EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- As his teammates return to Cincinnati, Carson Palmer is staying in the New York area Sunday night to see an elbow specialist, David Altchek, Monday morning for a second opinion on his injured right elbow.

Palmer originally injured the elbow the last time the Bengals were at Giants Stadium on Sept. 21 in a loss to the Giants. Palmer watched Sunday's 26-14 loss to the Jets from the sidelines. It was the second game Palmer has missed this season, also sitting out the Sept. 28 loss to the Browns.

"It's been frustrating. I actually enjoy practicing and love to play, so it's frustrating to watch
practice and not be able to be out there. It's extremely frustrating on game day," Palmer said "I’m going to see supposedly the best elbow guy, and it's an injury that a lot of baseball pitchers deal with and he deals with that all the time. So hopefully he'll look at it, evaluate it and say it's getting better and give me a chance to start practicing again."

Palmer said Dr. Altchek has seen the MRIs from Cincinnati.

"It was my decision, I wanted to get a second opinion and have someone else look at it other than our doctors, hopefully he'll have a different opinion and I'll be able to play next week," Palmer said.

No matter what is said, Palmer said he doesn't want to end his 2008 season completely, even though his team has fallen to 0-6 with Sunday's loss.

"I'm not shutting anything down," Palmer said. "I'll play when they give me clearance to play and if they tell me to sit, I'll sit. But once I get clearance to play, whether we're 9-6 or 0-15, I'm going to play."

Palmer has missed a total of two games, but has had his two best performances of the season after suffering the injury. The injury occurred in the first quarter of the team's loss to the Giants, and he went on to throw for 286 yards in the game against the Giants despite the injury. After missing the game against the Browns, Palmer completed 23 of 39 passes for 217 yards and two touchdowns last week against the Cowboys.

In his absence, backup Ryan Fitzpatrick has struggled. Fitzpatrick accounted for four turnovers in the loss to the Browns. On Sunday, he was 20 of 33 for 152 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions, good for a quarterback rating of 71.8. He was also the team’s leading rusher with six carries for 23 yards and a touchdown on Sunday.