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Jul. 8th, 2008 12:46 amSo I had another doctor's appointment regarding the pinched nerve.
I saw yet another different doctor- actually, not one but two...wooo!
I was sitting there in the room and in walks a friendly, eager new resident, she applies some germy-kill foam to her hands, and then is very insistent on shaking my hand and makes a point of telling me how happy she is to meet me, it's a little odd. (She later says it's her first day there, so I don't think too much of it. If this was someone who had been there for a while, I would have been worried.)
So anyway, she asks me why I'm there, blah blah blah, then is commenting on me experiencing pain in my arm since April. Huh? I told her no, it was the end of May, Memorial day weekend that it started. She tells me I was there in April. No, I calmly explain, then noted that I had the receipt for my copay still in my backpack if she needed that, she said no, looked through the folder in hand and realized she had someone else's chart.
Someone else's chart. Okay. First day. And it could possibly have been handed to her by a nurse or someone else.
so she asks me some questions, leaves, comes back, asks a few more, does a few little muscle strength tests, leaves again and comes back...with another doctor. So this time, one of the supervising doctors in the practice also briefly checked me out. Then they leave again. And she comes back.
She informs me that she and the other doctor don't think it's a pinched ulnar nerve. The numb hand and occasional elbow pain are consistent, but the sore spot on my neck is not. Says that the ulnar nerve starts a bit lower down, more like between the clavicle and armpit. But she doesn't know what's up with the sore spot on the neck, but the muscle is definitely inflamed, and something is irritating those nerves in there.
Soooooo....she's referring me to a neurologist.
In the meantime, she wants me to take 800 milligrams of ibuprofin three times a day for the next three days. If it doesn't make a difference, I'm supposed to stop and just continue with the plan to see the neurologist (Apparently the neurologist is going to contact me, not the other way around.) if it does help, I'm supposed to let her know and they may have me continue with the ibuprofin a bit longer because in the end, it may resolve everything.
I'm not thrilled about taking the ibuprofin, 2400 milligrams a day. I've been told to do this before when I had issues with my ankle and refused. The difference here though, is that I'm only to do this for three days and stop altogether if there is no difference, and talk to the doctor again before continuing if it does help, whereas in the past, it was "This is all you can do. Just keep doing it."
Oh, and I never really thought about it before, but this time she actually thought to ask about any changes in activity, sleeping positions, bedding etc....the previous one didn't. So...chart confusion and all that aside, I feel a little better about this mess, I was seen not only by a resident but also by one of the supervising doctors, and much as I'd rather not open the can of worms of going to one, I've been referred to a neurologist.
Uh...holy crap, what if this all costs more than what it in my HSA and I have to pay for a bunch of stuff out of pocket? I just don't have the extra money....
Okay folks...hope and pray for a speedy cure, and that none of this costs more than what's in my HSA.
Oh...to anyone who's ever been to one....how do neurologists check out your nerves? Should I be expecting anything involving injections? Because if there are injections involved, that just won't be good.
Um...add "no injections" you the list of stuff to pray for. Hell, put it at the top of the list.
And then there was MTA clusterfuckedness.
So I left the doctor around 435. Went to Rite Aid to nab some ibuprofin (got tylenol in the house, no ibuprofin that I know of)...then there was no use in going home so I figured I'd jsut get to the office early.
Hahaha. I'm funny.
Got on the light rail at Lexington Market. Up at North Avenue, the train sat for a few minutes...three or four at most, and then started rolling again. Long about the Mt Washington stop, the driver suddenly makes the announcement that everyone has to get off at Falls Road and get on a bus, something about wires being down.
Did I mention that the train signs said "Timonium", and that the driver kept saying "this train's destination is Timonium" at each stop?
Yeah, well, did I mention that they've been working on this since like, 8am? So no, it wasn't a sudden thing that just came up. The driver flat out lied. (It wasn't a driver that had just started his shift, getting off the train, I heard him talking about some of his other trips on the train earlier today and how much people like to complain about the MTA and ow the MTA supposedly sucks blah blah blah.
Dude, you're one of the reasons that MTA sucks, you KNEW that the light rail wasn't running above Falls Road. And yet you didn't change the train signs to reflect that, and you kept announcing that you were going to Timonium.
So at Falls road, there were six supervisors standing around, uh, supervising? Or holding down the pavement, take your pick. There was a lot of "We're sorry for the inconvenience. We can't do anything about it, they're working as fast as possible to fix it." *sigh*
They said a bus would be there in ten minutes. It took twenty. Got up to Timonium, off the bus (Of course, thy wouldn't just run buses from Falls road to Hunt valley, they had to keep it at two separate buses.
So I get on the next bus that comes along. Big mistake. The lady in front of me getting on the bus asked the driver if he was going to Hunt Valley...he said yes....pulled out of the parking lot and proceeded to head south to Lutherville. Wouldn't stop and let me off as he pulled out of the parking lot when I realized he was going south...so I ended up back in Lutherville. ended up having to wait another fifteen minutes, finally a nine showed up, so I got on that one and hopped back off at Timonium. Almost immediately, a bus came from the Hunt Valley direction...looked like the bus I needed, was coming from the right direction...but no, this one was going from Hunt Valley to Falls road. I just can't win.
Waited for a while, finally another Hunt Valley bus came along. I got into the office at ten of eight...over two hours after leaving downtown.
The MTA is utterly ridiculous. It's a constant circus. I'm far too tired to deal with this.
