Sometimes things are written on someone’s face as clearly as if it were written down on the page. If you really look at people when they talk, you can often hear the words they aren’t saying. So was the case when I asked the spine doctor about my MRI and the disk that I had been told was injured beyond what physical therapy could hope to fix. He had that deer in the headlights look, then glanced at the chart, threw out the “everyone who is old has bad disks ” comment and flew out the door. In that moment I knew. I have always been an observer of people and as an actor I find that very helpful. Day in and day out it can also be helpful.
I told you in the previous post (and many of you contacted me and cheered me on- thank you!) that I planned to get the DVD with my MRI results and take them to another doctor. I called the first doctor yesterday and left a message. I implored the person who heard the message to get my MRI, leave it at the front desk and PLEASE let me know it was up there. I never heard a word. Again, I just knew, but kept going. When Tim asked me what time we should go to get the MRI, I told him I needed to call again. I did not want to go for nothing. So I called. For the first time I got the woman at the front desk, live and in person. I told her what I needed and she asked me to hold. So I did. A really, really, really, really long time. When she came back to the phone she informed me with what I had already suspected. There was no DVD of my MRI. Not in my file, not in the drawer of loose DVDs. She then asked if I had seen the doctor who had done the block. I said yes. I had thought in this modern age where doctors walk around with iPads and they showed me the results on a state of the art flat screen, that records would be sent electronically, not by hand. So I asked her about that and she didn’t answer. Then I asked if they had it downloaded somewhere so that they could make me a copy. She told me no, they had no record of my MRI and that I could go back to the independent place that did the MRI and they could “probably get me a copy.”
I knew when I asked the doctor about the MRI that he had not looked at it recently. I know he sees many patients and that if he saw it on the day I brought it in, weeks ago, that he would not have any recollection of it. No one could! When they kept not writing whatever letter they were supposed to send to the doctor for a block and put me off and put me off, I thought they had issues. When he sent me for Xrays of an area they had already seen fully on an MRI I began to wonder. I am not medical, like I have stated, so I just did what I was asked. But when the doc looked so confused by my talk of an MRI, I knew. My records were in a shambles and I needed to just get out.
I plan to go to the physical therapist on Monday. I plan to take the MRI copy that I will get from Imaging South. I plan to tell them all that transpired before they start working me out as if there is nothing much really wrong, just old age. And I plan to work hard to make myself better, on my terms.
