From Normal to Unknown
Or.... My day at the doctors'.
Yes, that apostrophe is in the right place. I was at 2 different doctor's offices.
Today was my first appointment with the rheumatologist (I have no idea if that's spelled right). First, the cute resident asked me lots of personal questions, then told me to take of my clothes and fondled me all over. Well.... technically that's all true. :D It was Dr. B's first day in the clinic (apparently she was just starting her residency), but she was very professional, very nice, and didn't treat me like a 6-year-old like so many medical professionals are wont to do with everybody. She went through a bunch of poking and proding and twisting and bending but didn't find anything. She was basically doing the "warmup" for the "real" doctor. I must say, I liked her. And that's not just because she was pretty and wore a shirt the kept parting at the bottom and showing off part of her nice belly. ;)
After a while, Dr M came in and did much less of the fondling and poking. Which is good, since I'm less into that from guys with beards. :)
The general diagnosis is that it's most likely not a "real" arthritis (rheumatoid or osteo) but one of a wide range of "lesser" arthritis-like ailments. He gave me a couple suggestions on things to try (including OTC painkillers, which I'll probably avoid since I really don't like them), and then filled out a (rather long) list of tests for my GP to do and sent me on my way.
I know he didn't really do a whole lot, but at least he acknowleged that something is wrong. And that's farther than I've gotten so far.
So... with paper in hand, I headed home. And on the way, I decided I might as well swing by my regular doctor's office to hand them the paper and set up and appointment. Well... much to my suprise, the nurse said that they could do it all today! So.... she took me in the back, drew 5½ vials of blood (one didn't work very well, so she had to do it over), had me pee in a cup (good thing I drank all that coffee this morning!), and then took me back for x-rays. I got to take off my clothes and get fondled again. Unfortunately, she wasn't nearly as cute as Dr. B. And we took x-rays. And took more x-rays. And took even more x-rays. Then she broke the machine, and had to spend a while calling around to figure out how to fix it. Then we too even more x-rays. Egad. If I wake up tomorrow with mutant powers, I'll know why (and considering how many of those x-rays were of my pelvis, I'm kind of concerned about what my mutant powers might be. !! ) I spent around an hour in the x-ray room.
On the bright side, they're looking into what's wrong with my shoulder (I can't raise my left arm past a certain point when extended laterally unless I "pop" it into a new position--yes, it actually "pops"). It's never really been a problem, I've just been curious about why it does that. And they're running a whole battery of new tests (toasting the Italian victory with several vampires) to look for all sorts of other causes. Mostly, though, they're actually saying that something isn't right, and they're going to try to find out what it is. I'm not worried about "cures" or even "treatments" right now. I just want to know what's wrong with me. Errr... What's wrong with my joints, anyway (there's just way too many answers for that first variation of the question.)
Imported from the Buzz
Yes, that apostrophe is in the right place. I was at 2 different doctor's offices.
Today was my first appointment with the rheumatologist (I have no idea if that's spelled right). First, the cute resident asked me lots of personal questions, then told me to take of my clothes and fondled me all over. Well.... technically that's all true. :D It was Dr. B's first day in the clinic (apparently she was just starting her residency), but she was very professional, very nice, and didn't treat me like a 6-year-old like so many medical professionals are wont to do with everybody. She went through a bunch of poking and proding and twisting and bending but didn't find anything. She was basically doing the "warmup" for the "real" doctor. I must say, I liked her. And that's not just because she was pretty and wore a shirt the kept parting at the bottom and showing off part of her nice belly. ;)
After a while, Dr M came in and did much less of the fondling and poking. Which is good, since I'm less into that from guys with beards. :)
The general diagnosis is that it's most likely not a "real" arthritis (rheumatoid or osteo) but one of a wide range of "lesser" arthritis-like ailments. He gave me a couple suggestions on things to try (including OTC painkillers, which I'll probably avoid since I really don't like them), and then filled out a (rather long) list of tests for my GP to do and sent me on my way.
I know he didn't really do a whole lot, but at least he acknowleged that something is wrong. And that's farther than I've gotten so far.
So... with paper in hand, I headed home. And on the way, I decided I might as well swing by my regular doctor's office to hand them the paper and set up and appointment. Well... much to my suprise, the nurse said that they could do it all today! So.... she took me in the back, drew 5½ vials of blood (one didn't work very well, so she had to do it over), had me pee in a cup (good thing I drank all that coffee this morning!), and then took me back for x-rays. I got to take off my clothes and get fondled again. Unfortunately, she wasn't nearly as cute as Dr. B. And we took x-rays. And took more x-rays. And took even more x-rays. Then she broke the machine, and had to spend a while calling around to figure out how to fix it. Then we too even more x-rays. Egad. If I wake up tomorrow with mutant powers, I'll know why (and considering how many of those x-rays were of my pelvis, I'm kind of concerned about what my mutant powers might be. !! ) I spent around an hour in the x-ray room.
On the bright side, they're looking into what's wrong with my shoulder (I can't raise my left arm past a certain point when extended laterally unless I "pop" it into a new position--yes, it actually "pops"). It's never really been a problem, I've just been curious about why it does that. And they're running a whole battery of new tests (toasting the Italian victory with several vampires) to look for all sorts of other causes. Mostly, though, they're actually saying that something isn't right, and they're going to try to find out what it is. I'm not worried about "cures" or even "treatments" right now. I just want to know what's wrong with me. Errr... What's wrong with my joints, anyway (there's just way too many answers for that first variation of the question.)
Imported from the Buzz