As I blogged about earlier, last night the pain in my elbows was so bad I could barely sleep last night, even with a massive overdose of Alieve. I called my physiotherapist, but she doesn’t work on Fridays. I called my doctor, but he doesn’t work on Fridays. I had read somewhere that sometimes tennis elbow responds to cortisone injections, and so even though the only cortisone injection I’ve had hurt like hell going in and didn’t do much, I was desperate enough to try it. The doctor’s nurse does work on Fridays, however, and she arranged an appointment for me at a “urgent care” orthopedist.
On Wednesday my physiotherapist was expressing surprise that the pain seemed to be down in the valley not up on the point of the joint where the tendon crosses, and I asked her if she thought that maybe the pain was in the joint like all my other joint pains, not in the tendon. She dismissed the idea pretty quickly.
The urgent care place x-rayed both elbows, and then physician’s assistant poked and prodded, and said “that’s not tennis elbow”. He fetched the doctor. The doctor poked and prodded, and said “you’re in the wrong place”. He said that the pain in my elbows was obviously related to the pain in my other joints, and I really need to see a rheumatologist for a full work up.
Vicki’s been telling me to see a rheumatologist for years now, so she’s doing her happy dance.
To get me through the weekend, he gave me a subscription for some pills. The AOPA web site says they’re not legal for flying, but the regulation says “while you’re taking it”, so I called AOPA to clarify that. They said that as long as you stop taking them and wait for more than the “half life” of the drug before flying, it’s legal. So I won’t have another 2 year nightmare like when I took the anti-depressants.
You gotta listen to your woman. The woman’s always right.