Today’s the day the annoying staples come out. I have an appointment with Dr. Frederick in the early afternoon. Hilary goes with me, and we need to be out by 5PM as she has a doctor’s appointment of her own in the early evening. Ideally we should be done by 3 or 3:30.
We get to Rothman and check in. And then we wait. And wait. The 45-minute rule should be invoked, but owing to the importance of this visit I decide to wait.
Small digression: The 45-minute rule is my personal standard for waiting for any kind of a scheduled appointment. My time is more valuable to me, than theirs is, to me. After waiting 45 minutes I get up and go. In general, I don’t bother to announce my leaving, but call to reschedule when I get home. I rarely invoke the rule, and I’ve never had to use it twice with the same provider. Hilary has also adopted the rule. It can be waived in special cases, but they’re even rarer than my invoking the rule.
After an hour and 45 minutes we get called back. After a few more minutes, Rob’s RN, Kim, comes in. Hilary promptly says, "You said she was good looking; you forgot to mention gorgeous." Hilary and Kim get along excellently. Kim’s here to ask me how I’ve been doing and to take the staples out.
She gets a suture removal kit and says it might hurt some. Actually there are maybe two pinches, but the process is generally painless. She says the wound looks good, and gives me instruction on massaging the incision line so scar won’t build up between the skin and muscle.
After about 25 more minutes, Dr. Frederick and a resident come in and carefully examine my whole leg. He’s very thorough. He’s also happy with my progress, although unhappy with the immobilizer, which he saw on me as I came down the hall. It was way down on my foot, and, as he observed, not doing much of anything at all.
Rob then watches and instructs Kim as she applies SteriStrips and a dressing to the wound area. He’s very particular about position and reinforcement of the strips. Rob tells me I can shower with them on, and that they will fall off naturally in the next 10 days or so.
Next he has his resident call Orthotics so that they can come over to the exam room to fit me with a specialized knee brace called a TROM. They’ll have to fit it here as he doesn’t want me walking anywhere in the immobilizer. In fact, he throws the wreck of the immobilizer in the trash. Before he leaves he gives me a prescription for outpatient physical therapy.
Jen comes over with a new TROM brace and starts the fitting procedure, but has to leave around 4:10. Donald then comes over and finishes the job. He a wealth of great stories and brace usage tips. He’s really great.
It’s just about 5 when we get out and we’re going to have to rush. The new brace makes car riding a bit easier and it stays where Donald strapped it for the whole trip home.
The evening passes painlessly and, as Rob suggested, I take the brace off when I go to sleep. I need it on when I’m moving about or sitting at my computer, but otherwise can have it off. Sleep comes easy.
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