The Commoner and The Butt Hip Pain

5 Dollar doctor was good.  I rested until Thursday -took a lot of 
Advil and sat on my left butt cheek only.  But the Thursday run, while better was still not good and I needed help pronto.

I have not found a doctor I'm really comfortable with since I moved to California.  The one doctor in town that is actually really good lives in my neighborhood.  I saw him tonight actually as I stepped out of my house walking the dogs.  That would be awkward if he were my doctor.  My doctors always lived in the rich part of town. I never once saw one of them anywhere other than in the office or hospital.  That's how it should be.

So I went to my insurance companies web site and did a doctor search.  First I put in a San Jose zip code.  Then I knew I wanted a doctor that practiced in a richy area because that to me meant he would be good.  So I looked for one in Los Gatos-but with a closer San Jose address.

Next step they had to be a sports doctor...this left me with a lot of choices so the next step was to find one who went to a great college.  I found that-Dr. Nate Cohen educated at Columbia University.  A New York trained orthopedic sports doctor with an office in Los Gatos trained at Columbia University.  I called and they gave me an appointment the NEXT day!

 Hey it's summer-I have nothing but time and off to the town of Campbell, California one hour away.  Campbell is also where the running store I go to is (Road Runners)  and is close to Rob's work and Joe was there too, so we were also going to have dinner at Chipotle AND I could stop at Whole Foods for Marshmallows and Macaroons.  What could be better than this?

I filled out tons of forms with a fancy electronic pen and waited an hour to see the doctor.  I was feeling more at home already as I always waited an hour to see Dr. Gerber.  The place was clean, the staff was professional and after questions answered to one of the clone nurse staff they took xrays right there!  Plus they are the Sabercats doctor-and a sports doctor good enough for our arena football team is good enough for me.

The doctor finally came in and as I explained I was training for a marathon he recognized my still audible New York accent and boom -I was in good hands.  To make things even better he had raced the NYC marathon 4 times so he was a runner as well.  Also-same age.  You know we are few and far between. 

He assured me that I had some kind of bursitis.  He gave me anti inflammatory medication, and said you can keep on running-let your pain be your guide.  He gave me training advice and the name of a physical therapist right here in Hollister.  He assured me they were good and I knew he wouldn't betray a fellow New Yorker-I was good.

Today I was back running 8 miles.  It's still slower than I'd like but I made it the whole way and was pretty pain free. He's cured me already.  i go back in a month and now have an orthopedic doctor on the payroll.

 So if you have the time and need a good orthopedic doctor  Dr. Nate Cohen is your guy.  Dial a doc did say bursitis was one of the possibilities on his diagnosis so he rules too.