I went to a highly recommended orthopedic clinic. I think it's rated a little lower now, after I completed the survey they sent out.
I won't go into the long and boring complaining details, but let me put it this way: I wanted to see a doctor, not get shipped off like a cow at auction.
I walked in, and there was a check-in kiosk. What? I don't even know my user name and password. I looked up and a clerk invited me over to her desk. She took my insurance card and identification card and waved me off to a chair. I sat there until I got called up, whereupon a second clerk asked me two questions that were not on the preregistration I did online, gave back my documents, and waved me back to my chair to wait. And wait, and wait.
That was just the beginning, but I was definitely feeling more like a number than a person. I'm surprised they didn't look for ear tags and a brand. Just keep herding this cow from one station to another.
The upshot of it all was that I was told that I have arthritis in my knee. Does that have any bearing on why my knee has not healed from an injury five months ago? No new X-rays. Just a steroid shot in the knee and a prescription for a powerful anti-inflammatory drug and a six-week followup appointment scheduled.
At least now I know that what I was told years ago was bursitis is actually arthritis, and I probably have it in both knees, though he only had the x-ray of one. No cure, I suppose, but I'll definitely be looking at supplements to see what may help. I don't think you can rebuild cartilage, but there must be a better solution than taking drugs for months. I wonder, though, if the doctor who told me it was bursitis had examined me more closely, if something could have been done then to treat it.
The good news is that for now, at least, I don't have to have surgery or anything like that, and I don't have to quit exercising--the fear that has been keeping me back from seeing a doctor for a few months.
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