Might as well...

talk to myself, for all the sense I get out of some people!

I am in the foulest of foul moods.

Work was great.

Went to the Quacks after work, thinking that I might get some sense. The fact that my knee had been playing up for weeks, that it is painful pretty consistently, that it locks whilst driving, gives way when walking, doesn't want to bend properly when I walk downstairs and sometimes feels like something is going to go "ping" under my knee cap when I bend my leg, I figured might indicate that something is wrong. Particularly given the fact that I have had problems with my knees since my mid-teens, that both knees are prone to random dislocation, which is sickening when it happens, I thought there might be a suggestion of X-ray to see if there was something structurally wrong.

Nope.

My knee was prodded, poked and bend, flung and waved around in a variety of ways by a Doctor (who is not my normal Doctor and not a regular one at our surgery I hasten to add) only to be told that I should take painkillers. THEN, and this is the bit that cheesed me off, she said
"Is that alright? Is that what you were expecting? Do you think there should be something else done?"

In my head, I let rip.

In reality, I was polite, in fact, possibly too polite and responded along the lines of "I don't know -that's why I have come to seek advice from a professional as I don't know what the problem is. I just know that it hurts and that is causing a great deal of inconvenience."

No tone. Polite. Meek. I know it is difficult to believe, but I sometimes lose my ability to stand up for myself and become overly deferential with people who I think are more clever than me. Medical professionals beat me in Professional Top Trumps, so I defer to them.

She perhaps sensed that being told to take painkillers (specifically Paracetamol) might not be a sufficient response to someone who now was in more pain that she was when she arrived in the surgery room. So, she suggested that if Paracetamol didn't work, maybe I could use Voltarol gel as well.

I replied that I did both of these things already, and made use of heat packs, TENS machine and elevated my leg to ease the pain/discomfort. I also explained that my Quad muscles were fine and that I know about the importance of keeping them toned to maintain knee health.

She then scribbled on a piece of paper and despatched me to reception to make an appointment with the physiotherapist, her parting shot being "It's probably arthritis".

Happy days.

Now I am going to munch my way through at least another 2 Krispy Kreme donuts, and some Shiraz, as we didn't open it last night. I have had two donuts already, there are 8 left. I'm not going to get into that little black dress on friday night at this rate!

Grrrrrr.