Introducing two new characters to the cast
In my U2 rant, I alluded to painful, brooding injuries. Here's the backstory for these memorable characters...
On 10/15, I hurt my shin during soccer practice. Someone was dribbling towards me, and I took the ball from them. But while I did that, the other person tripped over the ball and drove their knee into my shin (not on purpose). Of course, since it was practice, I wasn't wearing shinguards because only wimps wear shinguards for practice. Even if I had worn shinguards, I don't know how much they would have reduced the injury. That knee hit me pretty hard. Anyway, the shin swelled up really badly, making it look like I had two knees on one leg. See below for pictures I took of the injury. I took them because I've never swollen up like that before from any sports injury, so I thought it was kinda neat.
Anyway, it hurt a lot. Then on 10/18, some guy ran past me during a soccer game and made incidental contact with my ribcage. It's the type of contact you have many times in any sporting event when a person just runs by another person slightly too close. Nothing nefarious about the incident, but my rib hurt a lot the rest of the game. And continued to hurt the rest of the week. It hurt when I breathed; when I sat up or sat down; when I twisted my trunk (to grab the seatbelt, for example); it especially hurt when I fucked. At this point I was wondering if I had a cracked rib, which seemed ludicrous to me because the contact was so minor, but that's how much it hurt and it never started to feel better. My shin was also still hurting a lot, although it did feel a little better (icing it all weekend had helped). It also still had a lump on the surface, and lots of blood had drained down to my ankle, causing it to swell. Since neither injury was really getting better, on Tuesday I broke down and made an appointment with a doctor for Thursday.
(BTW, I played another game 10/18 after the rib injury, two games 10/19 and two more 10/25 because I'm a gamer like that.)
So I went to the appointment, printout of the top photo in hand just in case the doctor was interested. When I got to the medical office, the building was locked down in Code Pink, which apparently means that a child is missing and no one is allowed to enter or exit the building until the child is found. Of course, they didn't overtly tell us this, but this is what I surmised from the peripheral conversations the staff was having. This meant I had to wait in the entrance with about 30 other people until the child was found. Finally they let people enter and exit and I made my way to the doctor's office.
Since it was my first time there, they gave me the standard survey to fill out. At least, I thought it was the standard survey, but that was--by far--the most thorough and intrusive doctor's survey I've ever filled out. I can't quite remember what questions made me raise my eyebrows, but I certainly never filled out anything like that. I was half expecting to be asked what my turn-ons and turn-offs were. Which would have been fine because the receptionist was a hottie.
Anyway, I filled that out and the nurse took me back. First she weighed me, which I knew would be bad. I'm about 20 pounds overweight, which I suspected. This all stems back to when I had my shoulder surgery back in February and I wasn't allowed to do anything but physical therapy, lest I rip the bone sutures and have to start all over again. So, I gained a lot of weight, and I knew it and am depressed about it. It's one of the reasons why I'm playing soccer again. Which brings me back nicely to the reason for this doctor visit.
So then the nurse takes my blood pressure, which was a little high, which I was again not surprised about. Extra weight will cause higher blood pressure, and I was fairly certain mine was up. Bah. Anyway, after the I explained what happened and the nurse took everything down and then went to get the doctor. Actually, Amy was the physician's assistant, but doctor is so much easier to type and speak. Doctor Amy took a look at my injuries and proclaimed they were most likely not fractures, especially because of the time between the injury and the appointment. Which I figured. She said the shin injury wasn't swelling, but rather it was blood vessels that had exploded due to the acute injury, which explains the blood that drained down into my ankle. She called it hemo-something, but for the life of me I can't remember the word (and Google was no help).
She then took a look at my rib and, because it only hurt in one particular place, determined that it was most likely soft tissue damage (whatever that means) and it would need time to heal, which could take six weeks. To be safe, however, she wrote out an order for x-rays. She also wrote out a prescription for anti-inflamatories, which was not a shock at all.
She also expressed concern about my blood pressure, to which I explained why I believed it was high. She agreed that was the most likely cause, but wanted to do a physical anyway. I told her to give me a month to get back towards being in shape and then I'll come in for a physical. So now I have to get serious for the next four weeks about working out. I'm not looking forward to that, because it will be a real struggle, but it's for the best.
I paid the $15 co-pay and went across the street to the walk-in x-ray place. The receptionist informed me the the current wait time was two hours and suggested that I go back over to the hospital and visit their radiology unit. It turns out my insurance is good enough that it will cover that, but some HMOs won't let you go to another radiology place other than the one to which you were referred. Another reason to hate HMOs, but I digress for the 43rd time in this entry.
So I walked back over to the hospital's radiology unit, gave them the paperwork, and waited about 45 minutes until they could take me. It turns out the x-ray technician instructor was going to take my x-rays, because he was training five new technicians and today was a crash-course on the various techniques about taking x-rays. It was rather interesting to listen in on him telling the student who was in the room why he was aligning my leg in a certain position or why he lined up the unit a certain way so it didn't have to be re-centered while taking a chest x-ray. Anyway, he took the x-rays and they said the x-rays looked fine and it didn't look like I had any fractures, but my doctor would call if she disagreed after reviewing the x-rays. Relieved, I got dressed and headed back to work. Thank goodness I have the type of job where I can duck out for a few hours to see a doctor.
So now I'm taking the anti-inflamatories and hoping that the shin and rib don't really take six months to heal. I've got a game on Tuesday, so they better feel better by then. Gee, I don't expect too much, do I?
