Rheumatologist is looking at x-rays of your hands and wrists. And, among other things, finds a break that you didn't even know you had*. Then comes over and starts manipulating one hand, "How badly does this hurt?"
"It doesn't."
Odd look. Still manipulating. "Were you in the Army?"
"No." Wondering about the question.
"It doesn't."
Odd look. Still manipulating. "Were you in the Army?"
"No." Wondering about the question.
"Do you just not notice pain?"
I was confused. "It doesn't hurt right now."
She gave me one really odd look, went back to the pc and made notes. From there, I think she thought there was something other than physical wrong with me.
I was confused. "It doesn't hurt right now."
She gave me one really odd look, went back to the pc and made notes. From there, I think she thought there was something other than physical wrong with me.
Well, maybe she was right.
*And it had never actually healed up. Talk about a "What kind of person am I treating?" look.
and I finally remembered where/how it probably happened, I'd thought it was just bruised.
5 comments:
Now a days she is used to treating the 70% of inner city mommas boys spoiled by the blue haired harpies and when you got ran over and killed by a dump truck yer momma slapped you for playing in the street and told you to walk it off .
More like Dad's example. Though sometimes trying to ignore something as long as possible isn't the best idea.
And it probably never occurred to her to check the machinery for ghost images or spurious interference creating what looks like a fissure in the bone?
Just because this brought back a memory from 1967 - twisted an ankle playing beach volleyball and suddenly could not put any weight on that leg without excruciating pain. X-rays of the day saw nothing, but holy moley the pain when they tried to "flatten" the ankle for another picture. After 3 xrays, they finally found the hairline vertical fissure going up the lower bone above the ankle. Let me tell ya, mot even the navy was able to cause me enough grief to match that episode and thankfully, never again though my ankle has a slight set outwards after that one was put in an old fashioned plaster cast for a month.
I should've added:
after she told me about that, two days later a memory fired and 'AHA!' I was coming down some steps one day a few years back and had a trip, threw up that arm and caught myself on the doorway at the bottom. Hit right about where she found the break.
So either it didn't hurt, or I just thought it was bruised and ignored it.
Back when I was a Boy Scout, my Scoutmaster told a story about a boy in the Troop who could only manage two or three push-ups before his wrist collapsed and he fell to one side. An X-ray revealed one of the small bones in the wrist had broken. The Radiologist and the Attending said, "That bone never breaks!", and had to put some kind of pin in the wrist and immobilize it with a cast for several months. The pin was later removed and the boy was able to use the wrist normally and do push-ups. The lesson from my Scoutmaster was that this finding out about infirmities while in the relatively low pressure environment of the Boy Scouts was a good way to find things to fix early on.
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