It's good to be a government worker! Well, accept I had a doctor's appointment today. Not sure where I left off, but I pulled that Worker's Comp Claim for the Carpal Tunnel. I figure it will take years for me to get any relief given all the red tape and hoops I have to jump through...and I thought our federal agency was bureaucratic!
I emailed my doctor last Thursday and told her I didn't want to go the Occupational Medicine route. Within an hour, I had an appointment with an injury/sports med doc for this morning. So I take Poppy (aka Patient Advocate) to the appointment with me. We go in and Dr. Dummel reads the computer and sees that I've got the Carpal Tunnel and that I've been to the Occupational doctor. He asks why it isn't working so I tell him. He says there is a certain protocol that needs to be followed with Carpal Tunnel and that starts with physical therapy. I don't see the point of that since it'll be the same stretching that I do. He says "I sense your hesitation on the PT and I tend to agree." We start talking about the cortisone injections and he's telling all the bad things that can go wrong. But we decide to do it in one wrist to see how it goes.
He starts playing with my wrist, which happens to have a gigantic bruise on it (I slipped on the stairs a few days ago. You should see my butt). He asks how I got the bruise. I replied and pointed at Poppy "She pushed me down the stairs." I crack me up. I think he thought it was funny. We'll find out if the domestic police show up later. He's just about to go fetch all the injection stuff and I ask him if he's feeling confident he can hit the target given our conversation a few minutes prior. He starts laughing and say he thinks she can. Said he's done this at least 10,000 times.
Right away I think of the head and neck doctor that did surgery on Poppy's ear. This was the guy with coke-bottle bottom glasses who said "I can count on my fingers how many times I've done this surgery." While he's olding up his hands, I only count 9 fingers. Poppy didn't notice, but I did and wondered how the heck he lost that finger and I sure hope it wasn't during surgery!
As a side note for those of you that I work with, Dr. Dummel looks just like Jeff Deis. AND his friends with Darin Delagnes. Small world.
Also reminds me of another story...years ago, I went to see my Dyno-Gyno, Dr. Jordy. This was after I had started working at the Trust. Anyway, there I am, splayed out for the whole world to see and Dr. Jordy says "So you work for the Presidio Trust now?" I say "Yes." He peeks his head above the sheet, looks at me and says "Well then, you know Toby Rosenblatt and Mary Murphy?" Well this is just a little too weird. I say that I do and that they're our board members. He says they're both very good friends of his. I'm so grossed out now cause he's fiddling with my lady-bits and all I can see are Toby and Mary's faces. I couldn't get out of their fast enough!
Okay, so Dr. Deis comes back into the room with two very large syringes. He says one is a local and one is the cortisone that also contains a local. I tell him about how I tend to like to faint when I get my blood taken. He kind of giggles but thanks me for telling him. He started with the local and hit some medial nerve thing and I go "OW OW OW OW!" He say's "Yep, that's it." That's all it took...now I'm sweating and seeing stars. I tell him that I should get up on the table thing and lay down. So I do. Poppy says "Wow, you're pale." "You're white as a sheet." Really? I ask for some water and a compress. Dr. Deis finishes up his work and then starts fanning me with a magazine. He was very sweet.
After about 10 minutes, I was feeling better and it was time to go grocery shopping!
VIVA LOS GIGANTES!
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