5 posts tagged “catherine's lame excuse for an ankle”

Had THE appointment today. That CT scan I did a few weeks ago? There isn't A bone fragment floating around in my ankle - there are THREE (maybe a fourth).

We're taking a conservative approach. Part of that approach involves pumping my ankle full of cortisone and seeing how it's holding up six weeks from now. At that point I'll have to decide whether surgery is the route I want to take. Oy.
Well immediately after getting the shots (one on either side of my ankle), I went to get up off the table and felt woozy. I thought it was "stood up too quickly" syndrome and figured it would pass. It didn't. I got extremely lightheaded, mumbled something about not feeling good and tried to sit in the guest chair. The ortho was like "no way, Jose" and caught me before I collapsed. Yep - I almost fainted in my doctor's office. Sweet. I'm not sure how I ended up back on the exam table - my guess is that I got picked up. Way. To. Go.

Apparently fainting isn't a side effect of cortisone injections, so we think I psyched myself out with the whole act of getting a shot. Who knows what my problem was - I don't normally have a problem with needles, except for this time when I behaved like a complete spazz.

It took three tries before I was stable enough to leave the exam room. It took one more try before I could actually leave the doctor's office. The receptionist took one look at me and we had this exchange:

Her: Are you sure you're okay? You look really pale.
Me: I'm really pale to begin with, so this might be normal.

That answer didn't suffice, so she insisted on making me a plate of fresh fruit and chocolate truffles. It was the kindest thing anyone outside my "inner circle" has done for me in a long time. It was also kind of random sitting in their break room, having a snack and listening to a woman get fluid drained from her shoulder.

Since I came home from work (yeah, I went back to work after that - I'm a trooper), I've been feeling some flare up from the cortisone. It hurts. It's supposed to go away in like a day or so, but oh my God, this hurts. After the pain tones down, I'll be able to tell if the cortisone has "calmed down" the bone chip situation like we hope it will.

Six weeks. Oy!

I learned something new yesterday. If the Army v. Navy football game is happening at Lincoln Financial Field and you've got tickets to the Flyers game at 7:30 that same night, you should be in the Wachovia Center parking lot like two and a half hours before the game. No joke. Thinking that MAYBE we'd miss some of the traffic leaving the Army v. Navy game, we departed from Oregon Avenue around 6:20-ish - for over an hour we sat in traffic coming down Delaware Avenue. We saw all kinds of hostility and pandemonium going on around us. A bunch of people just ditched their cars on the side of the road and walked to the Wachovia Center. They're braver than I am. I don't know how many times I said the phrase "NOW WHAT IS THAT GUY DOING?? That's not even a lane!"

We missed the warm-ups, missed intros, missed the anthem, missed the two Flyer goals and Ben Eager's fight. We ate hot dogs on the concourse during the rest of the first period because we didn't want to annoy our row-mates by trying to get to our seats. Those people probably have no clue how considerate we are.

Another loss. *sigh* A shootout loss! That was the first one I saw in person and for some reason it was less nerve wracking than watching it on TV.

On the way out I got cat-called by a group of pre-teens. I might have been offended if it hadn't been so ridiculous. We also watched a cop chew out a Devil fan who tried to drive through a pedestrian crossway. THAT was funny. Everyone trying to cross the street stopped to watch and the cop got a big cheer. We all needed SOMETHING to cheer about.

I'll be seeing them play the Crapitals on Saturday - MAYBE I'll be able to write about what it's like to see my Flyers win in person. I've been to several games this season and not one of them has been a win...maybe I'm the problem?

In other news, I go back to my ortho on Friday. He wants to talk about the results of my CT scan. Everyone is all "YOU'RE GOING TO NEED SURGERY!" I have no idea what he's going to recommend. All I know is that the ankle pain was so bad on Wednesday night that it kept me up until 1:30am. At this point, I'm willing to do just about anything to fix this problem.

The appointment went well. I have answers now. Here's the deal:

- the xrays show a small chip of bone stuck between a joint in my ankle. That miniature fleck is the source of my pain/weakness.

- I am NOT flat-footed! (Hear that, mommy!??!?!)

- apparently I have joints that are more flexible and looser than most people have. My doctor said it would have been great if I was doing ballet or gymnastics. OMG. Maybe I'll try out for the US Olympic gymnastics team after all. YAYAYAYAYAY!!!!

- how did that little piece of bone chip off? It's tough to say. I'm rough on myself. I've twisted my right ankle several times that have resulted in swelling. My doctor thinks the bone thing happened on one of the more recent spills I've taken on the stairs. After the last one, I stopped wearing socks in the house. Socks + wooden steps = DISASTER for my ankle. By the way, I never got the ankle checked out immediately after one of those ankle twisting incidents because I'm a moron.

- On Thursday morning I go back to the radiology center for a CT scan. The good doctor wants to get a better look at that bone fragment before we even talk about my options.

Yowza.

I'm exhausted now, but I need to remember to share the story about the guy who got kicked out of the doctor's office.

I had an appointment to see an orthopedist about my ankle. That's supposed to happen on Tuesday, but I'm probably going to cancel. The building looks super dodgy. I don't know. As soon as I saw it, my gut was like "no way, you incredibly pretty, smart, talented girl. Find another doctor."

Here's the thing: the doctor HAS a website with a picture of the exterior of his office. Or so I thought. Well I've never been to this place, so I decided to take a practice drive this morning. So I've got the address and the picture of the building burned into my brain. I'm driving along and I'm getting close to the address of the building. Except nothing is looking like the picture in the building. The buildng I'm seeing at this address looks oddly like a United Bank branch. That's because it IS a United Bank branch. His office on the second floor. Wow. When I got home, I checked his website to look at the picture again. Upon closer examination, it looks like a freaking stock photography picture with his practice's name photoshopped on the front. That doesn't really sit well with me.

This is the first time I've had to find a doctor without my parent's help. Yeah, I'm aware that 25 seems a bit old for that to be JUST happening, but whatever. My parents always found me great doctors. So far, I'm great at finding the ones with dodgy office locations.

I can wait. I've had the problem for about as long as I can remember; I can wait another few weeks. Besides, I've already diagnosed my problem! I should have been more serious about going to medical school.

After a near spill on the stairs yesterday, I am FOR SURE going to make an appointment with my orthopedic surgeon. I'll take the first non-schedule conflicting appointment and have my ankle checked out once and for all. I'm making the phone call tomorrow morning. 

I think I want to go back to Las Vegas before the end of the year.