In other news, I'm working on braiding my hair into extensions, and then I'm going to thread-wrap the braids. I've got four braids
I saw yet another different doctor- actually, not one but two...wooo!
I was sitting there in the room and in walks a friendly, eager new resident, she applies some germy-kill foam to her hands, and then is very insistent on shaking my hand and makes a point of telling me how happy she is to meet me, it's a little odd. (She later says it's her first day there, so I don't think too much of it. If this was someone who had been there for a while, I would have been worried.)
So anyway, she asks me why I'm there, blah blah blah, then is commenting on me experiencing pain in my arm since April. Huh? I told her no, it was the end of May, Memorial day weekend that it started. She tells me I was there in April. No, I calmly explain, then noted that I had the receipt for my copay still in my backpack if she needed that, she said no, looked through the folder in hand and realized she had someone else's chart.
Someone else's chart. Okay. First day. And it could possibly have been handed to her by a nurse or someone else.
so she asks me some questions, leaves, comes back, asks a few more, does a few little muscle strength tests, leaves again and comes back...with another doctor. So this time, one of the supervising doctors in the practice also briefly checked me out. Then they leave again. And she comes back.
She informs me that she and the other doctor don't think it's a pinched ulnar nerve. The numb hand and occasional elbow pain are consistent, but the sore spot on my neck is not. Says that the ulnar nerve starts a bit lower down, more like between the clavicle and armpit. But she doesn't know what's up with the sore spot on the neck, but the muscle is definitely inflamed, and something is irritating those nerves in there.
Soooooo....she's referring me to a neurologist.
In the meantime, she wants me to take 800 milligrams of ibuprofin three times a day for the next three days. If it doesn't make a difference, I'm supposed to stop and just continue with the plan to see the neurologist (Apparently the neurologist is going to contact me, not the other way around.) if it does help, I'm supposed to let her know and they may have me continue with the ibuprofin a bit longer because in the end, it may resolve everything.
I'm not thrilled about taking the ibuprofin, 2400 milligrams a day. I've been told to do this before when I had issues with my ankle and refused. The difference here though, is that I'm only to do this for three days and stop altogether if there is no difference, and talk to the doctor again before continuing if it does help, whereas in the past, it was "This is all you can do. Just keep doing it."
Oh, and I never really thought about it before, but this time she actually thought to ask about any changes in activity, sleeping positions, bedding etc....the previous one didn't. So...chart confusion and all that aside, I feel a little better about this mess, I was seen not only by a resident but also by one of the supervising doctors, and much as I'd rather not open the can of worms of going to one, I've been referred to a neurologist.
Uh...holy crap, what if this all costs more than what it in my HSA and I have to pay for a bunch of stuff out of pocket? I just don't have the extra money....
Okay folks...hope and pray for a speedy cure, and that none of this costs more than what's in my HSA.
Oh...to anyone who's ever been to one....how do neurologists check out your nerves? Should I be expecting anything involving injections? Because if there are injections involved, that just won't be good.
Um...add "no injections" you the list of stuff to pray for. Hell, put it at the top of the list.
And then there was MTA clusterfuckedness.
So I left the doctor around 435. Went to Rite Aid to nab some ibuprofin (got tylenol in the house, no ibuprofin that I know of)...then there was no use in going home so I figured I'd jsut get to the office early.
Hahaha. I'm funny.
Got on the light rail at Lexington Market. Up at North Avenue, the train sat for a few minutes...three or four at most, and then started rolling again. Long about the Mt Washington stop, the driver suddenly makes the announcement that everyone has to get off at Falls Road and get on a bus, something about wires being down.
Did I mention that the train signs said "Timonium", and that the driver kept saying "this train's destination is Timonium" at each stop?
Yeah, well, did I mention that they've been working on this since like, 8am? So no, it wasn't a sudden thing that just came up. The driver flat out lied. (It wasn't a driver that had just started his shift, getting off the train, I heard him talking about some of his other trips on the train earlier today and how much people like to complain about the MTA and ow the MTA supposedly sucks blah blah blah.
Dude, you're one of the reasons that MTA sucks, you KNEW that the light rail wasn't running above Falls Road. And yet you didn't change the train signs to reflect that, and you kept announcing that you were going to Timonium.
So at Falls road, there were six supervisors standing around, uh, supervising? Or holding down the pavement, take your pick. There was a lot of "We're sorry for the inconvenience. We can't do anything about it, they're working as fast as possible to fix it." *sigh*
They said a bus would be there in ten minutes. It took twenty. Got up to Timonium, off the bus (Of course, thy wouldn't just run buses from Falls road to Hunt valley, they had to keep it at two separate buses.
So I get on the next bus that comes along. Big mistake. The lady in front of me getting on the bus asked the driver if he was going to Hunt Valley...he said yes....pulled out of the parking lot and proceeded to head south to Lutherville. Wouldn't stop and let me off as he pulled out of the parking lot when I realized he was going south...so I ended up back in Lutherville. ended up having to wait another fifteen minutes, finally a nine showed up, so I got on that one and hopped back off at Timonium. Almost immediately, a bus came from the Hunt Valley direction...looked like the bus I needed, was coming from the right direction...but no, this one was going from Hunt Valley to Falls road. I just can't win.
Waited for a while, finally another Hunt Valley bus came along. I got into the office at ten of eight...over two hours after leaving downtown.
The MTA is utterly ridiculous. It's a constant circus. I'm far too tired to deal with this.
In other news, I'm working on braiding my hair into extensions, and then I'm going to thread-wrap the braids. I've got four braids
