My husband has been struggling with a pain in his shoulder for the past week and a half. At first, it was merely a small annoyance, but as the days wore on, so did the pain, getting progressively worse until he couldn’t sleep at night. That it didn’t stay in one place but migrated to his upper back was also a little alarming to me. I kept nagging him to make an appointment to see the doctor, and finally, as the pain had not abated after icy hot patches and ibuprofen, he finally called the doctor on Monday. The earliest appointment he could get was for today.
“I can’t believe you couldn’t get an appointment right away. This could be very serious,” I said, worried about my poor hubby. He assured me that the pain was musculature in nature and he wasn’t on the verge of collapse. But he was concerned enough that he wanted to have the doctor check it out. Of course, today, the day of the appointment, the pain is nearly gone, so he is canceling the appointment.
Once, years ago, I was experiencing pain in the heel of my right hand. It was so bad that I was having trouble doing routine chores like making the bed. I couldn’t lean on it at all. When I went to the doctor, he discovered that I had a calcium deposit in that area. “We will need to cut it out,” he said. He then described the procedure. He would make my arm numb by injecting a needle of numbing agent into my armpit. He described the size of the needle. “I’ll be asleep, right?” I said, all the color draining from my face. “Oh, no need for that,” he assured me. “It will be done right here in my office.” Because the pain was substantial and had been going on for quite some time, I made the appointment. Before the date of the procedure, the pain was completely gone, never to return. The image of that needle scared it out of me.
How many times have you heard a rattle or a squeal while you are driving, and when you make an appointment to bring your car in to be repaired, the noise disappears? I had a light switch that wasn’t working, and when the electrician came to fix it, it was working again. He could find nothing wrong with it. Fortunately, he was here to fix something else, so I didn’t have to pay for a wasted trip. I’m having trouble with that switch again, by the way. I need to make an appointment.
Coming East 
Those appointments work like a charm for us too. The worst was when the kids were little. They’d be so ill I’d beg for an appointment and once we got there they were climbing all over the office eating cookies, shrieking and playing, fever and ague magically gone.
Those rotten kids!
I’ve had back pain for over a week. So got in to see the orthopedist who has seen D1 and my husband but who I have never seen. The pain was mild when I got in. No problems on the x-ray and I found out no arthritis. He set me up for physical therapy. Pain all gone the next day. Now it’s back! What to do? Those PT exercises, I guess.
Chiropractor? I think exercise is the way to go. Back pain can be so debilitating. Hope yours is gone soon.
Car noises always freak me out, so does unexplained pain. And you’re right, most of the time, car noises stay until you see your mechanic. Sure hope your husband’s pain is nothing serious.
Unexplained pain freaks me out. Luckily, I rarely have a problem with that. Hubby hasn’t co planned about his shoulder in a week, so I think it’s fine now. He needs to exercise more. That’s what I think.
It seems like these days I always have an appointment for something or other … you’d think I’d be feeling perfectly. Not so much. And, by the way, I had an appointment for routine service on my car today and it ended up costing over $2000. Now that really hurts. So, maybe the “appointment thing” only works on the East Coast.
Ouch, Bud! Hope it is a car you dearly love. Maybe you need to move back east?
It happens to me everytime. I should make those appointments earlier. i have a back ache that’s been coming and going for a while now. I keep thinking I should see the doctor. All I really need is an appointment.
Hope that’s all it takes, Adela. Since this happens to so many of us, maybe someone should study this phenomenon.
Car noises? I just turn up the radio. When I can hear it over that, it needs attention. 😉 Hope George’s shoulder is ok.
Hahaha. Car noises make me nervous, so I always look into them. Fortunately, my car rarely has issues.
Funny this kind of thing happens to all of us! Glad the pain is gone.
It has happened too many times… I’m real glad Gorge kept his appointment and had an x-ray.
Hope his shoulder heals soon…I miss putting my head on his shoulder at night.
I have had shoulder pain for a while. I feel much better now though the pain is not completed gone. A few months ago, one of my colleagues suggested placing a keyboard tray under the desk, and I did. I could feel the difference in just a couple of days.
Ha! Too much time at the computer maybe.
As someone who works for a doctor I can tell you this, people like your hubby or as I like to call them, the “normal crew” can not get an appointment because the schedule is full of people who obviously all took the same acting class and suck up all the available spots. I’ve had tears of pain on the phone due to foot pain and the person practically skipped in wearing heels! Glad hubby is feeling better and kept the appointment.
Haha, love that description of the acting class patients.
That seems to be the case. It’s scary to me how long it takes to get a doctor’s appointment these days…. Good thing we have urgent care facilities.
If you see a group of doctors, you have a better chance of getting seen, but my husband’s doctor is a lone practitioner. He actually did decide to keep his appointment after all, and the doctor sent him for an x-ray. Better to be cautious.
That’s always the way! There’s often so much time between onset of pain and date of appointment! Hope his pain goes away!
Thanks, CG. I think he needs more exercise. Did I say more? I mean any!
LOL! So funny and So true! I remember I thought my 3 year old son was dying because he had 104 degree fever. By the time we got to a doctor that morning his temperature was normal and he was fine.
It gets embarrassing, doesn’t it, Dor? You find yourself trying to convince someone that there really was a pain or a noise, or a whatever, that you weren’t just imagining things.
I’d like to stop aging. I’m calling for an appointment right now.
I think I’m losing my memory. I’m calling for an appointment for that, too. I should remember my whole life by this evening.
I regularly find myself in that situation. I finally got in for an appointment for my doctor to check out my ankle (the hospital claimed that it wasn’t broken, but I couldn’t weight-bear for more than two weeks!), by which time I was walking with only a slight limp, and really only just got a confirmation that, yes, I had really badly rolled my ankle.
Hopefully the mere threat of the electrician coming in will cause the light switch to start doing its job again, so you can cancel the appointment (but out of the feisty switch’s ‘hearing’, hah)
Glad it wasn’t broken! But sometimes sprains take longer to heal than a broken bone. I’m ignoring that light switch because it always works when my husband turns it on. It just doesn’t like me.
oh have I experienced all of the above… I especially hate the car noises one. Good to see you back. Hope hubby’s pain stays far away… DAF
Me, too, but I just talked to him after he got to work, and he’s decided to keep his appointment after all, just in case. Glad he did.
ALWAYS! ALWAYS! Last year I threw my back out and I could not move. The pain was incredible. I couldn’t get an appointment for two days. The morning of the appointment: GONE. I actually spent a little time jumping around a little – hoping it would come back. I know that is insane. But I didn’t want to waste the doctor’s – or my – time.
Hahaha! Perfect example! It’s the darnedest thing, isn’t it?