Thread by @JacquelynGill

I hurt my knee last month. I couldn't straighten it or bear weight on it. The doctor told me it was "probably bursitis" and not to rely on crutches. He ordered no imaging. He basically treated me like I was drug-seeking and was surprised when I told him I didn't want pain meds.

After weeks of trying to work it out on my own (tight hamstrings? misaligned pelvis?), on Christmas Day, I pivoted quickly to catch a falling bowl, heard a loud POP!, and was in so much pain I just sobbed while @jackshoegazer swept up the glass around me.

I called by doctor first thing Monday, because urgent care is overrun and frankly too dangerous for me as someone for whom covid is high-risk (due to my previous DVT's and pulmonary embolisms). It's clearly a connective tissue injury, but insurance required an x-ray first.

Because the first doctor never ordered any imaging, I had to get the x-ray yesterday. The results were sent to my PCP, who immediately ordered an MRI. I've been waiting all day for my insurance to approve it. Because I guess they know better than doctors? 🙃

So I'm four days into an immobilizing, painful joint injury (which was basically exacerbated by a misdiagnosis over a month ago) in a pandemic where everything is taking ten times as long, and even my Very Good Insurance is delaying the care I need to get treatment.

I know this is a very, very small thing in the grand scheme of things (even in the grand scheme of my own body's outstanding capacity to fail magnificently), but I just wanted to remind folks that the health impacts of this pandemic stretch well beyond Covid itself.

I'm grateful that I happen to be on Lovenox because of the IVF medications I was on, because the symptoms of a blood clot behind the knee are similar to a torn meniscus, and yet! In contrast, when I tore a calf muscle in 2012, they had me in the MRI within an hour.

So, anyway, there's no moral here except for 1) advocate for yourself, because this healthcare system isn't going to, 2) wow, does that take privilege, 3) the US healthcare system is broken, 4) the pandemic just multiplies that brokenness, and this is not sustainable.