MRI & DIY PT

This morning was my lumber MRI, and everyone was impressed that the scan happened only four days after the scheduling submission. I'm not sure it's good to be high on the triage priority list, but if I need to be, I'm glad I'm there. Regardless, this is a major diagnostic step and should give providers a cleared picture of how to proceed with treatment. Fingers crossed for the less invasive options like specialized therapy or even a cortisone injection.

On the less than fantastic side, there was some delayed Friday communication between my doctor's office and me, so I was set to run out of the nerve pain medication at the end of today, and I was strongly motivated to avoid trying to manage the increasing discomfort tomorrow morning without the targeted medicine. During a call with the on-call nurse early this morning, I was told the request would be resubmitted to my doctor, and if there was still no response, I could head to the urgent care section of the hospital after my MRI and request a stop gap order for a couple days supply.

The MRI was quick, so around eleven o'clock, I was back in my ferrous clad clothing and calling the pharmacy about the prescription. Still no record of an order, so I waited in the waiting room until staff returned to the desk and asked the best way to go through the building to urgent care. It seems, without a pass to open doors, there was no best way, only heading outside and crutching my way around the building. I found a couple shortcuts through the trees and when I lost balance with the crutches at the top of four stairs, my fall was backwards, not down, and fortunately I have lots of practice crashing!

My half hospital grounds circuit complete, I made it to urgent care, opting for the long ramp instead of more stairs, and sat on the floor while the person in front of me checked in. Back on my feet for my turn, I explained that I was directed to ask there for a couple day stop gap prescription until my primary doctor's office was open. The check in clerk conferred with someone else on staff and came back with bad and good news. They couldn't call the script, but he could wheelchair me through the hospital to the ER where they could.

Wow, thanks, I don't mind not completing the outside circumnavigation, and I'm guessing he didn't mind the chance to get up and stretch legs. Delivered to the ER, I explained my visit, and not surprisingly, the only way for me to receive assistance from a provider with prescription abilities was to check in as an emergency patient. I did have the debate of whether or not I could suffer the next morning without and ultimately decided I didn't want to find out, especially with the pain increasing even with medication.

Checked in, short wait, triage visit where I explained I just needed a signature, back to another short waiting room visit, then a nurse took me to a bed in a hallway, I finish with explaining I need an extension of last Tuesday's ER script to get me through tomorrow. The short waits were over and I graduated to a long enough wait to try calling the pharmacy again, just in case. "Your G_______ prescription is ready for pickup." Yay, but also sigh, I really tried to avoid further overtaxing the already overtaxed medical system, but after days of trying, that goal was missed by about an hour.

I found the nurse to tell him I was all set and self discharging, and thank you. I crutched my way outside to a late lunch sitting in the flowers while Sue made the heroic drive back to collect me, so we could then collect my prescription (after the pharmacy opened again after their even later lunch break that I failed to beat my four minutes), and I could treat Sue to the mousetraps Todd had asked her to buy while out and about.

It was a lot of crutch walking  and maybe even a little more on top of that, and I just now realized that, having switched to a free-pile-found fitness tracker after my regular watch, from the same pile, konked out, I can say I crutched 2,913 steps so far today, and I'm guessing my butt scooting around the house didn't register. I was tired and my leg a wee bit sore, but bikes make everything better right? After dinner, I was back outside fixing the expendable bike in a trainer  without engaging the resistance unit, and turning my legs in gentle circles for five minutes. Simply put, it worked, ahhh!