Doctor Visit

It only took me a week to go see the doctor...

Friday and Saturday, my shoulder seemed to be ok. (A notch below fine.) On Sunday, it was lots worse, and this morning it felt even worse than Sunday. I decided it was time to call the doctor. I started calling shortly after 9, the phone rang and rang and rang. No one answered, no voice mail picked up. About 10, I was able to make an appointment for just before lunch.

I ended up seeing the nurse practicing. This is ok, but she tends to ask questions that my doctor already knows the answer to. (Can't she tell by the thickness of the folder that holds my charts?) Had the doctor walked in to see me, his opening line would have been: "What did you do to yourself this time?" followed by "I bet that hurts." (He's a living example of the joke "I went to the doctor and told him it hurts every time I do this." "What did he say?" "Don't do that anymore.")

Anyhow, after poking me some and finding out exactly where it hurts, she said "Maybe physical therapy would help." I told her I wasn't going to physical therapy. She took it suprisingly well. She talked about a couple of the things it could be, what some of the pains could mean or didn't mean, and told me there might be some exercises to help it, then asked why I didn't want to go to physical therapy. I told her that they weren't going to have me do anything that I didn't already know how to do, I shattered my collarbone a long time ago and spent plenty of time working the shoulder back. She asked what I meant by shattered, I explained it to her, and she agreed shattered might be a good term.

She didn't know exactly what to do, she said "Let me go look in my book", and ran out. This set me off just a little bit. I figured when she got back I was going to have to ask her to go get someone who knew what they were talking about, because I didn't want to come back in 2 days when things were even worse. I stewed on this for a few minutes when I heard her talking to one of the doctors out in the hall. At least she had the good sense to get someone else's opinion before coming back in. She brought the book anyway.

The book had some of the excersizes you do in therapy for a shoulder injury. She went through them with me. A couple of them she said she didn't know what they were for, so I told her. (Was that a test?) She agreed that I knew what I was talking about, then suggested a cortizone shot. She gave me one in 2 different places after numbing everything up. Then I was told to take it easy for 2 weeks, and REALLY take it easy for the next week. She told me it would hurt for a couple of days after the shot, I should ice it down, etc.

She redeemed herself for the "Let me go look at my book" comment, but the pain is back in full force now. Hopefully this will fix it up.