A few days ago I did something to my foot. I have no idea what I did to it, but it started hurting one afternoon and got to the point where I could hardly walk. The next day showed no improvement and so I decided to go to the doctor and have it looked at. The doctor was very helpful. She came in the room and asked me what I had done:
Me: "I don't know, it just started hurting yesterday and now I can hardly walk."
Her: "Take your shoes off and walk around for me."
Me: "Ok."
Then I started limping around the room.
Her: "It looks like you can't walk very well on it. Can you stand on your tip-toes?"
Me: "No."
Her: "Can you try?"
Me: "Ok."
Then I made a feeble attempt to stand on my toes, and failed.
Her: "It doesn't look like you can do that either. Well, I can't really tell you what's wrong. It may be a fracture of one of your metatarsels, but usually that's on the top of the foot. I'll have to send you out for X-rays to make sure you haven't broken anything. Get that done and we'll go from there. Until then I'll give you an anti-inflammatory to take."
I'm glad we had to go through the motions so that I could prove to her that I really couldn't walk very well, or stand on my toes. Certainly there was a chance I didn't know what I was talking about when I told her that I couldn't do those things.
It's times like these that I'm confident that I'm at least as capable as at least 90% of the doctors out there. I could have told you that you wouldn't be able to tell anything just by looking at it, but I can't just prescribe myself an X-ray now can I? I can read a flow chart of symptoms as well an anybody, but instead I get to pay $40 to find out something I already know: there's something wrong with my foot, but we can't tell what it is.
I got X-rays the next day, but still haven't seen the results. My foot feels a little better, so I'm optimistic that it's not a fracture. A friend of mine thinks it's plantar fasciatus, but I'm hoping it's just a deep bruise instead.
One thing is certain though: I hate getting old.
7 comments:
You've been old before. You'll be old again.
Yep, that sounds like just about every doctors visit I have. I have plantar fasciatus and it doesn't sound like what you described, though I'm sure it can vary. Most of my pain is in my heels and it doesn't make me limp, I just can't be on my feet for very long at a one time.
NM...if it starts to make you limp, you can always by Cialis...
It is better than the time I went to a doctor when i had an inner ear infection and was experiencing vertigo...I explained all the symptoms and told him that my mom thought it was an inner ear infection, and he wrote me three prescriptions...As I was walking to my car, he came running out and said, "I guess I had better look in your ear..."
buy
I completely distrust the medical industry. They are in the business of keeping us sick--if we didn't get sick we wouuldn't need them right? So... it is not in their best interest to help us get well. The model is just faulty. but I admire the ones who admit that they don't have answers. At least they are honest.
That's a pretty cynical view for someone so optimistic...it surprises me.
I disagree...I think there is enough sickness in the world that Doctors don't have to worry about "keeping us sick." There are probably a few bad apples, but the majority probably completely live by the Hippocratic oath.
I think that is like saying that psychologists want to keep people mentally disordered, or that substance abuse counselors really want their clients to relapse. The truth is, there are enough mentally disordere people, or drug addicts, etc. to keep everyone in business without relying on "keeping people sick."
Ha. Ha. You're old. *snicker*
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