Medical Jargon

When a health care worker becomes a patient, is it lame or appropriate for them to use medical terminology when talking to their care providers?

I am (as usual) on the fence with this one.

A part of me finds it borderline irritating sometimes when people present to triage and say things like, "I've had some discomfort beneath my xiphisternum for the past three days, not sure if it is from the NSAIDS that I've been taking or if it is a hiatal hernia, or what.." Or "my nephew has just fallen skiing, I am pretty sure he's torn or partially torn his ACL, his drawer test is positive and he's not weight bearing".

Naturally the thoughts running through my head will include; "are you telling me this as a secret hint that you are a HCW and therefore should be seen more quickly than the sicker people in the waiting room?", "are you using medical language because of it's precision and beauty, or as an attempt to make my assessment easier?", or "are you having a difficult time accepting that you are a patient and are trying to desperately hold on to your normal power position in this setting?"

And then I realise that I am probably over-thinking the whole thing. Yet the feeling of vague annoyance lingers.

Of course, when I went to the sports med clinic with my shin splints a few years ago I wrote, "bilateral anterior tibial pain" under the chief complaint box. Why didn't I write "shin splints"? Well partly because I didn't know for sure if that is what it was, "leg pain" seemed too vague and I could perfectly describe the area of discomfort using those words. I am pretty sure the MD who saw me thought it was douche-y (the only explanation for his terrible assessment and treatment).

Since then I try to just let go, accept that I am the patient and write things like "knee pain" in the chief complaint box when I go to see the orthopod. Even through it is "midline, subpatellar discomfort on palpation and with weight bearing exercise".

Thoughts?

Ahh, the Downtime

So my contract is done. I have another 8 days off until my next one starts.

This is why I love travel nursing.

I have a couple of posts I'd like to make about some other experiences up there, but I am going to give it a little time and space. Small town, sensitive topic...

Finally saw the orthopedic surgeon with regards to my chronic knee pain. Three different docs (including my hero Olympic athlete sports med doc) and three different diagnoses. One thought it might be a fat pad ---which I couldn't help but think "Now I have fat knees? What's next? Cankles?"

I had decided that 'patellofemoral pain syndrome' was the fibromyalgia of knee pain and was starting to think that everything was in my head. So I just ignored it and kept running and biking, getting hopped up on ibuprofen. Vitamin I helped in the beginning but it started to feel like I was 'chasing the dragon', you know...going for that first great high you get from a drug? After a while, even if I took 2 extra strength it'd only give me GERD symptoms and crank the pain down to a dull roar (and before I hear about it I'll just say that YES I have read some studies about NSAID use with distance runners so don't bother scolding and citing).

Anyway, turns out I have (drum roll please) patellar tendinopathy, or jumper's knee. A.k.a--knee pain.

How anticlimactic.

He showed me on my xrays where you can see how the chronic inflammation at the insertion has caused a 'bone bruise' to my patella. Awesome. Apparently this type of tendinitis is slow to heal (double awesome) and the best treatment would be to go in a straight leg knee immobilizer for about 3 weeks and then no activity for 3 weeks after that. Impossible. Can't work on crutches. Maybe when I start school if it is still bugging me I'll give it a go. He also advised putting a 1/4 of a nitro patch directly over the area of pain to increase blood flow to the area--interesting...guess I am hitting the pool to get my cardio for a while. *Shudder of boredom/loathing.*

In the meantime...J and I have a climbing agenda for the next few days. Spent yesterday climbing at Squamish, really fun mellow day. I discovered that despite my weight training for the past 10 weeks, I am in fact, as weak as a kitten. A blind kitten. A newborn, blind kitten.

Found a completely dorky video of the route we did as our last climb of the day, Pixie's Corner, a fun 5.8. I do not know who that dude is but it's entertaining.

Today we're going out again and J has promised that I will get spanked. I am already looking forward to the post-climb beer....mmm...

Uncle Fester

I can't take credit for the name as it was my pal Craig who coined it on our hike last week, but here's "Uncle Fester" at about day 10.

Since when do blisters get blisters? It just ain't right!

I'm proud of him in a twisted way, he's kinda grown on me (pun intended). But I've had enough. I've been trying to train for my Himalayan trip (and possibly a race in September) but have had all kinds of issues; Fester, something weird happening with my Rt. patellar tendon, and Rt. lateral plantar pain radiating up behind my lateral malleolus (my guess is peroneus brevis tendon).

It's really frustrating. And it makes me feel like a wuss complaining about it, especially since my dear friend (and athletic hero) AMG just won the Calgary marathon with a completely torn ACL. But I've been eating NSAIDS like candy and icing...it'd just be great to get out there and feel strong instead of spending the runs trying to distract myself from a demon pitchfork jabbing at various areas....does this mean I am getting OLD??? *gasp* Is this what it is like???

Injuries=annoying.
Especially nagging, wussie ones. I think next week I am going to try and take it easy. I tacked on 94kms of running in the past 2 weeks and 20kms of hiking. It's just tough because right now the only thing that makes me feel good is exercise...sigh...