I realize that my incessant whining is probably pretty tiresome at this point - I'm even tired of listening to myself - but I know that I have crossed some sort of threshold when there is zero charge for my latest visit to the orthopedist, and even my physical therapist has given up on me. Okay, so the latter is not exactly true, but I did see a different therapist today (and quite frankly, it was awesome).
The sort of funny/sad part about this is that my whining is not nearly what it could have been. When I last saw my therapist on Thursday, I was feeling okay. However, I apparently had a terrible reaction to the cortisone injection that I got last Wednesday. Although the injection itself didn't hurt as much as it did the first time, the post-injection elation was pretty short, and not only that, I was in horrific pain on Friday and Saturday. On Friday, I could not walk without extreme pain, and since I was home
alone with my son for most of the day, I decided to save myself the agony of limping around all day and just use a crutch. But only me and my son knew about this; it was our little secret. After a heavy duty pain pill on Friday night, I was feeling a little better by Saturday, and since my husband was around, I was able to take it pretty easy.
Dr. Google told me that I was likely experiencing a 'cortisone flare,' which is when the steroid crystallizes in the joint and causes intense pain. I knew this was a possibility after consulting Dr. Google prior to my first injection, but it wasn't really on my mind since it didn't happen the first time. Fortunately, I was back to normal, or at least 'normal' on Sunday, and by Monday I felt pretty good. So WHATEVER it was on Friday and Saturday, it is now gone, thank God.
Anyway.
I've been planning on going out of town this week/weekend with my parents and my son for a long time. It is my dad's birthday, and my parents originally invited the whole family, but my husband and daughter are going on a trip, so it is just me and my son. As I've been quite busy, the trip sort of snuck up on me, plus I did not realize that we were leaving on Thursday instead of Friday. To make a long story short, I had to rearrange my schedule for the week sort of last-minute, including PT, which I've been going to on Thursday afternoons. My orthopedist has recommended continuing PT twice a week, but since I started back to work, I just can't seem to fit it into my schedule twice a week, plus it's not so awesome that I'm that motivated to make it fit into my schedule. I could have just cancelled PT this week, but... it seemed like a long time to go without it. So I moved my appointment to today, Tuesday, instead.
Now, for reasons I won't go into here, I've been doing some 'research' on physical therapy places in town, and it has made me realize that the clinic I am going to is sort of the 'big box store' version of PT clinics: limited one-on-one time with an actual therapist and a lot of time with aides. Other PT clinics boast that you will never spend time with 'unskilled' aides or assistants, and your whole appointment will be one-on-one with your PT. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this. I mean I GET why this is a good thing, but I've mentioned I'm not crazy about my therapist, and the thought of spending 45 minutes with him one-on-one sort of gives me the heebie jeebies. LOL. I actually enjoy some of the aides quite a bit, and most of them are perfectly capable of hooking me up to the electrical stim machine. (Hell, I'm capable of hooking myself up by now.) And it was because of an 'unskilled' PT assistant that my blood clot was finally diagnosed after I spent a month whining about how much my leg hurt, including to both my orthopedist and physical therapist. Nevertheless, I am sort of confused about how appointments work and how patients are distributed amongst the physical therapists at the clinic I'm currently going to. My therapist often has, like, three or even four people he is trying to take care of at once, which can get frustrating. Meanwhile, it seems as if most of the other therapists aren't nearly as busy. I don't know if there is some pecking order as far as who gets to see patients or what, but it's not as if I requested my therapist in the first place, so if he's that booked, why didn't they just put me with someone else from the beginning?
At any rate, I was sort of annoyed this morning when AJ came out into the waiting room and there were two of us booked for the same time, plus two people already inside he was also working with. I realize that I changed my appointment at the last minute, but if he was busy, they should have just told me so, and I would have just cancelled. (Again: Big Box Store. Appointments = Money.) However, after AJ got one of the other guys going, he came back out and sat down next to me. He looked like a boyfriend getting ready to dump his girlfriend. LOL. He sort of sheepishly said that there were some 'scheduling issues' and that he had a proposal. He seemed a little nervous, so I was thinking he was going to ask me to, like, jump out the window or something, haha. He then went on to say that my issues at this point were mostly soft tissue issues and that one of the other therapists had an open schedule right now and could work with me one-on-one for the whole time today, and would take me into a more private place to be able to do a little more than out in the open. (It is hard to work on hips in a clinic with an open floor plan; I've had to plan my wardrobe around this.) Then he added, 'And actually, she's a lot better than I am with soft tissue,' and went on to say that he had already filled her in on my history. It was as if he were giving me a sales pitch. LOL. The smart aleck in me had a hard time resisting saying something along the lines of, 'You mean you are breaking up with me?!' but since I'm not sure he has the greatest sense of humor, I just agreed. The funny thing is that it's not as if I even like him that much, so... I honestly didn't really care. I do have issues with change, which is probably why I've stuck with him for so long, but it's not as if I minded the idea of working with someone else.
So... my appointment was with Beth today, and she was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. She told me that unfortunately, the private treatment room in the PT clinic was currently being used for storage, and took me into the casting room in the orthopedic area. She then massaged my hip, thigh, and back for a good 20-30 minutes, which was reeeealllly good in that semi-painful type of way. But AJ was right; she was A LOT better than he is. HA! And she was very pleasant, too, which was a pleasant surprise. (She just never struck me as pleasant before, but after today I feel she is probably a lot like me - not super outgoing or overly friendly on a superficial level, but perfectly lovely on a personal level.) Of course, in my mind, there is basically no amount of unpleasantness that can't be overcome by a good massage, but it is icing on the cake to be able to have a good conversation while you are simultaneously getting massive pain relief.
When I left PT today, it was a bit awkward because I soooo wanted to complete the break up with AJ, but I felt like I needed his permission. LOL. I quickly debriefed with him and told him that Beth had been extremely helpful. I then said that I was going to make an appointment for next week on my way out and wondered if he thought it would be a good idea for me to see Beth again. He pretended to hesitate and then said he thought it would be a good idea, that he thought this might be helpful for me.
I skipped all the way out. And I thought that maybe, after all, I can fit PT in twice a week like my orthopedist recommended. :)
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