My Elbow

I got home from Texas Monday night and my friend Cindy called me.

Cindy: What's up with your elbow?

Me: It's swollen. I guesss you read that on my blog.

Cindy: Yeah. When I went to feed the cats, I noticed your truck was gone and wondered why you would take that. Then, I noticed you'd left behind your crutches and I knew something must be wrong. I checked your blog and found out your elbow was hurting.

Then she asked me all sorts of questions about it, which I found out the next day that I'd answered wrong. I was also in trouble for not going to the doctor before I went to Texas. Miss a Blown-Eyed Blodger meet? Not if I can help it! I told her that I was going to the doctor on Tuesday. She was off work that day and offered to take me. Since she's an RN, she always knows what the doctor is saying.

On Tuesday, when she came over and saw my elbow she told me I had answered all her questions wrong. She wasn't as pissed as she usually is when I delay taking care of a medical problem. Sometimes she chews me out like I was her husband. That's when I know I've really messed up.

We got to the doctor's office and the nurse took my vitals. My blood pressure was the lowest it's been in years. 130/70. I am on BP meds. Nice to see they're working.

One of the guys who works in the pharmacy came by and said, "How you doing today, Mr. Wilson?" See. I take so many drugs that the pharmacy guys know me by name.

I had an open sore on my elbow that was draining so he took a sample to culture it. He thought it might be MRSA which is a virulent staph infection resistant to many antibiotics. He put me on an antibiotic that is supposed to be effective against it. It's one of those hardcore antibiotics that kills everything, even the beneficial bacteria that reside in the intestines. I'm taking lots of lactaid to prevent the runs. Doctors never tell you to do that. Cindy alerted me to that trick and it works.

I got my test results back and forwarded them to Cindy so she can tell me what they mean. It's really cool. My HMO sends me an e-mail as soon as my test results are back. I can then log on and see them. They notify my doctor at the same time, so I might have seen them before he has.

Now I wait.

Posted by denny at May 10, 2007 01:54 PM