Just out of curiosity, since you seem to feel you grasp the entire range of emergency medical experiences, had Ludovic posted before he went, saying that he was in terrible pain, would you have felt so confident in dismissing his complaint as obviously minor? Would you have said, “Jesus, it’s just a cold! Don’t you dare go to the doctor and waste everyone’s time!”
Because now you have the gift of knowing that he wasn’t seriously ill. Then, you would have been in the same situation he was. That is, you wouldn’t have known.
My husband was stuck in an emergency waiting room for three hours once while passing out, vomiting, and urinating copious amounts of blood. That was a fun experience, especially the hours and hours of Cosby Show reruns.
(It was a kidney stone, by the way. Don’t get those.)
That’s the best comparison you can come up with? You know damn well that being drunk and being in severe pain are two completely different things. It’s not like going to the ER is like deciding to drive when you’re drunk. :rolleyes:
After a few weeks of ear infection pain, I was given this…aaahhh, I didn’t care what state my ears were in after that
I agree that the ER should be for emergencies, but if you’ve never had something before you really don’t know. When I got pinkeye for the first time (in my 20s) I went to the ER because it was 2 AM and my eye was superswollen. I don’t believe in messing around when it comes to my eyes. Of course I sat there all night until the eye clinic opened at noon the next day and they sent me there.
Now I try and walk in to a community clinic if I can help it, but in the city the ER was the only choice in the middle of the night.
Severe ear pain is worth an ER evaluation if your doc’s office or local urgent care center is not available, and don’t let anyone tell you it isn’t!! While the cause is seldom life or health-threatening, no symptom of suddenly occurring intractable severe pain should be ignored.
And I would reprimand my staff (which includes 6 doctors, 2 nurse practitioners and 2 physician assistants) if they did not appropriately treat acute intractable pain whose cause was known, because they deemed the cause of the pain to be “not serious”.
You see, I’ve had ear pain from a sudden infection that literally left me screaming. I was in more pain from that than I was from the multiple injuries from my plane crash (including broken bones). That type of pain gets old fast. And a few drops of Auralgan relieved it in seconds.
Doctors, especially ER doctors, are supposed to be there to help people in true physical distress. Yes, triage, and do the life-threatening things first. But don’t lose sight of the core mission.
Oh, sweetie I totally sympathize. I had an infection in one of my ears as a teenager that had me miserable for 2 months.
/Obligatory story
Ear drops didn’t work because my ear was so swollen on the inside that the medicine didn’t get to the infection. An ear nose and throat guy finally put this really hard, short piece of cotton into my ear called a wick. Hurt like hell, there I was, almost grown and laying in his office crying like a baby.
The wick fell out after about 48 hours though, because once the medicine could finally get to where it was going, it worked. I was fine in a week, although I am positive I lost some hearing.
/Story OFF
/Rant about pain management
ER doctors can be so evil (at least where I live they are). They’re so sure that everyone that comes through the door is a drug addict that they’d rather let innocent people suffer than risk giving an addict a fix. The only time I have ever personally seen them respond quickly to pain was with my mother, who has recurring kidney stones. They’ve never given her any shit about a shot of Dilaudid.
Axe stuck in your head, though? Pleurisy? Eyeballs on fire? Suck it up, “here’s some Motrin.” And NO I’M NOT BITTER.
I’ve gone to the ER off and on for years due to migraines. In only one case was I treated badly. I was shuffled off to a dark room and allowed to sit there for six hours at which time I checked out and went home. I figured if all that was going to happen was for me to cry and vomit, I might as well be at home instead of the stinking ER. Bastards billed me for “services” as well. I didn’t pay’em, and dared them to sue me.
A couple years back, went to the ER sick as a dog, meds I could take weren’t helping, I was at the point where judgement was impaired because of pain in my midsection and other bronchial infection symptoms were really knocking me flat.
Not too flat, as I was coherent enough to demand to be driven to the ER. Got in, was triaged, gave my history and current medical status, was sent down the hall to “urgent care”.
