I am sure I should seek medical help, but mostly I get "You need to lose weight and then your hip won't hurt". But I have been asleep, and am now awake, and I am probably only going to be a half hour late for work.

I am trying very hard not to call in, as I called in 2 weeks ago, and since I have no boss, I have to tell the dean and her assistant.

I think Aleve is the one that's supposed to last longer -- you could at least start with that.

Damn, it's been 20 years since I was in the USSR. 20 years since, still jetlagged, I woke up at some ungodly hour and turned on the radio to hear there was the start of a coup. And 4 months later, the first foreign country I visited ceased to exist in that form. Wild.

(Still pissy that border control didn't stamp my passport with the USSR entry stamp!)

Yeah, I should start with the Aleve. It doesn't hurt so much when I am not trying to sleep, so on the weekends I just get up and do stuff. And the go back to sleep and wake up around 9. That is what makes Mondays so bad, I think.

I am sure I should seek medical help, but mostly I get "You need to lose weight and then your hip won't hurt".

RAGE.

"You need to lose weight and then your hip won't hurt"

This is when you have the "With all due respect, Doctor: bullshit" conversation. Which starts, "Let me be clear, I'm not asking for painkillers." Where you point out that you are indeed trying to lose weight (lie if you have to) and since you don't have a car, you walk more than 20 miles a week (make up an approximate number -- I bet it adds up). Also, if it actually is the start of arthritis, wouldn't it be better to start treating it now before it gets disabling?

Then, if the doctor still isn't forthcoming, ask for a referral to a doctor who will look into it.

Thanks, Theo, for following up with actual good ways to combat the horrible healthcare ignorance, which is more productive than my HULK SMASH reaction...

Yeah, very nice, Theo. I am heavily into rage-avoidance mode, which often results in issue-avoidance.

Damn, it's been 20 years since I was in the USSR.

I was going to say -- hasn't it been 20 years since ANYONE was in the USSR??

I once ran into a smart-ass young doctor who told me to lose weight and lectured me about what I was eating. At the time, I was waiting for a permanent crown on a molar and had to be careful - I was pretty much living on canned soup. After his talk about how high in sodium the soup was, I asked him what he suggested I eat. After some thought he said, "potatoes?"

I got through to his supervising physician and explained the problem, pointed out that this was, at the best, insensitive, and that I was in pretty much constant pain (from what turned out to be arthritis in hip and spine). Seemingly, I wasn't the first to complain about smart-ass doctor; supervising doctor gave me a prescription for something that actually worked, I cut back on the canned soup, and got to see another doctor. Still not doing well on losing weight, though.

Oh, no. This is back in stock at Modcloth.