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I am so tired of paying doctors and never being given a diagnosis. Copay after copay, referral after referral to specialist after specialist... and, every time, coming away with basically nothing more than a, "Rie doan no, Raggy!"
It's frustrating. And discouraging.
So, months ago, I had severe pain in my shoulder and down my arm. Went to the doctor. He named a few things it could have been and sent me to have an MRI of my neck. MRI showed nothing outstanding. The doctor had thought I probably had something wrong with a disk in my neck and would likely need surgery. Nope. Disks are fine, fine. Though he said I do have a bunch of small holes in my vertebrae. (What??? Okay, THAT's nothing to worry about!!)
Then I fell while running and had pain in my knee. Went to the doctor who looked at it and said it was nothing major and that I could just wait it out. But the pain persisted and then I noticed a bone in my lower leg poking out like a... poking out bone... so I asked the doctor about that and he referred me to the Bone and Joint Clinic. They x-rayed my leg and saw nothing. So they sent me on my way to a local hospital on another day for an MRI on my leg. Went BACK to the Bone & Joint clinic AGAIN so the dr there could look at the MRI and tell me he saw a mild strain to the end of my IT band. I was instructed to take it easy for awhile, to go to physical therapy, then to come back in like 6 weeks.
My insurance costs a $35 copay to see my primary physician and $50 for each time I see a specialist. So let's recap... for my knee... $35 to see my regular dr... $50 to the Bone & Joint Clinic... $50 to radiology at the BR General... $50 to see the Bone & Joint doctor AGAIN... which comes to a pretty $185. THEN he wanted me to pay a copay 2-3 times a WEEK for physical therapy... THEN to pay ANOTHER $50 to come back to have him look at the same leg with his same eyes and tell me... what?
Nope.