2021 Surgery of Femur Greece GNail Giotikas

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Hey guys, I’m here in Greece. On Saturday it’s going to be one month. Thank G-d all is good. I do have some pain in different places but they pass. Anyways back to business.

Here all the patients know each other and are very friendly.
After this unfortunate incident the doctor prescribed Xarelto for everyone for another 8 days.
Meaning instead of 16 days now it’s 24 days. (He tells you to keep two for the flight back so total 26 tablets)

Regarding the chief nurse. She told me a few times that she told the patient “P” not to fast, plus the day before this accident happened she told him he looks pale and he needs a check up and to rest.
Please remember just the week before he had the flu.

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Quote from: LU213 on November 25, 2021, 08:19:09 PMThe chief nurse dressed in tight spandex pants and low cut, short and tight shirts.  I prefer to have a skilled nurse that dresses in a professional manner than one that dresses provocatively. I did not find her to be highly skilled in communications and for that reason I would not let her come to my airbnb to help for nothing.  She is not the reason the others did well. Maybe they did well in spite of her. All she did is help people click, transport and help with other tasks. I clicked way better without her.  However, if the poor guy was sick prior to that date and had pain that he told to the chief nurse and she, chalked it up to the LL surgery, did not tell the doctor or urge a D-dimer test or an ultrasound, then she was negligent.  This though I don't know.

Now I cannot say anything about the dressing manner of the nurse, that is entirely an opinion, but what I will say is please don't discredit anyone without working with them. Or simply don't judge a book by its cover. Makes you sound pretty stupid. Since I was the first G-nail patient and the doctor knew nothing about the clicking pain and what could minimize it, I called for her help to help me click, in fact, the other Patient V21 and the "late" patient did as well. Her main strength is that she actually tries her best at making your procedure as comfortable as possible. She was very responsive and helped figure out ways to click all while minimizing pain. In the beginning when my pain was almost 9/10 while clicking with the doctor's technique I and her would have a 3-hour session where we did lots of stretching, massage, and various other things that would help with clicking pain. I liked her service so much that I decided to hire her to take over my whole lengthening period. In fact, the clicking technique current patients use wasn't discovered by the doctor. It was in fact discovered by the chief nurse who was working on my clicking and had the idea. Now I had an issue with the doctor and the PT center because the PT center damaged my left calf muscle while doing a hamstring stretch, thus I decided to hire her for physiotherapy as well, and what do you know, I didn't go to PT nor followed the doctor's ridiculous advice of doing 1.33mm lengthening each day and had a better recovery than everyone who followed the doctor and went to the PT center. I was walking without support after one-month post OP. I credit most of that to the Chief nurse. Most people who come here can vouch for her. I will write a better summary about her in my post.

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You speak without knowledge if you say V21 was a fan of the nurse. People who call other people stupid because they don't agree with their opinions expose themselves for what they are.  Arrogant. People are allowed to have different opinions. I didn't judge her by her cover.  I said I didn't find her highly skilled in communications.  You came alone so you had no choice but to get help.  If you chose to use a person who wasn't trained in PT to do your PT that is your decision.  She did not discover the clicking method. Betz did. I used it on day 2 after watching the Betz video.  I even recorded myself on that day and shared the video with others. I ultimately found a better method in a Guichet video. You have no idea on my recovery to conclude you had a better recovery than me.  From what are you basing that your recovery was better than anyone - your mind?  Or did the nurse tell you that?   My recovery is excellent.  Just because you liked her doesn't mean I have to.  If Dr. Giotikas was dressed in Spandex, at every appointment would you have chosen him? I am sure the deceased is vouching for her right now from the grave.

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I am not a patient and didn't live all this in first person but I feel that the dress code of the nurse does not make her bad but brings some doubts on the professional aspect which includes the dress code too .
I would like to focus on a passage where the guy up here  @jackhanma says that giotikas told to him to lengthen 1.33 per day and that the pt damaged him qka was really bad .
Now...even the most ignorant and unaware kid of the forum knows that past 1mm per day should NOT be a thing ans this doctor tells to a patient to do 1.33 ?
Hopefully the guy did not follow him but YOU ALL PAYED  a heck of money for that and the PT is trash ?
In a country were salaries are so low ,meaning that given the price of the procedure the PTs hired should be the top of the top of Greece.
You should not be the one to check on doctor/nurse job but rather the opposite where they stop you from doing stupid things .
On top of that ,the fact he added extra days to his blood thinner prescriptions says a lot .
More then arguing between us , we should be thankfull that someone brought this up and from it many others like you guys are sharing their experiences exposing some bad major mistakes .

To summarize the dr mistakes  :
-suggested overlenghening of 1.33mm x day
-bad/harmful PT
-not accurate med prescription
- inexperienced with the clicking mechanism even tho he offers 2 mechanical  nails

Do we need more ?

