With less than a dozen more games in the next month to finish off the season, Mark injured his left knee in a scrimmage with Christopher High School in Gilroy last night. He hyper-extended his left knee while playing mid fielder when he hit a patch of bad turf and collapsed. After being carried off the field by his buddies, he was rushed to Kaiser ER for xrays which showed no hard tissue damage. He is likely done for the season.
On another note, though it was not our first time to the ER with Mark , it was at least 5 years ago since are last visit. We arrived at the ER around 6:00 , checked in and secured a wheel chair for Mark. They sent an RN with Gina to the curb and carried Mark out of the car after the RN examined the knee while he was still in the car. The RN then immediately directed us to XRAY where they took a digital X Ray of the Knee and we returned to the waiting room–elapsed time about one hour. Our wait in reception was about half an hour before he was called into an exam room where an RN documented the accident and checked all of Marks vitals. His duty was to triage Mark’s condition and direct to a physician, physician assistant or nurse practitioner. He then told us that we would be seen soon by a nurse practitioner and then called back to register, pay and release. The Nurse Practitioner read the x ray , prescribed treatment, bandaged up his leg and put him on the appropriate crutches. An hour later, we were called up to check out and the fee was $100. Total time in the ER was about 4 hours. As a dentist, it was interesting to see how long it takes to go through a simple ER appointment and how much it cost compared to a dental one. Despite the highest level of health coverage that we have, it still take $100 bucks just to talk to a nurse practitioner. I feel better about our fees now…
Addendum: A week later, we had an MRI taken of his left knee and it showed a completely torn ACL which seems a bit wierd since there was no bleeding at the time of the hyperextension that would have swelled the knee up like a grapefruit. It must be those bony Syn knees that held it all together. We are seeking a surgical consult in a week. It’s going to be a long year of recovery for Mark . All I can hope is that he is close to full recovery before he leaves for college in September.
