Last Thanksgiving, as I was working on the upgrades to my home, I knelt to pick something off the floor of the bedroom closet. My knee contacted the metal door track, made a noise like a gunshot, and felt for several days as if I had hit my funny bone, not in my elbow, but in my knee. However, the pain was not funny, but persistent.
In January (do you KNOW how hard it is to see a doc during the holidays?), I saw a knee specialist at the world-renowned ortho center. It was pouring rain, the office was 2 hours behind on appointments, and I heard the conversation outside the exam room re: let's clear these patients out so we all can go home. When a doctor wants to run on time -- or ram patients through the exam process -- it's done. With his focus on the x-rays, not on me, he explained that there is nothing wrong with my knee. When I objected to that conclusion, he asked me what I had been doing since the accident. I told him icing it, heating it, elevating it -- and hurting like hell.
"Well," he told me, "continue what you are doing. If it's not better in 4-6 weeks, make another appointment." I assured him that was not going to happen and left.
It has not improved, only worsened, including constant throbbing pain and continuing loss of motion. My knee cap feels like it's sitting on jelly and the back of my leg is numb from the kneecap up my thigh. I am crabby, crabby, crabby because I'm in constant pain and not sleeping well either.
After calling my family physician several times, only to be put on hold for a full 10 minutes, hanging up, calling again and repeating that cycle randomly over the course of 4 days, I finally was able to make an appointment for this past Wed. After a physical exam, the PA told me that my knee is hot, swollen, and loose, which means an MRI is in order. I had that Thursday and received the results Friday: a torn meniscus that requires surgery to repair. I have the contact info for the recommended knee specialist, but his office closes at 4:00 on Friday so the office staff can complete administrative duties.
There is a window opening this Friday that allows me 10 days to have the surgery and get back on my feet. I'm going to call the knee guy Monday and see if we can make this happen.
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2 comments:
This sounds horrible. However, at least now they have found it and can fix it and you can move on. It just sucks that they couldn't be bothered to find it previously. Of course, torn tissue may not show up on an x-ray, so they likely might have said the same thing the first time around. Still, inexcusable that they wouldn't take the time and listen to the patient and learn what is wrong.
Let us know how the surgery goes.
*korifi -- probably a word meaning how you feel about the doctors right now (you want to korifi them by the testicles).
as long as we dont have to have another teacher that sounds great anything to make you feel better
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