A Patient Encounter
Another Patient Encounter Last week at work I saw a man in his fifties who had come for pain in the elbow. He had a fall about 3 weeks back. That day he went to urgent care and had an xray. No bone was broken. He couldn’t take Motrin or similar group of drugs due to underlying kidney disease. Instead he was given Tylenol and suggested using a brace. A week or more later the elbow remained painful and swollen so a referral was placed for physical therapy. The following week again he went to urgent care for the same problem. Physical therapy had not yet started. He went asking for MRI. That was denied. He was told that the MRI order needs to come from primary clinic. He was given stronger pain medication ( narcotics). This was just two days before he came to see me. He wanted the MRI order. He was having a hard time believing nothing was broken when he continued to have so much pain and difficulty moving the elbow. Here’s the issue. His concern was a broken bone. ...