random thoughts – Day 1,832 – (Sunday) – health and records

While recently sorting through and discarding paper artifacts (clutter), interesting things (crap) were found. Some of the medical paperwork was for long-ago, completely forgotten ailments and incidents. Wrist x-rays in Tennessee? Why? What happened? No clue.

Health artifacts.

I still have the hospital and insurance paperwork from 2011 when I broke my leg. That exciting event was the tri-fecta of first hospital stay, first broken bones, and first non-dental surgery, with total expenses around $50,000. It was also the first time it felt like I got my money’s worth with health insurance.

The paperwork was there from 2008 when I fainted in Los Angeles at a music festival. That autumn day, the public safety officials on site made me go in an ambulance to the hospital to be checked out, despite my insistence it was likely a low blood pressure incident that would be corrected by the time I got there. “No thanks” was not an option, and it was around $3,300 in ambulance and emergency room charges for the medical team to finally conclude it was most likely a drop in blood pressure. No shit. I said that the minute I regained consciousness, after already having enjoyed a lifetime of fainting and the cardiac tests that led to the low BP diagnosis. But nope, the insurance company and I got to share the privilege of paying lots of money for an answer I already knew. The $900 ambulance ride might have been worth it if there was a souvenir map and I saw some movie start homes, but that wasn't the case.

Throughout the courses of my days, most injuries have been on my left side. The only right-side injury I can recall is an episode of carpal tunnel syndrome that led to me becoming a lefty on lots of regular, everyday actions.

A freshman year cheerleading tryout injury resulted in a torn left hamstring and being unable to complete the tryout, but once I was healed and got back into the ballet studio, that leg was much more flexible. Two fingers on my left hand (plus my chin) were split open and needed stitches after tripping on the walk while rushing into the house with my first blue ribbon in a photography club slide competition. My left ankle was twisted and ended up swollen for days after I stepped in a hole while taking photos in a cemetery.

There was an x-ray bill from Tennessee for my left hip. Why? What?  I don’t remember, but that same hip is doing weird things now (again, apparently). When I worked at Kohl’s, I slammed my left foot on a display setup and ended up limping for the rest of the day and in an x-ray lab after work. And of course, there is the latest broken left wrist, for which insurance paperwork and office billing statements are still to arrive.

I’ve always known I had a high level of clumsiness, but seeing a series of ailments laid out in insurance and medical records is a bit alarming. And these were just the things in one of several folders, and only ailments for which medical attention was sought. It’s interesting to me that most injuries have been on the left side.

The mystery of the left sided ailments lingers. The next time I can’t sleep it’s highly likely I’ll be attending a late-night session of Google Medical School looking for root cause weaknesses that can lead to a tendency for injuries on one side.