Visit to the Orthopedic Surgeon

You wouldn’t believe how tired I am from doing practically nothing. The appointment with the doctor who replaced my hip was at 3:20 this afternoon. I actually got to see him at 4:00pm. This is why I hate late afternoon appointments. I am always tired and the doctor is always behind schedule by that time of day.

First, there was the X-ray. I hope I remember next time I go to wear pants with no metal  snaps and shoes I can slide my feet in and out of! I had to take off my jeans which meant, of course, that I had to take off my shoes with laces! Then, clad in a gown that fastened up the back and one which fastened up the front and wearing purple knee-high socks,  I had the X-ray.

Then I got dressed and went out to wait. Some of the time was taken up with explaining that I was reading on a Kindle, what it was and how to worked to a very interested woman who was waiting for her husband. When he came back from seeing the doctor, she then asked me to explain it all again to her husband who was also very interested. That part was fun. The rest of the time was taken up by reading, squirming on an uncomfortable chair and waiting.

At 4 pm I got in to see him and he spent a whole 8 minutes with me.    He asked me to walk to the door which was a whole two steps.  Then he told me that the x-ray showed that the artificial hip was very stable. I could see the x-ray on the computer in the corner of the room. I like to see x-rays. They are interesting. I said I was glad to hear that but it wasn’t the hip that was giving me pain but my muscles, especially the back muscles. He asked me was I walking and I said I was but mostly only around the house and the grocery store. He replied by saying no matter how little, walking was what I should be doing… Oh, and he called me Pat. Twice, despite the fact that I corrected him the first time.

Anyway, it is all over and done with for two years which is when I see him again.

And all my medical checkups have been done!

I am grateful for:

1. the fact it will be two years until I go back,

2. the fact that we had no snow today!

"If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment."

Marcus Aurelius