Saturday, March 22, 2008

"Just give it time, kid, I come to one and all"

Okay. Wow, that's really all I can say. Wow.

Thursday...let me explain Thursday. Katie called me from work and informed me that her doctor had called and determined -- a week later -- that there was actually a fracture on her foot in the x-rays. She was informed that it was urgent for her to see an orthopedic doctor immediately.
So, after my 12:30 class, I took Katie to her appointment with the orthopedic doctor who is coincidentally the same one I am seeing on March 31st about my elbow.
So she filled out her paperwork, and we waited. We got brought to a room. And we wait. Fifty-six minutes we waited -- which is lucky for him, because after an hour I go look for the doctor. (Yeah, I'm one of those guys.) He breezes in, barely introducing himself, feels Katie's foot and says "I didn't see a fracture on the x-rays" and makes like he's going to leave. Without so much as looking at the x-rays with her.
Katie gets upset -- this is the fifth doctor she's seen, and she keeps being tossed back and forth between "it's broken" and "it's just a sprain". The doctor tells his technician to call her family doctor and ask about this supposed fracture. Then, he walks out of the room. The technician makes the five minute phone call and then we spend a half an hour waiting for this doctor to return. When he did, he insisted that even if there was a fracture, it wasn't causing the pain and therefore it wasn't important and he would not be treating it. He diagnosed Katie with a "perrenial tendon sprain", and told her to do physical therapy, and sent her out to the check out.
At the check out desk, they got confused by the lack of a follow up appointment, which confused Katie, so she ended up crying again. The doctor had her brought into a room so he could "try to help her understand" so she wouldn't be upset -- and by that, he meant explain what he'd already explained only this time in a more condescending tone.
All in all, we spent two hours there and saw the doctor for a total of seven minutes.

Then, we had to rush because Katie's relatives were meeting us at our apartment that night for dinner, and I had to pick up my road trip comrades from campus before six o'clock. We sent Ty, Amanda, and Dara in my car to the diner and we ate dinner with Russ, Mandy, and the three little tykes....who, despite was Katie assured me would happen, immediately adopted me (rather than avoiding me). They're fun and good kids but it was still miserable in that I don't like little children sort of way.

Thursday night was a riot. We all went to Club XS (even Katie because that horrible doctor said she could) and almost everyone was there, it was crazy fun! We came back to my apartment and had a slumber party there -- Katie gave up her bed and she and I crashed on my futon.

The next morning, we all left for New England. Well, not as early as we'd intended. We picked up an extra passenger -- my friend Meghan who decided she didn't want to take the train (I've road tripped with her before). Then we stopped for breakfast. So we didn't really leave til like 11 am.
Then there was construction. And traffic. And then a truck blocked our view of a vital road sign and because of this we ended up having to drive through New York City -- fortunately, the navigation on my phone (who we've named Rhonda) saved us. It also got us up through Connecticutt into Massachusetts to Amanada's house, down to Meghan's in RI.
All in all, it was a nine hour drive. Fortunately, the company was good and we switched off drivers.

After just a couple hours home, I set off to work at the Dark Lady's beach party. There were tons of new faces, as well as plenty of familiar ones. It was a great time. I also kinda met a guy. Yeah, I might talk about that later...but at the same time, meeting guys in RI does me how much good? Pretty much none.

Today has been fairly relax. I got coffee with Matt -- the guy from last night -- and then we went and got my car inspected and then I've been chilling at home and running errands but pretty soon I'll be heading out again.

2 comments:

Sue said...

If I were Katie I would super pissed for being jerked around over this ankle business already. I mean, WTF? Is is broken or not??? Assholes! The doctors give her all of this shit and she's not supposed to get upset? NFW! Assholes. Please tell her that she has my sympathy for the way the medical establishment has treated her. Thank god it wasn't anything life threatening. pft.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry to hear that about Katie. I hope it works out :/

And......you should let me know the next time you're in NYC :P