An Interesting Day

I woke up today, when the alarm went off at 7:15, with an intense pain in my left hip shooting down to my knee.  It hurt lying down, it hurt standing up, it hurt sitting down.  In my former life, I would just have thought I slept wrong and the pain would go away after a bit.  Around 8, I took a percocet, which didn't help much.  It did, however, make me loopy enough that I didn't think driving would be a good idea.  I called my friend Ellen Kross from church, who has offered taxi service if required.  Ellen is a retired nurse.  She was happy to drive me to radiation, but told me if I didn't tell them about the pain, she would.  I told Lynn, the radition oncology nurse, who runs the joint.  She asked a bunch of questions then decided the person to call was Dr. Chee or her PA.  While this was going on, they called me for radiation, so off I hobbled.  Shot full of toxic rays, I went back to the waiting room.  Lynn had left a message.  She called them back while we waited.  The concensus was that I should try to see my orthopediest.  I called his office--by 10:30 the doctors were gone for the day to do surgery, so there was no one to see.  I called Dr. Chee's office back.  Dr. Chee was with a patient, but I should go home and she would call me there.
Off we went. I thanked Ellen for the ride and went inside. At noon, I took another percocet. It helped a little more. Dr. Chee called me just before 2. She wanted me to get x-rays just to rule out cancer problems. Hello, Ellen, how do you feel about more taxi service? I could have waited for Glenn to get off work, but the prudent thing seemed to be to get it done ASAP. Dr. Chee faxed the order to the hospital (not the same one where I spend my mornings, the one closer to my house) so it was waiting for me. I think I had a student doing the work. He was very kind and very polite, but there were several people helping him. I'm still hoping that I slept funny, but lying on the x-ray table my brain was crowed with cancer questions and I got weepy. I’m sure they all thought it was the pain, and that's OK. I guess I didn't break anything, because they sent me on my way and told me that my doctor would have the results by Monday.
I called Elaine, who is still mending. Things must be getting back to normal, because she didn't have time to talk and said she would call me back. I'm still waiting. While I was waiting, though, my sister called, and that was a pleasant surprise. She and Jim are in the bay area for tomorrow's Cal game. She was properly sympathetic for my day. I took yet another percocet at 4 and got really loopy--but more or less pain-free.
So that was my day. Not what I had intended. I didn't have anything planned--good thing, plans were made for me.
I'm feeling pretty anesthetized right now. Guess I won't sleep on my left side tonight. Maybe I'll wake up with my right hip hurting...
xxooxx