A New Age of Doctoring
Since my left and right shoulders and upper arms are still bothering me and they were especially bothering me Wednesday, I decided to finally go to the doctor. Alas, not everybody takes Medicare and Medicaid as insurance so the primary doctor I currently go to is only in his office in Queens three days a week, four hours a day. I called Wednesday thinking I might get an appointment that day or the next, but the receptionist told me I'd have to come in February 4th. I decided to go see someone at an urgent care clinic and if that worked out I could cancel the appointment with my primary.
This clinic used to be walk-in, but now you have to go to their website to make an appointment and get texted on when you can come in. That I was going for something non-COVID-related made the waiting list much smaller. What I didn't expect was that I'd have to keep answering their texts to keep my place in line. I mean, I had to drive there.
Once I got there, I still had to sit and wait in their mostly half-full waiting room for over an hour but at least I wasn't one of the 11 or more people standing outside in the cold, sometimes with kids, for hours for COVID-related matters. One woman out there was told to come back in five hours.
I told the doctor about the pain and when it's the worst and that I have a past history of bursitis and tendonitis so it might be one of or none of those things. They had me do a painful series of X-rays on my shoulders and arms. Looking at those, the doctor says it's not a bone thing so it's probably tendonitis or bursitis so I should rest, apply ice, and take NSAIDs. Which I have already been doing. That was all he could say. I said I did physical therapy in the past, and he said that might help but I'd have to go to my primary doctor for a referral for it. I said I saw an orthopedic doctor years ago, and he said that might help but I'd have to go to my primary doctor for a referral for it.
The only thing stopping this from being an absolute waste of three hours of my time was that I got X-rays done so I can give my primary the report on them when I see him February 4th. You can comment here or at the Dreamwidth crosspost.
comments at Dreamwidth.
This clinic used to be walk-in, but now you have to go to their website to make an appointment and get texted on when you can come in. That I was going for something non-COVID-related made the waiting list much smaller. What I didn't expect was that I'd have to keep answering their texts to keep my place in line. I mean, I had to drive there.
Once I got there, I still had to sit and wait in their mostly half-full waiting room for over an hour but at least I wasn't one of the 11 or more people standing outside in the cold, sometimes with kids, for hours for COVID-related matters. One woman out there was told to come back in five hours.
I told the doctor about the pain and when it's the worst and that I have a past history of bursitis and tendonitis so it might be one of or none of those things. They had me do a painful series of X-rays on my shoulders and arms. Looking at those, the doctor says it's not a bone thing so it's probably tendonitis or bursitis so I should rest, apply ice, and take NSAIDs. Which I have already been doing. That was all he could say. I said I did physical therapy in the past, and he said that might help but I'd have to go to my primary doctor for a referral for it. I said I saw an orthopedic doctor years ago, and he said that might help but I'd have to go to my primary doctor for a referral for it.
The only thing stopping this from being an absolute waste of three hours of my time was that I got X-rays done so I can give my primary the report on them when I see him February 4th. You can comment here or at the Dreamwidth crosspost.
comments at Dreamwidth.