Adventures in Healthcare

So it looks as though the saga of my knee continues. Yesterday, when I was at the clinic being told I was too fat to get an x-ray, I was told that I should check out the hospital. So, I called the hospital this morning looking to book an appointment. However, the hospital will not my book an appointment from me directly, it must come from the doctor. So, I called the doctor to book the x-ray appointment for me, however the clinic tells me that the doctor who saw me yesterday won't be in the office until next week and that I should just go over to the hospital myself and visit the emergency room. You know, because a knee injury that happened a month ago is definitely an emergency. Wow, health care at its finest.

So, I load up the car and head out to the hospital hoping to get an x-ray. I walked into the emergency room and it looks as though it is an extras casting for the AMC show The Walking Dead. There are people littered all around the room with various fluids oozing out of their heads, moaning, crying, looking as white as ghosts. There are also a handful of men sitting around with various parts of their body elevated sitting beside a worried looking woman. I wonder who is making them go to the hospital? I'm also told that there is at least a 2 to 3 hour wait.

I end up talking to an EMT dude who refers me to a clinic just around the corner. I pop in and explain my knee situation to the doctor, who then pulls out his handy referral sheet to send me for an x-ray. When I see his referral sheet is to the clinic that I was going to yesterday, I say "I can't go to that clinic because I was there yesterday and am apparently too fat for an x-ray." The doctor looked at me with quite a sense of puzzlement. He said "you are not too fat for an x-ray. Sure, you are overweight. Yes, your knee is a little bit swollen, but that shouldn't be a problem." I then explained the situation that their table can only hold up to 250 pounds. Again, he looks at me with one of the more confused looks on ever seen from a human being and he said "but it is an x-ray clinic. They take x-rays. How can their table only hold 250 pounds? X-ray tables are huge." Exactly!

Although, to be honest, I'm not so sure I really trust the doctor. When he started looking at my knee, he seemed to be having too much fun poking around with the fluid on it saying "I can see that it is squishy. Look. It is all squishy." I am not a doctor. I do not play a doctor on TV. In fact, I do not even watch Dr. shows on TV. That said, I am pretty sure that squishy is not a medical term. Not exactly a way to instill confidence in your abilities there Doc. But, the upside, in 3 to 5 business days I will have wonderful pictures of my knee. Hopefully, I can keep it.