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The hospital emergency room.

#21
i_got_a_mohawk said:
I don't know how far you are from a hospital, nor what the response times are like, but if that happens again Mike, you should slap your old man over the head for being stubborn. The symptoms you described could be many things, including heart attack or stroke (even if the symptoms don't seem severe). Both require urgent treatment, minutes count and treatment can start when the paramedics get there.
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Fortunately, we live less than 10 minutes from the hospital, so it was a quick and short ride to get there. The doctors feel at this point it was a stroke. He is still at the hospital being monitored for a follow up occurrence and to take a closer look at his heart.

We will all press harder for an ambulance if this happens again, that's for sure.


Roscoe East said:
I will say, any time I have gone to the hospital in an ambulance, I haven't had to wait behind any of those "I don't feel good" folks; priority service, every time.

I've never been in any condition to gloat while there, but in hindsight it makes me feel like the 911 call was worth it.
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Yeah, I think my pop is even realizing the ambulance ride may be the answer to better care when there is a life threatening emergency.

-Mike
 
#22
MJ5150 said:
Fortunately, we live less than 10 minutes from the hospital, so it was a quick and short ride to get there. The doctors feel at this point it was a stroke. He is still at the hospital being monitored for a follow up occurrence and to take a closer look at his heart.

We will all press harder for an ambulance if this happens again, that's for sure.

Yeah, I think my pop is even realizing the ambulance ride may be the answer to better care when there is a life threatening emergency.

-Mike
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I'm hoping it was a mild one, if it was, and hope you all do ok! Take care buddy!
 
#25
My town's ER used to have ridiculously long wait times and I knew people who would go to the hospital in a town 15 miles away (in a different state) before visiting ours. Many folks around here are uninsured or on public assistance and go to the ER for issues that better-insured people visit their primary care physician or specialists for. My insurance is excellent and I am grateful for that.

I've been to the ER twice. The first was when I passed out in front of a class (Health Psychology, how appropriate) and banged my head on a radiator on the way down. My coworkers called campus police, who sent an ambulance. I waited 2 hours to see a doctor, another couple to get a CT scan, and then another 2 to get discharged. I decided that never again would I take Advil on an empty stomach. I also learned that I have a tough skull.

A few years ago, the ER subdivided its space into emergency on one side and urgent care on the other. In April, I started having chest pains while mowing the lawn, so off I went. I was attended to immediately and given a chest x-ray, which revealed a punctured lung. Not too longer after that, I was wheeled into a surgery room where a doctor inserted a tube into my chest.

They kept me overnight and gave me morphine every 2 hours. That would have been fun if the pain hadn't been so horrible. I then spent 2 weeks popping pain pills and playing Angry Birds in my recliner. I also managed to fit 2 gigs in, which my doc said was fine as long as I felt up to it. My band mates hauled my gear and I sat on a bar stool to play.

On a Saturday 10 days after my trip to the ER, the incision in my chest got infected, so back I went. This time I was directed to urgent care and spent 4 hours there. When I was finally discharged, they sent me off with an antibiotic prescription. Though I was not thrilled about all the waiting, I think it's better that the staff was attending to actual emergencies before me. After years of mismanagement, the hospital finally seems to be doing something right.
 
#27
A few months ago, my daughter called her doctor for an office visit. She had serious congestion in her lungs and sinus, sore throat, and a 103 degree F fever. The doctor's office told her, "The next appointment we have available is in three weeks. We can't prescribe you anything until we see you. Take a couple tylenol and if your fever doesn't go down, you probably should go to the emergency room."

Several hours later, she's in the ER with 105 degree F fever and being lectured by the ER doctor on call for being in the emergency room and not going to her regular doctor. The nurse swabbed her throat, came back five minutes later and said, we'll give you some tylenol. Didn't see anything, so we're releasing you.

She's an RN, so going to the ER wasn't her first choice - it was her doctor's instructions (and it was also 2:00 AM).
 
#29
I only ever go to the emergency when I feel my life is possibly in danger (and i'm in Canada where it doesn't cost me anything other than in taxes so i could technically jut show up anytime)

Last time i've been (over 2 years ago) was for an indigestion that was so bad i feared it wasn't one. Well, i wouldn't have went, but my gf was on the phone with me as it was happening and she said she'd never heard me be in so much pain, and that she was calling the ambulance. We thought it might be appendicitis. Thing is, 30 secs before they shown up i puked so then i was pretty certain it was an indigestion but they took me anyway. I puked about 6 times more and after 2 hours i was feeling much better. By the time i saw the doctor (a REALLY cute intern...which was embarassing considering i was a mess) i was more or less fine.

