So, I made an appointment with a highly recommended orthopedist and filled out the paperwork on-line. When I arrived at the stark-white waiting room, the young receptionist gave me even more paper work to fill out.  On the paperwork, there was a diagram of the human body, and I was supposed to indicate which limb or joint was bothering me.  Well, I had multiple joint pain.  How could I choose?  Then I saw that you could ask for more paperwork if you have a secondary problem.  So I told the aloof receptionist that I had multiple joint pain and asked for the extra paperwork.  She looked puzzled and said just to “X” all the spots that bothered me and to tell the doctor when I saw him.  So, I placed an “X” on about six spots. I indicated that the primary problem was my right hip and the secondary, my back.

When my name was called, they took an X-ray of my right hip.  It made more sense to me why they wanted me to choose only one area. They didn’t want to X-ray your entire body.  I told the nurse that I liked the fact that they had their own X-ray machine.  The nurse explained that the doctors want all the information to make their diagnosis before the patient leaves.  I was happy about that.

My friend told me that this doctor would like a GQ model and she wasn’t kidding.  That doesn’t really impress me, though.  I’ve often found that arrogance goes along with the good looks.  To his credit, he was very nice and caring.  He checked my range of motion and told me that my hips were very weak.  He expected to see a lot of arthritis on the X-ray, but when he looked at it, there was only a little.  I told him about my knee and foot pain, and he recommended physical therapy for my hips.  He said that that should also take care of the lower extremity pain.  When I asked about my back, he said he would include back therapy, too, when he wrote the script for PT.  Basically, I was getting arthritis because I was getting older.

I had one more question for the doctor.  Recently, a friend of mine went to the doctor for hip pain.  She was an avid runner and always watched what she ate.  She found out that her hip pain was from metastatic lung cancer even though she never smoked!  Sadly, she died about a year later.  I wanted the doctor to reassure me that my pain wasn’t from anything systemic.  He told me, and I quote, “That is not even on my radar.  It isn’t cancer, it isn’t an infection, it’s nothing systemic, its just arthritis.”  I was relieved…at least for a little while. To be continued…