Can You Say MENISCUS?

I became much more acquainted with an anatomy term yesterday at my doctor’s visit. As Mr. Rogers would say, “Can you say the word meniscus?” Now, can you say, “You most likely have a meniscus tear”? I will be having an MRI to confirm this diagnosis at 8:30 p.m. tonight. That appointment will most definitely interfere with my shut down sequence where I have a snack and take all my meds and begin the winding down part of getting ready for my five to six hours of shuteye. But I prefer the after hours schedule, therefore, you have to take what you can get.

I did feel a little uncomfortable at the Sports Medicine Centre. They call it ‘centre’ in order to add another $10 to my co-pay or that’s about all I could come up with as to why it was higher. The walls were filled up with hall of fame player jerseys and other sports memorabilia. However, many of the patients waiting to see their doctors looked like they had not been in the gym for quite some time. This was somewhat reassuring. The doctor was one who laid it out very short and sweet. The x-rays showed no bone problems and no arthritis. Therefore, the damage is most likely in the soft tissue and since it was a twisted knee, most of the time it is a tear in the meniscus which is cartilage that acts as a shock absorber within the knee. In other words, I have a busted shock absorber that is going to require repair but we need the MRI to confirm this.

Let me mention one thing I particularly noticed at this high profile sports medicine joint. There are lots of uniforms running up and down the halls. The smocks are different colors; therefore, I suspect they reflect some type of ranking system. The x-ray people were wearing gray. The doctor’s assistant who took my history was wearing green. Others were in dark blue, light blue, and another group who acted like they were at the top of the food chain wore floral smocks. The doctor had on the traditional white jacket. The clerical folks wore burgundy. Having observed this I am beginning to see patterns for why medical costs are so high. While they have a huge waiting area, my brief analysis says there has to be many more smocks than patients. So, there you have it. They have to charge to pay for all those different colored smocks! Maybe they will call me to testify at the next congressional hearing on soaring medical costs.

Also, there are quite a number of these folks who appear to walk constantly forth and back, all the time. They seemed to be really serious about wherever it was they were going but within seconds they would walk back by with the same determination. And, the conversations they had with their colleagues as they walked together was quite revealing. Just grabbing bits and pieces I heard about who is not talking to who but nobody knows why, who is expecting, who thinks she really is somebody, and oh yes, which doctor is on the warpath again. I wonder if maybe this walking and talking is their real job to keep the patients distracted from things like the higher co-pay and other hidden charges to be revealed at a later date.

I did enjoy my very brief conversation with the doctor. He had to have been close to my youngest son’s age so I had to resist correcting his condescending tone a couple of times. Other than that it was a great visit and I look forward to finding out exactly what my treatment plan options are going to be. That was what he called the next step in the process and let’s hope using those words doesn’t turn out like the ‘centre’ deal! Hey, you can smile because I’m really just joshing about all of this because my way of looking at it is that you might as well enjoy the ride as much as you can! May God help us all to seek His help for all our needs! Amen. …….More later.