E.R. Visit

Most of the time when someone talks about going to the E.R. everyone cringes, myself included. The pain associated with an Achilles Tendon injury is as bad as people say. It is a 12 on the scale of 1 - 10. I had only felt pain that bad one other time in my life (my finger got caught between the panels of a garage door when it closed). So here we are in the car driving to the E.R. with my wife driving and my 2 boys in the back not sure what to think. For the sake of my kids, I had to hold back the tears. Ben, my youngest, is deeply sensitive and I think he could see right through me. He is crying in the car for me. We get to the E.R. and immediately get to an admitting person who take our information. My wife's sister meets us there and takes the boys (although Ben really really wanted to stay with us because he wanted to help me). We get back to the actual E.R. or so I thought....just another waiting room. But it didn't last long. We have now been in the E.R. a total of 25 minutes and we are in a room, waiting for someone to come in. 5 minutes later we get to see him. A physician assistant is going to help us. He says there is a definite problem and sends us off for an X-ray. Well, I know I am not a doctor, but I have been around enough to know that an X-ray isn't going to show anything if it is a tendon injury. X-rays show bone, not soft tissue. I ask about that and he said I was right, but X-ray is always the first step and they can not do an MRI in the E.R. Ok, go get the X-ray and even the X-ray tech says that nothing is going to show up. Back to the room and they give me some pain medication and start a splint. They say I have to see an orthopedic specialist so they can order the MRI and find out what the true problem is.

So my trip to the E.R. was only 2 hrs and I got pain meds, a splint, crutches and a referral. Not bad on the time, but we got the bill a few weeks later (thank goodness for insurance) that was over $1400.00....may part was only $50.00. Whew!!