Hospitals and Doctors are an absolute joke
I just cannot believe how hospitals and doctors are now. It’s mind blowing and feels like they got their education on ChatGPT or Google. They don’t listen, and they think you’re lying.
I recently broke my knee by doing…nothing. So, I was in my living room and I was just standing there with my 6 month old daughter in my arms next to my couch. It was 9:00pm at night, and was trying to calm her down to get her back to bed. Literally just standing there when out of nowhere, loud pop, my knee cap shoots 90degrees to the left and instant pain. I was holding my daughter and didn’t want to drop her, so I managed to take a step forward and set her on the couch before dropping like a sack of potatoes and screaming in agony. I am 6’2” 180lb, early 30s just to give an idea. I don’t have any health issues, never had knee issues or anything like that before in my life. Didn’t do anything crazy that day, didn’t work out that day, was actually just a chill at home with the baby day.
Anyways, the pain was so bad I was passing out. Didn’t want to call 911, my wife was freaking out though. I was just riding out that initial pain wave and would determine next step. It was late too, so I definitely didn’t want to deal with a hospital stay middle of the night. I decided to ride out the night. It was bad, I couldn’t bend my leg. Every tiny vibration felt like my leg was going to fall off. By the morning my leg was 2-3x size from swelling. So, decided to go to hospital finally.
I get there, do the check in, wait in the lobby for 4 hours, get vitals, and they do a quick x-ray and call me back for Doctor. This doctor comes in just in a bad mood… and look I get it, I know how people coming to hospitals can be… thinking they know everything, they googled the issue so they know what’s wrong etc… I get it.
Doctor says, well they don’t see anything, here is a little brace, you probably just sprained it, maybe a little dislocated. I’m like… I wasn’t doing anything at all besides standing there… but whatever. Tells me stay off it for a few days, I’ll be fine. I’m like, this pain is bad… I’ve had a lot of things happen in my life. I was shot twice when I was 18 in my shoulder and arm, I’ve broken ribs, worst, blah blah and this pain on my leg was the worst ever. I’ve heard knee issues can be worst pain, so I was like okay… sure. They didn’t give me a prescription for anything at all. Again… whatever, I’ll just take ibuprofen.
Go home. Days pass by, and I’m on day 5 now. It’s worse. Way worse. My leg is purple and red now. In my calf, and my foot/ankle are deep purple and red. Throws me into a panic. This is like… a major blood clot sign. I go back to the emergency room. Tell them what’s going on, again. Another x-ray. This time I get this super young doctor, which whatever… I’ve met some very intelligent young doctors. This guy was training someone also. He starts checking my leg out, and says… well looks like you fractured your ankle, or bad ankle sprain. Huh?! I’m like… I don’t have any ankle pain. None. Nothing happened with my ankle. Says well when you hurt your knee you probably fell and hurt your ankle. I’m like… definitely not. Another doctor comes in, and mentions possible blood clot. So they send me for an ultra sound to check if blood is flowing the way it should in my leg.
Now this ultra sound tech seemed to also be having a bad day, or hated his life. They start upper thigh, and this guy presses down with the wand SO hard, like pushing down to the bone hard, and it’s making my jolt because the pain is so bad. Every time he tries, he pushes HARD. I’m like what the hell, never have I seen an ultra sound have to be pressed this hard. He gets mad, says if I can’t stop moving then he can’t do it. I’m like dude… you’re pressing down ridiculously hard, it is literally involuntary. He cancels it and sends me back to hospital room. Doctor comes back and says same stuff, I’m like i don’t know what’s up with your tech, but that is far from normal. Says they will give me pain meds and try again. So, they give me a pill wait a bit, and try again. Same thing. The pain is indescribable. It’s making tears run down my face. Cancels it again. I’m like getting pissed at this point. Doctor starts suggesting I’m pain med seeking. If I don’t do this, I may die from blood clot. I’m like fuck your meds. This is ridiculous. That is not fucking normal. They have no one else that can do it in entire hospital. I say I’m done, and I’m leaving. They have 3 doctors trying to convince me to stay, I’m like no, not unless there is someone else. So I have to sign a waiver that says they aren’t liable if I die when I leave.
I get referrals to a sports injury specialist. Appointment isn’t for 4 days. I was so stressed out for 4 days, seeing the color of my leg, the pain I was in etc… thinking I was going to die.
Finally get to sports doctor. They do an x-ray. He immediately comes in, says he sees 3 broken bones around my knee. I had to get an MRI and also found torn and stretched ligaments etc… also got an ultrasound sound, and this tech did it no problem. Didn’t need to press in, took 10 mins. Easy no pain.
I am now scheduled for surgery. Said it will be. 6-8hour surgery. They have to use stuff from a cadaver to create a Way to secure my knee cap in place and prevent it from happening again.
This doctor is awesome, and knows what he is doing. He is shocked that I didn’t do anything to cause the damage. I luckily caught it on video through my home camera in my living room. Literally standing there and it was like I got hit as hard as possible with a bat right on my knee. He can’t explain how that would happen as he sees guys that get tackled full speed in football with this type of injury or less. Scary stuff. I am terrified of surgery, and a long surgery at that.
Sorry for the long post. I am just pissed at what our hospitals have become. It’s like they instantly just assume things, wouldn’t listen to anything I say, or think I am drug seeking. I still haven’t gotten a single prescription for the pain. Which, whatever at this point. Still, I’ve had so many sleepless nights because the throbbing pain is unreal. I wish this on no one.
Just… what the hell is up with these hospital doctors now. It’s bullshit. They couldn’t even be bothered to watch the video showing the whole accident.
Thanks to whoever reads.