Back to His Pain

....or maybe I should have written....he has a mess of back pain. I learned some interesting things the past 2 days.

If your husband wakes up and tells you that he cannot stand up straight and that his past back/leg pain is back again and you proceed to call your primary care physician......you may be told that they will not see you and you should now call an orthopedic specialist. If you then call  3 separate orthopedic specialist's and 2 tell you that they have no time for you, one might suggest that they will not see you and that you must go to a comprehensive pain specialist(or something?).  If you then google local pain specialists creating a list of phone numbers......you just might stay on the phone for hours, forgetting to brush teeth, eat food, or tend to children.

If after hours on the phone....and reading many really bad reviews....some even scary...you then decide to call your insurance company for suggested names......you just might be given a list that contains a doctor who is currently in prison for fraud.

After calling your insurance company back and explaining that each name led to a brick wall......you ask if a name that you just found (Dr. Martins) was "in-network". After being told that the doctor is indeed in-network....you might be told that he actually has 3 offices and numbers. After calling the first number you might be told that the office has never heard of Dr. M. When calling the 2nd number.....you just might be told that this is in fact.....Dr. Martino's office and not Dr. Martin's.....you might start to question the capability of your insurance company and start wondering......"if we now live near a huge, major city....why can we not find a simple in network doctor for our problem?".

But.....if you do happen to reach Dr Martino's office you just might start to wonder if the wild goose chase, phone glued to your ear drama happened just so you could find Dr Martino and not Dr Martins....but then you also might wonder if you really should be seeing Dr Martins and not Dr Martino?

(where his back is right now....same couch...different house)

After much confusion.....crying in pain from husband.....and thinking that we should just go to the emergency room and be done with this craziness.......you might decide to see Dr Martino after all. 

After appointment with Dr Martino....your husband just might be so glad to have oral steroids, pain med's and a scheduled MRI....that he can finally rest.  And after all that.....you might be ready for a glass of wine and 1lb of chocolate. Maybe.