The Sports Medicine doc sets me up with crutches and a knee splint to keep it immobilized. I get in a shared Lyft even though I live 10 blocks away. I just can’t hobble home yet.
This person who picks me up has a really messy car that is being used as a Lyft vehicle. The driver is a bit larger than I am. I get in the front seat with some difficulty, the splint keeping my leg straight and the crutches not exactly helping me look graceful. I sit, and then jump. I have just sat on a metal fork, presumably belonging to the driver.
The other passenger in the back seems to give me a look that says, “How dare you order a shared ride in MY Lyft…”
Anyway, I get home and lie on the floor. For an hour. This is just depressing. And the wait for answers is excruciating.
Somehow I make it through the night.
The next morning, I called MRI like the doctor said, and holy shit – someone did cancel and just like that I have an afternoon appointment.
I wait some more.
I order another shared Lyft, and a very nice driver and a very nice passenger arrive. Both of them know a thing or two about knee injuries. We chat. These little moments are quite pleasant.
I arrive at Radiology and change into another complicated gown for the MRI. One technician seems to know someone who retired from where I work and we joke a bit about it. The other technicians are all very kind. They ask if I am claustrophobic and stress how still I will need to be for 20-25 minutes if I don’t want to be in there for more than that. I am not claustrophobic at all but frankly now I am all stressed out about not being still enough.
If you haven’t had an MRI, basically, you lie on this narrow, hard table which goes into this small tube leading to a large, ring-like structure that makes really loud, unsettling noises. Some people are actually too big to fit on the table or in the tube. A computerized voice gives you instructions. Some units play easy music to sooth you.
I focus on staying as still as possible. I really don’t want to trouble these technicians and waste their time. I still foolishly hope that the MRI will say it’s not the ACL.
I get in another shared Lyft. This time a young woman in the back seat is actually giving the driver some major attitude because the driver picks me up before she is dropped off. The driver reminds her, matter-of-factly, that she ordered and is paying for a shared ride. When he drops her off in the rear parking lot of a building I know, it turns out that she could have gotten off in the front of the building before I was picked up because they actually drove past the front to pick me up, but she refused. Stupid. The driver and I remind each other that we don’t have time for such idiots so why stress about it.