitis incident and not a chronic situation.

According to him the surgery was a very minor surgery, but I was in my early twenties at the time (young & naive) and I did not bother to research my condition or get another doctors opinion so I agreed to have the surgery and I ended up with a big 6 inch scar.

Twenty two years later after the surgery my elbow has never healed 100% and the doctors I've spoken to have suggested that I should never have agreed to have the surgery because if the bursitis was not chronic my elbow would have returned back to normal after a few days or weeks of fluid draining and medication.

Several years after the surgery on my right elbow my other elbow (left) swelled up with fliud and this time I went to a rheumatologist and he drained the fliud and gave me some medication and told me that with due time my left elbow bursitis would be ok and the swelling would go down.

The rheumatologist doctor was correct, the swelling went down and I've never had a problem with my left elbow since that one time flare up, which was over eight years ago.

My warning to others and the life long teaching that I learnt from this experience, watch out, your surgery might not be necessary, do some research and get as many different opinions as possible, because even a monor surgery can mess you up for the rest of your life and it's even worse when you get the news later that your surgery was not necessary.