Worst bedside manner. I had so many questions for this doctor, and it was a classic case of listening vs waiting to talk. I wanted to ask him about the cartilage, the soft tissue, etc. Man was on a mission to see as many patients as he wanted to. No time. Felt like part of a drive thru process... Rather than write the experience twice, this is what I sent my PCP to describe the visit:
"Office is clean. Spartan. Nurse asks a few questions, I feel
pretty good about this. Then the Dr. comes in. He asks for my
backstory, and as I start telling it, I'm watching his reactions. The man
is clearly one of those "wait to talk" people. If you haven't
seen Pulp Fiction, there is a scene where one character asks the other if they
listen, or wait to talk. So the Dr.
has this impatient 'waiting to talk' look about him. I hurry through my softball story, and then
tell him about CrossFit. Tell him I’m
still very functional, and it isn’t debilitating pain or anything like that.
He tells me that everything is structurally fine, but there is
inflammation.
I tried to ask him about the cartilage.
About the soft tissue. I’ve got
lots of questions. He’s already standing
up, telling me that they’re going to give me a shot and the nurse is going to
prep me.
Panic mode. Why the shot, wait, whats
going on?
Nurse comes in, I get on the table, prep the knee. Dr. comes back, gives me the
shot. Novacane and something… I’m still
in shock. He sprays me with some cold
stuff… my guess is to numb the area, ah, there’s the pin prick. Holy shit this hurts. I can feel the fluid getting forced in. Is that normal? I can’t tell you what he was doing…but it
took about 20 seconds…maybe? I don’t
know, but it felt like 2 minutes of agony.
Then it was over. I’m sweating
profusely. Nervous, anxious, confused, a
little irritated.
He says all right, the nurse will be in in a moment, and then he was
gone. Nurse came in, says “you’re good
to go”. And that’s that.
Actually at some point he told me that 3-7 days should be the time I take it
easy. "
So yeah, thats what I wrote to one doctor about another....there was more to it, but thats the story I want to share. They gave me this shot. I could feel the fluid going in and the pressure going up in my knee. It hurt, I mean I've never had that kind of pain before...guess I'll know what to expect if I ever truly fuqq up my knee...
Dr. did say that I didn't need braces, and that the sleeves could/should work ok. He muttered something about keeping the ligaments warm or something. So I'm still a little on the fence about them.
Short story, never going back to that clinic location or him again.
Ok, I wrote all that shortly after that experience. My PCP was able to squeeze me in this afternoon after my message, and we had a little chat. Turns out, she agreed with the treatment the good Dr. gave me, but not the rest of it. Fair deal. I'm still irritated about not being mentally prepared for that...I hate shots. Ones that hurt, even more so. Grrr.
But hey, it's all good baby. You say Dan, how can it be "all good" after all that crap you just told me about? It's all good because I'm structurally sound baby! No rips, tears, or other problems of note. The diagnostic radiologist said something about a "defect", but the good Dr. didn't mention a thing about it, he was only concerned with the inflammation. This is good news, really. No surgery, no extended downtime, nada. I could go right back to the grind tomorrow. Poor choice of words. Not going to go back to is just yet, at least not fully. For the sake of the shot, and the rest of the edema issues, I've been asked by two physicians to "take it easy" for about a week. Fine. I can do that. There are a few things that I can do that don't require me to be mobile below the thigh, I'm sure we can work some sort of semi personalized WOD out for a few days. Tomorrows WOD showed as a strict press day for the muscles anyway, so, worst case, I'm pressing.
Big sigh of relief. I've got goals to hit, can't be laid up. Sheesh. And see, thats another reason I love being optimistic... things tend to happen for me.
Alright, I'll tell you how tomorrow goes not doing a regular WOD. Should be interesting, try not to make a spectacle of myself.
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