Thursday, February 08, 2007
Feb 8
Yesterday after school I headed over to the clinic to get my knee checked out. I injured it about two years ago and while it's never really given me major problems, it's never really healed quite right either. These days it's hard to leave it in a deep bend (in fact, it won't bend nearly as deeply as the other knee) and if I leave it bent for any period of time it's hard to straighten out without significant stiffness and/or pain.
So I finally decided that, now that I have decent insurance, I'd get it checked out. The P.A. at the clinic referred me to an orthopod here in town at 1:15 today.
Getting the time off wasn't too horrendous. Lennie, the head office lady, is notoriously melodramatic about teachers requesting time off. Such requests are usually recieved by deep sighs and minor comments about being lucky if she can find anyone to sub. This time, however, Lennie simply said, "I'll see what I can do and give you a call." A few minutes before the first bell rang, she called and said she had someone to cover the last three periods of the day.
So I headed over to the doctor's office. After the routine paperwork, I was escorted into a small exam room. The doctor came in, asked a few rapid fire questions, felt around my knee for a minute or two, and left. An assistant of some sort took me to an X-ray room, zoomed in on my knee for a few quick X-rays, and then escorted me back. I'd tried to crack a joke about making sure the X-ray machine didn't zap my manparts by mistake, and the tech just kind of blew me off. Everyone in the place was absolutely humorless.
Back in the exam room, I read for about three minutes before the doctor came back.
"There's nothing wrong," he said.
"Okay," I said.
"The X-ray doesn't show any bone damage at all, so the pain you're feeling might be due to cartilage. We'll need an MRI to know for sure. Any questions?"
"Uh, no..." I began. Actually, I had a ton of questions and still do. I just couldn't think of them right at that second.
"Good," the doctor snapped. "My assistant will get the MRI appointment set up." He left.
And that was that. The entire trip took 25 minutes, with the doctor actually speaking with me for a total of about three.
Meanwhile, back at school, I missed my last three classes - which was actually kind of a nice break - and two IEP meetings, which is not cool at all. I had the foresight to email the special ed people with my thoughts about the behavior and grades of the students in question.
Tonight I'm trying to put together some sort of plan. One of our instructional facilitators gave me some great ideas, and Fridays are always kind of lame anyway with absences and such, so we'll see what shakes.
9th - wasn't there; asked substitute to have the students start the unit 3.1 test essay portion
10th - HW 8 and 9; Latin lesson on T/W; heritage of language & culture ¶ 7:27 PM
So I finally decided that, now that I have decent insurance, I'd get it checked out. The P.A. at the clinic referred me to an orthopod here in town at 1:15 today.
Getting the time off wasn't too horrendous. Lennie, the head office lady, is notoriously melodramatic about teachers requesting time off. Such requests are usually recieved by deep sighs and minor comments about being lucky if she can find anyone to sub. This time, however, Lennie simply said, "I'll see what I can do and give you a call." A few minutes before the first bell rang, she called and said she had someone to cover the last three periods of the day.
So I headed over to the doctor's office. After the routine paperwork, I was escorted into a small exam room. The doctor came in, asked a few rapid fire questions, felt around my knee for a minute or two, and left. An assistant of some sort took me to an X-ray room, zoomed in on my knee for a few quick X-rays, and then escorted me back. I'd tried to crack a joke about making sure the X-ray machine didn't zap my manparts by mistake, and the tech just kind of blew me off. Everyone in the place was absolutely humorless.
Back in the exam room, I read for about three minutes before the doctor came back.
"There's nothing wrong," he said.
"Okay," I said.
"The X-ray doesn't show any bone damage at all, so the pain you're feeling might be due to cartilage. We'll need an MRI to know for sure. Any questions?"
"Uh, no..." I began. Actually, I had a ton of questions and still do. I just couldn't think of them right at that second.
"Good," the doctor snapped. "My assistant will get the MRI appointment set up." He left.
And that was that. The entire trip took 25 minutes, with the doctor actually speaking with me for a total of about three.
Meanwhile, back at school, I missed my last three classes - which was actually kind of a nice break - and two IEP meetings, which is not cool at all. I had the foresight to email the special ed people with my thoughts about the behavior and grades of the students in question.
Tonight I'm trying to put together some sort of plan. One of our instructional facilitators gave me some great ideas, and Fridays are always kind of lame anyway with absences and such, so we'll see what shakes.
9th - wasn't there; asked substitute to have the students start the unit 3.1 test essay portion
10th - HW 8 and 9; Latin lesson on T/W; heritage of language & culture ¶ 7:27 PM
