Reply #33: here's a story for you -- when the infection came i went to an ER [View All]

[nashville_brook]

i was rehabbing the family house here in FL and figured i had either herniated a disc OR had a kidney infection, as some of my symptoms didn't jibe with straight-up back injury.

the first visit to the ER was at 6am and i was given high dose ibuprophen and some low dose vicodin with the instructions that IF IT GOT WORSE i needed to come back. it got worse. it got much worse. i was alone, in an empty house, barely able to drive my stick shift car, and i was terrified. so i went back at 4pm.

there was a different ER doc. he said he couldn't "just give me pain medicine" which i thought was really weird b/c the problems and fears i presented were that i was afraid this wasn't just another back strain. one thing that was different was that i had a fever and i couldn't stay awake. after some discussion the doc said that he could give me an EPIDIURAL and admit me to the hospital and do MRIs in the morning. I had FULL insurance, btw.

i said yes, that's fine. he then tried to dissuade me from doing this, saying, "do you know HOW BIG THIS NEEDLE IS? DO YOU REALIZE HOW MUCH THIS IS GOING TO HURT?"

i thought i had entered the twilight zone -- no, i had never had an epidural, so i wasn't aware of what was involved. but, i told him, "i'm in so much pain right now, i would agree to having a foot hobbled if i thought it would help."

get this:

after putting me in the restraining chair he got in front of me with the needle and waved it in front of my face -- fucking taunting me -- saying, "are you sure you want this needle? it's gonna hurt!"

i was sobbing now as i was not only terrified of the pain, but now i was terrified of the doctor. i put my head down and said, "just please, continue."

the next day, in the hospital, i was visited by another doctor. my fever was over 100 and all he had to say to me was that i was discharged and i HAD TO LEAVE because "this isn't a hotel." i was in shock for being sick and barely able to understand what was happening. sobbing, again, i tried to get dressed, but couldn't because the pain was so horrible. that's when a nurse came in and... GET THIS... gave me a shot of morphine, saying that no one could make me go anywhere for 6 hours -- by law. this gave me time to call my husband in TN and have him fly down (we were on our way to getting divorced which is why i was in FL -- so, he was little help).

an hour later a social worker visited with a list of HOTELS in the Rockledge area -- a full hour away from where i was at in Melbourne. she reiterated the bit the hospital not being a "hotel" and that i needed to find appropriate accommodations. still with the >100 fever, the pain and falling in out of consciousness i got really mad and asked about the MRI i was promised. every time she tried to tell me to leave i said i wasn't leaving until i got an MRI.

2 days later i got the MRI and when i finally got to see the films, they were basically useless -- full of artifacts, like scratches and dust -- only -- there shouldn't be scratches and dust on a DIGITAL image. my neurologist in Nashville was amazed.

the story keeps getting worse. i became jaundiced, but no one believed me when i said i looked yellow. i couldn't eat and threw up everything. my left leg swelled and hurt so bad i couldn't put any pressure on it. when i went to my primary care doc (back in nashville) she dismissed all this. i was so sick i had to be wheeled in in a wheelchair, and had to have a container for vomit -- but in her estimation, i was fine. probably sushi poisoning she said.

just to sure, tho, she took some blood and as i was being wheeled out she RAN after me -- "your liver levels are off the chart. why don't you come back --- we need to do some more tests."

two weeks later (TWO WEEKS!) i'm still in the wheelchair as i can't walk. i don't have a good explanation b/c my back was the problem i was supposed to be having, and i couldn't walk because my leg hurt so bad. she ordered an ultrasound (2 weeks later) and found giant DVTs up over my knee and down my calf. i was RUSHED to the hospital.

the osteomylietis wasn't diagnosed for another 2 months. i nearly died. i wanted to die. and ALL ALONG THE WAY there were "healthcare professionals" worried that i was a DRUG SEEKER.

we are so totally fucked in our healthcare system. it's not just insurance and corporate robber-barons -- there's a witch-hunt. pray that you never have a serious illness that has a pain component, because doctors look at you like a junkie.

just to be clear -- i'm a 40-year old house wife and freelance marketing schmoe. i was treated this way in FL and in TN (by doctors i had known for 10+ years). i have a college education and even taught at a medical school (i speak medical-ese). i do not appear to be a street person. i have no tattooes. no body piercings. no bright pink hair. i look like the girl next door. i am the girl next door.