Wow, another long post. I guess I'm feeling particularly loquacious these days.
On 10/15, I hurt my shin during soccer practice. Someone was dribbling towards me, and I took the ball from them. But while I did that, the other person tripped over the ball and drove their knee into my shin (not on purpose). Of course, since it was practice, I wasn't wearing shinguards because only wimps wear shinguards for practice. Even if I had worn shinguards, I don't know how much they would have reduced the injury. That knee hit me pretty hard. Anyway, the shin swelled up really badly, making it look like I had two knees on one leg. See below for pictures I took of the injury. I took them because I've never swollen up like that before from any sports injury, so I thought it was kinda neat.
Anyway, it hurt a lot. Then on 10/18, some guy ran past me during a soccer game and made incidental contact with my ribcage. It's the type of contact you have many times in any sporting event when a person just runs by another person slightly too close. Nothing nefarious about the incident, but my rib hurt a lot the rest of the game. And continued to hurt the rest of the week. It hurt when I breathed; when I sat up or sat down; when I twisted my trunk (to grab the seatbelt, for example); it especially hurt when I fucked. At this point I was wondering if I had a cracked rib, which seemed ludicrous to me because the contact was so minor, but that's how much it hurt and it never started to feel better. My shin was also still hurting a lot, although it did feel a little better (icing it all weekend had helped). It also still had a lump on the surface, and lots of blood had drained down to my ankle, causing it to swell. Since neither injury was really getting better, on Tuesday I broke down and made an appointment with a doctor for Thursday.
(BTW, I played another game 10/18 after the rib injury, two games 10/19 and two more 10/25 because I'm a gamer like that.)
So I went to the appointment, printout of the top photo in hand just in case the doctor was interested. When I got to the medical office, the building was locked down in Code Pink, which apparently means that a child is missing and no one is allowed to enter or exit the building until the child is found. Of course, they didn't overtly tell us this, but this is what I surmised from the peripheral conversations the staff was having. This meant I had to wait in the entrance with about 30 other people until the child was found. Finally they let people enter and exit and I made my way to the doctor's office.
Since it was my first time there, they gave me the standard survey to fill out. At least, I thought it was the standard survey, but that was--by far--the most thorough and intrusive doctor's survey I've ever filled out. I can't quite remember what questions made me raise my eyebrows, but I certainly never filled out anything like that. I was half expecting to be asked what my turn-ons and turn-offs were. Which would have been fine because the receptionist was a hottie.
Anyway, I filled that out and the nurse took me back. First she weighed me, which I knew would be bad. I'm about 20 pounds overweight, which I suspected. This all stems back to when I had my shoulder surgery back in February and I wasn't allowed to do anything but physical therapy, lest I rip the bone sutures and have to start all over again. So, I gained a lot of weight, and I knew it and am depressed about it. It's one of the reasons why I'm playing soccer again. Which brings me back nicely to the reason for this doctor visit.
So then the nurse takes my blood pressure, which was a little high, which I was again not surprised about. Extra weight will cause higher blood pressure, and I was fairly certain mine was up. Bah. Anyway, after the I explained what happened and the nurse took everything down and then went to get the doctor. Actually, Amy was the physician's assistant, but doctor is so much easier to type and speak. Doctor Amy took a look at my injuries and proclaimed they were most likely not fractures, especially because of the time between the injury and the appointment. Which I figured. She said the shin injury wasn't swelling, but rather it was blood vessels that had exploded due to the acute injury, which explains the blood that drained down into my ankle. She called it hemo-something, but for the life of me I can't remember the word (and Google was no help).
She then took a look at my rib and, because it only hurt in one particular place, determined that it was most likely soft tissue damage (whatever that means) and it would need time to heal, which could take six weeks. To be safe, however, she wrote out an order for x-rays. She also wrote out a prescription for anti-inflamatories, which was not a shock at all.
She also expressed concern about my blood pressure, to which I explained why I believed it was high. She agreed that was the most likely cause, but wanted to do a physical anyway. I told her to give me a month to get back towards being in shape and then I'll come in for a physical. So now I have to get serious for the next four weeks about working out. I'm not looking forward to that, because it will be a real struggle, but it's for the best.
I paid the $15 co-pay and went across the street to the walk-in x-ray place. The receptionist informed me the the current wait time was two hours and suggested that I go back over to the hospital and visit their radiology unit. It turns out my insurance is good enough that it will cover that, but some HMOs won't let you go to another radiology place other than the one to which you were referred. Another reason to hate HMOs, but I digress for the 43rd time in this entry.
So I walked back over to the hospital's radiology unit, gave them the paperwork, and waited about 45 minutes until they could take me. It turns out the x-ray technician instructor was going to take my x-rays, because he was training five new technicians and today was a crash-course on the various techniques about taking x-rays. It was rather interesting to listen in on him telling the student who was in the room why he was aligning my leg in a certain position or why he lined up the unit a certain way so it didn't have to be re-centered while taking a chest x-ray. Anyway, he took the x-rays and they said the x-rays looked fine and it didn't look like I had any fractures, but my doctor would call if she disagreed after reviewing the x-rays. Relieved, I got dressed and headed back to work. Thank goodness I have the type of job where I can duck out for a few hours to see a doctor.
So now I'm taking the anti-inflamatories and hoping that the shin and rib don't really take six months to heal. I've got a game on Tuesday, so they better feel better by then. Gee, I don't expect too much, do I?
Wow, another long post. I guess I'm feeling particularly loquacious these days.