I started having knee pain again back in May. It was xrayed and found to be fine. It’s steadily gotten worse ever since. Last month on the day my niece was born, after seeing my niece and sister in law in the hospital I admitted myself to the emergency room. At that time the doctor told me that he thought it could be sciatica and that I should probably consider seeing an orthopedist and possibly a neurologist. Last week the pain changed, adding a sharp stabbing feeling up the thigh into the groin and hip, as well as in one side of my back. It’s become unbearable, so I went to the orthopedist yesterday. He looked at my old xrays of my knee and an xray from early summer and said there was a little arthritis but other than that no change. He said that the pain and symptoms I described were not typical of a knee problem so he wanted me to get an MRI of the knee. When I left the office one of the girls was going to get the insurance preauth underway and was going to call me when it was ready.
When I got home RB gave me a message that “the orthopedic office called and said the MRI wouldn’t be covered and to go to the hospital”. I asked him for the name of the girl that called or if he could give me clearer sense of what was said. He could not. Typical. At this point he begins stomping around the house muttering that he gave me the message that was left and she hadn’t given a name. After ten minutes I finally reached the girl in the office who had called. Her message had been that my insurance didn’t require a preauth and that the procedure would be covered if I went to an in network facility. I called the hospital and got an awesome woman who got me an MRI scheduled for later that night. I told RB I was going over to the hospital to have the MRI and he had another tantrum, complaining that he’d never get any rest. (Two words came to mind here, they’re definitely not family friendly.)
I got there early and was told they were running a little behind so they comped me a cappuccino at the snack shop. By the time I got back it was my turn. They put me on a table, which they then raised up to the level of the tube. Into the tube they sent my bottom half, actually from about chest level down. I was given ear plugs and told it would be noisy. Man, they weren’t kidding! I’ve been told people sleep through them, I can’t imagine how with all that racket. I’d been instructed not to move my legs, which got challenging after a while since I was in the tube for forty minutes. Finally the guy came back in and backed me out of the tunnel and lowered the table. I retrieved my things and went home. Now I wait for the results.
