@rah 25 October 2021 more from that month

Ok so to explain what's going on. Maybe three years ago I was visiting home and had been walking around all day and must have covered about 10km and was on my way back to my friends where I stay and suddenly when just over a km away I found myself literally unable to walk without massive pain and staggered somehow to a bus stop. Fortunately the bus stops directly outside my friends house and the enforced rest had alleviated the pain somewhat. So of course when I got back home a couple of weeks later I went to see a doctor who then passed me to see somebody in orthopedics (complete with xrays of my hips). His English was broken and my Polish wasnt specialised enough but between us he told me I had osteoarthritis (this is significant - I will come back to it) in my hips, complete with bony spurs and a general wearing on the joints. I was advised it was early onset but needed to exercise and have physio. I duly started attending and began to show improvement. Then I suffered a whiplash injury (you might remember this from one of my True / False) and my physio advised me to stop until my neck was checked out. I needed to wear a brace for a couple of weeks, but when I returned to exercising was still experiencing some discomfort particularly in my upper back and neck so it proved to be impossible to continue even the exercises for my hips because I had to work my lumbar area too. Then Covid hit and everything stopped, especially when in April 2020 it looked like both MamaRah and I contracted Covid. Another reason why I keep banging on about @Kathrynmcgrath89 is because she gave us some potentially life saving advice. So with enforced lockdowns and now BabyRah arriving the strain has grown on my joints and I live in constant discomfort and often pain. It got to such a point - and we were both frustrated because it is limiting my parenting tbh - that we decided I should go again and see what's going on. I had the xrays a couple of weeks ago and the specialist appointment today. In the meantime MamaRah and her mother decided to explore Dr Google and determined that I had rheumatoid arthritis and gave me a checklist to go and see the specialist with. - pain relief - electric wave treatment - a visit to a "rheumatologist" - a specialised test for my immunology And her tone was very much don't come back and disappoint me. So i went along and the first thing the specialist did was examined me which surprised me as I expected him to check the xrays first. He responded by saying he treated the patient not the xray. He then pretty much said the same as the first doctor had, but in much better English and explained what my xrays showed and why I am having trouble which is likely to involve hip replacements sometime in the future. So I have osteoarthritis AND NOT rheumatoid arthritis He explained everything very well and after checking my neck and lumbar area, which are not great with a narrowing of the discs (in particular my lumbar area is adding to the pain in my hips as it radiates out from there) he advised that it was safe to go back to exercising and that I should return to the physio. He said furthermore that I should have a check up once a year and there was no point in electric wave treatment nor seeing a rheumatoid specialist - although I could if I wanted. I was very satisfied with his attitude and professionalism throughout and it so closely matched the original doctor's diagnosis with a different more up to date set of xrays. Surely that is means everything is pretty much 100% confirmed? Anyhow when i got home MamaRah refused to accept the diagnosis, even though the evidence is so clear in the xray that even I can see it, and still insisted that i go see a rheumatoid specialist despite two independent diagnoses that are pretty much the same. She is going to make an appointment (against my wishes) and she is annoyed that I wasn't pushy about it or the wave treatment. So that is why Dr Google knows best (NOT) This happens a lot in Poland