Thursday, November 6, 2014

hip analysis

At my engagement party many years ago (yes, I was once married), my grandmother was talking to my friend Vivien.  When Vivien asked how she was doing, my grandmother replied in her heavy Yiddish-Russian accent, “Didn’t Linda tell you?  I hurt my hip 18 months ago.”

I hope I am not turning into my grandmother.

But almost four weeks ago, out of the blue, I felt a sharp pain in my right hip.  While the initial pain has substantially subsided, it is still there.  My internist (whom I love, and whom I’ve been seeing since 2003) suggested an x-ray.  When the results came in, she called and said, “You have calcific tendinitis; nothing serious, but you should see an orthopedist.”  So today I do.

I get to my 9:15 appointment and ask, “Is the doctor running on time?”  “Yes,” is the receptionist’s response.

We must have different definitions of on time. I see the doctor at 10:45. 

He walks in, and is impeccably dressed.  Beautifully tailored navy suit.  Nice shirt and tie.  No white lab coat for this guy.  He looks more like an investment banker than a doctor.  But he wears an impressive title: Chief of Reconstruction Arthroplasty and the Director of Arthroplasty Fellowship Program at Lenox Hill Hospital. 

The doctor reviews my films, and tells me, according to the x-ray, that my left hip is the one with the calcific blah blah blah.  My left hip feels perfectly fine; it's my right hip that hurts.  

But after a series of guided manual movements of both legs, the doctor concludes I have tendinitis in the left hip too and recommends physical therapy. 

I walk home in the rain. Knowing it’s nothing serious immediately eliminates most of the pain.


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