Swollen Foot

Lets start off by telling everyone in 2001 I was hit by a drunk driver. In that car accident I shattered my ankle and had to have surgery to have it put back together. In that surgery they put 2 screws in my foot to hold my bones together. Well until now I have never really had any problems with my foot. A week and a half ago I woke up and could barely walk, my foot was hurting me so bad and every step I took I felt like my screws were moving and ripping through my skin and anything else in my foot. After a few days that went away, but then it was sore to touch the outside all around and I could not put on a shoe. The tightness of the shoe was so pain full. Its a good things its summer time and I can wear flip flops. Then the swelling began and has not gone away now for 5 straight days. Some days are worse then others so we thought I might have gout but I figured I would go to the Dr. to definitely find out whats wrong with my foot. Yesterday I got the Doctors office at 2:45 for my appt. I got in to see him right away, he took one look asked me a few questions and said I'm not sure what you have or whats wrong but I first want to make sure you don't have a blood clot so lets do blood work and if there is no blood clot I will refer you to an orthopedic specialist to look at it. So off I go to get blood work, his company takes my insurance until it comes to blood work then they deny me so I was sent to Quest Diagnostics. There I sit down and just as he was about to begin he realized my Dr. put down STAT and he said that this test he cant do STAT so he called my Dr back and my Dr. said go to the hospital. The Quest guy proceeds to tell me that they also don't take my insurance so I will have to tell them its an emergency and they will do it. So now its 3:45 and I finally get to the place I need to be check in and wait till 4:30 to get in. Once I get in she proceeds to tell me the same, we don't take your insurance I said I know but this is an emergency and I was shipped her and told to get it done. At this point I am getting aggravated and said I don't care about the bill, just do it and I will pay the bill. She said you don't want this bill, its very expensive. I said it didn't really matter I need to get this done, because if it is a blood clot it could kill me. So she looks over at her boss and the boss says NO they wont even do it. I'm pissed at this point and she must have known it cause she says hold on a sec let me make a quick call. She calls the big boss and she says let me have a conference with hospital heads and I will get back to you. So there I go back to the waiting room. Oprah was going off so I know that its like 5 now and I'm starving for Dinner. Finally after 10 more minutes I am called back in and my blood work is done. Finally I get to go home and its 5:30. After yesterday Doug and I have decided to find us a new family Dr on the Missouri side. But as for my blood work I got no call back yesterday, so I assume its no blood clot but I am still waiting to see what he says and if he refers me to a specialist I am just going to go back to the Dr. that originally did my foot surgery at Memorial Hospital and see what he says. I will let everyone know more when I find out. And I will also add pics as soon as I get a chance.