I already posted the below synopsis of my afternoon on the "3 things" thread. The short answer is that I know no more about my knee than I did yesterday but several people noticed that it "looks pretty swollen". Nice to know I didn't have to shell out $100,000+ for medical school to tell me that.
Anyway, thanks for asking. More info below if you want to read it all.
Today has been a big, fat failure! I arrived at my CT scan appointment right on time and then waited for 40 minutes before checking in with them to see what the delay was. Turns out they lost my paperwork somewhere between me handing it to the nurse and her setting it down on her desk. Once they finally called me in, I was just laying down on the table and the scan tech says, "OK. We'll just give you your shot in the arm and we'll be all set to go." I FREAKED! I am TERRIFIED of needles. He said shot and I immediately broke out in a sweat, started crying and hyperventilating. I have serious panic attacks around needles and have to take Valium. I asked them if I would need a shot when I made the appointment and they said no so I didn't take Valium before the appointment. I told them I could go ahead and do the shot if my husband could come in and hold my hand, but THEY WOULDN'T LET HIM! They said that only patients were allowed into the Radiology dept. of the hospital. No family members, even for a shot.
So by now, I'm in full panic attack mode. I can't breathe because my asthma is acting up and DH had my purse with my inhaler. I'm crying and sweating and darn near hysterical and then the scan tech finally goes to get the radiologist who comes in and asks if he can give me a hug. He gets me to calm down and tells me that he thinks I should have an MRI instead of the CT scan due to the nature and location of the injury. They call over and are able to make an appt. for me this afternoon at 4:15.
By now, it is 2:15, DH and I have been up since 5:15am and we haven't eaten since then. We decided to get a bite to eat so had a nice, leisurely lunch at Ruby Tuesday's and then went to the MRI office. After waiting 40 minutes because they are behind, I finally get called back only to find out that I have to go ALL THE WAY INTO THE MACHINE UP TO MY NOSE!!!! Trigger panic attack #2 as I am mildly claustrophobic in very small, enclosed spaces. I decide to go for it, the tech gets me strapped down and in I go. He proceeds to spend the next 30 minutes trying to "position me" in the MRI chamber - except that the table mechanics are broken and that is why they've been running behind all day. The table would only move with a combo of physical force and pushing the various buttons and the chamber kept readjusting so he could never get a good position. In the meantime, I'm in the stinking chamber up to my nose and can't move at all. My leg is trapped under this giant cover thing that is keeping it flat except that I can't straighten my leg due to the injury. My whole lower leg kept shaking involuntarily and the tech kept telling me to keep it still and I told him I was keeping it still and that it was shaking by itself. Finally, after an hour of this, the tech said he couldn't do the scan because the machine wouldn't adjust properly.
So, after the **ll day I've had, I have to have ANOTHER appointment scheduled for an MRI and go through all of this again. They are going to do the next one in a different kind of MRI that works for people with claustrophobia and I'm taking my Valium next time. It just sucks that I went through all of this and I still don't know what is wrong with my knee. Plus, since I still can't drive, DH and I BOTH have to take time off to go to these stupid appointments.
Now that I'm home, I'm exhausted and emotionally spent and I'm not sure I'm up to scrapping. I think I'm going to bed early after I watch Idol.