I had a telephone consultation the week before last with the rheumatologist who wanted to check I was 'happy' before 'signing me off'. I pointed out that since I was still in pain, with no diagnosis or treatment, 'happy' was not really the right word!
He said that the initial x-rays of my hands and feet had shown 'mild osteoarthritis, but nothing abnormal for your age'.
"Great. But the main problem is with my knees and my hips, as I have pointed out numerous times before!"
"Oh. Ok. Well if you're still in a lot of pain, I can send you for some more x-rays of your hands."
"I'd rather have my hips and knees x-rayed than my hands, since
they are the bits of me that are hurting."
"Ok, I'll send you for x-rays of your hips and your hands then."
"Can't I have my hips and my knees done instead?"
"We can't just x-ray every joint in your body you know - we have to get a balance between gathering as much information as possible while protecting you from excessive radiation."
"I'm not asking for all of me to be x-rayed, just the two bits of me that are hurting. Why don't you do that instead of x-raying one bit that isn't hurting and that you have x-rayed 5 months ago?"
"Ok, so I'll request x-rays for your hips and your hands then."
One bright point - I was expecting to have to wait months for the x-rays, but had someone ring me up this week and more or less beg me to go in for them the next day - apparently, they are having trouble getting people to go in for appointments because they are so scared of getting Covid-19. So I went...waiting room was plastered with posters telling us to protect the NHS by staying 6 feet apart...and the receptionists were working shoulder to shoulder while the seats for patients were 4 feet apart. You couldn't make it up, could you?!!
I wonder if I will hear anything back from these x-rays or if he will just decide that it's showing 'normal wear and tear' for my age?