Friday, September 19, 2008

injuries and insurance

So it seems that I've developed a stress fracture in my right heel. About a week ago, I started having pain below my ankle. Now, I can't walk without limping and I can't run without pain. I went to the doctor, who said yes, its probably a stress fracture. And here's where my gripe about insurance and the modern medical system begins. According to my doctor, an x-ray most likely won't show a stress fracture, but insurance usually doesn't cover an MRI until you have an x-ray first. So yesterday, I had a completely useless x-ray, which came back, shockingly, negative. Now, its going to take more than a week until I can even get in for an MRI. I feel like I went through this when I hurt my knee a few years ago. If you have a sports-related injury, but aren't a professional athlete, no one seems in that much of a hurry to figure out what's wrong with you. Instead, you just spend weeks (or months, in the case of my knee) waiting to see what's wrong and hoping it gets better, while not being able to exercise.

So, I'm not allowed to run (most likely for a few weeks), and as you can probably tell, its already making me grumpy. I am not a happy person when I'm not a running person.

The only saving grace is that I am allowed to bike. And yesterday, I ordered my new bike! I get it on Tuesday and i couldn't be more excited.


3 comments:

michelle pajak-reynolds said...

Hi Megan,

So sorry to hear that you're in pain. To help speed up the healing process, you may want to look into boosting your calcium intake.

Hope you feel better soon
Michelle
PS Your new bike looks really cool :)

Valerie A. Heck Esmont said...

I hope you heal fast!
I had a similar experience where I was skiiing and someone else plowed into me. We didn't know what was wrong with my knee for a week and a half. I figured the emergency room would do all the necessary stuff and I had to make all kinds of appointments.
My knee is all better!
Valerie

ColleenBaran said...

Good Luck healing quickly & smoothly!

A week actually sounds pretty good to me though! Wow! In Canada I waited 3 months for 1 MRI (and was very, very lucky to get in so quickly) and 11 months for another one (that was initially 14 months before they bumped me up).