Follow up for the broken back today. First he walks in, looks at my MRI report and says to me "looks like you broke 2 instead of 1, way to go Grace". Now had this comment come from someone that knows me, or my neuro, it would have been ok. But I don't know this guy like that, and this is only our second time meeting. So I had to speak up. HE apologized profusely, but I ma already annoyed at this point.

He says to me that with the type of fractures I have and my age he would recommend physical therapy. "However, given your history of steroid use" which he says with distain like I am some jacked up athlete who scored these things off the street, I really wanted to slap this man!

Oh, those fat islands I asked about... those are cysts within the bones, most likely a result of osteopenia (osteoporisis for young people) which he feels was caused by my "steroid use". So now I get to go in on Wed to do bone density testing. If it comes back normal, we start physical therapy. If it comes back low (as he is expecting from the MRI results, and hte type of fracture commonly seen in people with osteoporosis) I will have to go to yet another specialist and have surgery to correct it, and then start physical therapy.

It just annoys me that this man is inconsiderate and rude. As a medical professional, I would expect there to be some sort of bedside manner, especially for a PA. He isn't even a the actual doctor, he is not entitled to arrogance yet!

Have sally hold him down, I will slap the snot out of him. How rude!


I hope you feel better.

The few PA's that I've seen, have been tons more arrogant than the doctors usually are. I saw a PA over 10yrs ago because I was sick with mononucleosis. My aunt (a nurse practitioner) told me I had mono...told me to go to the doctor and ask for a mono spot test. The PA refused to do the mono spot test, said I had a sinus infection and sent me home with a penicillin based antibiotic.

After I had a bad reaction to the antibiotic (which basically confirmed the mononucleosis, because for some reason if you have mono and take a penicillin based antibiotic, you get this kind of reaction) when I went back the PA decided that maybe I needed to have a mono spot test done...(as if I hadnt already told her to give me one the day before!)

Same PA, the first time I had numbness from the MS (didnt know it was MS at the time) told me the numbness was from a sprain and didnt follow up on my complaint about the numbness and pretty much told me I was nuts. Then after I had optic neuritis, and 3 MRI's that finally gave me the MS diagnosis, I saw her in the hall at the doctor's office...she asked how I was, and I said "fine, except for the MS that was making my entire body numb" or something like that... I think she realized that I was ticked that she hadnt followed up on the numbness earlier that year.

I cant stand her, and if I ever have to call the doctor's emergency number at night to talk to a doctor and it's her who's on call...I'll usually just suffer till 8am and I can talk to someone else who has better bedside manner and isnt so...nasty...to her patients.

Ever see the movie "Airplane!", and they have that scene where everyone lines up to slap the lady that's panicking? We can form a line and smack the guy like they did to that lady in the movie.

Ok, erin, you strap him in the seat, and I will start the slapping parade.

Oh but he did ask me if I wanted a refill on the giant bottle of percocet her prescribed last time. Told him I still had over 20 from the 45 he prescribed last time. I don't take them like I am supposed to because I would rather deal with the pain than the stomach/ bladder/ cognitive/ balance/ and depresion issues that come from the sleeping pills.

And if my 3 rounds of high dose steroids and 7 rounds of low dose steroids caused my bones to start breaking, I can only imagine the impact these pills will have on me later down the road.

Sorry Legz...about all of it

M.S. whould be a little easier to deal with sometimes if the high priced help would listen instead of talking...sorry for your frustration!

OMG! If he saw my history of steroid use, he would really be shocked. I think I had around 10 rounds of high dose steroids over the course of about 2 years. I never did any low dose. I have documented osteopenia from it. My neuro makes his patients who have had a lot of IVSM get bone density scans.

My understanding of osteopenia is that it is the precursor to osteoporosis and has nothing to do with age. They told me it is about the degree of bone thinning - kind of two different stages. You can have either at any age.

Oh, where do I line up for the slapping of this PA???

Line forms behind Legzz...BYOB (bring your own bat)