The time before it was because i'd been having insomnia for over a week and hadn't slept in like 5 days. I genuinely felt i was gonna die. There was AGAIN another cute doctor interning (and AGAIN i was a mess...and trust me i dont use the words cute or pretty lightly...my gf was with me for that one and she actually said when she left the room "she's was pretty" to which i wisely said "uh...yeah i guess..."). Then i saw a doctor that said "well you need sleep but you'll live" gave me some Ativan. I think looking back i was feeling especially bad because psychologically i was like...destroyed (which will happen when you don't sleep) and i was in a high state of anxiety about my health (i did think i was on the verge of a heart attack).

The time before that i think it was when i had been having almost constant intestinal pain for like a month. I'd seen a doctor in a no appointment clinic and he was a useless dick so i thought i'd try the hospital. I was given tests an follow ups. That was already many years ago. The situation resolved itself after some months...not sure what happened. Maybe bad eating habits and stress...

then there was about 8 years ago, when i was hospitalized for oesophagitis (couldnt swallow anything without excruciating pain) and before that, about 14 years ago when i had a tonsillitis so bad i couldnt swallow even water and it turned out i had mono. They kept me for 3 days during which i did not eat or dirnk (intraveinous).

That's my emergency room history in the past 15 years.
 
#30
Bloodhammer said:
People that don't have much, if any, money and no insurance go to the state hospital ER for all medical needs because it doesn't cost a fortune like paying out of pocket to a GP for each visit and test.

At least that's why they do it around here.



Yeah... :hmm: I should probably delete the above post before someone takes it the wrong way and laments the fall of society... I'm not being political, though. I'm just explaining what I've observed.
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People using specialists for minor problems is part of the problem with our health care system- the cost to run an ER is much higher than for a clinic and these people needed to go to a clinic.
 
#31
My one dealing with an ER went fairly well (deep cut into a thumb, I was young and my Mom made me go). Of course I had a wait, but the bleeding was already being managed so I wasn't in danger of losing my life. 3 hours, some stitches, and a F*(&-ton of pain as they sprayed the numbing agent right into the wound later: I was fine. The docs had a good laugh out of my reaction to the numbing agent.

Peace,
Greg
 
#33
I had friends who went to med school and worked in an ER. Unsurprisingly, they said it's nothing like the TV shows - or rather, what happens in one TV episode is a couple of months' worth of crises that actually happen, all compressed into an hour. Most of the work there is this petty stuff. I have been to the ER a few times, mostly for my kids - generally when running VERY high fevers or having some other acute problem and it's after-hours so they can't see their regular doctor, like in Tat's case. I wouldn't say it ever seemed like a quick efficient process, but on the whole I can't complain.

I think part of it is, as mentioned, that the ER is the only place the uninsured can go, and part of it is just the uncertainty. I've gone to an urgent care clinic afterhours for chest pain. Turns out it wasn't anything serious, but until you go, how would you know?
 
#35
Mike, I hope your dad is coming along well.

I've been in an ambulance once - when I was hit by a car and my left leg was cut halfway off. The other times I've been to the ER I went by car - usually an injury significant enough that there was a big gash and lots of blood, resulting in stitches.

I remember the time I stopped a softball line drive with my chin. Walked over to the next player, asked him how it looked, and he told me he saw bone. Damn. Had to leave the game. Stuck a hanky over the wound and drove myself to the ER (Pretty good trick in a 280ZX with a 5-speed stick and only one hand to drive with.) I have more than my share of stitches in too many locations.

Every person in that ER that wasn't a genuine medical emergency is running up YOUR medical bills. It's all the folks with no insurance using the ER as a regular doctor who force the hospitals to jack up everyone's bills by thousands of percent.
 
#38
slobake said:
There are also urgent care centers for non emergeny but needy treatment. The center my insurance covers is kind of iffy.
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True in many places, but not true in many others. Just to add perspective to this thread, I'll say I've gone to the emergency room for non-life threatening conditions a couple times over the years because in small town America you're going to otherwise have to wait at least 48 hours to see see a doctor if you get sick on a Saturday morning and longer on a holiday break. I've found myself in very unpleasant medical situations in both of these contexts and resorted to going to the ER for some immediate treatment.

Of course, the nice part of rural living (if you can put aside the fact that you're left with the doctors who didn't get the better-paying jobs in the cities) is that there are 3 people tops in the emergency room on a given evening.
 

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