Thanks for the practical advice, BBB, and for not using your night nurse voice on me 
I was coming in here to pretty much say the same thing.
I personally am more leery of trying to rehab something complex like a joint without a professional diagnosis and instructions. For something like a pulled muscle, or a known injury that flared up again, I would consider the online PT mentioned above. But IMHO joints are too complicated to hope that you’ve chosen the right PT activities for what you think might be wrong and instead could actually cause yourself further harm.
Now I also say all of that as someone with good health insurance and the ability to afford any copays, etc.
We came in at 3:00 AM, we were the only ones there. It’s not that the Dr wasn’t rushing us out, it’s that his job description doesn’t include diagnosing complex problems unless they are life threatening.
That makes my opinion of your wife’s ER doc that much worse. So he was not rushed, yet he basically said “it’s not my job to diagnose you, it’s to get you out of here”. At the very least, his bedside manner was execrable. At worst, he was a shitty or uncaring doc. At any rate, again, I’m sorry for the treatment your wife received by that doc.
I disagree. A specialist was needed to diagnose her problem; she ended up having a microdiscectomy after an MRI and significant diagnostic work with a back doctor. None of that could have been done while she was in pain and immobile. His job in the ER at 3:00 AM is get her to the point where she can comfortably ride home and get some sleep. That’s why we went to the ER, not to get a diagnosis. She did ask when she was out of the worst pain, but I think his answer was accurate.
Besides, no surgeon would have cared what some random ER doc said without proper imaging which wasn’t possible for a patient in severe pain.
Okay, then I apologize for my misunderstanding and mischaracterization of the emergency care your wife received. I hope she’s doing much better now.
I messaged my doctor about my shoulder when it was really bad. And he didn’t say, “come in and I’ll look at it”. He suggested i see the physiatrist, who is better trained in that kind of thing than my pcp.
Thanks puzzlegal. I was actually unfamiliar with the term ‘physiatrist’, so looked up the difference between that and an ortho doc:
The main difference is that an orthopedic doctor is a surgeon who treats structural problems with operations, while a physiatrist focuses on non-surgical rehabilitation and pain relief.
Sounds like a physiatrist is what I may need more than an ortho. Hopefully the ortho doc referral I was given does not go right to a recommendation for surgery, in a ‘when your only tool is a hammer…’ sense.
My experience with orthopedic surgeons is that they start by recommending rest and physical therapy. I think you’ll be fine.
My wife and I were driving home after running some errands this morning, and damned if I didn’t see the same guy on the mini bike barreling down the same sidewalk he ran me down on a week ago. This is a fat tire, gasoline engine powered mini bike, basically a small motorcycle. It has absolutely no business being driven on a public sidewalk.
Wondering if I should call the police and let them know. Not that they’re going to do a stakeout to catch the guy or anything like that, but maybe it’ll cause them to keep an eye out when they’re going down that stretch of road,
I’d report it, if nothing else it’s a record of a hazard that will eventually result in big trouble for the city I expect.
A town next door is addressing this very issue of e-bikes on sidewalks especially in the social district. I think they’re considering an ordinance and fines.
I just called and reported it to the police dispatcher. She said “we’ll try to get someone out to look for him”. Well, at least my complaint is on record.
I looked up the law here. E-bikes are generally considered bicycles and are legal to ride on the sidewalk under state law (local laws can prohibit them, however) but gasoline engine powered mini bikes are most definitely not legal- it’s a misdemeanor to operate on a public sidewalk.
Interesting. Where I live, bicycles aren’t allowed on the sidewalks – they are considered a vehicle. That’s not a law that gets a lot of enforcement, especially when kids ride on the sidewalk. But it is expected that adults will bicycle in the street.
I bicycle in the street everywhere I feel safe enough to do it. I’m always extremely careful and slow on the sidewalks when I do ride my bike on them, and give pedestrians a wide berth. On the stretch home I was taking, it’s a pretty busy, very winding, single lane each way artery road for the neighborhood that has a 40mph speed limit. But people are always going too fast, especially around the curves. So, Ironically, I thought I’d be safer on the sidewalk…
So, follow-up: I’m able to get in to see the ortho tomorrow.
Which is good, because it’s becoming clear to me that this is not a ‘bounce right back’ type of situation. The pain is transforming from ‘not bad at all when I’m not moving my arm, but extremely painful when I do move it’ to ‘not as painful to move my arm when doing normal things, but it’s developing a constant ache whether I’m resting the arm or not’. Especially at night-- I’ve woken up the last couple nights at 3 or 4 am, in pain so bad I had to take a couple ibuprofen to take the edge off so I could eventually get back to sleep.
You need a stout walking stick/quarterstaff that might accidentally end up in his spokes as you attempt to dodge out of the way.