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Quote from: LU213 on November 25, 2021, 09:40:20 PMYou speak without knowledge if you say V21 was a fan of the nurse. People who call other people stupid because they don't agree with their opinions expose themselves for what they are.  Arrogant. People are allowed to have different opinions. I didn't judge her by her cover.  I said I didn't find her highly skilled in communications.  You came alone so you had no choice but to get help.  If you chose to use a person who wasn't trained in PT to do your PT that is your decision.  She did not discover the clicking method. Betz did. I used it on day 2 after watching the Betz video.  I even recorded myself on that day and shared the video with others. I ultimately found a better method in a Guichet video. You have no idea on my recovery to conclude you had a better recovery than me.  From what are you basing that your recovery was better than anyone - your mind?  Or did the nurse tell you that?   My recovery is excellent.  Just because you liked her doesn't mean I have to.  If Dr. Giotikas was dressed in Spandex, at every appointment would you have chosen him? I am sure the deceased is vouching for her right now in heaven. lol.


I completely agree with you.
If I pay this amount of money I expect a treatment and a presence according to their marketing and price. Something that I do not see reflected.
I prefer a professional and specialized team rather than see some chick in tights.
If I wanted other types of services, I would have sought them out.
But who comes here comes for surgery, looking for a professional and serious team, not to a team that many of them have not even finished their medical degree and works with such high risk patients.
The nurse's team is basically a bunch of college kids, maybe they have no other way to earn money so they do this. Ridiculous way to earn money if you want to have a good career after you finish college but that's up to them, but the doctor knowing how risky this operation is and how important postop care is should not hire people like this, but a professional team, in all aspects.
And I repeat, even more so after all the money we paid for this.
Now, if there are certain patients who defend the nurses and the chief nurse so much, well, that's up to them with their personal preferences, I prioritize my life before some juvenile hormones.
But if they are so impressionable as to even defend a team that has made so many mistakes lately, I question the professionalism and ethics of this team in relation to patients, and their relationship/s with them.

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Quote from: Masteryourlife on November 25, 2021, 10:17:53 PMI am not a patient and didn't live all this in first person but I feel that the dress code of the nurse does not make her bad but brings some doubts on the professional aspect which includes the dress code too .
I would like to focus on a passage where the guy up here  @jackhanma says that giotikas told to him to lengthen 1.33 per day and that the pt damaged him qka was really bad .
Now...even the most ignorant and unaware kid of the forum knows that past 1mm per day should NOT be a thing ans this doctor tells to a patient to do 1.33 ?
Hopefully the guy did not follow him but YOU ALL PAYED  a heck of money for that and the PT is trash ?
In a country were salaries are so low ,meaning that given the price of the procedure the PTs hired should be the top of the top of Greece.
You should not be the one to check on doctor/nurse job but rather the opposite where they stop you from doing stupid things .
On top of that ,the fact he added extra days to his blood thinner prescriptions says a lot .
More then arguing between us , we should be thankfull that someone brought this up and from it many others like you guys are sharing their experiences exposing some bad major mistakes .

To summarize the dr mistakes  :
-suggested overlenghening of 1.33mm x day
-bad/harmful PT
-not accurate med prescription
- inexperienced with the clicking mechanism even tho he offers 2 mechanical  nails

Do we need more ?

It's not fair to say that the PT guys were trash. Most of us consider they are competent.  It's quite painful, but it's supossed to be. Regarding the overlenghtening, I was told to do 1.33 for a week cause my bone growth was too fast, and I did, but it seems that everyone is being told to that. I don't know the reasoning behind this, but it can't be necesary for everyone. I know for a fact that most patients don't do it and keep the normal 1 mm pace during that week, and they are all perfectly fine. My pace was like 1 mm per day first three weeks, 1.33 per day un fourth week, and 0.78 per day until the end soon after that.

Regarding the other points, I do agree that there is inexperience regarding the clicking mechanism, and this is something I want to discuss further in my diary, as I think (comparing with other Betz or Guichet patients) that there must be easier ways to click. I do think the nail is great though, I'm quite happy I chose it instead of Precice.

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Quote from: V21 on November 25, 2021, 10:26:41 PMIt's not fair to say that the PT guys were trash. Most of us consider they are competent.  It's quite painful, but it's supossed to be. Regarding the overlenghtening, I was told to do 1.33 for a week cause my bone growth was too fast, and I did, but it seems that everyone is being told to that. I don't know the reasoning behind this, but it can't be necesary for everyone. I know for a fact that most patients don't do it and keep the normal 1 mm pace during that week, and they are all perfectly fine. My pace was like 1 mm per day first three weeks, 1.33 per day un fourth week, and 0.78 per day until the end soon after that.

