# We are in ER hell. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 30, 2014, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-in-er-hell/684876 "2014-03-30T02:35:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-in-er-hell/684876/1 "2014-03-30T02:35:24Z")
9 1/2 hours. Waiting now for the Cub to go to a room in the pædeatric ward for overnight. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-in-er-hell/684876/2 "2014-03-30T02:36:09Z")
Oh no- I hope it’s not too serious! Poor cub… ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-in-er-hell/684876/3 "2014-03-30T02:54:00Z")
Possibly appendicitis. Or maybe just a viral tummy infection. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-in-er-hell/684876/4 "2014-03-30T02:55:13Z")
We can hear a baby crying vigorously in the distance. Me: I wonder why that baby is so upset. Cub: I think they’re cutting his body open. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-in-er-hell/684876/5 "2014-03-30T02:56:02Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Possibly appendicitis. Or maybe just a viral tummy infection. Oh, no! Hope it’s just the tummy virus. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-in-er-hell/684876/6 "2014-03-30T03:06:42Z")
I’m sorry to hear that (the illness and the long wait). Universal healthcare is awesome, but the wait times - oy vey. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-in-er-hell/684876/7 "2014-03-30T03:13:55Z")
Triage principles at work - he’s not bleeding, clutching his chest, or stroking out, so took a while to get in from the waiting room to the ER assessment ward. However, he’s been looked at by three doctors, two nurses, and one blood tech, as well as had an x-ray, so it’s not like we’re just sitting unattended. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Holdsworth\_Effect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/848f3c/32.png) [@The\_Holdsworth\_Effect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Holdsworth_Effect)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-in-er-hell/684876/8 "2014-03-30T03:28:31Z")
Let’s hope for the virus. Before I went to grad school, I was a trauma/burn/surgical ICU type. (Adrenalin junkie, in the medicine world). Fingers crossed. OTOH there are worse things than appendectomies. Cub is likely too young for gall bladder:) ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-in-er-hell/684876/9 "2014-03-30T04:02:37Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Triage principles at work - he’s not bleeding, clutching his chest, or stroking out, so took a while to get in from the waiting room to the ER assessment ward. However, he’s been looked at by three doctors, two nurses, and one blood tech, as well as had an x-ray, so it’s not like we’re just sitting unattended. That’s different. I’ve got [counts] 4 ERs within a 10 minute drive and a Children’s Hospital and another ER (on the same campus) about 20 minutes away. Last time an ER made me sit around like a jerk\* I told them I was just going to leave and go to one of the other ERs in the area and ‘I don’t expect to be billed for this’ and all of a sudden a nurse and a doctor showed up about a minute and a half later. \*In my case, they brought me and my daughter back to a room and said that someone would be right back there. About 45 minutes later I walked out and everyone was just sitting at the nurses station playing with their phones and chit chatting. I honestly thing they just forgot about us and were trying to come up with a reason to legitimize the wait. I don’t think they expected me to threaten to leave AND call up the billing department and explain how unhappy I was with the service if I did leave. I know people at that medical group and apparently those type of complaints are followed up on and taken very seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-in-er-hell/684876/10 "2014-03-30T05:23:04Z")
We don’t do ER bills up here. 🙂 Cub for moved into a room an hour ago. I just made a run home for odd and ends, feed the Piper critters, an now doing a late night A&W run. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-in-er-hell/684876/11 "2014-03-30T05:26:55Z")
It sounds like the Cub is in good hands. Hope all turns out well. ---
**Author:** ![Fluffy\_PickleSniffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/77aa72/32.png) [@Fluffy\_PickleSniffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fluffy_PickleSniffer)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-in-er-hell/684876/12 "2014-03-30T15:42:12Z")
Hope Cub is doing better this morning and can come home soon 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-in-er-hell/684876/13 "2014-03-30T16:25:41Z")
The good news is either suggested cause is well understood and treatable. Still not fun to go through, but overall prognosis should be very good. I hope the silence since the last post is because you got some sleep. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-in-er-hell/684876/14 "2014-03-30T18:36:01Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > That’s different. I’ve got [counts] 4 ERs within a 10 minute drive and a Children’s Hospital and another ER (on the same campus) about 20 minutes away. Last time an ER made me sit around like a jerk\* I told them I was just going to leave and go to one of the other ERs in the area and ‘I don’t expect to be billed for this’ and all of a sudden a nurse and a doctor showed up about a minute and a half later.\ A nine and a half hour ER wait is long even for Western Canada, but not unheard-of. In my city of 1.02 million people, a lot of people will drive an hour to a smaller centre nearby to go to their ER because it will take less time than waiting in one of Calgary’s very few ERs. Universal healthcare is awesome, but very few Western Canadians will try to say it’s perfect. It looks like Regina is getting wait times similar to ours here, unfortunately. ☹ Hoping for good news, **Northern Piper.** ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-in-er-hell/684876/15 "2014-03-30T18:46:29Z")
Discharged! Stayed overnight so he could get an ultrasound first thing in the morning. Everything’s okay, no appendicitis. Home playing Batman on the X-box. Thanks for the well-wishes, all. The nurses said it was an unusually heavy day yesterday in the ER. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-in-er-hell/684876/16 "2014-03-30T21:49:25Z")
Excellent news! A healthy Piper Clan is a happy Piper Clan! ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2014, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-in-er-hell/684876/17 "2014-03-31T03:47:27Z")
yay! ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2014, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-in-er-hell/684876/18 "2014-03-31T11:01:21Z")
Whew! I’m glad all’s well. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2014, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-are-in-er-hell/684876/19 "2014-03-31T12:10:09Z")
Hope he is not the worse for wear, **Northern Piper**.