quote of the day

my highlight quote of the day came from my doctor this morning:

"they should take 'great' out of the name Great West." (in reference to my insurance company.) hilarious.

this is because they want me to go to a specific physical therapist to try something on my knee, but i'm out of insurance coverage. the pt is actually the owner of the clinic i did all my pt at, so no biggie for me, but of course, there is the problem of no coverage. he said, what if we tried a different injury code? what if i appeal? did you tell them you had mutliple surgeries? what if.. what if... i was like dude, try all you want, but i'm very doubtful. he was like, so even if you break your hip, then break your leg, then tear a ligament, all in one year, you still only get twenty sessions? yes. but by all means, try.

the lowlight quote of the day also came from my doctor this morning:

"you've painted me into a corner." in reference to what to do with my knee. uh, if the chief of stanford's sports medicine orthopedic department says that, uh, that's not very encouraging.

as usual, i was seen by someone i've never seen before first. actually i was seen by two people - a resident and a "visiting medical student." seriously, how often do these people rotate?? i don't even bother telling them everything anymore because it's not worth it. i feel bad because it's not their fault, but seriously. this guy was like... so what's your problem? you had a scope in february... do you just feel like you've hit a plateau? i was like ugh... i need to go through this again? i told him i just had a second opinion with dr. dillingham, i'm here to do a follow up on that. he was like oh, so what did the doctor say? i was like, um, shouldn't dr. dillingham have talked to dr. fanton? he was like, oh yeah, i'm sure he did. i was like okay then. can you please just get dr. fanton then? ok i wasn't that mean, but i wanted to be. i let him do his thing like every other resident/fellow/intern/pa/doctor at every other appointment, even though i knew it was pointless.

so basically, i'm armed with another prescription for another MRI (yup, fourth MRI in 1.5 years), and at the same time, sitting and waiting to see if my doctor's appeal will work to get my those extra therapy sessions. his medical assistant said he'd basically tell them that they would like more therapy coverage to prevent another surgery. maybe that'll scare my insurance into it :)

BUT at the very least, now every time i go to my doctor's, i can have lunch with evelyn, who just started at stanford yesterday. her office is literally right around the corner from my doctor's office. yay for doctor apopintments! :)