Medical Checkup: Ho

Posted on by Thor

I went in for a check up so I can have prescriptions filled.The doctor I saw for years retired and the second doctor I was going to see left the practice. I got a letter say he was returning, but he would not take my medical insurance. So I had to get by with what is available and that is this small clinic on Mills Avenue near Wills pub. The exterior is run down but the waiting room was freshly furnished.

I rushed to get a sketch done. I always think there is time to sketch when in a waiting room. I was called in just before finishing the line work.

In the much smaller exam room I looked around for any sign of HEPA filtration. There was non. The assistant wore a baggy blue surgical mask which is better than nothing.

One procedure was done. Jelly was smeared on my ankles and an ultrasound was dome to check if blood flow was good to the extremities. A blood pressure inflatable collar was wrapped around the ankle and tightened while listening to my heart beat. I have heard baby’s heart beat with that slithering whaoa whapa sound but never my own. The collar was inflated until my heart bet was silenced. It is kind of unnerving to listen to your heart beat getting choked off. Anyway I seem to have a decent heart beat in my ankles.

I need to get blood work done and a box is being mailed to my place. I am supposed to poop in the box and send it off to a lab to check for colon cancer.

The mask less Doctor Ho asked what I do and so I showed her the sketch. She shared it with the receptionists who are hidden behind the large computer monitors.

Glancing inside my skull and neck.

Posted on by Thor

I’ve started seeing doctors again about finding a solution to constant head aches and neck pain. This has resulted in constant blood tents and getting MRI’s of my skull and neck. It also results in testing my patience in waiting rooms. This fellow across from me was able to nod off while he waited.

An MRI is an adventure. You lay down on a white plank and a face and neck clamp is hinged over your head to keep your head still, much like in a roller coaster. Then you are rolled back into a tight cylinder to wait. Their is one tiny mirror inside which allows you to glance at the technician behind the controls. Sketching would have been impossible. The metal on the pencil and the spiral binding on the sketchbook would have caused havoc because of the huge magnets that must spin around inside the machine.

What followed was a loud series of screeches, clicks and beeps. I imagined they set the beat to music and I danced to the tones inside my head. I didn’t move a muscle. If there was something wrong in there, I wanted them to find it.

At the headache doctors office, I listened as Dr. Scharfman listed a series of symptoms of the patient in the room next to me in his sing song voice. Maybe some of the symptoms are just in the patients head rather than being caused by an incurable pinched nerve. No doctor has ever offered a solution to pain. It is far too mercurial. They only offer increasing dosages of drugs. I had a doctor try to burn the nerve that might be causing the problems at the 5th disk of my vertebrae, but he prayed to God to guide his hands and I suspect god didn’t listen.

I’ve decided to start running again each morning at 7am. Having a more active lifestyle isn’t a cure but it couldn’t hurt. Well, I take that back. It has been several years since I ran a 5k and my legs feel like lead. I’m just jogging maybe a quarter mile around my neighborhood, but I’m pleased that I can still go the distance. I’m also going to start researching neck exercises online. I stretch my neck each morning in the shower but I need to strengthen those muscles which might help. At least I am taking steps to find my own cure.