Finally Seen at the USC University Hospital

With nothing better to do, I slept until 11:30AM. In fact, it was my roommate who woke me up (because he wanted to tell me that he was on his way home to take me to the hospital). We left our apartment around 1:30PM. My appointment was at 2:30PM; however, I did not get seen until about 3PM. That half an hour wait may seem frivolous to most people, but to me, that 30 mins seems like eternity.

Finally, I was called to another room. Guess what! More wait. The doctor finally came and asked me to take off my boot. After a quick test, he also said that my tendon was completely ruptured. He quickly asked me and my roommate to go to his office to discuss surgery logistics.

When we first went to his office, both my roommate and I were extremely impressed by all the certificated and qualifications hung on his walls. I think my doctor is in his early 40s, but has a ton of achievements. Three items on the wall stood out the most: a picture of my doctor taken with George W. Bush and the First Lady, a picture of him and Cheney, and a picture of Ina Garten (aka Barefoot Contessa) of the Food Network and her personal message to Dr. Timothy Charlton.

"Boy, how interesting!" I thought. But soon, I heard my roommate say jokingly, "Hurry, we should get out of here. He is obviously a republican." We stayed, of course. (Oh, yeah, he did expressed that he has been thinking about taking down the picture with Cheney. He didn't seem to like him very much! But the he added that Bush was a nice guy, and I was like, "Yeah, whatever, let's talk about my surgery now!")

After some chit chat on those three impressive pictures, we quickly moved on to a discussion of the surgery I will be having. He was very patient with me and answered all my questions. He even printed me some 'color' materials on Achilles tendon rupture, labeled "Dr. Charlton's Secrets," that he gives to his students. In the end, he signed my application for temporary handicap placard (good for 6 months!).

I felt so relieved after seeing the doctor. I feel I am in good hands. All I have to do now is to take good care of myself -- ice my injured area, prop it up, and do nothing else. Tomorrow I am going to AAA to get my temp. handicap placard. And on Monday, July 9th, at 1:45PM, I will go under the knife.