Why bother with dr? Go straight to ER..

[HipChick]

So I woke up with excruciating pain in my side this morning? I hobbled out of bed, and decided to see if I could see dr at a urgent care place...after waiting an hr, writhing in pain, all he did was give me vitals test and said he needs me to go to ER. Why did I waste all that money, in the first place. I am still sitting here at the ER, all I have all day is water - now my head is splitting too...I may give up and go home and get some sleep, if no one can see me soon.

[csziggy]

1. Start screaming - maybe they will get you in sooner

I'm only semi-serious, but if you sit quietly they may not realize how much pain you really are in.

I hope they get to you soon and I hope it's not serious. On the other hand if it's a burst appendix, not having eaten all day would be a good thing.

I'll be thinking about you and worrying until I see an update.

[Chan790]

5. This and I am being serious.

It's called the "triage bump/slide."

Let's say there are 5 people in the waiting room and you're unbeknownst-to-you having a heart attack. You're well-mannered and quiet, you're not harassing the nurse, indicating you have a serious issue, and don't appear to be in distress so the triage nurse prioritizes you low-priority because she can't tell you're in a lot of pain and critical. So, the people who seem to be in more distress get treated before you. You get to next on the list...and then a guy comes in with a bullet-wound to the chest, a woman comes in with a kebab-skewer through her hand and a woman with no obvious ailments but she's screaming unrelentingly like she's being murdered and clutching her head. Guess whose now 4th on the list again because they seem like the patient in the lowest critical priority. All of a sudden, the guy next to you who was behind you on the list who has been there even longer because nobody ever died of a hangnail, starts acting like it's the most painful hangnail in the world...now he's going to get treated before you too.

Triage is all about treating people who need help first, first. The ER waiting room is not the place to be stoic or wait quietly if you're in great pain or serious distress.

You're in pain and may have a serious issue...if you're not going to yell, at least make inquiries of the nurse and keep her apprised of your status/

[blueamy66]

2. Hope to hear good news.

I walked across the street to the ER in my small town and was seen in less than 5 minutes.

Make some noise!

[nolabear]

3. DO NOT go home!

Find out what's wrong. I type this from beside Mr. Bear's hospital bed. We spent the night in the ER. He's going into a cardiac cath lab soon. (Ain't our first rodeo. He's okay)

[marzipanni]

4. I hope you were examined in the past hour

If you're still sitting there, here's a symptom checker chart to look at-

http://familydoctor.org/familydoctor/en/health-tools/search-by-symptom.html

Let us know how you're doing... good luck!

[Aristus]

6. He must have assessed your problem as being an emergency.

There are times when I have to send my patients to the Emergency Room because their condition cannot be assessed and treated clinically. Hypertensive crisis is one condition. Severe flank pain (kidney stones) is another. There are treatments and diagnostic modalities available at the hospital that most clinics don't have. IV access and most forms of imaging (x-rays, ultrasound, CT, and MRI), for example.

[HipChick]

7. Aristus...that is essential what he said, and wrote me a ER transfer doc

but I could have saved myself the $100 and gone directly to ER..

I finally got admitted, and laying on a bed...but it will still be a couple of hours before dr can see me....oh well...so I guess I will take a nap...

[UTUSN]

8. I'm so glad you're finally being tended to. Know what you mean.

When I had a fractured fibula (didn't know what was happening, what it was) a couple of years ago, I thought I'd wait for the doctor's office to open the next morning at 9 A.M. The pain was somewhat bearable all night, no sleep, depending on turning over constantly.

Lasted until 6:30 A.M., when it got unbearable. I called the answering service and the doc called testily (leaving out lots of details) and asked, "How do you know it's not a gout attack? You've had those before." Then he told ne to go to the E.R.

At first the E.R. staff accepted me in with basic solicitousness. When the E.R. doc came in, I told him whatever I knew, how the physical part happened, then fatally, that my doctor had raised the possibility of gout. This was before they took x-rays. The E.R. dude was FURIOUS, jumping to the conclusion that it WAS gout, and he CHEWED ME OUT. After that (the next 12 hours), since somehow I had gotten on the fearless leader's shit list, the staff wouldn't piss on me if I combusted. They barely helped me get to the loo. The x-rays came back early in the day, soon after the doc was pissed, and it was the fracture, NOT gout. But nothing got me off the shit list. I was admitted, but a room wasn't open until around 7 P.M., and I was basically flat on my back under a bright top light all day.

The first kind word was from the on-call orthopedic surgeon who arrived at 10 P.M. He asked whether they had straightened out the bones. Of course they hadn't. He took the foot in both hands and twisted. Immediately the pain went away. Then he splinted and wrapped. Surgery two days later. Four months later, second surgery with a more specialized dude, but that's another story.