Regarding the other points, I do agree that there is inexperience regarding the clicking mechanism, and this is something I want to discuss further in my diary, as I think (comparing with other Betz or Guichet patients) that there must be easier ways to click. I do think the nail is great though, I'm quite happy I chose it instead of Precice.
About PT I quoted what the other patient said but overall..too many  ifs for the price you pay for it .
Idk glad some of you had good outcomes but for prospective patients I would not gamble .
I would choose someone else

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Quote from: LU213 on November 25, 2021, 09:40:20 PMYou speak without knowledge if you say V21 was a fan of the nurse. People who call other people stupid because they don't agree with their opinions expose themselves for what they are.  Arrogant. People are allowed to have different opinions. I didn't judge her by her cover.  I said I didn't find her highly skilled in communications.  You came alone so you had no choice but to get help.  If you chose to use a person who wasn't trained in PT to do your PT that is your decision.  She did not discover the clicking method. Betz did. I used it on day 2 after watching the Betz video.  I even recorded myself on that day and shared the video with others. I ultimately found a better method in a Guichet video. You have no idea on my recovery to conclude you had a better recovery than me.  From what are you basing that your recovery was better than anyone - your mind?  Or did the nurse tell you that?   My recovery is excellent.  Just because you liked her doesn't mean I have to.  If Dr. Giotikas was dressed in Spandex, at every appointment would you have chosen him? I am sure the deceased is vouching for her right now in heaven. lol.

"People who call other people stupid because they don't agree with their opinions expose themselves for what they are.  Arrogant."
This is quite ironic. Calling me arrogant should make you arrogant in this case, no? Well, you didn't like her dress code, that is your opinion, I got no issue with that. You say people are allowed to have opinions but then go on and make an assumption that the nurse is telling me things, which is pretty weird???

"She is not the reason the others did well." Now how is this not judging a book by its cover? C'mon man, did you leave your common sense behind in Greece?

But enough with childish insults, what you have said in your post is pretty judgmental and senseless, to say the least. I never said anyone liked her or needed to. You see when most normal people have two broken legs and are suffering in unbearable pain and neither the doctor nor the Physio is helping them, dress code and some fine English is the last thing they look for, guess it isn't the case for you. After all, who am I to say you aren't normal, am I right. Since you seem to think you are so knowledgeable, did you know that 2 out of 3 physio's in the PT center don't have any background in physiotherapy and are just random moms and dads that the doctor grabbed out of nowhere? And guess what, those "certified" physios damaged me and a couple of other patients while charging more for the service than the nurse. Patients not going to PT and hiring the head nurse isn't an unusual phenomenon, many patients have done this before. That should say a lot about the Doctor and PT center's approach. More so the PT center was reestablished less than a year ago, and it was actually made smaller, go figure. It is not even the doctor's own PT center, he has rented it. It is a small PT center where there are 5 PT beds and 10 patients, most of which aren't even LL patients. The only one who knows anything about physiotherapy is the head of the PT center and he never does any PT on anyone? Compared to the head nurse who has certifications in PT and massage therapy and is actually a certified nurse, anyone who comes here knows that the nurses are running most of Giotikas's business. He is a great surgeon, but the aftercare is pretty much absent without the nursing team.

You weren't even here when we were clicking with the doctor's miserable technique. You came at just the right time when everything was figured out and tested. Also, how are you gonna take advantage of her service free of charge and talk   about her man, very low of you? I can say she found the clicking technique because no one was doing it prior to her. We were all clicking in the worst way imaginable and had 9/10 pain only for the doctor to disregard our suffering and ignore us. Then me, "p", and the nurse figured the clicking technique and shared it with all the patients, not you lol. You found the standing clicking technique, not the one that patients are using currently, so respectfully stop bull ting.

Now it is true I know nothing of your physical recovery since you left so soon. But seems like you need to focus more on recovering your common sense and sense of empathy since you are comfortable with dragging a deceased patient to boost your little banter. I knew him personally and this is pretty fked up and lowly of you man. Ultimately I hope you recover well not only physically but also mentally since you seem to be missing that bit.

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Quote from: Masteryourlife on November 25, 2021, 11:01:18 PMAbout PT I quoted what the other patient said but overall..too many  ifs for the price you pay for it .
Idk glad some of you had good outcomes but for prospective patients I would not gamble .
I would choose someone else
I like Assayag a lot, he seems like he really cares about patients, but the issue is that know he only offers Precice for femurs. As a patient in recovery, I can tell weightbearing is key, and with Precice I would probably be terrified of damaging the nail. Out of curiosity, what surgeon would you choose? Weight bearing nails with femurs are offered by Betz, Giotikas and Guichet, and I would choose Giotikas, even though I agree with some of the criticts in this thread. Of course, the issue is different if you consider externals, in that case I guess Lee?

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@JackHanna Apparently not liking the lady you paid to take you to the movies, has really hurt your feelings.  I have nothing against her.  I just didn't find her highly skilled. I am going to be the adult and move on.