When I was in the operating room getting prepped for the c-section, the nice anesthesiologist was telling me everything he was doing and how it would make me feel (this will be cold, this will be colder, this will start the numbing, etc…) He wanted me to keep him updated if I was feeling the cold/colder/numbness/etc and let him know if I was feeling things he was not mentioning. Well, after a few minutes of his drug cocktail- I started feeling severe shoulder pain on my right side. It hurt so bad that I was not speaking loud enough for him to hear me so Kerry relayed the message that it really hurt. His response- it is not real pain. About 1 in 50 people have the sensation of shoulder pain but it is just a side effect. Well, it sure felt real! And, now five weeks later it is still there- as well, as back spasms and numbness in my arm. At my post-partum check-up, I was told ‘to see a doctor’ about the pain. Now, considering I was seeing a doctor at that moment it was a funny comment but I knew what he meant about seeing a specialist.
Finally, today I had my appointment. After waiting one hour and thirty-five minutes, I saw ‘the doctor.’ He confirmed it was not fake pain but that my back and shoulders were super tense and he thinks I have a pinched nerve. I guess I have the typical injury of a new mom. He prescribed physical therapy for the next month to see if that works out the problem. He wanted to see me back in four weeks but after learning that my 95 minute wait is fairly standard for his office, I will need to find another doctor. If I showed up 95 minutes late for my appointment I am sure I would not be seen by the doctor and would be billed some sort of ‘no-show’ fee. He was a tad perplexed that I would not be scheduling the next appointment but honestly I don’t like to wait and he did not provide a good reason for the long wait. He just confirmed what the nurse said that he has a lot of patients and this is a typical wait time. Ugh. If you know a good doctor with shorter office waiting times in Alexandria- let me know.
And, in Hadley news, here are a few of her professional pictures from a few weeks ago:
all three of us 