Clot or not, and what the endodontist said

I spent all Sunday afternoon at the ER because I have a weird painful swelling in my lower left leg, with numbness and radiating pain to the thigh and ankle. I called the advice nurse, who said it could be a clot, and told me to come in.

I wasn't filled with confidence at the exam I got, although they did several x-rays and a physical examination. I think I saw the doctor for less than one minute. He didn't seem at all concerned about a clot, based on the fact that my leg is swollen in the front, not the back.

I don't know if I have a clot. The thing is, neither does he. I should have had an ultrasound.

So today, because my life is just awesome this way, I had to go in for round 3,576 of my root canal on a rear tooth. My endodontist said no way was she giving me lidocaine and doing the procedure if there's a chance I have a clot -- she won't finish the root canal until my physician, who I will be seeing on Jan. 5 at present, faxes her an all-clear.

My endodontist is more concerned about a possible clot than the doctor who saw me for it. So is a friend who is a doctor, who emailed me after I posted about this on Facebook, telling me to go in and get an ultrasound ASAP.

I have a column due tomorrow. It's finished, but my editor usually has revisions, and I need to be around for that. And yet, how can that be more important than, you know, my life?

Comments

[Susan R.]

Not to frighten you, but several years ago I collapsed in Palm Beach Int'l Airport after an excruciatingly painful flight (abdominal pain). I was rushed to the nearest hospital, where they did an MRI and examined me and gave me painkillers, and pronounced they found nothing. The nurse also noted my extremely dark urine. I felt like crap for the next week. I went to Ken's gastroenterologist, started to tell him the story, and a quarter way through, he stopped me - and told me the rest of my symptoms, down to my urine color. I'd had a blocked bile duct. He hadn't even EXAMINED me.

My point - get that ultrasound. ER's can be confused, busy places where people don't fit the pieces of the puzzle together the way they should.