Got into Urgent Care. Triaged again by nurse there, everything noted - slight elevated temperature, cough and pain, midsection pain, edema, etc etc, current medical status verified, blood pressure still higher than it should have been.
Doctor came in, read my chart, re did my temp and blood pressure (still high) gave me an abdominal exam along the lines of “does it hurt when I push here”. Told me to go home and take some Advil for the pain, started to leave.
I said in a puzzled voice, “I thought I wasn’t supposed to take Advil this far into pregnancy.” He backtracked, asked if I was pregnant, seemed surprised I was seven months, took my bp and temp again, said to take Tylenol and follow up with my OB in the morning and keep my feet elevated and take it easy until then.
If you want to be put into the very bottom of the triage pile and get a whole bunch of roll-eyes and lectures about wasting the time of ER doctors, be sure and visit two separate emergency rooms during the course of a holiday weekend and complain about stomach pain and severe vomiting. You will, of course, be politely informed that you are a big ol’ wuss for going to the ER for the stomach flu and perhaps you should see your doctor on Monday. If you vomit blood and bile at their feet you might get a little sympathy and some Fenergin.
I experienced that kind of “treatment” during one particularly heinous Thanksgiving weekend. After being sent home the second time with a lifetime supply of Official ER Doctor Roll-Eyes, I began blacking out. A family member was finally able to get hold of my primary care doctor who told her to get me to my doctor’s hospital now. At the third emergency room, I underwent an emergency cholestectomy. My gallbladder was the size of a grapefruit and filled to bursting with grangrene. The ER surgeon cheerfully said,“You know if you’d waited another eight hours you probably would have died!” Charming. :rolleyes:
They’re both terrible, but pleurisy’s worse. It feels like a knife in your chest with every single breath. You can’t get into a comfortable position and it never lets up. Nothing helps but strong painkillers and as far as the illness itself goes, you can’t treat it. It has to run its course.
Childbirth is even worse than pleurisy, but it doesn’t last and last. You at least get a break between contractions.
My mom swears up and down kidney stones top everything else but I don’t believe her.
My friend jshore has had kidney stones, and has heard the story about their being the worst persistent pain a human can experience, perhaps next to labor pains. He doesn’t seem to have any trouble believing it.
I remember when he had them the first time back when we were in college. I’d never seen a suffering person literally looking green before that.
Ludovic, I understand where you’re coming from 100%. Due to a cracked sinus cavity, I get infections easily. They start in the sinuses and FWOOMP they spread to my ears, throat, and chest. The stabbing, mind bending pain is nothing to be joked about - especially if you’ve never felt it before.
/MissTake’s obligatory hospital story: When LilMiss was an infant a car drove through her bedroom window, obviously spraying glass everywhere. I, of course, went running in to make sure she was okay heedless of my bare feet trampling all over shards o’ glass (Not just for Christmas anymore!). She managed to not receive one single cut. I, OTOH, cut the hell out of my feet and legs. Went to the hospital, was immediately put into a room…where we sat and waited. Blood dripping on the floor, the whole nine yards. A doctor came in, I explained what happened, he gave his professional opinion (“Yup, you have a lot of glass in those feet”) and left. An hour later a nurse came in and began the arduous task of pick glass out of me. I was there from 7am - 1pm./
That, however, was an inner city hospital. When we lived out in the sticks we were frequent fliers at our local small town hospital, and they were fabulous. If I had a choice, I would rather drive the hour out there than the five minutes to my (again) local hospital. Not once did we have to wait a long time. They were always patient, even joked with us when we came in for truly idiotic injuries. Anyone else break a toe by dropping a can of tuna fish? Scratch a cornea with a ribbon?
Nope. Thought about it, but person who did it was broke as a joke and lived in the same building. The windows in her room were 1’ off ground level facing the driveway, which was very icy. He couldn’t have stopped if he wanted.
HOWEVER, as days passed in a cold Minnesota winter with only cardboard in an empty window sill, I did threaten to contact an attorney just to get the window replaced. Amazing how rapidly it was taken care of.
I totally sympathize. I had an infection in one of my ears as a teenager that had me miserable for 2 months.