Oof. Don't let them hustle you out without imaging. Too many docs will shrug it off and say "ice/rest, check back in a week," then a week later you're back at square one. I don't feel like it's crazy to insist on an actual diagnosis, but it's been startling to me how many sports-related injuries my partner and I have had, which have required our insistence that a root cause be identified. Like everyone is willing to just put their life on hold for a couple weeks to see if things magically fix themselves, only to need to put their life on hold for even longer because we didn't figure out what was wrong two weeks ago.
Oh yeah, at this point I'm going FOR imaging. This weekend sucked. I have stairs and basically just stayed in bed. Got up to use the bathroom or turn the oven on occasionally. My husband has been taking care of the ducks. My kid is at the age of: can help some, can get into a LOT of trouble unsupervised. I honestly don't know how I'm going to manage my life with this problem. Maybe my mommy will fly in and take care of me....
You could not be going to a more accommodating place for that, at least. Disney World is off-the-charts expensive but its customer service is peerless. Everyone is willing to help there.
I have mentioned to 4 different people that the timing is bad for this trip, but have been informed excitedly that I'm about to have the best trip ever. Haha. It's not ideal but I do believe that I will survive.
If you’re flying, be sure to give advanced notice to them you’re in a wheelchair. Makes all the difference.
Well, my mother in law has the wheelchair in CA. I'm using crutches for now. Luckily we got a direct flight so no layover issues. I might need to do some reading to prepare, though. We are already bringing a booster seat for my kid which is a "medical device" you can bring for free. Surely the crutches have a special category too.
100%. Hurt my arm at the gym and it wasn't healing. After a few weeks, I went to my primary and said it was just a sore muscle. After a few more weeks, I pushed for a CT scan. I had ripped my muscle from the bone and required minor surgery and physical therapy. With healthcare shit, you really do need to be your own advocate.
The answer the NP had about soft tissue imaging was shitty, and exactly what you and others are describing. It's all to do with what insurance will cover. So I have a fracture, that is known. But they won't really order MRIs or CTs til we are into 6 weeks without improvement.
Tell them you need a wheelchair at the airport. You do not want to have to crutch yourself through an airport and security. Take full (legitimate) advantage of the situation.
Ah!! Thank you for the tip. I will definitely do that. I've never had to use medical devices like this and have no idea about anything. Like, the NP strongly suggested I get a paper from the DMV for them to fill out for a handicap placard. The thought never occurred to me to even ask about that.
Sorry to hear about the fracture. I know that hospitals are all fucked up with health insurance, but I am somewhat convinced that a lot of "what insurance will cover" is often just a matter of convincing the provider (doc, NP, PA) that their one-size-fits-all guidelines won't work for you. My partner had a foot issue that was being shrugged off as wait 6 weeks and we'll see. Finally she went to a sports medicine doc and said, essentially, "look, I hike several hundred miles every summer. It's what I love to do. If I have to sit on my ass for 6 weeks and come back, and then we diagnose it properly and find out I should have been in a boot this whole time, or scheduling a surgery or whatever, I'm going to be fucking livid and I'm probably going to be hiking on a bad foot." Suddenly the rules were different because she didn't fit neatly into the average situation and it turned out they had plenty of leeway to order a scan if they thought it was important.
As someone who has to do prior auths for imaging sometimes, I will say it has gotten so obnoxiously hard to get MRIs covered through most commercial insurance. Some require 6 weeks of PT, not just 6 weeks without improvement for musculoskeletal stuff. Unless it's for lower back pain, then you just have to say they're having incontinence issues and BAM! covered. But seriously, you would be horrified by some of the things that get denied that we have to appeal (read: grovel) to try and get patients the care they need.
Went through the same thing with my arm. After my pcp and two pt’s diagnosed it as tennis elbow I went to a ortho who was seconds away from the same thing and was offering a cortisone shot. I demanded an mri and actually had had a minor tear that healed over and was still fucking my arm up. With the right diagnosis a new pt had it back to near 100% in a month. I had stretched the issue out for almost two years at that point.
I'm always low key jealous of my wife in places like that. Getting pushed around, crowds typically part like Moses commanded it. I'm always the one doing the pushing. The woman hasn't had to walk miles across a theme park since 2011.
No shit, right? I'd happily trade all of my pain-free mobility for a free ride across a theme park every couple years. Those cripples don't know how fucking easy they have it.
I used to do that shit too and can say that’s Gospel truth. It got to where I knew what I had to say to get the insurance drone to okay imaging and I wasn’t above telling them that to get the patient what they needed. More than once I asked how they could look themselves in the mirror. @bewildered I’m sorry for your injury, but you also just got the ultimate Disney Fast Pass unless things have changed.
I have chronic back issues that I started getting care for as soon as I got married and off my parent's insurance at age 23. I've had multiple MRIs, 3 bouts of PT in 3 states, injections, the works. I also had shoulder surgery with MRIs and PT, and now this ankle. We have experienced military family insurance (Tricare), health insurance off the ACA exchange, state of Alabama employee insurance, "good" private company insurance (it wasn't that good), and "bad" private company insurance (much more expensive than "good" company insurance but coverage seemed about the same), Oregon Medicaid, and state of Oregon employee insurance. It's been interesting to see the differences in their costs, coverage, communication, and accessibility. All the private company insurance we have experienced has been the worst for us in terms of cost and coverage. I am definitely enjoying the benefits of the state of Oregon employee insurance. It's quite good and the cheapest thing in my monthly payments or subscriptions. I probably spend more on cornnuts than my health insurance right now.
Can’t believe how dependent I am now on my CPAP for a good night’s sleep. Amazon delivered the missing pieces to the hotel today and even a short nap was game changing.
The wifey and I were paying about $1500/month for not great insurance. That and Pres Dingus were the main driving factors of getting another job.