2/22/18
As y'all may know I had ankle surgery last October to remove an osteochondroma (bone tumor) from the outside/ back part of my ankle. They also repaired/ replaced my Peroneal ligament (outside ankle) with a cool lab grown one, cut a groove in my bone that should have been there from birth, but it's me so I got a custom one for the nerve sheath to fit in, and did a PRP injection with my own blood plasma into my torn Achilles' tendon to promote healing.
Things were going great. I've had some pain in other parts of my foot and ankle due to new walkin patterns and some pain and swelling after a long day on my feet, but read above, that's no walk in the park surgery. It's all to be expected. Anyways, this past Friday one of my dogs jumps up and hits my foot causing it to jerk in the one direction the surgeon told me not to apply any forced motion. Oops. I call his nurse twice and they can't get me in because he's double booked. They tell me to go to the ER. I'm say you know that stands for "emergency room?" This isn't an emergency, I'm not dying. Well, since I've been taught if you're not vomiting, running a fever, or dying you should go to work or school. Pain won't kill you. Two hours into work I changed my mind. The pain was an 9 out of 10 and I was having hot flashes about to pass out and had tears rolling down my face. I went to the ER. I paid my $300 co-pay, the doctor refused to listen to me about what medicine I had already taken, ordered a CT scan, came back and said there are too many surgical changes to tell anything go back to your surgeon and get an MRI, but here's a prescription for 400mg ibuprofen for your sprain. Stay off your foot. The ER admin lady then brought me all my consent to treat paperwork after I signed my discharge paperwork along with an estimated bill of $3000 and asked if I wanted to pay any of that now. lol no. I just gave you $300 to give me medicine I have at home.
I saw one of my regular doctors Monday and we talked about my foot and what he could do for it. He does not want me on long term NSADS because they can damage your kidneys, cause stomach problems (which I have tons of already), cause bleeding problems, among many other things. So we went through several options and all the pros and cons of each, you know like a good doctor should do. I chose one of them (by myself not just the first one he threw at me) and if it doesn't work I have the option to go back and try the others.
I'm typing this in the parking lot of the ortho doctors office and already feeling sassy. So, I'll continue this as we go so y'all can see a typical appointment with me when something goes wrong.
I check in. They tell my my co-pay is $70. Ok fine. They also tell me I have a balance and ask if I want to pay that as well. Lol no. I tell them I already called the billing manager because of half the changes on there are wrong and I'll pay it once they correct it and mail me a new copy. I'm not paying a random amount without knowing what I'm paying for and comparing it to my EOBs. Because y'all keep trying to charge me for things insurance wrote off. That's fraud sweety. I was told to go sit down. So far so good.
I sat in the waiting room for about 15min then got called back to x-ray. The nurse said you're walking better than the last time you were here (3 months ago.) How does it feel? My response, "hurts like hell but thanks for asking." I take my x-rays. She asks if I hurt it again and I said yes and she said oh yeah you called Friday. We just been so busy since he's going out of town next week. "Priorities." Yall, my mood has gone from sassy to sour.
I'm in the room waiting for the doctor. It's been ten min. I have recognized that I have an attitude problem today. I text my mom to let her know. She said "me too." Maybe it's the pain, maybe it's the lack of proper healthcare, maybe it's because I'm on my 3rd day without caffeine, or that I've been reading too many politics online, but I'm going to meditate and try to fix it before he walks in the door. He comes in and examines my foot and ankle. His diagnoses is partial achillies tendon tear or really bad strain (no test will show since I just had surgery.) And I popped a stitch where I had a ligament graft on the outside on my ankle. He's then like it's going to hurt a lot for a few weeks but you'll be fine. I'm sitting here thinking don't tell me how I'll feel about being in pain for a few weeks. My next question is "well what can we do until then because I don't find that acceptable." Yall this doctor gave me a heel life to put in my walking boot. I'm like "oh thanks, that will solve all my problems." And he comes back and says, "three weeks of pain then we will do something." Ok you sadist.
Y'all I'm going home to nap and eat a snack so my attitude will improve before work.
