This weekend, for the fourth time, my back went out of whack. What'd I do? Simply bent over the couch to put a Christmas tree decoration into a box. The first time it happened: I was leaning over my pump supply box for new supplies; the second time, leaning over to put a new trashbag in the trash can; the third time, leaning over the grocery cart to get items for check out. Notice a pattern?

It was just four months ago the last time it happened. At least each time it happens the symptoms aren't as bad as the last. At least this time I had more movement than I did last time. This time I could move around enough to cook for the kids and do a few chores around the house. The injury happened on Friday and by Sunday I was out shopping with No. 2, though I was still pretty stiff and had to lie down as soon as we got home.

I finally decided to call a doctor about this. I want to know for sure what the problem is (my ortho in Missouri said it's my sacro joint) and what to do about it. If a doc tells me to do PT twice a day and I'll keep this thing at bay then that's what I'll do. I know I'll slack off here and there but damnit it's so debilitating! It's such a pain in the ass, really.

I want to bring medical records from the doctor's office where I was first diagnosed with this problem (among a host of other non-diabetes related maladies). I figured I could just call and have the records sent directly to me since the doctor's office I'm going to is practically its own hospital it's so big.

The lady who answered the phone was clearly having a bad day and I could tell that just from the way she answered the phone. So I gave her my story and she said the normal stuff about filling out a records waiver and faxing it over and that they would send the records to the doctor's office. I asked if they could just send them to me so I could have it all with me and just hand it to the doctor when I got there.

"Well we'd have to charge you for that," she said, pretty snotty actually.

"Well why should I have to pay for something that's already mine? They're my records, right?" I questioned.

"Actually they're the property of the doctor's office," she said, clearly having won that argument.

I really didn't want to argue about it because the new doctor's office said it wasn't a big deal, especially since those records were about two years old; however, I think it's best to go in armed with all the information I can have.

Seriously, though, the information is about *me* so shouldn't I be able to access it without paying for it? If I had gotten a copy of anything as it happened I wouldn't have been charged for it, so why a charge after the fact?

I'm not the first one to encounter this problem.