Sorry for the late posting. This wasn’t because I couldn’t get myself moving but because I got myself moving and out of the house by 11:15. In a demonstration of inefficiency, I spent an hour and half traveling into the city, that’s the round trip, to do something that took 10 minutes. Once in the City I checked my PO box and shopped at Whole Foods. That was exciting; for the first time ever, I used my Prime discount.
That’s not what you came here to read. You want to know about my adventures at the Emergency Room. Saturday night my left shoulder started hurting. Sunday it was worse. I could not hold my arm out to the left. I could raise it in front of me. I had the freedom of movement, it just hurt like hell. I could feel I had a tender spot in the joint. I have had this before and with time it went away. I was pretty sure it was bursitis. I also had tendonitis in my left elbow. I could feel the pain in the tendons. That made it easy. Compensating for that might be how I hurt the shoulder.
I had tried icing it to no avail. I posted about it on FB and got a variety of responses, many of which involved going to a doctor. That’s not as easy as it sounds because of my issues with dealing with medical insurance bureaucracy. That’s a major trigger for my anxiety. Falcon Ridge is tomorrow and the anxiety of going there with only one working arm overcame the other anxiety. Fortunately, I am just a 14-minute walk from the excellent Montefiore Medical Center. I went to their ER. That involves much less stress than finding a doctor
The people were amazingly pleasant. I could have said, “I have radiating pain in my left arm” and been seen immediately but I knew it wasn’t a heart attack and didn’t want to line cut. I expected to be given many forms to fill out. I wasn’t. I just gave them my name and date of birth. I forgot I was already in their system. Yay for my friend that’s a doctor there. He had my medical records entered when my life was in turmoil and I had to apply for aid. I am not at all scared of doctors, my trigger is the insurance. The ER was not busy, and I didn’t have to wait that long. Then I saw what I thought was the doctor but was the triage nurse. He was the first lovely person I dealt with. I have never seen anyone at an ER who was so happy and smiled so much. We laughed at each other’s jokes. I wasn’t that relaxed as my BP was 132/87 instead of my usual 118/65.
Then I had to wait again to see a doctor and once again the wait wasn’t that long. There was an issue in that they were not at all clear where I had to go. It was the Green Zone and I was on my way to Baghdad before I was corrected. I had to wander around before I found it. Then I was sent to the examination room and once again waited, and once again it was for not that long. There was a scale. I weighed myself on a doctor’s scale for the first time in years. I wasn’t naked but wore just shorts and a t-shirt and weighed 178. I gained weight. Everyone keeps telling me it looks like I lost weight.
Then I saw what I thought was the doctor. At the end I found out that she wasn’t a doctor. When I asked her name she said, “Sarah.” I never had a doctor asked to be called by her first name. It’s because she was a PA. No, not Pennsylvania, physician’s assistant. She was also lovely. I get along well with medical people, we laughed at each other’s jokes too. She reminded me of Mary MacDonald. You know her as “Stands with Fist” from Dancing with Wolves or President Laura Roslin from Battlestar Galactica. Before those she was in a short-lived 1984 sitcom E/R, not to be confused with the long-running drama ER. When I looked at the pictures from the show it wasn’t so striking. What I realized is that you have to take Mary’s hair and glasses from Major Crimes and put them on the young Mary’s face to get Sarah.
Because of my history with cancer she was extra careful and sent me for an x-ray. Guess who how the x-ray tech was? Right, she was lovely. Do they test prospective x-ray techs for special perception? It must be very difficult to get people aligned just right for the x-rays, yet they do it right almost every time.
Then I was back to waiting and the lovely Sarah came and told me that it looks like I have arthritis and maybe bursitis. I have some itis, but not Vitas Gerulaitis. It is in the bursa sac, I was right about that. What I was wrong about was the treatment. They don’t give cortisone injections there. All I got was a sheet with some exercises to do and a prescription for acetaminophen. She also told me to use heat not cold on it. I’ve been using my heating pad. I should have remembered that helped before. I was sent for a follow-up with an orthopedist. They called me to today with the appointment. It’s not for until August 28. That’s a long way off. I also got a call asking how I was doing. Since when do hospitals do that? It makes a difference but not as much as the lovely nurses and x-ray tech.
I’m going to be the one-armed man for Falcon Ridge. I’ll make do. Maybe I’ll be better by breakdown on Sunday. I won’t have my heating pad, I’ll bring my hot water bottle instead. That’s not as good but it’s better than nothing.
The most important thing about all this is that I got myself to medical treatment. Now I have to take care of my eyes and my Crohn’s disease. Wish me luck. It’s still not easy for me.
When I got home yesterday I celebrated by making dinner. Nothing fancy but I made roasted potatoes, my staple, for the first time since I was here. Even better is what I did with my burger. I turned the bun into garlic bread. I just put butter on it, then sprinkled on garlic powder, and topped it with shredded Monterey Jack cheese. So much better than an ordinary cheeseburger and hardly any extra effort. I heartily suggest it.
I have scary emails I should look at before I go to Falcon Ridge tomorrow. I’m not sure what time I’m being picked up. I probably won’t pack until tomorrow because I’m me. I know that’s not a good reason.
Wise Madness 